Maternal Lineage DNA Test
The maternal lineage DNA test examines your mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) to trace one specific branch of your ancestry: the women in your family, from your mother to your maternal grandmother and further back, all the way to female ancestors who lived thousands of years ago. Both men and women can take it.
How does it work?
Order online
Order your DNA test online and add any options you need.
Receive your DNA kit
Once you have ordered online, the laboratory sends a saliva sampling kit straight to your home.
Collect your sample at home
Take your sample easily at home using a simple cheek swab to collect a saliva sample.
Send it to the laboratory
Place your samples in paper envelopes and send them to the laboratory, following the instructions provided in the email.
Get your results
Receive your results by email within a few weeks.
What to expect
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Order online via the test link.
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Receive the kit at home.
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Cheek swab: gently rub the inside of your cheek with the swab, following the instructions (quick and painless).
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Return the sample to the laboratory as instructed.
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Genetic analysis and comparison against reference databases.
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Receive your results (usually by email, sometimes also as a printed copy, depending on the option chosen).
Who is this test for?
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Everyone. Every child, daughter or son, inherits mitochondrial DNA from their mother. A man can therefore explore his maternal line just as a woman can.
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Only women pass it on. A man does not transmit it to his children. To trace your father's maternal line (his mother, then her mother), he, or one of his siblings, needs to take the test.
Why only through the mother? At conception, the mitochondria carried by the sperm are not retained: the embryo keeps only those of the egg cell, and with them the mother's mitochondrial DNA.
Benefits of the maternal lineage test
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It is open to both men and women, whereas the paternal lineage test is only available to men.
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It goes back a very long way, because mitochondrial DNA passes from one generation to the next almost unchanged.
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It identifies your maternal haplogroup and places it within the story of the great human migrations.
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It isolates a single branch of your family tree, whereas autosomal DNA blends the inheritance of all your ancestors and dilutes each one's contribution over the generations.
Maternal haplogroup
A mitochondrial haplogroup is a major branch of humanity's maternal family tree. It groups together everyone who carries the same set of mutations, which first appeared in a common female ancestor and were then passed down from mother to child. These branches are named with letters, such as H, T or V.
They all trace back to a single line: that of the woman known as “Mitochondrial Eve”.
What is a maternal lineage DNA test used for?
Verify a relationship through the female line
Comparing the mitochondrial DNA of two people shows whether they could belong to the same maternal line, for example two cousins whose mothers are sisters, or half-siblings who believe they share the same mother.
The result has to be read in a specific way. Two clearly different sequences rule out a shared maternal line. Two identical sequences make it possible, but do not prove it on their own, because families with no recent connection can carry the same profile. Our page on the mitochondrial DNA test explains this type of comparison and who can take part.
Discover where your maternal ancestors came from
Your haplogroup is linked to regions of the world and to periods of human history. The report turns this into a map: where and when your maternal line emerged, then the routes it may have followed out of Africa.
Expect regions and time periods, not a specific country. This test reaches back to ancient origins, long before today's borders existed.
Trace the story of the women in your family tree
In a family tree, the direct maternal line does not follow any surname. Because surnames are traditionally passed down through the father, they change with every generation on this side: on the surface, nothing links your mother's surname to that of her maternal grandmother.
Mitochondrial DNA, on the other hand, remains virtually identical all along this line. It is a common thread that does not depend on names: it lets you verify a branch rebuilt from archive records by comparing two presumed descendants, and then extend it far beyond the earliest records.
