Inheritance of mtDNA in the pedigree of Queen Victoria
mtDNA is passed from the
mother to all her children, but then is passed to the next
generation only through her daughters. Thus mtDNA maternal
lineages in time. Compare this pedigree with that for
Victoria's novel Hemophilia A allele. Victoria had nine
children, of whom five were daughters capable of passing on
her mtDNA. Of these, only three had families. In these, one
leads to Kaiser Wilhelm II (IV-1) and his sister, both
without issue. The most prolific is Alice, herself with five
daughters, two of whom themselves had daughters. These are
Alice, mother of Prince Philip (VI-3), who inherited
Victoria's mtDNA in the fourth generation, and Alix (IV-11),
wife of Nicholas II of Russia, who was murdered along with her
husband, there four daughters, and the Tsarevitch, thus ending
that line. However, Prince Philip let his mtDNA be
used for verification of the remains of the Romanov
family, where the pedigree predicts a match. Victoria's mtDNA
persists in Queen Eugenie's (IV-19)) younger
daughters in the Spanish royal family, but not of course in
the Emeritus King Juan Carlos I (VI-10) or his son,
King Felipe VI.
Queen Victoria and her extended family. She sits at centre, with her grandchildren in her lap.