A Surname Project traces members of a family that share a common surname. Since surnames are passed down from father to son like the Y-chromosome, this test is for males taking a Y-DNA test. Females do not carry their father's Y-DNA and acquire a new surname by way of marriage, so the tested individual must be a male that wants to check his direct paternal line with a Y-DNA37, Y-67 or Y-DNA111 marker test. Females who would like to check their direct paternal line can have a male relative with this surname order a Y-DNA test. Females can also order an mtDNA test for themselves such as the mtDNA or the mtDNAPlus test and participate in an mtDNA project.

The autosomal test (FTDNA markets this as 'Family Finder' is also invaluable for both males and females.

Updated 23 May 2015

An excerpt from the URL  http://b4fa.org/   this is their work.

How are chromosomes inherited?

Most adult cells contain two sets of chromosomes. However, sexual cells (sperm cells from the father and egg
cells from the mother) contain a single chromosome set. During reproduction, each parent contributes one set of chromosomes to their offspring.

Sexual reproduction involves the fusion of a female and a male reproductive cell (also called gametes; in humans these are the sperm and egg cells). Reproductive cells contain half the set of chromosomes from the rest of the
cells of the body. The fertilised egg therefore received one chromosome in the pair from the mother, and one from
the father.

The illustration  below shows a photograph of the  human chromosomes when viewed with a microscope (this is called a karyotype). We have 22 pairs of chromosomes, plus the sexual chromosomes Y and X. Each parent contributed one chromosome in each pair.





This project is under construction 22 May 2015