Autosomal DNA

Autosomal DNA is inherited from both parents and represents the combined genetic contribution of all ancestral lines. 

Each person receives about fifty percent from their mother and fifty percent from their father, with recombination mixing segments every generation. Because of this reshuffling, autosomal DNA is powerful for identifying relatives across many branches of a family tree. It is most effective for recent genealogy, typically within five to seven generations, where shared segments remain detectable. Autosomal testing supports cousin matching, ethnicity estimates, and triangulation grouping, but it cannot trace a single paternal or maternal line as precisely as Y-DNA or mtDNA alone.

Learn more about Autosomal DNA Inheritance patterns >>