One problem with these reconstructions is that they have not taken into account the wide variations in fertility that exist between individual men and that are related in turn to the Y chromosome. However, at least one good study looked at reproductive success among a group of Amazonian Indians. They asked men to identify their grandchildren. There was staggering variation. The top four men were father-son pairs responsible for a total of 191 grandchildren, while nearly half of the men had only three or fewer.
Similar figures exist for industrial societies.
One other way of looking at inheritance of the Y chromosome is to follow surnames in societies with patrilineal inheritance. However as you go back in time, pedigrees collapse as the same persons start to appear in different parts of the tree, due to inbreeding. Prince Charles, for example, can trace his ancestry to Edward III through 3,000 separate lineages. Surname extinction has been recognised for a long time. Thus 300 English aristocratic families claim descent from William the Conqueror but only one can claim unbroken descent in the male line.