After having worked for this company for several months, I found a stack of t-shirts on a desk in a coworker's office. As an individual that is often found to wear clothing, I became curious. While reading the bold print on the shirts, 'Ask me why SEX doesn't matter anymore!', I became even more curious. I had always figured that sex mattered somewhat. At least to some degree. Its occurrence generated my existence. Did I not matter anymore? Is this the reason I'm standing in my coworker's office and nobody has yet acknowledged me? Is it not also because I walk into people's offices so much that people try to ignore me in the hope that I will eventually get hungry and walk to the break room? If so, then why put a stack of interesting shirts with an interesting catchphrase in my line of sight? I must matter then!
I decided to listen to this stack of shirts and asked my coworker sitting in this office why sex doesn't matter anymore. 'Who are you?', she responded. Good one! I decided to leave before she pulled that prank again where she calls security.
Several years ago, our company decided to make this line of shirts to correspond with our administrator conference for that year. I believe this was the year that autosomal DNA testing was introduced, wherein both females and males can test. For the purposes of this test, it didn't really matter which sex you were. However, technically speaking, genetic genealogy testing first opened the door to both sexes when mtDNA testing (mitochondrial DNA) was introduced years before this. Also technically speaking, mtDNA is the black sheep of genetic genealogy. It's sort of like that friend you had when you were a kid that you didn't really like but kept around because their parents had a lot of money. mtDNA is important, but not necessarily fun.
Now here's the part where I advocate for mtDNA testing after such a supportive prologue. In all honesty, it's sometimes necessary. Do you want to confirm your deep, direct maternal line Native American ancestry? Autosomal DNA can't help, as it only deals with recent ancestry (we'll get into autosomal testing soon). mtDNA testing is the only test that can possibly help in this quest if, say, your mother's mother's mother's mother was Native American and inherited that from her mother. Do you want to confirm a relationship with another individual with whom you share direct maternal ancestry, and the other individual doesn't have autosomal DNA results? mtDNA is the way to go. Would you like a rough idea of likely recent maternal countries of origin? mtDNA is your test! Are you a masochist that thrives off of pain, sweat, and sleeplessness derived from genealogical brick walls and want a test as anger fuel? mtDNA is the only way to go.
mtDNA testing is equally as important as Y-DNA when uncovering your respective deep ancestry. It hovers between areas of anthropology (deep ancestry) and genealogy (recent ancestry). Just like with Y-DNA, mtDNA provides your ancient haplogroup information and general migratory patterns. As with any test, as new technology and methodologies gradually surface, your results can become more geographically-specific as the years progress.
Admittedly, low-level mtDNA matches can share ancestry with you going back as many as about 52 generations. That's about 1,300 years! So, genealogically speaking, these matches are not highly relevant. On the highest level, your matches are likely related within the past 16-22 generations (about 400 - 550 years). They still aren't terribly close, but they can be. So, theoretically, your sibling and distant relative can both match you on this level. It's just harder for us to tell the difference with regard to the degree of relationship. mtDNA mutates very slowly. On top of this, when you contact a match, it's harder to make the genealogical connection. Historically, maternal records are not as well kept. Also, mtDNA testing cannot help trace a surname. The obvious advantage to mtDNA matching, however, would be the same as the disadvantage. It is able to go back further to uncover individuals with whom you share ancestry going back into the past.
As our company decided to ditch the 'Ask me why SEX doesn't matter anymore!' shirts in favor of something less objectionable for that conference, we ended up having a lot of these in the office. As a married father-of-two (poor), I have taken a lot of them. One night, without thinking, I took my 3-year-old to the store while I was wearing one of them. Never have so many strangers wanted to silently call the authorities.
Once mtDNA testing was introduced, sex still very much mattered within the realm of genetic testing for genealogy. Until the day a higher being decides to infuse female DNA with a Y chromosome, it always will. Until that day, we will all be lucky enough to continue to endure the unbearable agony/pleasure that can only be brought about by continuing with genealogical questions that could have easily been answered if your uncle Jake would just take a f*cking test!
