Understanding Mitochondrial DNA

Your mtDNA is directly maternally inherited, meaning that you have the same mtDNA as your mother and all of your siblings. It is the same mtDNA as your maternal grandmother, and her mother, and so on, for ten generations or more.
Unlike autosomal DNA testing, mtDNA reliably reaches back past the fourth or fifth generation in your pedigree. But unlike YDNA tests, it doesn’t tell you how closely you are related to your mtDNA matches. So it’s a test that needs to be used strategically.
Want to learn more about your DNA ethnicity results? Click here to get your FREE guide! click.yourdnaguide.com/Qeuf5s
Want to learn more about Finding Birth Family with DNA? Click here to get your FREE guide! click.yourdnaguide.com/ZvitHk
If you have unknown DNA matches in your match list, then you need our free guide, Finding Ancestors with DNA. click.yourdnaguide.com/IEjiOF
We're here to help! Come ask us questions or explore our many guides to find answers yourself. Find us at: click.yourdnaguide.com/AN1efZ
Don't stop your DNA learning at just this channel, make sure to check out our other resources!
Track your progress, document your findings and unlock the full potential of your DNA journey with Your DNA Guide - the Book & Your DNA Guide - the Workbook. click.yourdnaguide.com/Bz8o47
Need more reading material? Subscribe to our free monthly newsletter for more DNA resources: click.yourdnaguide.com/QQuoFj
Follow us on Social Media:
Facebook:
/ yourdnaguide
Twitter:
/ dnadiahan
Instagram:
/ diahansouthard

[@cababyboomerq6012]

I was at RootsTech this year and I was excited to see a presentation at the Family Tree DNA booth where they told us they have now begun to build a MtDNA tree like they have one for Y DNA. And we know this tree will help us with time lines on how far back they think our common direct female ancestor is. This is very exciting. I don’t do much with my Mt DNA results because it seemed like such a mystery to really understand. I was really thrown off by the inheritance pattern. The male matches bugged me. It is still an issue for me but I am slowing moving past it. And with the constantly changing surnames, every tester really should put up a tree to help each other. I suspect allot more questions could be answered if we all did.

[@valerievesper9216]

LOL I absolutely want them to have 0 differences but alas they do not! Thanks for promoting this dna test!

[@barbarah5756]

Diahan, Really excited to try this out. As it turns out, I uploaded my 23andme DNA results to Family Tree DNA and then took their DNA test, so I have both results on that site. I can hardly wait to start diving into this. My brick wall is my 3X great grandmother, so with a bit of luck, I might get further. Thanks so much for informing us about this!!

[@caseyzahn3226]

My mom and I tested our MtDNA. We had no matches until recently when someone matched us at the genetic distance of zero. Her mtDNA line went to 1887 in Northern Ireland…we traced ours to a county just south of hers. I can trace our line to 1811 thus why I suspect that the connection maybe closer than what we think…the distance between where her family lived in Northern Ireland to where our family lived was only was only an hour away.

[@user-jr4kc6lu9q]

Casey, because your mtDNA branch is rare, it might not yet be represented in external databases like YFull and GenBank, and so scientists might not yet know it has been in Northern Ireland -- in case you or your match want to contribute to one of those.

[@aconroy5063]

My mom has Thirty-eight "0" Genetic Distances, and yet, when I go to those that have FF I don't recognize one name. Where do I go from here? Thank you!

[@YourDNAGuide]

With mtDNA you can have a genetic distance of zero and not connected in any recent genealogical timeframe. If any matches who took Family Finder and are on your Family Finder DNA match list - then those are worth focusing on. Matches who took Family Finder and are not on your Family Finder DNA match list are not worth looking into. Even without useful matches, your maternal haplogroup may be useful for comparison to another person's maternal haplogroup to determine if it is possible you came from the same matrilineal ancestor. If your research question involves three times great grandparents or closer, autosomal DNA is recommended (Ancestry, 23andMe, Family Finder, MyHeritage).

[@kristinebradof4846]

Does the maternal haplogroup in 23andMe work similarly? I have 57 matches, one estimated 3rd cousin, the rest 4th or more distant. Of course, there are no connected trees there so I rely more on MyHeritage.

[@addeenen7684]

My mt-DNA is H5a +152. My oldest known ancestor is Griet (Margaretha) Bierwertz from Duisburg, born around 1680. In Europe, H5a is prevelant in only some areas, the Balkans, Flanders, Catalonia. What does +125 mean?

[@YourDNAGuide]

The answer might sound a little technical, so stay with me. Every haplogroup, like H5a, is defined by a series of mutations. Each mutation is given a number to tell us where it is on the mtDNA, and a letter, to help us understand what the mutation is. When someone has a mutation that doesn't fit the current known pattern for a Haplogroup, that mutation is often noted in other ways. So I assume that is what you see here, though I have not seen it notated in this way. So I am assuming (dangerous, I know) that you have an extra mutation at 152 (or 125, whichever the true number is) but usually they would notate it as H5a-T152C or something like that. So, having said all of that, I am not really sure what they are trying to tell you with the +152, but that is my best guess.

[@c.2531]

Can you give me some advise what to do when you have a brick wall on your maternal great great grandmother side, from which you have only a name, possible location and her husband's/daughters name ? Another problem that can be is that my maternal side from this ancestor is perhaps endogamous, because the full Mt Sequence Test shows me a lot of jewish (some sephardic and a lot of Ashkenazi) hints about my maternal ancestral origins in Spain/Catalonia.

[@user-jr4kc6lu9q]

I am very familiar with Ashkenazic, Sephardic, and Spanish mtDNA haplogroups. There are definitely some Jewish haplogroups that got into the Spanish Catholic population but also some originally Spanish haplogroups that got into Jewish populations. Could you tell me the name of your haplogroup? I'd like to discuss it.

[@c.2531]

@@user-jr4kc6lu9q My maternal Mt Haplogruppe is K2b1 and i suggest that is possible that the maternal family of my great-great grandmother are conversos and/or they are going back to Catalonia/Spain, after they lived in an another country like Morroco perhaps. The paternal side seems to be local catalan iberian.

[@SarahjTaylor-cd6nz]

My dna test says that I am father of my daughter 99.99.9998 what to do next

[@YourDNAGuide]

It sounds like you have taken a paternity test. That is as high as that number will get, so you can be certain that he is your father.