- What type of ancestry do I have (ex. Native American, African, etc.)?
The mtDNA test traced your mother's mother's mother's direct maternal line without any influences from spouses along that line (see Inheritance Chart) and determined the single origin, such as Native American, African, Asian, or European. To find out about the type of origin found in your mtDNA, look at the "Haplogroup" listed in the mtDNA Results section. Haplogroups A, B, C, D, and sometimes X are found in individuals of Native American origin. Haplogroups L1, L2, L3, and M1 are found in individuals of African origin. A number of other haplogroups are found in people of Asian and European origins. You can read a description of where your haplogroup is from by scrolling down in the mtDNA Results section to the paragraphs under the heading "Haplogroup Description."
Follow-up questions you may have:
- How do I tell if I have Jewish ancestry?
Because Jewish is a religion and not a physical attribute that can be defined by a DNA mutation, we can give you hints about having Jewish ancestry by comparing your results with our database and looking for matches with people that come from the same Semitic background and/or who have declared that they have Jewish ancestry on that line. There are 4 situations we can run into when testing for Jewish ancestry:
- You match only people who are also Jewish on their direct maternal line -- in other words the signature, or "motif," only matches with people who have a known Jewish ancestry. The answer in this case is pretty clear and obvious.
- You match a motif that has both Jews and non Jews -- the answer is not clear and we can't guess whether your personal lineage is Jewish or not.
- You match no one of known Jewish origins -the answer is also clear...that you likely do not have Jewish origins on this lineage.
- You have no matches in our system at all (we haven't ever see this particular result before).
Look in the mtDNA Ancestral Origins section to see whether or not the people you match are from the Jewish database. Those in our Jewish database have a listing in the "Comments" column denoting Jewish ancestry. If you need further interpretation, please contact bcg@familytreedna.com.
Follow-up questions you may have:
- Where did my ancestors come from?
There are two places to look for the answer to this question. The first is your haplogroup, which is identified and described for you in your mtDNA Results section. The second place to look is in our Recent Ancestral Origins database, found in the mtDNA Ancestral Origins section. In this section we list the countries of origin reported to us by other people who have the same or very similar results as you. This list does not represent places where your ancestors have been so much as places where your DNA signature can be found today, but this list can provide a guide as to the possibilities of where your ancestors come from. If you have few matches, this list will not be statistically representative, and you therefore will need to wait until more people are added to the database (several thousand are added every month).
Follow-up questions you may have:
- What is the CRS (Cambridge Reference Sequence)?
The CRS is the Cambridge Reference Sequence. It was the first mtDNA sequence to be completed, and all mtDNA tests are now compared to a revised edition of it. The entire sequence is very long, and if written out completely would be a series of letter combinations that would be much longer than this example:
ATCGATCGGCTAATTACGCGATATATATACGACG. Instead, we create a list of the places where your sequence is different from the CRS. If two individuals have the same list of differences from the CRS, they have the same sequence as one another in the region(s) tested. For your benefit, the CRS for the HVR1 and HVR2 regions is listed at the bottom of your mtDNA Results section.
Follow-up questions you may have:
- What are haplogroups?
Haplogroups are genetic population groups that identify where in the mtDNA tree of humanity you fit in. Haplogroups are what allow us to identify how large groups of people migrated starting from Africa over 60,000 years ago to different parts of the world. A description of your haplogroup is available in the mtDNA Results section.
If you are interested in learning more about your haplogroup or about the other world haplogroups, we suggest you look at the atlas available on the Genographic Project website.
For a more detailed explanation of Haplogroups, please check here
Follow-up questions you may have:
- What is my haplogroup?
You can find your haplogroup assignment in the mtDNA Results section. It is listed in the top section of the page in the chart that also lists your differences from the CRS. A description of your haplogroup is listed on this page as well.
If you are interested in learning more about your haplogroup or about the other world haplogroups, we suggest you look at the atlas available on the Genographic Project website.
For a more detailed explanation of Haplogroups, please check here.
Follow-up questions you may have:
- What are supergroups?
Some haplogroups are the foundation for a number of other haplogroups. These "supergroups" are older, and most supergroups are not commonly found today because most of their descendents branched into other haplogroups. An example of a supergroup is R, which is the founding haplogroup preceding J, T, B, U, K, H, and V. Individuals belonging to the supergroup R and none of its branches are often labeled R*, meaning that they belong to R but not to any of its children haplogroups.
Follow-up questions you may have:
- Are mtDNA haplogroups the same as Y-DNA haplogroups?
No. While they use a similar alphanumeric naming system, the haplogroup names in mtDNA do not correspond with the same haplogroup names in Y-DNA: See More
Follow-up questions you may have:
- Are the mtDNA haplogroups predicted or confirmed?
When we first started in 2000, haplogroup predictions were not provided; just the mutations. However, it was not very user friendly for individuals to look up the comparison data available on the web so we began providing predictions by comparison.
In 2005 we began running haplogroup tests on every sample. The haplogroup test is now part of every mtDNA test we run. Currently we run a panel of 20 different SNP's on every mtDNA sample to attain the precise haplogroup of every mtDNA test we perform. We are confident that this is above or far above what anyone else offers when testing mtDNA worldwide.
Follow-up questions you may have:
- Don't we all go back to Africa?
Yes, all of our mtDNA lineages trace back to a common ancestor who lived in Africa 100,000 to 150,000 years ago. Some lineages migrated out of Africa about 60,000 years ago, while others remained. Lineages that historically remained in Africa include haplogroups L1, L2, L3, and M1. Lineages that historically migrated out of Africa descend from the other haplogroups. The "Atlas of the Human Journey" on the Genographic Project's website might be helpful in visualizing this:
- What do these numbers and letters mean?
Please see:
- What do my differences from the CRS mean?
DNA is composed of four bases, represented by the first letter of their name. A=Adenine, T=Thymine C=Cytosine G=Guanine.
When an mtDNA test is performed, the lab looks at one section of your mtDNA sequence. The entire sequence is very long, and if written out completely would be a series of letter combinations that would be much longer than this example:
ATCGATCGGCTAATTACGCGATATATATACGACG. To learn more about DNA, please use this link to our tutorial section: /understanding-dna.aspx
Your results are then compared to the Cambridge Reference sequence (CRS). Where you have a different base in your sequence from the CRS a mutation is noted.
For your HVR1 results, we are looking at the mtDNA sequence identified as 16001-16570. You can find the list of differences from the CRS in the first section of your mtDNA Results page. Just as an example, if the difference "16519C" is listed in your chart, then at location 16519 instead of having a T, your sequence has a C. If instead of a list of differences your chart lists "CRS," it means that your result matches the CRS across the entire HVR1 region. On your personal page, the original CRS is listed below your results. The red letters indicate where your sequence is different from the CRS.
These mutations help identify which haplogroup you belong to.
Follow-up questions you may have:
- What are mutations? Are they bad?!?
Mutations are natural copying errors. A good analogy is to think of a copy machine which is making many copies of a page. Every once in a while it will make a mistake; an e might look more like an o, for example. This is a "mutation." If you then take that page with the o and copy it, it will pass on its "mutation" to all of its descendent copies.
Your cells have error-checking mechanisms that prevent most mutations that take place in the actual genes from causing problems. The DNA we are testing, though, is found between the actual genes (the genes are found in the "coding region" of the mtDNA). Any mutations here do not have any medical or physiological effect. An exception is the mtDNA full sequence or Mega test. The full Mitochondria does contain a series of genes which may well express for some inheritable traits; however we are not physicians and do not review medical journals, nor will we. See "Should I order the upgrade to the Mega test?" for more information about the full sequence test.
When we test mtDNA, we compare the results with the CRS and list the places in which your sequence is different from the CRS. These differences are often called "mutations" although they are not all necessarily mutations on your line. The CRS, after all, is also based on the mtDNA results of a person.
Follow-up questions you may have:
- What are insertions and deletions?
In some cases you will see insertions in your mtDNA sequence. If you have an insertion after base pair 255, for example, the insertion will be listed as the base pair and .1C. In this case, a single base pair insertion has been found in your mtDNA string, noted by the .1. The nucleotide changed to cytosine (C) from guanine (G), therefore denoted with a C. The insertion then looks like this: 255.1C. If you have a 2 base pair insertion the results might look like this: 255.1C 255.2A.
It is also possible that you have a deletion; a base pair was not copied and you just don't have a base pair at that particular place in your sequence. For example, "424 -" means that this location, 424, isn't in your sequence and is represented by a minus sign at the site where the nucleotide base should have been found.
Follow-up questions you may have:
- Are any mutations more common than others?
There are some mutations which we see more often than others, but there is no established list of common and rare mutations. The databases might need to grow considerably before scientists are able to identify most mutations as "common" or "rare." One mutation which we find very often in a number of different haplogroups is 16519C in the HVR1 result. This is a base pair in the mtDNA which seems to have mutated many different times in human history.
Follow-up questions you may have:
- What are HVR1 and HVR2?
HVR stands for "Hypervariable Region." There are two of them in mtDNA, and they are named this way because they tend to mutate more often here than in the coding region. They also contain no genes, which means that testing these regions provides information about a person's ancestral origins on their maternal line (see Inheritance Chart) without revealing any health or medical conditions.
Follow-up questions you may have:
- What are "low resolution matches"?
A low resolution match occurs when two individuals have exactly the same sequence in the HVR1. As long as they are in the same haplogroup, these two individuals very likely share a common ancestor at some point on the maternal line. A low resolution match has about a 50% chance of sharing a common ancestor within the last 52 generations (about 1300 years). If the haplogroups are different, then the match is coincidental due to "convergent evolution" (two unrelated lineages mutate so that they look alike) and there is no common ancestor in thousands or a few tens of thousands of years.
Follow-up questions you may have:
- What are "high resolution matches"?
A high resolution match occurs when two individuals have exactly the same sequence in both the HVR1 and HVR2. High resolution matches are the ones which are more likely to be related within a genealogical time frame. A high resolution match has about a 50% chance of sharing a common ancestor within the last 28 generations (about 700 years).
Follow-up questions you may have:
- How many generations back does it trace?
Because mtDNA is passed down from the mother intact in each generation, the answer is that the test can cover both recent and distant generations. On the recent side, the mtDNA Ancestral Origins section will point towards possible countries of origin for the recent ancestors. If you have few matches, this list will not be statistically representative, and you therefore will need to wait until more people are added to the database (several thousand are added every month). The mtDNA test also identifies the haplogroup, which represents your deep ancestral origins (think tens of thousands of years ago). A low resolution match means that you have about a 50% chance of sharing a common ancestor within the last 52 generations (about 1300 years), and a high resolution match reduces the figure to around 28 generations (about 700 years).
Follow-up questions you may have:
- Why don't I have any low resolution matches?
First, go to your Setup Preferences section and make sure the box next to "HVR1 matches" is checked. If it is not, check it and click "Update" at the bottom of the page. Return to your mtDNA Matches section to view the list of matches.
If you do not have any low resolution matches, you are the first person with your particular HVR1 sequence to be in our database. This can mean that your result is relatively rare and that, as a result, few people have it. It can also mean that no one else from your particular lineage has happened to test yet. In both cases, the good news is that the database is constantly growing. The system will continue to search for matches for you whenever new results come in, and will notify you by email when a new match arrives.
In the meantime, you might want to try uploading your results to the public database, www.mitosearch.org. Since this database allows people who have tested with any company to upload and compare results, being in this database increases your chances of finding a match. To upload your results to mitosearch, go to the mtDNA Matches section and click the link labeled "Click here to upload to MitoSearch.org."
Follow-up questions you may have:
- Why don't I have any high resolution matches?
First, go to your Setup Preferences section and make sure the box next to "HVR2 matches" is checked. If it is not, check it and click "Update" at the bottom of the page. Return to your mtDNA Matches section to view the list of matches.
If you do not have any low resolution matches, you will not have any high resolution matches. This is because anyone who is a high resolution match has the same HVR1 result as you and is by definition also a low resolution match. You will also not have any high resolution matches if you have not tested your HVR2 region, or if none of your low resolution matches have tested the HVR2 region. If one of your low resolution matches has tested the HVR2 region, "(HVR2)" will appear next to his or her name.
If you have no high resolution matches, it is because you are the only person in our database with your particular set of results for the HVR1 and HVR2 regions. As our database grows, the system will continue to look for high resolution matches for you, and will send you a notification email as soon as a matching result comes into our database.
In the meantime, you might want to try uploading your results to the public database, www.mitosearch.org. Since this database allows people who have tested with any company to upload and compare results, being in this database increases your chances of finding a match. To upload your results to mitosearch, go to the mtDNA Matches section and click the link labeled "Click here to upload to MitoSearch.org."
Follow-up questions you may have:
- Why do I have so many matches?
There are a few results which we find in a very large number of people in a population. The reasons for this can vary. It can be because people with this exact same result-your ancestors-lived thousands or tens of thousands of years ago and by now there are many descendents carrying their signature. On the other hand, you might have a more recent (within the last one or two thousand years) common ancestor with this result who had many daughters, who had many daughters, and so on so that there are many people with that same result today.
You can reduce this list of matches by testing the HVR2 (mtDNARefine upgrade). This test would pick out which of your low resolution matches are most likely to be related in a recent time frame.
Follow-up questions you may have:
- Why am I matching both men and women?
mtDNA is passed down only from the mother, but both men and women receive it. This means that both men and women can take the mtDNA test, although no matter who takes the test it will still trace only the maternal line (see Inheritance Chart).
- Where do I find my ethnic origins?
Please see:
Where did my ancestors come from?
- Why doesn't this show me more recent ancestry and matches?
The mutations, or changes, in the mtDNA are what allow us to determine a person's ancestral origins because the changes help to set unrelated individuals apart. However, mtDNA does not change very often, and so you might have very similar or the same results to a wide range of people. This varies from result to result. Testing the HVR2 region helps to narrow down the list of matches to a more recent time frame, and occasionally is helpful in identifying a narrower region of origin for your lineage.
Follow-up questions you may have:
- What does "Unknown Origin" mean?
The mtDNA Ancestral Origins database is an anonymous search of the database and lists the countries of origin reported to us by the people that you match. If these individuals did not tell us a country of origin, either because they do not know or because they did not want to share it, we entered them as "Unknown Origin." You can change the listing for your kit using the "Update Contact Information" link.
Why do some of my matches show "United States"?
The mtDNA Ancestral Origins section lists the country of origin reported to us by the people that you match. This country of origin is meant to be the country your maternal ancestors (see Inheritance Chart) came from before any migrations to the Americas. However, some individuals instead enter the country of birth for themselves, their parents, or their most distant known ancestor. You should treat these entries as "Unknown Origin" unless your mtDNA test result indicated Native American ancestry on your maternal line.
Follow-up questions you may have:
- Why are so many different countries listed?
The same DNA results tend to be found in a range of countries in an area. Some results are found often enough that they have spread out throughout a very large region or a continent. If, for example, you match people from countries located throughout Europe, you happen to have a DNA result which is found in all of these places. The best way to narrow down the list is to test the HVR2 region, since it can pick out which of these matches are high resolution matches. Ancestral studies have shown that females have married men in different villages, historically, while men have tended to stay in their ancestral villages.
Follow-up questions you may have:
- What does the "Count" mean?
The count column represents the number of people of this description in our database whom you match. For example, if under the "Country" column it says England and under the "Count" column it says 16, it means that there are 16 people who have tested with us who match your result and have reported England as their maternal country of origin. Higher counts may mean a higher chance that your ancestors come from that region, but keep in mind that more people with ancestry from some countries may have tested than from others.
- Why do I match several different haplogroups or subgroups (on ancestral origins)?
Haplogroups are defined by mutations located in different places in the mtDNA. Some, but not all, of these mutations are located in the HVR1 and HVR2. If your haplogroup is defined by a mutation not in the HVR1, other people might happen to have the same HVR1 result but belong to different haplogroups. The fact that your HVR1 sequences match is due to what we call "convergence," where two unrelated lineages happen to experience mutations over time that make them appear to be similar. Individuals in different haplogroups cannot be related in thousands or a few tens of thousands of years.
Follow-up questions you may have:
- Why doesn't this show me percentages?
You received your mtDNA from your mother, who got it from her mother, who got it from her mother, and so on. Since fathers do not pass down their mtDNA in any generation, testing the mtDNA allows us to trace your maternal line (see Inheritance Chart), but no other. This means that any ancestry from your father's side, mother's father's side, grandmother's father's side, and so on, is not represented in your mtDNA. As a result, tracing this line can only lead to one origin.
Follow-up questions you may have:
- How do I stop receiving match notifications?
If you are receiving too many match notifications, it may be because you have a result we find often enough among our testers that each time new results come in you have one or more new matches. To stop receiving match notifications, go to the Setup Preferences section and uncheck the box next to the type of matches you do not wish to be notified of. This will also remove these matches from your display in your Matches section and will remove your name from the Matches sections of the people you match. You can switch this option back and forth at any time.
Follow-up questions you may have:
- Where is my certificate?
A certificate is automatically included in any original test order. You can order additional certificates using the "Order Certificates" link to the right of your name at the top of your personal page. If your certificate has not been printed yet or was only just printed, the system will not allow you to order another yet. If you transferred your mtDNA results from the Genographic Project, a certificate is not automatically mailed; you can order one using the "Order Certificates" link, or if you order any upgrade testing it will include a certificate once the results are complete.
- Have I tested just the HVR1 or both the HVR1 and HVR2?
Look in the mtDNA Results section at the chart in the first section of the page. If you have tested the HVR2 region, this chart will list both HVR1 differences from the CRS and HVR2 differences from the CRS. If it lists only differences for the HVR1 region and the HVR2 region is not listed in the "Pending Lab Results" section (this section only appears when there is a test still in process at the lab), then you tested only the HVR1 region.
Follow-up questions you may have:
- Should I order the mtDNA Refine test?
If you answer "no" to any of the following questions, the mtDNARefine test most likely will not help you at this time:
Do you want to look for genealogical connections with other people in the database?
Do you have any low resolution matches?
Do any of your low resolution matches have "(HVR2)" entered next to their names?
If you answered "yes" to all of these questions, then testing the HVR2 by taking the mtDNARefine test may be useful for you. The mtDNARefine test adds the HVR2 to your results and allows us to look for high resolution matches.
Follow-up questions you may have:
- What will the mtDNA Refine test tell me?
The mtDNA Refine test allows us to look for high resolution matches with other individuals, who would be the people in the database who are most likely to share a common ancestor with you in a genealogical time frame.
Follow-up questions you may have:
- Should I order the upgrade to the Mega test?
The sole purpose of offering a Full Mitochondria Sequence (or Mega) test is to:
- more accurately establish the actual mutation rate of the female inherited mtDNA
- apply statistics to more accurately predict when two people who match identically likely shared a MRCA (Most Recent Common Ancestor)
- provide the only (or final) mtDNA test that one will ever need to take
- allow our most inquisitive clients to have results that will be 'in hand' when more advanced scientific papers are published in the future.
At this time the full sequence test is expensive. However, it has already become the standard test used by researchers studying the mtDNA, and it is only a matter of time before it becomes the standard test for individuals wanting to use their mtDNA results for genealogical purposes.
Follow-up questions you may have:
- What will the Mega test tell me?
The sole purpose of offering a Full Mitochondria Sequence (or Mega) test is to:
- more accurately establish the actual mutation rate of the female inherited mtDNA
- apply statistics to more accurately predict when two people who match identically likely shared a MRCA (Most Recent Common Ancestor)
- provide the only (or final) mtDNA test that one will ever need to take
- allow our most inquisitive clients to have results that will be 'in hand' when more advanced scientific papers are published in the future.
At this time the full sequence test is expensive. However, it has already become the standard test used by researchers studying the mtDNA, and it is only a matter of time before it becomes the standard test for individuals wanting to use their mtDNA results for genealogical purposes.
Follow-up questions you may have:
- What "Daughter of Eve" do I descend from?
The "Daughters of Eve" are named after some of the haplogroups. The "Daughter of Eve" names are arbitrary, so we identify the haplogroup itself. The "Daughter of Eve" names begin with the same letter as the haplogroup name.