J-mtDNA - From National Genographic - No Longer Acrive

The common direct maternal ancestor to all women alive today was born in East Africa about 180,000 years ago. Though not the only woman alive at the time, hers is the only line to survive into current generations.

From East Africa, groups containing this lineage spread across Africa. Between 60 and 70 thousand years ago, some groups moved from Africa to Asia. Your line traces to one of these groups.

Around 32,000 years ago, your line was born in West Asia. There, your ancestors lived through the Paleolithic and the last glacial maximum. At the end of the last ice age, the beginning of settled agriculture triggered a population expansion among members of this line, but their story was just beginning.The map below shows how your female ancestors distributed around the world.

INTRODUCTION TO YOUR STORY

We will now take you back through the stories of your distant ancestors and show how the movements of their descendants gave rise to your lineage.

Each segment on the map above represents the migratory path of successive groups that eventually coalesced to form your branch of the tree. We start with the marker for your oldest ancestor, and walk forward to more recent times, showing at each step the line of your ancestors who lived up to that point.

What is a marker? Each of us carries DNA that is a combination of genes passed from both our mother and father, giving us traits that range from eye color and height to athleticism and disease susceptibility. As part of this process, the Y-chromosome is passed directly from father to son, unchanged, from generation to generation down a purely male line. Mitochondrial DNA, on the other hand, is passed from mothers to their children, but only their daughters pass it on to the next generation. It traces a purely maternal line.

The DNA is passed on unchanged, unless a mutation—a random, naturally occurring, usually harmless change—occurs. The mutation, known as a marker, acts as a beacon; it can be mapped through generations because it will be passed down for thousands of years.

When geneticists identify such a marker, they try to figure out when it first occurred, and in which geographic region of the world. Each marker is essentially the beginning of a new lineage on the family tree of the human race. Tracking the lineages provides a picture of how small tribes of modern humans in Africa tens of thousands of years ago diversified and spread to populate the world.

By looking at the markers you carry, we can trace your lineage, ancestor by ancestor, to reveal the path they traveled as they moved out of Africa. Our story begins with your earliest ancestor. Who were they, where did they live, and what is their story? The MtDNA shared by Beth and Serena and their descendants and ancestors on the female line are "J", called Jasmine. The MtDna is passed from mother to child with very minimal changes.