An mtDNA haplogroup is a branch of the human maternal family tree, defined by a shared set of tiny inherited changes in your mitochondrial DNA. Everyone alive descends from one woman — known as Mitochondrial Eve — who lived in Africa about 180,000 years ago (published estimates put her between roughly 154,000 and 199,000 years ago), and the tree has branched thousands of times since. Your haplogroup is the deepest, most specific branch we can place you on — like H1a (widespread across Europe), U5b1 (one of Europe's oldest maternal lineages), or D4 (common across Northeast Asia and the Americas).

A full mtDNA sequence is a separate test — it reads your entire mitochondrial genome at high coverage, and those services maintain databases of living testers so you can find maternal cousins. Our report works from the DNA file you've already uploaded (no new test, no extra cost), reads the mitochondrial positions your existing file covers, and matches you to ancient published specimens — not living relatives. If you want a deeper call or living-cousin matching, a full mtDNA sequence is the upgrade path.

Every DNA company has its own product focus. Some specialize in dedicated mtDNA sequencing, while AncestryDNA, 23andMe, and MyHeritage focus their analysis on autosomal DNA — ethnicity estimates and living-relative matching. Genomelink's focus is different again: we specialize in surfacing additional ancestry and trait insights from DNA data you've already tested elsewhere, using our own proprietary algorithm and dataset. This report is one of those additional insights — not something your original testing company chose to report.

No — we read the mitochondrial variants directly from the raw DNA file you have already uploaded (we also accept a GRCh37 VCF), so there's no new test to take. Support for more file formats is on our roadmap. Click Start free preview and we'll tell you within seconds whether your file has the mitochondrial coverage needed.

We'll tell you. The free preview includes an eligibility check — if your file falls below the coverage floor for a confident call, you won't be charged and we'll suggest a higher-coverage upgrade test as a partner referral. The cause is always how much of the mitochondrial genome your original test read, never who you are: everyone inherits mtDNA from their mother, so everyone has a maternal line to trace.

We only place you on a branch your own variants actually support. The free preview runs an eligibility check first — if your file doesn't have enough mitochondrial coverage for a dependable call, we tell you and you're not charged. We never guess at a deeper branch than the data justifies, so there's no “my other test says something different” surprise.

No — and we want to be upfront about it. Living-relative matching requires a database of other tested customers, which we don't maintain. The "relatives" in this report are ancient: people from archaeological sites whose remains have been sequenced and published in peer-reviewed research. They're your distant maternal cousins from deep history, not contacts to message.

Our dataset gets refreshed as new ancient-DNA research is published and new branches are named in the peer-reviewed mitochondrial phylogenetics we draw from (the academic ancient-DNA literature). Paid customers automatically get re-issued reports when the database updates — your call may move deeper, your ancient-match list may grow, or your subclade context may sharpen, all at no extra cost.

The report is built from open-access scientific datasets: Allen Ancient DNA Resource (AADR) (curated by the David Reich Lab at Harvard) and peer-reviewed mitochondrial phylogenetics. Every full report includes a Sources section crediting every dataset and study the report draws on, with each ancient individual credited to its original study.