Haplogroup H1
H1 is haplogroup H's largest branch. Expanded from the Franco-Cantabrian Ice Age refuge, it peaks in Iberia and the Atlantic west of Europe. Explore the branch in the full mtDNA haplotree: sub-branches, defining variants and where its testers live. Free, no account needed.
Maternal branch
Live tester counts
Free · no account needed
Maternal line
H1
- Testers
- 46,345
- 3,570 on this exact branch
- Strongest today
- Finland, Portugal, Sweden
- Oldest person on this line
Origin and distribution of H1
What is mtDNA haplogroup H1? It is the largest branch of Europe's dominant maternal haplogroup and one of the lineages traced to the Franco-Cantabrian Ice Age refuge. It peaks among Basques, Iberians and along the Atlantic west, and it crossed early into North Africa.
- Where it expanded from
- H1 is one of the extant lineages traced to the Franco-Cantabrian refuge, together with H3, V and U5b1, while U4 and U5a trace to the East European Plain and U5b3 to the Italian peninsula.Source: Mitochondrial DNA Signals of Late Glacial Recolonization of Europe from Near Eastern Refugia (2012)
- Its parent's expansion
- The molecular dissection of haplogroup H confirms the Franco-Cantabrian refuge as a major source for the European gene pool, with H1 among the branches that carried it north.Source: The Molecular Dissection of mtDNA Haplogroup H Confirms That the Franco-Cantabrian Glacial Refuge Was a Major Source for the European Gene Pool (2004)
- Its North African arrival
- Complete genomes from Libyan Tuareg, 61% of whom carry H1, date the arrival of European H1 lineages in North Africa to about 8,000 to 9,000 years ago, followed by the formation of local H1 branches in place.Source: Mitochondrial Haplogroup H1 in North Africa: An Early Holocene Arrival from Iberia (2010)
- Where it is common
- Highest among Basques, Iberians, western French and the Atlantic edge generally, fading eastward across the continent.
- Why a chip call stops at H1
- The maternal tree is defined from complete mitochondrial genomes, and a chip reads only a small subset of the 16,569 positions, so the finer twig waits on full sequencing.Source: A Copernican Reassessment of the Human Mitochondrial DNA Tree from Its Root (2012)
- What Ancestrify reports
- The free mtDNA Haplogroup Finder places your maternal line on this branch from a raw DNA export, at the resolution your file supports. Ancestry proportions come from the Ancient Ancestry (qpAdm) and Ancestry Map (Global25) reports, never from a haplogroup.
H1 is the largest single branch of Europe's dominant maternal haplogroup, and its geography still traces the Ice Age. As the glaciers withdrew, populations sheltering in the Franco-Cantabrian refuge (southern France and northern Iberia) expanded north and out, carrying H1 with them: today it reaches its highest frequencies among Basques, Iberians, western French and the Atlantic edge generally, fading eastward across the continent.
The lineage also crossed into North Africa, where H1 is notable among Berber populations of the Maghreb, one of several genetic threads tying the two shores of the western Mediterranean together. Within Europe its dozens of sub-branches (H1a, H1b, H1c and so on) are young and dense; a consumer kit usually resolves H1 itself, with the finer twig needing full mitochondrial sequencing.
One line among many: your mtDNA haplogroup traces a single maternal line, mother to mother into deep time, so it is a thread of ancestry, not an ethnicity and not a percentage of who you are. Two people in the same branch share a foremother; the rest of their genomes are their own story.
The line through time
Each branch on this line from the root of the tree, oldest first.
Where testers are found
Counts of people who took an mtDNA test and shared an origin. They describe the tested world, not ancient frequencies.
United States
2,922 · 20%
England
2,036 · 14%
Germany
1,710 · 12%
Sweden
1,566 · 11%
Finland
1,507 · 10%
Ireland
1,427 · 9.8%
Scotland
748 · 5.2%
United Kingdom
728 · 5.0%
Plus 18,810 testers who gave no country. Shares are of testers with a known country.
Where this branch runs strongest
The share of each country's testers who sit on this branch.
Finland
1 in 5 · 20%
Portugal
1 in 6 · 18%
Sweden
1 in 6 · 17%
What defines it
The changes in the mitochondrial genome that every person on this branch carries. Positions are on the revised Cambridge Reference Sequence.
Is this your line?
If you have tested with a consumer DNA company, your own maternal branch is already in your raw data file. The free mtDNA Haplogroup Finder reads it and shows you where you sit on this tree.
Find my branch, freePrefer it read for you? The Ancient Ancestry report can carry your maternal haplogroup as an add-on, placed on this same tree beside your ancestry model, when your file holds enough mitochondrial markers.
Frequently asked questions
What is haplogroup H1?
H1 is haplogroup H's largest branch. Expanded from the Franco-Cantabrian Ice Age refuge, it peaks in Iberia and the Atlantic west of Europe. It is a branch of the mtDNA tree: everyone in it inherits the same set of defining mutations from one shared foremother.
How do I find out if I belong to H1?
If you have already tested with a consumer DNA company, the free mtDNA Haplogroup Finder reads a raw DNA export and places you on the tree at the resolution your file supports. It is free, and the file is discarded after analysis. A dedicated mtDNA sequencing test resolves deeper branches than a genotyping chip can.
Does belonging to H1 make me related to one people?
No. A haplogroup follows a single maternal line, one ancestor per generation, while the rest of your ancestry doubles every generation back. It is a deep-time thread, not an ethnicity, and two members of the same branch can otherwise be as genetically different as any two strangers.
What does this page's tree data show?
The branch view on this page shows the branch inside the full mtDNA haplotree of tested lineages: the line it descends from, the branches below it, the variants that define it, and the countries its testers report. Counts reflect people who have taken a mtDNA test and shared an origin, so they describe the tested world, not ancient frequencies.
Keep exploring
Don't know your haplogroup yet? The free mtDNA Haplogroup Finder reads it from a raw DNA export. Or browse the whole tree in the mtDNA Haplotree. Other major branches: