We collected two clinically matched samples of patients, one sample affected by migraine with aura the other by migraine without aura, to investigate the genetic determination of these conditions. A maternal and X-linked transmission for both these diseases was considered unlikely after pedigree analysis. Classical segregation analysis indicated a likely autosomal recessive kind of transmission for both. Reduced penetrance and the h2 values, however, imply the presence of additional genetic and/or environmental factors controlling the phenotypic expression of migraine.