This is the mitochondrial DNA project for Newfoundland and Labrador. Anybody whose direct all-female ancestral line involves Newfoundland and/or Labrador is welcome to join this project.

Note that there is a separate "Family Finder" project for Newfoundland and Labrador, for people who have Newfoundland and/or Labrador ancestry in *any* of their ancestral lines and who have tested their autosomal DNA.

The focus of the mitochondrial DNA project is on maternal ancestral lines in Newfoundland and Labrador. Anybody with a direct matrilineal ancestor who lived in Newfoundland and/or Labrador is encouraged to join the project and test their mtDNA.

Project members can find out which other project members match their mtDNA by following the steps below:

1. Login to your account at Family Tree DNA
2. Select "Advanced Matching from the "mtDNA" submenu
3. Check the "HVR1", "HVR2" and/or "FMS" boxes and select "NfldLab-mtDNA" from the drop-down menu for "Show Matches For", and then click on the "Run Report" button

What is mtDNA?
Mitochondrial DNA (or "mtDNA" for short) is a small portion of our DNA, but it has the property of being inherited only from one's mother, who inherited it from her mother, who got it from her mother, and so on. Everybody has mtDNA, but men cannot pass their mtDNA on to their children. The result is that genetic analysis of mtDNA will reveal a genetic signature that corresponds only to one's direct maternal line of ancestry.

If you have ancestry from Newfoundland and Labrador:
Note that the Newfoundland and Labrador mtDNA Project is intended only for people whose direct maternal ancestral line involves Newfoundland and Labrador. However, there is a separate Family Finder Project for Newfoundland and Labrador, designed for people with ancestry (anywhere in their pedigree) from Newfoundland and Labrador. Click on the link here to go to the Newfoundland and Labrador Family Finder Project.

mtDNA Project Goals:
• using mtDNA as a tool to assist with traditional genealogy in Newfoundland and Labrador
• gaining a better understanding about the early women of Newfoundland and Labrador, and of the family relationships between these early women
• identifying mtDNA from native peoples of Newfoundland and Labrador (including, if possible, identifying surviving Beothuk mtDNA lineages)

How to join the Newfoundland and Labrador mtDNA Project:

If you have not yet had your DNA tested, then you can order a DNA collection kit from Family Tree DNA through this webpage (and then we recommend ordering the full mtFullSequence test).

If you are already a customer of Family Tree DNA, then the following steps outline how to join this project:

1. Login with your kit number and password at www.familytreedna.com
2. Hover your mouse over "My Projects" in the menu near the top of the screen and then click on the "Join" item in its sub-menu.
3. Enter "Newfoundland" in the "Search by Surname" area and then click on "Search".
4. Two projects will then be listed. Click on the "NfldLab-mtDNA" link.
5. Click on the "Join" button that appears near the bottom of the page.

If you have already had your DNA tested by the National Geographic Society's Genographic Project, then go to your personal webpage with the Genographic Project, then go to your Profile page and then click on "Expert Options" followed by the "Transfer to FTDNA" link.

Once you have joined our project, please login to your personal webpage with Family Tree DNA, go to your "User Preferences" and enter the name and details of your most distant maternal ancestor, including the latitude and longitude of where she lived [this way a pin will show up for her on the map for this project]. To find the decimal formats for a location's latitude and longitude, you can use this online utility. As an example, coordinates for the town of Gander are Latitude 48.95 and Longitude -54.6 [note the minus sign]. Please also adjust your privacy settings to that the project managers can view your mtDNA results (including the Coding Region mutations).

Project Statistics:
01 January 2019 - the number of project results is 358 (from haplogroups A, B, C, H, I, J, K, L, N, T, U, V, W, X)
01 January 2018 - the number of project results is 328 (from haplogroups A, B, C, H, I, J, K, L, N, T, U, V, W, X)
01 January 2017 - the number of project results is 293 (from haplogroups A, B, C, H, I, J, K, L, N, T, U, V, W, X)
01 January 2016 - the number of project results is 263 (from haplogroups A, B, C, H, I, J, K, L, N, T, U, V, W, X)
01 January 2015 - the number of project results is 226 (from haplogroups A, B, C, H, I, J, K, L, N, T, U, V, W, X)
01 January 2014 - the number of project results is 193 (from haplogroups A, B, C, H, I, J, K, L, N, T, U, W, X)
01 January 2013 - the number of project results is 146 (from haplogroups A, C, H, I, J, K, L, T, U, W, X)
01 January 2012 - the number of project results is 96 (from haplogroups A, C, H, I, J, K, T, U, W, X)
01 January 2011 - the number of project results is 75 (from haplogroups A, C, H, I, J, K, T, U, W, X)
01 January 2010 - the number of project results is 59 (from haplogroups C, H, I, J, K, T, U, W, X)
01 January 2009 - the number of project results is 45 (from haplogroups C, H, I, J, K, T, U, W, X)
01 January 2008 - the number of project results is 27 (from haplogroups H, I, J, K, T, U, W, X)
02 April 2007 - the number of project results is 13 (from haplogroups H, K, T, W, and X)
24 March 2007 - the NFLD-LAB-DNA mailing list was established
27 October 2006 - the project was created

Links:
• FTDNA Webinars
• Newfoundland and Labrador "Family Finder" DNA Project
• International Society of Genetic Genealogy
• Family History Society of Newfoundland and Labrador
• Newfoundland and Labrador GenWeb
• Newfoundland's Grand Banks Genealogy Site
• NFLD-ROOTS mailing list
• Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador

Beothuk mtDNA:
In a paper published in 2007 in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, the HVR1 mutations for two members of the Beothuk people were determined in the table below:

Name	Haplogroup	HVR1
Demasduit	C	16223T,16298C,16325C,16327T
Nonosabasut	X2a	16093C,16189C,16213A,16223T,16278T

Demasduit has genetic matches with present-day Nova Scotia Mi'kmaq as well as Cherokee in Oklahoma. Nonosabasut's matches include some Nova Scotia Mi'kmaq as well as Chippawa from North Dakota/Alberta, Wisconsin Chippawa, and the Kiowa of Oklahoma.

Roberta Estes has written a blog post about mtDNA haplogroups that are indicative of indigenous ancestry. To read it, click here.

Non-FTDNA Results:
The results in the table below are for people who were not tested by FamilyTreeDNA or the Genographic Project. This table can only be updated manually by one of the project's co-admins, whereas our project's main table is automatically generated from results within the FTDNA system.

MitoSearch ID	Ancestor	Haplogroup	HVR1	HVR2
DSKPE	Susanna Anderson [1814-1915, Burgeo]	H5	16304C	93G,263G,315.1C,456T,523-,524-
4FK85	Margaret Barron [born circa 1815]	K	16048A,16093C,16224C,16291T,16311C,16519C	073G,195C,263G,315.1C,497T,523.1C,523.2A,523.3C,523.4A
9633T	Jane Thistle [1780-1841, Hr Grace]	T3	16126C,16292T,16294T,16497G,16519C	Not Tested
7NABJ	Mary G Kennedy [1846-1935, Conception Bay]	U	16192T,16256T,16270T,16362C,16399G	73G,263G,315.1C

Haplogroups:
Each person's test results include a mtDNA haplogroup designation. Haplogroups are anthropological in nature, and reflect the ancient origins of one's direct maternal line. Origins for a number of haplogroups are listed below:
• European haplogroups: H, I, J, K, T, U, V, W, plus some X's
• Native American haplogroups: A, B, C, D, and some X's (especially X2a, which includes the HVR1 mutation 16213A and the HVR2 mutation 200G)
• African haplogroups: L, M
• Asian haplogroups: A, B, C, D
Haplogroups listed with numbers (like T2b) are actually subgroups (for example, T2b is a subgroup of T, H5a is a subgroup of H, etc).

As a specific example, haplogroup H plus the HVR1 mutation 16304C and the HVR2 mutation 456T are what define the H5 haplogroup. H5 plus the coding region mutation 4336C define H5a. H5a plus the HVR1 mutation 146C and the coding region mutation 7025G define the H5a5 subgroup. H5a5 plus the HVR1 mutation 16302G form an as-yet-unnamed subgroup that accounts for about 10% of our project members. This particular subgroup is exceedingly rare outside of Newfoundland. It appears likely that an H5a5 woman settled in Newfoundland sometime around the 1600s, had daughters who had daughters and so forth, and that they had a profound effect on the peopling of Newfoundland.

What Constitutes a mtDNA Match?
A mtDNA genetic match generally consists of an exact match on the HVR1 test results and also on the HVR2 when they are available. Near matches (up to 3 mutations away) are reported by Family Tree DNA for people who have done the Full mtDNA sequence test (FMS).