Category Archives: X Chromosome

Mitotree: First, the Tree – Now the Paper

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It’s definitely a red-letter day.

Dr. Paul Maier, the lead author on the new paper Mitotree: The Universal Human Mitochondrial Reference Phylogeny at 10x the Resolution has uploaded the paper to the bioRxiv preprint server, here.

I want to congratulate all of the authors, most of whom are members of the FamilyTreeDNA R&D team as either employees or contractors. I’m a contractor and have had the honor of working with these amazing colleagues on this project since 2020.

About Mitotree

Mitotree was officially “born” on February 25, 2025, and the tree has been updated several times since. About 75% of FamilyTreeDNA’s customers who have taken the full-sequence mitochondrial DNA test received a more refined haplogroup with the release of Mitotree or subsequent updates. Those haplogroups are, on average, 2000 years newer than the person’s legacy Phylotree haplogroup, and some are much more recent.

This means that the tree branches have gotten much, much bushier close to the tips. In other words, lots more twigs and leaves!

Unfortunately, about 25% of testers did not receive a new haplogroup because they do not have any qualifying mutations:

  • Either because they have no additional mutations
  • Or because they have mutations, but they are unstable
  • Or because they have mutations, but no other testers have yet tested that match them to split a branch

The good news is that with the addition of haplotype clusters, everyone benefits from new matching and grouping tools. Testers are grouped into clusters on their matches page, and on the Match Time Tree in Discover, which is much more useful for genealogy.

I know this paper has been a long time coming, but it’s well worth the wait.

Mitotree was a massive undertaking. We began with PhyloTree v17 which had 5,438 hand-curated branches constructed from 24,275 full and partial mitochondrial sequences. Phylotree was last updated in 2016 before subsequently being abandoned.

The Million Mito Team developed Mitotree, a robust phylogeny with more than 54,000 branches formed from over 330,000 complete mitochondrial sequences, of which 177,196 are unique sequences.

Let’s Look Under the Hood

There are three critical pieces of information in those statements.

First, the PhyloTree curation and maintenance was not automated, and a paper detailing their build process, what mutations were included or excluded, and under what circumstances was never published.

Approximately once a year, a new PhyloTree was published where newer samples were individually evaluated and new haplogroups were hand-grafted onto an existing backbone tree.

This methodology did not allow for deep splits to become apparent, because the tree itself was never recalculated. This is exactly how haplogroup L7 went undetected until the Million Mito Team recalculated the tree, including the backbone, in 2022, and published this paper about L7’s discovery.

In other words, while PhyloTree was publicly available, there was no recipe for how it was created or maintained.

Clearly, the tree-building process had to be automated, as hand-curation was unsustainable. There were no academic programs in existence capable of handling the number of samples involved. Not even in 2016 for fewer than 25,000 samples, let alone today.

To maintain haplogroup naming consistency, the first thing our team had to do was write software to phylogenetically reverse engineer PhyloTree v17 to establish a common foundation on which to build. This step was essential for consistency and maintaining the established haplogroup naming pattern.

That software also had to be capable of scaling up exponentially. The first versions took weeks to run, which clearly wasn’t an acceptable long-term solution. Still, being able to establish a foundational backbone to build on programmatically was a victory in and of itself.

Second, PhyloTree used partial sequences, meaning HVR1 and HVR2 samples. Early academic researchers did not perform full sequence testing, so the curators of PhyloTree used what was available to the best of their ability.

With over 330,000 full-sequence samples available today, we no longer include partial samples.

Third, 177,196 of the 331,221 full sequence samples used were unique. Before launching the program to construct the tree, identical samples from known immediate relatives are deduped, when possible, in order to reduce unnecessary clutter and processing time.

This means two things. The actual number of testers is greater than 331,000. But more importantly, anyone who thinks that mitochondrial DNA isn’t interesting should take another look. More than half of the sequences used for tree-building are unique, which handily dispels the myth that mitochondrial DNA doesn’t mutate often enough to be useful for genealogy.

The Mitotree initiative has been both scientifically and genealogically successful beyond anything we could have imagined. The base tree includes approximately 180 branches that are older than 30,000 years, including the discovery of haplogroup L7 at 100,000 years old. These branches both expand and more firmly root the oldest portions of the tree.

Amazingly, haplogroup L7 has living descendants whose earliest known family members are found in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, the UAE, Palestinian Territory, Ethiopia, Sudan, and South Africa.

Another fun discovery involved Otzi, the Iceman, a mummy found frozen in the Italian Alps who lived more than 5,000 years ago. He was thought to carry an extinct haplogroup, K1ö, named in his honor, but as it turns out, he’s actually a member of haplogroup K1f, a clade with living descendants in Algeria. Additionally, Otzi now matches four ancient burials too, so he does have cousins.

We couldn’t have made these discoveries without the right people testing, so please encourage everyone and dispel the discouraging myth that mitochondrial DNA isn’t useful or interesting. It absolutely IS, and the success stories keep rolling in!

Why Build a Phylogenetic Tree?

Simply put, the history of our ancestors, both recently and reaching back into ancient history, is revealed in the tree – and there’s absolutely no other avenue to reach this information. Ironically, it’s readily available to everyone because everyone has mitochondrial DNA and can easily take the test.

Mitochondrial DNA is different than Y-DNA, which has its own phylogenetic tree based on SNP mutations, and autosomal DNA, which has no tree.

The reason that both Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA can have phylogenetic trees is that they are inherited from the appropriate parent with only occasional mutations, while autosomal DNA is roughly halved in each generation.

Y-DNA is inherited by males only from their fathers, with no admixture from their mother, while mitochondrial DNA is inherited by everyone from only their mothers, with no admixture from their father.

Autosomal DNA is inherited through random recombination, with half coming from each parent, except for the X chromosome which has its own inheritance pattern. X-DNA is often confused with mitochondrial DNA, but they are entirely different types of DNA. I wrote about that here.

No tree is possible for autosomal DNA, because it gets diced and riced in each generation.

The mutations that occur occasionally and randomly in both Y and mitochondrial DNA form a trail of breadcrumbs leading backward in time, or in our case, they form both the trunk and branches on the tree.

Those unique mutations, once they occur, are inherited by subsequent generations, forming a path back in time.

In current generations, those mutations provide testers with the ability to identify our closest cousins who inherited those same mutations and who have taken either a Big Y-700 test, in males, or a mitochondrial DNA full sequence test for everyone.

In this conceptual example, you can see that Ancestor 1 carries mutation A, as do the next two generations who inherited it from their parent. However, Ancestor 4 now has additional mutation B, so that person carries mutations A+B. This inheritance pattern continues through the apricol lineage as mutations C and D are added in subsequent generations, until “You” are born with A+B+C+D.

Your cousin’s ancestor, on the other hand, was also born to Ancestor 4 and carries both A+B, as seen in the green column. Three generations later, that line added mutation F. Your  ancestor 7 added mutation C, so now the apricot and green lineages can easily be genetically distinguished from each other.

When a living person tests, we immediately know, based on the combination of their mutations, if and where they fit in this lineage, because both the apricot and green branches have accumulated unique mutations that the original blue Ancestor 4 and earlier ancestors did not have.

Using our knowledge of the tree branches, when and where they occurred, provides valuable genealogical information, along with fascinating Ancient Connections, both since and prior to the adoption of surnames.

Both Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA can reach much further back in time than autosomal DNA because they are not diluted with DNA from the other parent in each generation.

So mitochondrial DNA is both broad, meaning many leaves, and deep, meaning it helps us look straight back in time like a laser sight, all the way to the common ancestor of all humanity, Mitochondrial Eve, who lived about 140,000 years ago in Africa.

Mitochondrial DNA Presents Unique Challenges

Mitochondrial DNA presents challenges not found in Y-DNA tree building.

For example, mitochondrial DNA only has 16,569 locations available to utilize, while Y-DNA currently uses roughly 22 million “gold standard” locations on the Y chromosome.

Of those 16,569 mitochondrial locations, some are not reliable enough for tree-building.

Unreliable mutations include:

  • Insertions, where extra copies of a particular nucleotide (Thymine, Adenine, Cytosine and Guanine) have been inserted at a specific location. Those are indicated by designations such as 309.1C where 309 indicates the marker location, .1 indicates the number of insertions at that location, and C (for Cytosine in this example) indicates the nucleotide inserted.
  • Heteroplasmies occur when multiple nucleotides are detected at a specific location. They are reported by a different letter than T, A, C or G, depending on which of multiple nucleotides are found. Heteroplasmies tend to “come and go” based on detection and threshold levels, so they can’t be used the same way as more stable mutations for tree building – and are often, but not always, unreliable for genealogy. I wrote about this in the article, What is a Heteroplasmy and Why Do I Care?.

Those locations and types of mutations have been excluded from forming tree branches, or downweighted, because they are too prone to mutating back and forth. However, they *might* be useful for genealogical purposes. Less-than-reliable mutations are now used to create haplotype clusters, even though they aren’t used to create new branches on the Mitotree.

I wrote about how haplogroups and haplotype clusters are formed in these articles:

Weighting and Confidence Factors

Mitotree formation would have been a lot easier if delineations, meaning inclusions and exclusions, were clear, either yes or no, but they aren’t.

Some were obvious from the get-go, such as insertions at location 309 and elsewhere, but other situations were much less obvious.

For example, sometimes there’s a specific location that seems prone to reversion, mutating back and forth, meaning that it mutates, then returns to its original state, then repeats the process.

Reversions are a natural phenomenon that occurs frequently in mitochondrial DNA, but is rarely, if ever, found in Y-DNA.

Let’s look at an example.

Courtesy Dr. Paul Maier

How many reversions at the same location are too many, especially if they are close in the tree?

In the above example, the mutation from A to G occurs just below the first arrow, forming haplogroup L1, a branch of L. The red areas all carry that mutation, subsequently forming eight new branches.

However, one step downstream from that mutation, just above the second arrow, location 7055 back-mutates, or reverts to A from G, which is indicated by the “!”. That reverse mutation forms haplogroup L1c3.

If location 7055 continues to flip back and forth between A and G, at what point do we have less confidence in that location, and at what point should a location be excluded from the tree and prevented from creating or dividing a branch?

The answer is that “it depends,” sometimes on the branch, sometimes on the “group” of other mutations it’s found with, and other factors. Some locations are stable in some parts of the tree, but unstable in others. We certainly never expected to see that!

This means the team had to design and build a weighting methodology so that relevant mutations, such as reversions, are not summarily excluded from tree building but instead carry different confidence weighting levels, depending on the circumstances.

Some samples, such as ancient DNA, were down-weighted in general due to their propensity to contain artifacts resulting from deterioration. Ancient samples can still influence branching, just not as much as a high-quality modern sample.

Furthermore, especially when utilizing academic samples, results with a high number of heteroplasmies are excluded, along with those with ambiguous reads and missing upstream mutations, which were previously inferred with PhyloTree. Academic samples vary in quality and age, and we have no way of knowing which quality criteria were used by that lab at that time.

These types of variances made constructing and updating the Mitotree more challenging than the Y-DNA tree, which is not subject to weighting, resulting from phylogenetic tug-of-war between mutations.

In some situations, the addition of just one test can make the difference between a new branch, or no branch, in a subsequent run of the tree. Due to this type of scenario, and fine-tuning the algorithm, some people’s new haplogroups have reverted to an earlier haplogroup in subsequent Mitotree updates.

The paper and supplemental materials provide details about the exclusion process, types of exclusions, and a list of excluded marker locations.

You can view the confidence of any haplogroup in the Classic Mitotree view in Discover.

My haplogroup, J1c2f, is formed by the mutation G9055A, and you can see that the confidence rank is 7.5 out of 10.

Mousing over the little up-arrow tree icon beside the star explains changes in nearby branches, which can affect the haplogroup’s confidence ranking.

Branches are not renamed for convenience, and only when phylogenetically warranted. Existing haplogroup names used either on PhyloTree, in academic literature, or previously on the Y-Full tree are either maintained or avoided to eliminate potential confusion. No one wants two different haplogroup names depending on which tree is being viewed.

Previously obsoleted names remain permanently obsoleted and are not reused.

The paper explains further about technical corrections and tie-breaker situations. In some cases, potential branches with equal or near-equal weighting are flagged for team review.

Amazing Discoveries

I encourage everyone to read the section in the paper beginning with “Notable discoveries.” These aren’t people, as in Discover’s Notable Connections, but scientific accomplishments achieved with the new Mitotree.

Our knowledge of human migration within and out of Africa has been greatly refined, as well as the ancestral path into and across Eurasia, Asia, and into the Pacific Rim. If you have unusual mitochondrial haplogroups such as L, M, N, P, Q, R or S, you’ll absolutely want to read this.

Of course, in time these haplogroups branch and become Paleolithic haplogroups, then the Gravettian-Mesolithic followed by the Hunter-Gatherers found throughout Europe that we are familiar with. We’ve learned a great deal from rare ancient DNA samples that anchor more modern haplogroups in a place and time, and inform us of migration patterns as well as how now-extinct ghost populations gave rise to current ones.

The earliest humans, whom Mitotree has more firmly anchored, formed a trickle out of Africa that became a bifurcated stream, eventually flowing across the rest of the world. What recorded and even archaeological history cannot tell us can be and is revealed through the patterns held in our DNA today – and Mitotree is our map to read them. Common ancestors are found where our mutations as haplogroups converge, joining as we travel backward in time, piercing an otherwise impenetrable veil.

For those with Native American ancestry, Mitotree expands the two-wave theory, refining it into five or six probable migration surges, depending on how you count, based on a combination of haplogroup ages and distribution.

Summarizing from the paper:

The first wave of haplogroups A2, B2, C1b, C1c, C1d, D1, and D4h3a arrived from Asia, across Beringia or along the Pacific Corridor, about 17,000 to 18,500 years ago, and expanded along the Pacific coast. D4h3a is found almost exclusively in the Pacific region.

This was followed by haplogroup C4c about 15,800 years ago and X2a about 10,000 years ago, which expanded into the interior through the ice-free corridor east of the Rockies after the ice melted.

Next were the Paleo-Eskimo and Na-Dene speakers in haplogroups A2a, D2a, D2b, D2c/D3, and D4b1a2a1a2, who, between 3000 and 7000 years ago, made their way from Alaska, across the polar regions of Canada, into Greenland.

Na-Dene speakers, Apache and Navajo, in haplogroups A2a and B2a made their way southwest between 1300 and 1500 CE, or between 500 and 700 years ago.

Last, the present-day Inuit-Yupik expanded from Beringia to Greenland about 1000 CE.

For additional information, please see the Native American lineages section of the paper.

Mitotree has also clarified the ancestors of the Ainu/Jomon people from Hokkaido, Japan, and their ancient Paleolithic northwest Asian and Siberian relatives. The ancestors of this group and Native Americans share even earlier Asian ancestors.

The history of the Jewish people has been significantly refined as well, expanding on earlier works, and is found in the Counting the newest Jewish founders section of the paper.

  • 43% of Ashkenazi Jewish testers fell into 5 founding lineages where they had no subclades before, but they do now.
  • Two clades of haplogroup K have now been split 4000 to 5000 years ago in Romania.
  • There’s new information about the crypto-Jewish community in Portugal, Mountain Jews from Persia and the Caucasus, plus Jewish groups in India, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Israel and Libya.
  • Additionally, haplogroup M33c9b tells the story of Ashkenazi Silk Road merchants who traveled between China and Europe.

The paper reports the isolation of Sardinian-specific haplogroups and provides substantially greater structural definition for the Saami people, increasing from 22 subclades to more than 300.

The Notable discoveries section is chock full of information.

Genealogy Jump-Start

Today’s tree is ten times larger than the 2016 tree, and will continue to grow as more people take a full sequence mitochondrial DNA test, available at FamilyTreeDNA.

The greatly improved tree alone is not the only facilitator of genealogical success. A dozen reports, including Haplotype Clusters and the Match Time Tree are provided for all full-sequence testers in Discover. I wrote about how to effectively use your matches and Discover to break through genealogy brick walls, here.

There are a couple of things you need to do to increase your opportunities for success and to help Discover and Mitotree.

Genealogy is a team sport, and you can increase everyone’s success rate by completing (and updating) your Earliest Known Ancestor (EKA) and location information, found under “Account Settings” beneath your name in the upper right hand corner when signed on, then “Genealogy”, then “Earliest Known Ancestor”, and by providing a family tree or a link to WikiTree.

Identifying common ancestors is what testing is all about, and these are all important success factors. Everyone wants to identify previously unknown ancestors.

Mitotree is More Than Genealogy

Of course, as genealogists, we’re focused on how to use the new Mitotree information, paired with Discover, to identify brick-walled ancestors and learn more about them. I’ve written specifically about how to do that in these two articles:

Mitotree isn’t just an explosion for genealogy, though – it’s an incredible scientific achievement. Instead of genealogy benefiting from other specialties, now they can benefit from what genealogy has wrought.

Mitotree presents opportunities to rethink and potentially recalculate dating and information in other fields, such as archaeology, medical genetics, forensics, and history.

We know vastly more than ever before, but this is only the beginning.

With each new tester and every ancient genome added to the growing body of evidence, our understanding becomes more refined, revealing insights about our ancestors, and weaving our thread into the broader tapestry of human history.

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I receive a small commission when you click a vendor link in my articles and purchase that item. This does NOT increase your price but helps me keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the affiliate links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

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Understanding X-DNA Inheritance Video

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I recorded the video, Understanding X-DNA Inheritance, for the FamilyTreeDNA  RootsTech booth to help you understand what X-DNA is, how it’s inherited, and why it’s uniquely useful.

FamilyTreeDNA is the only genetic genealogy company to include X-DNA matching with your autosomal test results, and it’s free.

X-DNA is a powerful tool with a unique inheritance path for males and females that can help confirm or eliminate genealogical relationships within your Family Finder results.

You can watch the video for free on the RootsTech website, here, or on YouTube, here. It’s short, just 17 minutes, but packed full of good information.

Unfortunately, X-DNA is often confused with mitochondrial DNA, but it’s not at all the same. I wrote about the difference in the article X Matching and Mitochondrial DNA is Not the Same Thing.

You can also read more in the article, X Chromosome Master Class, here.

Take a look and see how X-DNA matching can give your genealogy a boost if you take a Family Finder test or transfer a DNA file to FamilyTreeDNA from another vendor.

Enjoy!

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You’re always welcome to forward articles or links to friends and share on social media.

Subscribe!

If you haven’t already subscribed, it’s free. You’ll receive an e-mail whenever I publish by clicking the “follow” button at the top of the main blog page, here.

Help Keep This Blog Free

I receive a small commission when you click a vendor link in my articles and purchase that item. This does NOT increase your price but helps me keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the affiliate links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

DNA Purchases and Free Uploads

Genealogy Products and Services

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RootsTech 2026 – The Wind Beneath Our Wings

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I started writing this article on Sunday evening, the day after RootsTech ended, and I’m basking in the afterglow. Also, my back and feet may never forgive me.

As a tongue-in-cheek comment, I think someone coined the word “exhausterwhelmulated” and defined it as being exhausted, overwhelmed, and overstimulated all at once. Yep, that’s me.

However, I need to add another couple of words to this – gratitude and joy.

Gratitude and Joy

I’m going to try to express this without sounding too sappy.

Do you recall the joy you used to feel when you spotted a relative you loved dearly but didn’t get to see often? Think of the unbridled joy as you piled out of your parents’ car and spotted your grandmother coming out of the door because she saw the car pull up. You ran as fast as your little legs could carry you directly into her arms, and got hugged so tightly it nearly squeezed the breath out of you.

I don’t know what the word for that would be, but it’s similar to how RootsTech feels.

Let me explain. Continue reading →

Getting Ready for RootsTech 2026

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RootsTech, March 5-7, 2026, will be here before you know it. Behind the scenes, people are scurrying around like crazy!

Let’s take a peek!

You’d Think January Would Be Quiet…

January seems like it would be a quiet, “down” time, after the holidays, but for many of us, it’s not. It would seem like the holidays would be a time to relax and catch up, but I always get further behind and face a ton of emails in January. (I’m still very behind with those.)

No small part of my January issue is self-imposed, though not all of it.

Let me explain.

  • I’ve always strived for one industry or technical blog article each week. Something about a tool, a product, a how-to article, industry news, something useful and educational. I can’t write an article without using and understanding the tools, so these articles take a substantial amount of time to prepare.
  • I also strive for one “52 Ancestors” article each week, typically published on the weekend. While these articles reconstruct the lives of my ancestors, they include a great deal of genealogy research, instructional content, and a substantial amount of history that affected the lives of anyone who lived in that location or during that time. While the topic is my ancestor, these articles are useful far beyond my own genealogy.

As an aside, many people read these articles as a short-story series. Working on each article draws me close to each ancestor individually. I literally walk through their life beside them – joys, sorrows, deaths, where they lived, what was happening around them – birth to burial.

  • Of course, then there’s “everything else.” Other articles, interviews, my contractual work, collaborating with others, and of course, some smidgen of personal time.

January is Different

But the reason January is different, on steroids, is threefold:

  • It’s the month that speakers begin planning and preparing for sessions they will be giving during the rest of the year.
  • For US business owners, it’s when we begin gathering the information for business taxes, which are due March 15th, a week after RootsTech, which means that we have to get the information to our preparer long before RootsTech. I’m not exaggerating to say this is one of my LEAST favorite activities ever.
  • However, the third challenge is RootsTech itself.

RootsTech 2026

RootsTech, held March 5-7 this year in Salt Lake City, is the granddaddy of all genealogy conferences. I’m fortunate to be able to attend and present – and I’m grateful for that opportunity. But there’s a huge amount of prep, and while some of it happens in December, most of it falls in January.

I’m often asked about what it takes to create a presentation, or put more bluntly, “Why does it take so long? All you have to do is throw together a few Powerpoints.” So, here’s the backstory.

I can’t speak for other presenters, but every 45-minute presentation that I create takes about a week.

If you’re stunned, every one of my slides includes images and often graphics that I create. The slide content needs to be balanced, readable, and not distracting form the point I’m trying to make. It needs to flow smoothly from the prior slide, and to the next one.

It goes without saying that I have to verify everything, sometimes with a vendor, sometimes making sure features still work the way I think they do, or did, the logic is accurate, and that any math maths.

Many screenshots used for articles and presentations need to be blurred, and I need to be sure I don’t accidentally compromise someone’s privacy.

It seems there are 1000 little things. Ok, so maybe only 100!

Syllabus: Oh, you want a syllabus too? Well, that’s another document which often has to be formatted in a specific way, and must be between x and y pages long. Some requirements for different conferences are very specific, down to the font.

The presentation must “fit” into its allocated time, say, generally 45 or 50 minutes, without me talking at 150 MPH with the audience feeling rushed, and provide enough information to be both useful and entertaining. This means that presenters must practice, refine, practice. You get the drift.

Additionally, when working in a tech field, like DNA, vendors change things, often, and you need to review your presentation just before the conference to be sure the screenshots and information are still current. Speakers watch every announcement between presentation creation and the conference with an eye to changes. I swear, it never fails that the night before, I’m always trying to update my presentation because a vendor updated their website. One time it was literally at the podium. That was way too close for comfort.

RootsTech must manage and coordinate hundreds of presenters, their presentations and syllabi, lots of technology, and massive logistics. In order to do so:

  • Pre-recorded sessions are due to RootsTech at the end of December.
  • For other speakers, copies of their PowerPoint presentations and syllabi are due by January 25th so RootsTech can review, check for any issues, and make any last-minute changes. (Hint – you may not see another blog article for the next 10 days.)

All things considered, RootsTech does a great job, but last-minute schedule changes do occur, so be sure to check your planned schedule closer to and daily during RootsTech.

My 2026 RootsTech Sessions

Pre-Recorded Session:

  • X-DNA Basics for Genealogists, a recorded session that will be available in the FamilyTreeDNA virtual booth, which means that everyone will be able to watch. The great news is that the vendor booths and their contents will be visible in the Expo Hall, both in person and virtually, entirely free. You don’t need to register to attend RootsTech to view the vendor booths, but there’s no reason not to, because online registration is free.

Live-Streamed Session:

  • I’ll be presenting Mapping Maternal Connections: Where Science Meets Genealogy on the Updated mtDNA Tree of Humankind for FamilyTreeDNA as a member of the R&D team that developed the new Mitotree. This will be a fun session that explains why mitochondrial DNA matters, covers the latest update, and how the new Mitotree, along with Discover, provides genealogists with new tools to break through brick walls.

The date and time for this session have not yet been confirmed, so check the schedule moving forward.

You must register for RootsTech Online to access live-streamed sessions remotely. They are added to the RootsTech on-demand library for later viewing.

In-Person Sessions

I’m fortunate to have two in-person sessions this year. Neither are being live-streamed or recorded, so I hope to see you in person.

  • Mitochondrial DNA to Z: My Results Are Back, Now What? Everyone is excited when their DNA test results are back, but what do you do next? How do you use them most effectively? What do those numbers means and why are they important? If these questions sound familiar, this is just the class for you. We will take results, step-by-step through all of the reports and tools and help you interpret what they mean and how to use them for genealogy using a case study.

This session is currently scheduled on March 5th, at 4:30 PM, Mountain Time. Please see the Schedule Warning section below.

  • Y-DNA to Z: My Results Are Back, Now What? Would you like to understand how to use your Y-DNA results for genealogy? What do those numbers mean and why are they important? This is just the class for you. We will take Y-DNA results, including the Big Y-700, step-by-step through all of the reports and tools and help you interpret what they mean and how to use them for genealogy. We’ll close with “next steps”, so you have a plan to understand your own Y-DNA message, PLUS how to create a genetic tree to reveal the messages from your other ancestors too. Females don’t have a Y chromosome, but we have fathers, brothers and male family members to test.

This session is currently scheduled on March 6th, at 3 PM, Mountain Time. Please see the Schedule Warning below.

Schedule Warning!!

When viewing sessions on the RootsTech website, the date and time displayed on your computer is the date and time that the event occurs USING YOUR LOCAL TIME!! The RootsTech website uses the time on your computer and adjusts the RootsTech session time displayed to your local time.

That’s fine if you’re attending online, but it’s NOT fine if you’re trying to plan an in-person schedule around travel time and other commitments.

For example, here’s the time displayed for my Y-DNA session. You can see that it says 5 PM, which is GMT-5, and that’s the time where I live, not in Salt Lake City which, during RootsTech, is GMT-7.

This session is NOT available virtually, so anyone who wants to attend will need to do so in person in Salt Lake City. However, the local time, in Salt Lake City, that this session will be taking place is 3 PM, not 5 PM.

In prior years, when I’ve scheduled these sessions in my phone, I wound up having to go back and change the time of every session after arriving in SLC – so that just adds to the confusion. Check your phone after arriving to be sure your sessions are shown in their correct time slot.

One more possible glitch this year is that Salt Lake City time changes at 2 AM on the day following RootsTech. Be sure to factor this time difference into your schedule if you’re planning to fly on Sunday, March 8, the day after RootsTech.

Bottom line – when planning your RootsTech events, be sure to calculate the local time and not your system time, unless you’ll be attending virtually. Also, be sure to check your schedule often in case either schedule or room changes have been made.

Register

Be sure to register for RootsTech. Online is free, and in-person only costs $129 for a 3-day pass, which is a great value for everything that’s offered.

When you register for RootsTech, you’ll be able to use their complimentary conference schedule planning feature which is infinitely helpful. If you’re planning to attend any session, adding it to your RootsTech calendar helps RootsTech with room size planning – getting the right speakers in the right rooms to properly accommodate the audience size.

If you have more questions, here’s the RootsTech FAQ.

Personal Note

On a personal note, RootsTech isn’t just a conference, it’s a clan gathering, a homecoming for genealogists where we meet and mingle with other genealogists. Where we find cousins, both new and old. It’s a place to bask in the genealogy glow with our peeps and discuss historical events, new technology, old maps and common ancestors. It’s a reunion, a place of excited greetings and infinite hugs.

Me with Mags Gaulden in 2018

I know this sounds sappy, but it’s absolutely true. It’s the only place many of us see each other. We have a great deal of fun and cherish every minute!

Come make some priceless memories.

I hope to see you there!

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Welcome to 2025! – Opportunities and New Genetic Genealogy Articles

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It’s a new year with new opportunities. Lots of ancestors to find and others to confirm.

For me, the best part is actually learning about my ancestors’ lives. If you’re a subscriber, I’m sure you’ve already noticed that.

These adventures and misadventures are what inspire my blog articles. What works well, what doesn’t and how to use multiple tools to unveil more about our ancestors.

That’s what motivates me. I hope it motivates you, too.

New Articles in the Works

I’d like to share some of the articles and educational events I have planned for 2025, then ask what topics you’d like to see.

Articles on the drawing board include:

  • MyHeritage DNA File Download Instructions Update
  • Mitotree – when released
  • Mitochondrial Discover – when released
  • Genealogy Proof Series – The series continues with autosomal, Y-DNA, and mitochondrial DNA proof.
  • The Forest of the Trees – Lots of different kinds of trees for both Y and mitochondrial DNA at FamilyTreeDNA. How to use them, for what, and when. This will probably be written as a series.
  • New features and developments from vendors as they occur
  • Acadian Ancestors – I hope to complete my Acadian 52 Ancestors articles. For those who don’t know, “52 Ancestors” is a challenge to write about one ancestor each week for a year. You can sign up with Amy Johnson Crow here to learn more and receive weekly prompts. It’s fun and allows you to focus on one ancestor at a time, and the history that occurred in their lifetime.

Other Learning Opportunities

In addition to those articles, I’ll be at RootsTech in person presenting:

  • DNA Academy – the 2025 version, soup to nuts
  • DNA for Native American Genealogy
  • Reveal Your Maternal Ancestors and Their Stories Using Mitochondrial DNA
  • Guide to FamilyTreeDNA – Using Y-DNA, Mitochondrial DNA, Autosomal, X-DNA and Associated Tools

I’ll also participate in other educational events with Legacy Family Tree Webinars, WikiTree, the North Carolina Genealogy Society, and FamilyTreeDNA. I’ll provide more information about them later.

Finding Information

Remember, you can always use a keyword search on this blog to find any topic I’ve written about previously.

Also, Google’s AI has apparently trained itself using my blog articles, as have a couple of other AI tools. I know this because my blog comes up as a resource when I google questions. You can try that, too.

Your Turn – What Do You Want?

There are always new topics, new features, or different ways to explain things.

  • What would you like to see covered in 2025?
  • Are there any hot genetic genealogy topics that you’d love to learn more about?

Please make your suggestions in a comment on this article.

Here’s wishing you a wonderful 2025 with lots of ancestor discoveries.

_____________________________________________________________

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Six Ways to Figure Out How We’re Related

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In my latest Webinar, Six Ways to Figure Out How We’re Related, I discuss the various tools from Ancestry, FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, and 23andMe – plus clusters from Genetic Affairs and the amazing DNAPainter.

This webinar lives in the Legacy Family Tree Webinar library, but as part of the “webtember” lineup, you can view it for free through the end of September.

It’s always exciting to discover a new match at one of the DNA testing companies, which, of course, begs the question of how you’re related.

So, what are the six ways to figure out how you’re related, and how do you use them?

Come along for a step-by-step guide!

Shared Matches

We begin with how each vendor handles shared matches, what that feature is called, where to find the information, and how to interpret what they are telling you.

23andMe goes a step further and creates a genetic tree, of sorts, although that functionality has changed since their breach last October.

Bucketing and Sides

Two vendors go a step further and provide unique tools to divide your matches maternally and paternally.

FamilyTreeDNA buckets your matches maternally and paternally (or both) based on matches you link to their profile cards in your tree. FamilyTreeDNA then uses your linked matches to triangulate with other matches and assign your matches accordingly, providing a maternal and paternal match list. Bucketing, also known as Family Matching, is one of my favorite tools.

Note that linking matches at FamilyTreeDNA requires that you have transferred your tree to MyHeritage. I wrote about that and provided instructions here and here, and produced a complimentary webinar, too.

Ancestry also divides your matches by parent, but they use a different technique based on their Sideview technology and either ethnicity or shared matches.

Surnames and Locations

Surnames and locations, either separately or together, provide HUGE hints!

MyHeritage provides a nice summary for each of your matches that includes ancestral surnames, a map of locations in common, and “Smart Matches” which shows you people in common in both of your trees. There are several ways to use these tools.

FamilyTreeDNA also provides a list of surnames. You can view either the surnames in common with a match, or all of their ancestral surnames, with locations if provided. The tester enters these surnames, and we review how to complete that step.

Ancestry also provides shared surnames, with clickable links to the number of people in your matches tree with that surname, plus common locations.

X-DNA

X-DNA is probably the most underutilized DNA matching tool. While each of the vendors actually test the X chromosome, only one, FamilyTreeDNA, provides X-matching. You can obtain X-matching results by uploading your DNA file to FamilyTreeDNA. I’ve provided upload/download instructions for all companies, here.

X-DNA has a very unique inheritance pattern because males only inherit an X chromosome from their mother which limits the number of potential common ancestors for any two testers. In other words, X-DNA matching does half your work for you!

Clustering Technology – AutoClusters, the Matrix and DNAPainter

In the past few years, match clustering has become a very useful tool. Clustering shows which of your matches match you and each other.

Genetic Affairs offers several flavors of these clusters, and both MyHeritage and GEDmatch have incorporated Genetic Affairs clusters into their product offerings.

If you haven’t used AutoClusters yet, by all means, try them out.

FamilyTreeDNA offers the Matrix, a slightly different version of clustering. You can select 10 people from your match list to see if they also match each other. Shared matches don’t automatically mean triangulation between you and those two people, or even that all three people descend from the same line. However, if the people are bucketed to your same side (parent) and they share common segments with you in the chromosome browser, they triangulate.

You’ll want to paint those matches to DNAPainter to determine which ancestor you share, especially if they haven’t provided a tree.

DNAPainter provides your chromosomes as the “canvas” upon which to paint your matches in order to correlate segments with ancestors and identify common ancestral lines with mystery matches.

Three vendors, FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, and GEDmatch provide segment information with matches for you to paint. I illustrate how I walk segments back in time, identifying our most distant common ancestor possible.

Theories of Family Relativity and ThruLines

Both MyHeritage and Ancestry provide a combination of DNA matching and tree triangulation, where they search the trees of your DNA matches to find common ancestors with you – although their implementation is different.

MyHeritage’s Theories of Family Relativity provides varying theories about common ancestors for you and a specific match using both trees and historical documents. You can review the various pathways and confirm or reject theories. I love this tool.

Ancestry’s Thrulines functions a bit differently, showing you all of your matches that descend from a common ancestor in all your matches’ trees. Sometimes, the trees are incorrect, but Theories of Family Relativity and ThruLines should still be used as hints.

I showed how ThruLines helped me discover what happened to one of my ancestor’s grandchildren who was lost to the family at his mother’s death – and to all of us since. Not anymore.

Bonus – Y-DNA and Mitochondrial DNA at FamilyTreeDNA

Only FamilyTreeDNA offers both Y-DNA and Mitochondrial DNA testing and matching. All of the tools above pertain to autosomal DNA testing, which is named Family Finder at FamilyTreeDNA. Illustrated by the green arrow below, autosomal DNA testing measures and compares the DNA you inherited from each ancestral line, but that’s not the only game in town.

Y-DNA, in blue, for males, tracks the direct paternal line, which is the surname line in Western cultures. Mitochondrial DNA, in red, is passed from mothers to all of their children. Therefore, everyone can test, revealing matches and information about their mother’s direct matrilineal lineage.

Y-DNA testing includes the amazing Discover tool with a baker’s dozen different reports, including ancient DNA. Mitochondrial DNA will soon have its own MitoDiscover after the rollout of the new Mitotree.

Both tests include “Matches Maps” to help you determine how you are related to your matches, as well as where your ancestors came from before the advent of surnames.

The Advanced Matching feature allows you to select multiple tests to see if your matches match you on combined types of tests.

Tune In

Now that you know what we cover in the webinar, please tune in to see how to use these awesome tools. Be sure to fish in all four “ponds” plus GEDmatch, where you may find people who didn’t test at a company that provides a chromosome browser or matching segment information.

Tools provided by the DNA testing vendors facilitate multiple ways to determine how we match and which ancestor(s) we have in common.

You can watch the webinar, here.

Additionally, subscribers to Legacy Family Tree Webinars have access to the 25-page syllabus with even more information!

A Legacy Family Tree Webinar subscription normally costs $49.95 per year, but through the end of September, there’s a coupon code good for 20% off. Just click here, then enter webtember24 at the checkout.

Enjoy!

_____________________________________________________________

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If you haven’t already subscribed (it’s free,) you can receive an e-mail whenever I publish by clicking the “follow” button on the main blog page, here.

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I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase your price but helps me keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

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FamilyTreeDNA Match Download Files are Back!

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Such great news!

FamilyTreeDNA has resumed their match file downloads, making FamilyTreeDNA the ONLY major company that provides this important feature. You can now download a file of all of your matches and for autosomal DNA, where they match you on your chromosomes, a critical function for genealogists.

During the aftermath of the 23andMe data breach, at FamilyTreeDNA, you could still view each match individually and up to 7 selected matches together in the chromosome browser, but you could not download your entire match list.

Now, once again, you can!

How To Download Your Matches

To download either your full match list, or a filtered match list, sign on to your account and select matches.

Family Finder Autosomal Matches

Click on any image to enlarge

The Family Finder download option is located at the top of your match list, at far right.

You can download, or export, a CSV file of all of your matches or a select group of filtered matches.

I downloaded all of my matches and then immediately began catching up.

On my PC, I located the file under “downloads” in a file named with my kit number and date.

There’s a LOT of great information here, but let me point out perhaps the most important genealogical feature.

The Matching Bucket Column

The Matching Bucket column isn’t just an “estimate” or best guess of which parental side an individual is related to you on; it’s confirmed through triangulation.

When you link known relatives to their profile card in your tree, FamilyTreeDNA identifies triangulated segments and uses that information to assign matches either maternally, paternally, or both, depending on the matching segments found.

Additional columns reported are:

  • Full, first, middle, and last names or each match
  • Match Date
  • Relationship Range (based on estimates)
  • Shared DNA (in cMs)
  • Linked Relationship, based on where you linked the match in your tree
  • Ancestral Surnames, as entered in by your match
  • Y-DNA haplogroup for males, either Y-DNA tested directly or mid-range level haplogroup based on a Family Finder test
  • mtDNA Haplogroup
  • Notes that you’ve made on this match
  • Matching Bucket – maternal, paternal, or both
  • X-Match amount in cMs. Remember that X-matching is only shown if the person ALSO matches you on one of the other chromosomes as well. The interpretation of X-matching is somewhat different than other autosomal DNA due to a unique inheritance pattern, which means it can be very important. I discussed that in the article, X Chromosome Master Class and also in my book. FamilyTreeDNA is the only vendor that provides X-matching.
  • Autosomal Transfer – yes or no.

This information and these features, combined with shared matches, means that you can assign most of your autosomal matches either maternally or paternally, and often attribute descent from a particular ancestor or couple.

Download the Match Segment File

Additionally, you’ll need to download the match segment file from a separate location.

Under “Autosomal DNA Results and Tools,” click on “Chromosome Browser.

The chromosome browser will display showing all of your matches. Instead of selecting someone to compare, instead, click on “Download All Segments.”

On a PC, the resulting file can be found in downloads.

This file holds the results on every chromosome of each match. Many people will match you on multiple chromosome locations, so will be listed more than once.

I then sort, either by name, or by chromosome and location, depending on my goal.

This segment match file and the match information file should be used together to garner as much information as possible about each match and how you are related.

Y-DNA

The Y-DNA match list is available, too, and can be found at the right of the STR marker headings.

The Big-Y match download option is also to the right of the Big-Y matches tab.

Mitochondrial DNA

Mitochondrial DNA matches are also available but in a slightly different location than the Family Finder and Y-DNA.

The mitochondrial DNA match list download is found at the bottom of your match list, in the right corner.

Caution About Privacy

I want to remind everyone about privacy. You should never, ever, send your match list to someone else unless you know them well and are collaborating with them directly. For example, let’s say you’ve asked your sibling or cousin to test, and they have agreed. Sharing under this limited circumstance would be reasonable.

Unfortunately, we have encountered some “researchers” that are targeting specific groups of people and asking them to provide the names and contact information of their matches – in this case – specifically mitochondrial DNA of a particular ethnic group. After receiving your match list, they contact your matches, telling them they are working with someone they match, and then ask for their match list, too – building a genetic pyramid scheme.

Please DO NOT comply with a request of this type. Do NOT provide your sign-in credentials to anyone like this either. Both of these actions risk your security and your matches’ privacy since your matches have only given permission for their matches to see their information – not anyone else. Additionally, this violates FamilyTreeDNA’s Terms and Conditions.

If someone requests this type of information from you, please immediately report it directly to FamilyTreeDNA.

Additional Benefits of Autosomal Match Download Data

The primary benefit of the autosomal match download is being able to see who matches you on which side of your tree, then perform additional research to determine your common ancestor(s).

You can also discover information about various ancestors via both Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA of your matches who inherited that type of DNA from your common ancestors. I wrote about the four types of DNA that genealogists can use in the article, 4 Kinds of DNA for Genetic Genealogy. 

Be sure to check surname projects for your Y-DNA matches along with all of your ancestral surnames, here, to locate testers who descend from those ancestors.

There are additional benefits, too.

You’ll now be able to paint your chromosomes at DNAPainter again using various import features. The most useful import might be the Maternal and Paternal bucketed matches which helps you determine which matches descend from which ancestors. You can find more information in the article, DNAPainter Instructions and Resources, here.

You can also utilize your downloaded file at Genetic Affairs for various types of clusters. You can read more information in the article, Genetic Affairs Instructions and Resources, here.

So download your matches once again, and enjoy! What gems are waiting to be discovered?

_____________________________________________________________

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If you haven’t already subscribed (it’s free,) you can receive an e-mail whenever I publish by clicking the “follow” button on the main blog page, here.

You Can Help Keep This Blog Free

I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase your price but helps me keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

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DNA Academy Webinar Series Released

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Great news! Legacy Family Tree Webinars has just released DNA Academy.

DNA Academy is a three-part series designed to introduce the basics of DNA for genetic genealogy and how Y-DNA, X-DNA, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA can be utilized. Each of these different types of DNA serves a different function for genealogists – and reveals different matches and hints for genealogy.

  1. DNA Academy Part 1 introduces genetic genealogy basics, then, Ancestry’s DNA tools – including their new pricing structure for DNA features. Click here to view.
  2. DNA Academy Part 2 covers FamilyTreeDNA’s products. Click here to view the webinar, which includes:
    1. Y-DNA for males which tracks the direct paternal line
    2. Mitochondrial DNA for everyone which tracks your direct maternal line – your mother’s mother’s mother’s lineage
    3. Autosomal DNA which includes matches from all of your ancestral lines and along with X-DNA matching, which has a very distinctive inheritance path.
  3. DNA Academy Part 3 includes MyHeritage, 23andMe, and third-party tools such as DNAPainter and Genetic Affairs. Click here to view.

Legacy Family Tree Webinars has graciously made Part 2, the FamilyTreeDNA class, free through August 22nd for everyone – so be sure to watch now.

After August 22nd, Part 2 will join Part 1 and Part 3 in the webinar library for subscribers with more than 2240 webinars for $49.95 per year.

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I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase your price but helps me keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

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Great News – Both e-Pub and Print Version of “The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA” Now Available Worldwide  

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  • Anyone, anyplace, can order the full-color, searchable, e-pub version of The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA – Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA from the publisher, Genealogical.com, here.
  • Customers within the US can order the black and white print book from the publisher, here.
  • Customers outside the US can order the print book from their country’s Amazon website. The publisher does not ship print books outside the US due to customs, shipping costs, and associated delays. They arranged to have the book printed by an international printer so that it can be shipped directly to Amazon for order fulfillment without international customers incurring additional expenses and delays. If you ordered the book previously from Amazon and a long delivery time was projected, that should be resolved now and your book should be arriving soon.

Comprehensive

This book is truly comprehensive and includes:

  • 247 pages
  • More than 267 images
  • 288 footnotes
  • 12 charts
  • 68 tips
  • Plus, an 18-page glossary

To view the table of contents, click here. To order, click here.

Thank you, everyone, for your patience and your support.

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If you haven’t already subscribed (it’s free,) you can receive an e-mail whenever I publish by clicking the “follow” button on the main blog page, here.

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I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase your price but helps me keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

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Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA Released in Hardcopy

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Just what many of you have been waiting for! The hardcopy print version of the Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA has just been released.

As shown in the table of contents below, The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA contains lots of logically organized information! It includes basic education about genetic genealogy and how it works, instructions on using the FamilyTreeDNA tests and tools, plus an extensive glossary.

Enjoy!

_____________________________________________________________

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If you haven’t already subscribed (it’s free,) you can receive an e-mail whenever I publish by clicking the “follow” button on the main blog page, here.

You Can Help Keep This Blog Free

I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase your price but helps me keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

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