My Mom got a mitochondrial dna test,and it is irish.Does this make her mostly irish?

Question

My Mom got a mitochondrial dna test,and it is irish.Does this make her mostly irish?

Answer 1

In her direct female line, yes.  But you have to understand, all of her direct female ancestors had spouses and their DNA is not going to show up in a mitochondrial test.

Of course, her father's line won't show up at all in a mitochondrial test.

Most of our DNA is autosomal.  We get it 50-50 from both parents.  It is the only DNA that would give complete results for both male and female.

If she had a brother he could have had the Y & the mitochondrial. The Y is the direct male line.  However, the Y DNA would not take into consideration the spouses in his direct male line or like your mother the spouses in the direct female line.

Answer 2

It means that her most recent ancestral migration history is probably Irish, and that her haplogroup which is peculiar to Ireland, may have originated there, but you must remember that her ancestors lived in other places before they went to Ireland. the farthest time that people could have settled in Ireland is around 9000 -10,000 years ago, she has a history in her mtdna which goes back many more tens of thousands of years, but you can say that yes your mother is of Irish descent.