This project is for mitochondrial DNA only. You inherit your mitochondrial DNA from your mother, and she from her mother, so this project focuses only on the maternal lines of the Cumberland Gap area only. If your yline (paternal line) DNA is from the Cumberland Gap, please join the Cumberland Gap Yline project. The focus of this project is to reconnect the various families whose ancestors settled in the counties surrounding the Cumberland Gap. Please join if either your direct female maternal ancestoral line (your mother, her mother, her mother, up the tree) is associated with Claiborne, Hancock and Hawkins Co., in Tn., Lee, Russell or Scott Counties in Virginia, or Bell or Harlan Counties in Kentucky. Male lines are relatively easy to track as the last names don't change. However, we lose so many females lines due to marriages and last name changes. They are much more difficult to identify, especially when combined with the lack of traditional genealogical records. Therefore, the special focus of this project is to connect our female ancestors through their mitochondrial DNA.