According to TwentyThreeAndMe, haplogroups allow you to trace your maternal or paternal ancestors back in time “to a mutation in a particular place and time” and to follow the migration of people to different regions and track the mutations to their DNA. Haplogroups are a combination of letters and numbers. Haplogroups do not necessarily provide you with the genetic mutation of your most distant maternal or paternal ancestors. Every person inherits mitochondrial DNA, but Y DNA is only inherited by men from their fathers. Accordingly, the mitochondrial haplogroup that men belong is only inherited from their mother, who inherited it from her mother and so on.
The mitochondrial DNA of North American natives was one of the first DNA groups to be studied intensively. And as such, the first maternal haplogroups begin with the letters A, B, C and D to include North American natives and their more distant ancestors. African mitochondrial DNA was studied much later and by that time haplogroups naming nomenclature was at the letter L. Most Africans and African Americans belong to the maternal haplogroup L. My mother’s haplogroup is L2a1f. H is largest maternal haplogroup for people with European ancestry.
Y haplogroups were created after mitochondrial DNA was studied and began in African where human life began. Y haplogroups therefore begin with the letter A and reference people with African Ancestry. E-P252 is the haplogroup of most of my cousins with predominantly African ancestry. Somewhere along the line, European male ancestry was introduced into my family tree. The haplogroup of most of those current male DNA cousins begins with R and more specifically R-CTS??
How important are haplogroups? I am still looking for answers to that.
Best,
My Maryland-Louisiana Roots 