Encyclopedia of mtDNA Origins
Haplogroup W5 is a branch on the maternal tree of human kind. Its age is between 7,400 and 14,800 years (Behar et al., 2012b).
People: Places:
Explore your maternal heritage in the Encyclopedia of mtDNA Origins.
Genetic Genealogy News
FTDNA UPDATE: Important Updates Released Today
Family Tree DNA sent the following update to project administrators.
Latest Posts
FTDNA Project Member Privacy Settings – Quick Start Guide
This is a quick guide to adjusting your privacy settings for project participation at Family Tree DNA. I, personally, take my privacy extremely seriously, and I hope your own seriously too. The new GDPR law in Europe has inspired some positive changes at Family Tree DNA, and there are account settings that need to be adjusted accordingly.
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Ancient DNA
Ancient DNA (aDNA) is the DNA of anyone who has been dead for more than 50 years. The name sounds like it should only include really old samples or pre-historic people. However, the methods used to get ancient DNA results apply to most people who have been dead for more than a few years.
Project News
New England Colonist Weekly Update – 18 Sep 2018
Now that we are past the FTDNA summer sale, I will return to weekly project updates. This weeks' are pretty exciting. Martin Hendrix has joined the project as a co-administrator. He is helping to update Y-DNA and mtDNA chart subgrouping.
Nordic Y-DNA Weekly News – 10 Aug 2018
Hello Everyone, The project continues to grow, and it is wonderful to see geographic discoveries begin to come forward. This weeks find was made by Harald Alvestrand. Below are the counts for each major Y-DNA [...]
Q-M242 Weekly Update – 10 Aug 2018
This week I will finally get to cover a little bit of Native Americas information.
Nordic Y-DNA Weekly News – 3 Aug 2018
I have been asked about where the project is going with the new subgrouping. I will write a little about that this week.
Recent Journal Articles
Mitogenome Diversity in Sardinians: A Genetic Window onto an Island's Past
Sardinians are “outliers” in the European genetic landscape and, according to paleogenomic nuclear data, the closest to early European Neolithic farmers.
500 Years Later: Understanding the Genetic Ancestry of the Southeast Region, Brazil
In preliminary analyzes with X-INDELs in samples from São Paulo, we found the following ancestral proportions: 29.4% African, 49.7% European and 20.9% Native American.
Mitochondrial genomes reveal an east to west cline of steppe ancestry in Corded Ware populations
From around 4,000 to 2,000 BC the forest-steppe north-western Pontic region was occupied by people who shared a nomadic lifestyle, pastoral economy and barrow burial rituals.
Prehistoric migrations through the Mediterranean basin shaped Corsican Y-chromosome diversity
This study included 321 samples from men throughout Corsica; samples from Provence and Tuscany were added to the cohort.