Most people can trace their family history for three or four generations back in time - but certainly not thousands of years into the distant past, when the world was first colonised by prehistoric tribes and peoples on the move.

Others of us have lost any record of even fairly recent ancestors and can only suspect from where their family originates - but until now have had no way of knowing for certain.

You may even have already undergone a basic DNA test with a genetic service, such as Oxford Ancestors or Genographic, and now need scientific information precisely describing your genetic matches across the world.

Or perhaps you have received an unexpected result and require a second opinion, using our global scientific database. To our knowledge, we curate the largest proofread database of native humans in the world (reviewed by C. Dennis 2003 in Nature).

The pioneering BBC documentary 'Motherland - A Genetic Journey', demonstrated the power of modern genetics in tracing our relatives and our ancestors.

Each of us carries genetic material which encodes a mass of historic information, and computational geneticists have learned in the past few years how to unlock some of these clues to our past ancestors.

The Genetic Ancestor service uses your mtDNA sequence – which you may already have obtained from an existing genetic service, or which you can obtain from us using a simple saliva home test.

Having gained your mtDNA, we will match you to native individuals across the world who share your specific motherline - people who are in effect distant cousins.

The materials and methods we are using are based on the latest genetic advances. Highly qualified laboratories will analyse your DNA and use the largest available scientific global geographic database of human mtDNA.