Aurelia,

If you want to research a particular Jones family, for example, then you 
need a male Jones from that family to take the Y chromosome DNA test.  That 
test will be "representative" of Mr. Jones, Mr. Jones' father, his father's 
father, his father's father's father, etc. (i.e., all of those men would 
have the surname of "Jones," assuming that there were no "adoptions" or "out 
of wedlock births").  That test will not be representative of ANY other 
"biological line," and it will not "reflect" anything about the wives or 
mothers of any of those Smith men.  That test WILL be "representative," 
however, of all of the "Jones brothers" of all of those Jones men in each 
generation in that line (since the "Jones brothers" in each generation would 
share the same Jones father).  Bottom line, the Y chromosome is passed from 
father to son, and it is not "influenced by"....nor is it "reflective 
of"....the mothers and/or wives in any generation.

I wanted a DNA test on my mother's Brown family.  As such, I had to have one 
of her/my male Brown cousins take the DNA test for me (and I paid for it). 
So....I now have my own Y chromosome DNA test for my paternal Davidson 
family, and have his Y chromosome DNA test for my maternal Brown family.

Note: The DNA test on my "Brown" cousin showed that he....and hence, my 
mother....were actually "biological Smiths" versus a "biological Browns," 
and I now know that my maternal gg-grandfather named Smith W. Brown was 
actually a "Smith infant" who was taken-in, named and reared by a Brown 
family in Middlesex Co., VA around 1817.  I have now "traced" my biological 
Smith family back to Lancaster Co., VA by at least the 1650s (ditto the 
Brown family that took-in my maternal gg-grandfather).

The above is just the way that the Y chromosome DNA test works (and just the 
way that God made us).  I know a lot of people who are "into genealogy" who 
would give almost anything to find a living male with the surname of 
interest (and, of course, in the specific family of interest) who would take 
the Y chromosome DNA test for them.  If a particular "biological line" 
should eventually "daughter-out" (i.e, where there are no living males left 
in that "surname line" of interest), then the above Y chromosome DNA test 
becomes "unavailable" (unless you exhume a man from his grave).  I know some 
"family researchers" who are, unfortunately, faced with that reality today.

Note: For those who question the true value of the Y chromosome DNA test, it 
has shown us that there were at least a DOZEN UNRELATED 
Davidson/Davison/Davisson families in just VA alone in the 1700s (and thanks 
to DNA testing, we can now "define and segregate" most of them).  It has 
also shown us that there were at least FIVE UNRELATED Brown families in just 
Culpeper Co., VA alone in the 1700s.  These types of discoveries were 
absolutely IMPOSSIBLE using "conventional documentation."  As I like to say, 
"if the necessary document does not exist, then it does not exist"....and as 
any genealogist worth his/her salt knows, there are a lot of "wished-for" 
documents that obviously "do not exist" (if they ever did "exist").

Bill Davidson 

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