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mtDNA Mitochondria Information
mtDNA can be very hard to understand in genealogy. How does this mtDNA information help you connect to your relatives? Here is a description of how it works.
First, some basic biology. Your mitochondria are tiny entities that live IN your cells. They were the inspiration for the "mitichlorians" in the Star Wars series. When a sperm and egg meet up to form a new human baby, the sperm has NO mitichlorian DNA. Only the egg does. Meaning that a baby child ONLY has the mitichlorian - 100% accurate - from the mother. The mitichlorian DNA is passed down from mother to children, from generation to generation, no changes or alterations.
So look at this chart:
The pink circles are female, the blue are boys. This chart shows a mother who had two girls, and a few generations later we're looking at two male offspring descendants. The green dots show how that exact same mitichlorian from the original mother kept going down through the females. What the other male children did does not matter - they could NOT pass down mitichlorians in their sperm. Who the females married did not matter - their husbands could NOT pass down mitichlorians. All that matters is the females, and their female daughters.
mtDNA testing is therefore very accurate. You can't get false results from "another trail" - the other trails all go dead. The mtDNA is NOT passed along from any male. The only line being traced is the female line.
On the other hand, they can be TOO accurate. Since this mtDNA is passed down pretty much flawlessly from generation to generation, you could find a match meaning you found a common ancestor 5 generations ago. It could ALSO mean that you had a common female ancestor 25 generations ago even though the one 5 generations ago was not the same. In both cases you would have the same mtDNA match. So if for example you are researching a family in Ireland where they entire family stayed there for over 1,000 years, everyone is related to everyone else. Everyone could have that same exact mtDNA :) It wouldn't prove who married who - just that they all descended from a common female :)
mtDNA Testing to Determine Haplogroup
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Note - Lisa Shea wrote this content for the genealogy site at BellaOnline.com - you might still find this content there as well. That's fine :) I gave permission!
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