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:
If you have not yet had your mtDNA tested, then you can either join and order a DNA collection kit from FamilyTreeDNA through this webpage (and ultimately select either the mtDNA test or the mtDNAPlus test), or you can join the National Geographic Society's Genographic Project and transfer your results over to FamilyTreeDNA once the results have been reported. [Note however, that the Genographic Project will automatically test mtDNA for women, but for men they will automatically test Y-DNA... if you are male, you can join the Genographic Project and have your Y-DNA tested, then transfer your test results over to FamilyTreeDNA, and then order additional tests (such as the mtDNA test that is needed for this project)]
If you have already had your mtDNA tested by FamilyTreeDNA, then to join this project you can go to this webpage and enter your FamilyTreeDNA kit number and password. Alternatively, you can login to your personal webpage at www.familytreedna.com , click on the "Join Projects" link in the left-side menu, scroll down to "MT Geographical Projects" and click on "N", click on the link for our project and then follow the instructions that are presented on screen, ultimately leading to a "Join" button. Once you have successfully joined, your mtDNA results will automatically be included in the list of results shown below.
If you have already had your mtDNA tested by the National Geographic Society's Genographic Project, then go to your personal webpage with the Genographic Project, click on the "Learn More" link near the bottom of your personal page so that you can transfer your mtDNA results into the FamilyTreeDNA database, and then login to your personal webpage with FamilyTreeDNA and follow the instructions above.
Once you have joined our project, please login to your personal webpage with FamilyTreeDNA, 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 that appears below]. 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].