Today I learned something very interesting about maternal ancestry. I had not previously heard about “Mitochondrial Eve”, one woman who lived in Africa approximately 150,000-200,000 years ago. According to the concept of “Mitochondrial Eve”, every single person that is alive today can trace his or her maternal ancestry back to that one woman.
The genetic science behind the “Mitochondrial Eve” concept is based upon the fact that each person can trace his or her maternal ancestry through mitochondrial DNA. Although mitochondrial DNA is present in men and women, only women pass it to their children. Therefore, whether you are a man or a woman, you got your mitochondrial DNA from your mother, who got it from her mother, and so on. By following this pattern far back into time, scientists found that the maternal lines of individuals combined with each other and those lines combined with other maternal lines and so on.
Researchers at Oxford University and other places also found that all maternal lines of mitochondrial DNA could be traced back to one of about thirty-six “ancestral mothers”. The descendants of each of the “ancestral mothers” are referred to as her clan. A company called Oxford Ancestors has given names to seven of the “ancestral mothers” that had clans in and around what is now known as Europe. The same company has used archaeological and historical information to make biographical sketches of the women, to drive home the point that they were actually real people.
The concepts of “ancestral mothers” and “Mitochondrial Eve” are very intriguing. It is amazing that by using science, the genealogy of all of the “ancestral mothers” has been discovered, and traced all the way back to one woman. While I am not inclined to pay to have my DNA tested to see which “ancestral mother” I am descended from, people that are interested in doing so can do that through the aforementioned Oxford Ancestors company.