To understand mtDNA results, please read the pages below and follow the links to additional knowledge.

mtDNAⁱ is used to test your mother's mother's, mother's mother and so on maternal ancestry.  It It is difficult to use for genealogy, as the surname is changing every generation, but there are scattered reports of paper trail connections being made with mtDNA.  For information, see our mtDNA page.

We encourage everyone who has been mtDNA tested to join their mtDNA haplogroupⁱ project.  See our mtDNA Haplogroup Projects page for more information.

If you are seeking information on your deep ancestry (1000s and 10,000s of years ago) the standard, $129 mtDNA test should be sufficient.  (This test is sometimes called HVR1)

If you wish to use your mtDNA result to confirm a maternal ancestry (you and another person share a common maternal ancestor) then you will gain by taking the mtDNA Plus test which costs $189 (This test is sometimes called HVR1 + HVR2)

If you wish to test your entire mtDNA sequence, then you’ll want the mtDNA Full Sequence test, which costs $495 (this test is referred to by FTDNA as “Mega”). FTDNA suggests this for anyone who doesn’t wish to be upgrading when they need more info – as this will give you the entire sequence.

An upgrade from mtDNA to mtDNA Plus is $75 and the upgrade from mtDNA to Mega is $460, while the upgrade from mtDNA Plus to Mega is $450.