X-DNA (in the 23rd pair) is inherited from mother to child and from father to daughter. It is not passed from father to son. The percentages here are approximate because X-DNA is recombined (generally speaking, shuffled up with the other member of the 23rd pair and the appropriate amount gets passed on) when it passes from mother to child. There is no shuffling when the father passes the X-DNA on.
Because of how the X-DNA is passed, it is possible to track where it flowed through your ancestry.
Approximately 25% of my X-DNA comes from Elske Tjarks (Fecht) Janssen who lived her whole life in Wiesens, Ostfriesland, Germany (19 November 1829-23 December 1867).
Do you know where approximately 25% of your X-DNA comes from?
Interestingly enough, for me approximately 50% of my X-DNA comes from the same small Ostfriesen village. The following 3rd great-grandparents of mine were from the same village of Wiesens:
- Elska Tjarks (Fecht) Janssen–25% of my X-DNA
- Hinrich Jacobs Fecht–12.5% of my X-DNA
- Maria Gerdes Wilkens (Bruns) Fecht–12.5% of my X-DNA
We’ll have a follow up post on the relationship between Elska and Hinrich–it’s fairly far back.
The values in this chart are theoretical mean values. Not everyone’s percentage of DNA from these specific ancestors will necessarily be these percentages depending upon how the DNA is recombined when the mother’s egg is created.
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