page_title: Genealogical DNA test
section_title: Haplogroups
hierarchical_section_title: Genealogical DNA test / Types of tests / Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) testing / Haplogroups
context_page_description: A genealogical DNA test is a DNA-based test which looks at specific locations of a person's genome, in order to find or verify ancestral genealogical relationships or to estimate the ethnic mixture of an individual. Since different testing companies use different ethnic reference groups and different matching algorithms, ethnicity estimates for an individual will vary between tests, sometimes dramatically.
  Three principal types of genealogical DNA tests are available, with each looking at a different part of the genome and useful for different types of genealogical research: autosomal, mitochondrial, and Y-DNA.
  Autosomal tests may result in a large amount of DNA matches, along mixed male and female lines, each match with an estimated distance in the family tree. However, due to the random nature of which and how much DNA is inherited by each tested person from their common ancestors, precise conclusions can only be made for close relations. Traditional genealogical research, and the sharing of family trees, is typically required for interpretation of the results. Autosomal tests are also used in estimating ethnic mix.
  MtDNA and Y-DNA tests are much more objective.
context_section_description: All humans descend in the direct female line from Mitochondrial Eve, a female who lived probably around 150,000 years ago in Africa. Different branches of her descendants are different haplogroups. Most mtDNA results include a prediction or exact assertion of one's mtDNA Haplogroup. Mitochrondial haplogroups were greatly popularized by the  book The Seven Daughters of Eve, which explores mitochondrial DNA.
caption: Map of human migration out of Africa, according to Mitochondrial DNA. The numbers represent thousands of years before present time. The blue line represents the area covered in ice or tundra during the last great ice age. The North Pole is at the center. Africa, the center of the start of the migration, is at the top left and South America is at the far right.
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