Common Female Ancestor Testing

Your prehistorical ancestry is buried in your DNA. Our Common Female Ancestor Test examines a person’s mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA for short. Both men and women possess mtDNA, but only women pass it on to their children. Your mother inherited it from her mother, who inherited it from hers, and so on back through time. Therefore, mtDNA traces an unbroken maternal line back through time for generation upon generation.
We examine a portion of the mtDNA known as HVR-1 and HVR-2. Everyone's DNA is almost identical in this portion. However, the differences are what indicate if you share a common female ancestor. By comparing your DNA sample to the Cambridge Reference Sample, we can tell you what differences you have. If you have the same genetic differences, known as mutations, as someone else then you have a common female ancestor. Your genetic information is then referenced with current mtDNA Haplogroup plus archaeological information sources to provide a description of the origins of your maternal line. Visit our sample report page.

Your Common Female Ancestor Test will include a certificate listing your genetic differences, your haplogroup, a description highlighting interesting scientific and archaeological information relating to your haplogroup, and literature links. We will also provide a list of resources with your results that will enable you to find your "genetic cousins", women that share your genetic markers and are therefore related to you.

According to genetic theory, all humans descend from a woman nicknamed "African Eve." This unknown woman lived in Africa about 145,000 years ago (~5,700 generations). She wasn't the only human female in her generation -- some scientists think that she belonged to a human population of about 2,000 people. The other women of her time certainly left daughters and granddaughters, but African Eve was the only woman in her generation whose descendants in the female line are still living today. Descendants of African Adam and African Eve left eastern Africa about 50,000 years ago. One group left Africa and spread via a coastal route to India, Siberia and eventually arriving in America. The other group moved into Asia Minor about 45,000 years ago.

Geneticists divide African Eve's descendants into “Haplogroups” popularly called "clans" to make the subject easier for lay people to understand. Different types of mtDNA correspond to different haplogroups. Currently, there are only 33 major haplogroups. Again, there have been different maternal lines in existence in human history, but these are the only lines that can be found in existence today.

Major haplogroups are continental or ethnically specific. Three of them (L1, L2 and L3) group sub-Saharan African lineages; nine (H, I, J, K, N1b, T, U, V, W and X) encompass almost all of mtDNAs from European, North African and Western Asian Caucasians. Finally, haplogroups A, B, C, D, E, F, G and M cover the majority of lineages described for Asia, Oceania and Native Americans.

Start unraveling the mystery of your DNA and heritage today, call (800) 523-3080 to order, order on-line, or download the order form and fax or mail in your order. Don't forget to take a look at our other informational genetic testing products now as you receive significant discounts when ordering tests at the same time. If you are interested in seeing a sample report, visit our sample report page.