Haplogroups provide us with a look at our ancient ancestral roots dating back tens of thousands of generations ago. 

All people living today descended from one of 18 ancient Y-DNA haplogroups on their paternal line (classified by the letters A to R) and 26 ancient mtDNA haplogroups (A to Z)  from their maternal line. 

Our mtDNA, which is passed down from mother to child, shows that all people living today shared a common maternal ancestor who lived in Africa over 100,000 years ago.  She is often termed the "Mitochondrial Eve.  The diagram below is a phylogenetic tree illustrating how all people living today share a common maternal ancestor.  Click here to download a detailed copy of the mtDNA Haplogroup Tree.



View the phylogenetic tree of mankind and see which ancient family group you descended from on your maternal line.