Mitochondrial DNA

Mitochondrial DNA 

It can be hard to research our female ancestors because their names appear in the records less frequently than males.  It can be difficult to distinguish same-named individuals to know which is your direct ancestor.  Do you know if you are descended from a first wife or a second wife?  It can be surprising to realize that our female ancestors did not have identical migration patterns to our male ancestors.  These are some of the issues that we hope to illuminate with our Tr’n’r mtDNA initiative.

Mitchochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is passed from mother to child.  Testing your mtDNA, therefore, identifies your direct matrilineal line, and traces the history of your “all-female-line” migration over thousands of years.   The mtDNA test results will be analyzed for those in the Treinfhir DNA project at FamilyTreeDNA.com.

At the outset, we are focusing the Treinfhir mtDNA participation on three kinds of testers- 

1. those already in the Y-DNA project; 
2. those born a Tr’n’r; 
3. those who have a Tr’n’r in their direct matrilineal line.  

Testers can be either men and women, as mothers pass their mtDNA to both sons and daughters.

We will share some of the results of our findings in this location and on the private Treinfhir DNA Project page at familytreedna.com. (July 2022)