I have had a number of requests for information on testing Female DNA (mtDNA
is the only test available for Females). Here is some information I
extracted from the Family Tree DNA website which I thought was interesting
and also describes the test's usefulness in genealogy research.
The mtDNA test provides information about your direct very distant maternal
Line ancestor. Therefore, the mtDNA test is known as an anthropology test,
since the results relate to the very distant past. The mtDNA test may also
be used for genealogical purposes.
The mtDNA test can be taken by males and females. Both males and females
inherit mtDNA from their mothers, though only females pass on mtDNA. The
mtDNA you inherit from your mother, came from her mother, who inherited the
mtDNA from her mother, and back in time. Your mtDNA has been passed down
for thousands of years, all the way from one of the original females. These
original females are called Clan mothers, or nicknamed "Daughters of Eve".
Over 20 of these "Daughters of Eve" have been identified for the world, of
which 7 of these "daughters" are largely confined to Europe. As people are
tested in the more remote areas of the world, more "Daughters of Eve" may be
identified. Your "Daughter of Eve" is represented by a letter, which the
scientists have established, and call a Haplogroup. For example, your
ancestral "Daughter of Eve" could be H, X, T, K, and so forth.
A result of A, B, C, D and sometimes X shows that your direct maternal Line
has native American ancestry. A result of H, I, J, K, T, U, V, X shows that
your direct maternal Line has European Ancestry. The Haplogroup X is found
in Europe and Asia, and is believed to have migrated to the Americas about
15,000 years ago, making up a small component of the native American
population.
For Europe, the "daughters" can be loosely broken down into Southern Europe
and northern Europe:
Southern Europe: J, K
Northern Europe: H, T, U, V, X
For Africa, the Haplogroup or "daughters" is L, L1, L2 and L3.
For Asia, the "daughters" are: A, B, C, D, F, G
The first humans originated in Africa, about 130 thousand years ago. Various
migrations out of Africa populated different areas of the world. The
northern Europeans and Southern Europeans migrated out of Africa about 39-51
thousand years ago. Asia was populated by a migration out of Africa about
56-73 thousand years ago.
From Asia, there were possibly 3 different migrations to the Americas
by
crossing the Bering Strait. The first migration into the Americas was
probably about 26 thousand years ago, the second was about 12-15 thousand
years ago, and the third was about 7-9 thousand years ago. The data also
demonstrates a possible 4th migration about 15 thousand years ago. Some
researchers have suggested that this group could be related to the
Scandinavian Vikings, and may have crossed the Atlantic and mixed with
Native Americans that crossed the Bering Strait (Haplogroup X).
Occasionally, an ancient human has been discovered and their mtDNA tested,
such as the Ice Man. The 5000 year old Ice Man belongs to Haplogroup K. The
Cheddar Man belongs to Haplogroup U.
The mtDNA test, besides telling you about your very distant direct female
ancestor, can also be used to confirm genealogical relationships. If two
persons are linked by a common female ancestor, then their results from the
mtDNA test will match. The two persons could be either male or female, as
long as the male's mother belongs to the direct female line being tested.
mtDNA testing may confirm genealogical relationships, and therefore
potentially useful in solving genealogical research problems involving
female lines. For example, perhaps your family tree has a situation where a
male ancestor had two wives, and you are not certain who the mother was of
two of the daughters. (The two wives were not sisters from the same mother.
If the two wives were sisters of the same mother, they would have the same
mtDNA, so this example would not work.) To determine which wife was the
mother of which child, you would trace the direct female line from the two
children, to find a descendent today to test. The descendent today could be
male or female, as long as the male's mother was in the direct line. You
would also want to trace the descendents of one daughter whom the mother is
clearly identified as wife 1 or wife 2. The results of the mtDNA test for
these three participants would show which wife was the mother of which
daughter.
In another example, we have a situation where a female was shipped off to
Australia as part of a government emigration program for those in poverty in
Ireland in the early 1800's. The baptismal record of the female can not be
found, due to the destruction of many of the parish registers in the civil
war in Ireland in 1922. There are 3 possible families in the area where the
girl was last known to reside in Ireland.
mtDNA testing could be used to determine which family was the girls
ancestors. For each of the families, a direct maternal line would need to
be traced to find a descendent today, and tested. The results from the
three participants would be compared to the result for a descendent of the
girl. Which ever result the descendent of the girl matches, would be the
ancestral family. Further research may now be possible with the family
identified.
The reasons to have an mtDNA test vary from personal knowledge about your
direct maternal female ancestors, to applications to solve genealogical
problems. Some customers test mtDNA for all the core members of their
family tree. Usually this application of mtDNA testing is to gain knowledge
about the direct maternal line of the core ancestors, as well as to confirm
the genealogical research.
mtDNA changes at a much slower rate than Y DNA. There are two mtDNA tests
available:
Maternal Match
mtDNAPlus
The Maternal Match tests one region of mtDNA, and the mtDNAPlus tests two
regions. These regions are called HVR-1 and HVR-2, and are known as HV
Segment or HV Region. The abbreviations for these two regions are also
called HVS-1 or HVS-2. The scientists use both the terms HV Segment and HV
Region, as well as the associated abbreviations.
The Maternal Match test only tests HVR-1, and the mtDNAPlus tests both HVR-1
and HVR-2. Family Tree DNA's HVR-1 test includes 540 base pairs, and the
HVR-2 includes 510 base pairs. It is highly recommended that the mtDNAPlus
test be ordered by those persons interested in a genealogical application,
or for matching. mtDNA has a very slow mutation rate. The chart below
shows the time frame of the common ancestor for a random match.
Test Time frame of common ancestor for a match
============= ===========================================
Maternal Match 50% of the time, 52 generations or less
mtDNAPlus 50% of the time, 32 generations or less
These time frames are for random matches. When you are utilizing mtDNA
testing for genealogical purposes, you have identified the ancestors or
potential ancestors, so the time frames shown above are not relevant.
mtDNA test results show the Haplogroup, and the mutations compared to the
standard, which is called the Cambridge Reference Sequence (CRS). The CRS
is simply the first mtDNA sequenced, so all results are presented as the
mutations compared to this standard.
Since mtDNA mutates, or changes, very slowly, the Matching selection at
familytreedna.com only provides exact matches, since partial matches with
HVR-1 are not genealogically relevant.
For mtDNA test takers, your Personal Pages at
familytreedna.com will show
three selections:
mtDNA Matches
mtDNA Search
mtDNA Results
The mtDNA Matches selection shows those to whom you are an exact match, for
both HVR-1 and HVR-2. The HVR-1 matches are known as a low resolution
match, and the HVR-2 matches are known as a high resolution match. For
genealogical purposes, only a HVR-1 + HVR-2 match should be considered,
unless your mtDNA sequence is quite rare.
The mtDNA Search selection shows the ethnic origin for those whom you match,
from the Family Tree DNA customers, as well as other proprietary databases.
The selection mtDNA Results, shows your results for the mtDNA test.
A mtDNA test can provide interesting information about your direct female
ancestor, as well as be used for genealogical research purposes. Some
customers prefer to have a mtDNA result for each of their core ancestors in
their family tree.
To order a mtDNA test:
If related to a Carmack female line click on
http://www.ftdna.com/surname_det.asp?group=Carmack
For other surname lines click on
http://www.ftdna.com/surname.asp and find
the surname associated with the appropriate surname.
By going with a surname project you can get a discount on the test costs.