The Mothers of Acadia mtDNA Project has been created in order to test descendants of the Mothers of Acadia and of other maternal forebears of today's Acadians whether of French or of Native extraction. This project is dedicated to the seventy-eight founding Mothers of Acadia, primarily from France in the 1600’s as well as all Mothers of Acadia. The objective of this project is to identify the origins of those Mothers of Acadia. Because of the Deportation and exile of 1755, many records were lost and/or destroyed at the time. Bu popular demand, the project is now open to study Y-DNA signatures of its members on condition they descend from an Acadian Founder. At this time in our history, mitochondrial DNA testing, or mtDNA testing, provides a vehicle to establish whether these pioneer women were of European or of Native origin. Because of missing records that would have identified the origins of these ancestral Mothers, there has been a great deal of controversy regarding their origins -- though noted genealogists attribute most of them as having come from France/Europe. These tests are helping to resolve some of these controversies. mtDNA is based solely on one's direct maternal line. Both women and men can be mtDNA tested. If you descend from one of the Mothers of Acadia listed above, please consider mtDNA testing. To qualify for mtDNA testing, one's direct maternal line begins with you, then goes to your mother, and to her mother, to her mother, and so forth, ending when you have gone as far as possible in your maternal line. If you have questions about your maternal line prior to testing, please send Denis a message.