If you want to find the missing man on your family tree, you need...
YDNA for Genealogy
Learn how to find unknown fathers using YDNA in just 3 weeks–and STOP wondering about all those mystery men on your family tree
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YDNA for Genealogy Course.
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3 weeks of interactive and self-guided instruction (about 2-3 hours per week)
Confident learning with our unique SPIN teaching model (Study, Practice, Integrate, Next Steps)
Permanent access to video tutorials totaling 6+ hours, so you can review them as often as you like!
Expert-monitored discussion board, so you can ask questions and discuss what you’re learning
Continued access to expert coaches on discussion boards for SIX FULL MONTHS after course ends
Classwork and homework that provide hands-on experience with real-life case studies
Quizzes and polls to make learning confident and fun
Live wrap-up Q&A session via Zoom at the end
Enrollment in a class that allows students to interact with one another at their preferred level
Full-length digital workbook with classwork, homework, and research log that becomes a useful reference guide for you later
Digital download edition of our handy YDNA Quick Reference Guide
YDNA Testing
How YDNA works
How a YDNA test may help you find unknown men on your family tree
How to create a YDNA testing plan based on your specific questions
What’s in your YDNA test profile at FamilyTreeDNA (the only company that sells genealogically-useful YDNA tests)
Next steps: targeted testing and other strategies when you are ready
Working with your YDNA results
How to explore and analyze your YDNA match list (it’s a very different process than what you may have done with autosomal DNA testing)
What to think (and do) when you don’t share a surname with your YDNA matches
YDNA surname projects: what they are and why you should join them
How to use YDNA in combination with other kinds of DNA testing to find missing relatives
Find helpful patterns in your YDNA
YDNA Haplogroups
What YDNA haplogroups are and how they are named
What your YDNA haplogroup results can reveal and how it can help you find unknown relatives
What haplogroup information you can get with different kinds of DNA tests
Big Y 700
An introduction to the highest level of YDNA testing
What matches look like
When to consider using it
What you can do next
Diahan Southard, Founder and CEO of Your DNA Guide
We teach people how to use DNA testing to learn about their families. We believe that discovering your family story is so empowering! It makes you stronger, more rooted, more connected, more confident. You can do it–and we can help you, just as we’ve helped thousands of people around the world for nearly 10 years.
This unique YDNA Course was designed and created by Your DNA Guide Founder and CEO Diahan Southard. She brings both YDNA expertise AND a proven, effective, and FUN teaching style to your learning experience. During the course, her expert team of DNA coaches will support you and check your progress via online discussion boards.
Do I need to have access to a YDNA test to take this course?
It’s best (but not required) that you already have access to a YDNA sample at FamilyTreeDNA.* (The cost and ordering of DNA testing itself is not included in the course.) These can be your own, if you are a genetic male, or someone else’s. If you’re using someone else’s test results, be sure you have their permission and the login access. There are times in class when you will be looking at and working with your own DNA test results.
What if I don't have my test results yet, but I want to take the course?
You can still learn all the concepts you need to know, even if you don’t have your test results. We will provide several case studies from which homework assignments will be given that do not require your own YDNA test results. And because you will have access to the course permanently, you’ll be able to come back and review what you need to.
Are there any prerequisites for this course?
We don’t recommend this course if you’re brand new to DNA testing. We’d like to see you if you’ve got at least a little bit of experience working with or learning about DNA matches. Taking the DNA Skills Workshop first is not required, but we recommend you take it at some point as part of your overall DNA research training. Some Academy students who have taken both the YDNA for Genealogy Course and the DNA Skills Workshop suggest taking the Skills Workshop first.
Preferably, you will have a research goal or question in mind when you take this course, but it’s not required. Sometimes you’ll discover a research question or goal as you begin learning.
What technical requirements are necessary? Is there a textbook?
This course takes place online. During these weeks, you’ll need a reliable internet connection for streaming the video learning sessions and for additional learning on your own time. You’ll need access to your DNA test results on whatever testing site you’re using. You’ll receive a digital workbook and additional reference materials that support your learning
Read about Course enrollment and refund policies, including our money-back guarantee.
Why should I take the YDNA Course now?
The sooner you start learning to use YDNA, the sooner you’ll put that test to WORK answering your family history questions, whether they are about your own YDNA lineage or another male line for which you can get a YDNA test from a qualifying descendant. We only open sessions of the YDNA for Genealogy Course now and then, and they tend to fill up, so if you’re interested, it’s a good idea to claim your seat now (or get on the wait list if it’s not currently open).
"The Course was great: love the pacing, the style, the humour, and the down-to earth advice. My biggest win was digging into the family project info and actually making use of those big tables of data–and finding connections between matches I hadn’t made sense of before!"
-Greg
"I had searched high and low for good YDNA information and was always disappointed. This class surpassed my expectations by so much! My biggest win is my new understanding of haplogroups and haplotrees. It is wonderful now to be able to follow upstream and downstream on my haplotree….If you want to get the most out of the YDNA test, you need to take this class."
-James
"My dad’s paternal grandfather was illegitimate and I have no clue who his father was. A clue came up [in the Course] which may break down [this] long-standing brick wall.
This is fantastic! I now have something to work with to try to discover my GGGfather. Thank you!"
-Ilma
"I want to thank Diahan for a wonderful course. I received a PhD in Biochemistry in 1982, long before any of this type of analysis was possible, and my career spanned all of the breakthroughs that have allowed us to do these genetic analyses. So, I understood the science behind these data, and had a strong grasp of the genetic principles since I taught them for over 30 years. However, I learned a great deal in this course, and I greatly enjoyed and appreciated all the course videos....I love the analogies you used and the creative images for displaying complicated ideas. I often talked to my students about making “mind pictures” and Diahan did a great job of helping with this.
I also appreciate Diahan’s emphasis of both the paper and the genetic genealogy — both are needed, but I do not think everyone who has a DNA test done understands this. I also enjoyed all the homework, especially the ones where I had to engage with pen and paper to help complete them."
-Anna Kleindschmidt
"My paternal great grandfather and one of my maternal great-great grandfathers were brick walls. The former came out of nowhere and left very little information about himself. The latter was born four years before the couple who raised him were married. My brother did a YDNA test and I paid to upgrade it to BigY-700. A maternal cousin also did the BigY-700 test. Both gave me access to their results. And this course taught me how to understand those results. In both cases, I found out what surnames to search under because neither one matched what we had from the records. Using autosomal DNA matches, I believe I have found people who may be the cousins I need to locate our biological ancestors.
And it wouldn’t have happened without Diahan’s great instruction. There are very few easy answers in DNA research, but when you learn from someone who knows the science, you avoid so many pitfalls, rabbit holes, distractions, and confusions. I’m very glad I signed up for this course and I look forward to checking the YDNA results every so often, and using autosomal DNA matches, and doing genealogy with all of this new information to break down these two brick walls."
-Kathleen Woodbury
Learn! Or your money back
If after 6 months from the start date of the YDNA & Genealogy Course, if you have fully participated (meaning you have watched and marked “complete” each video tutorial, completed the classwork and homework, and have asked for help on the discussion boards), but still do not understand the concepts being taught, we will refund the full cost. Read more about our refund policy.
