My Mitochondrial DNA

This is my 233rd Blog and the first I have devoted entirely to mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). This is about as technical as I’ll get with mitochondrial DNA:

The above is from Wikipedia. I had heard that Darwin understood a cell to be just a blob as it was one of the most basic elements known at the time. Perhaps he would be surprised to know that so much is going on in a cell. Mitochondrial DNA is passed down only from a mother to her children. YDNA passes only from father to son. However, Mitochondrial DNA passes down from mother to daughter and from mother to son.

My Line of Mitochondrial DNA

This is my line of inheritance of mitochondrial DNA is from mother to daughter going back as far as I can:

I’m sure of Martha Ellis. Her mom, Nancy Roebuck is not 100% certain, but as sure as I can be right now. Before that, Ann Scott would be a little less sure.

My MtDNA Matches

I have four perfect matches. They are:

• Nancy
• Terrence
• John
• Anthony

My most recent mtDNA match was with Anthony. I have been in touch with his sister Gillian. Here is their maternal line:

When I put the two trees together, I get this:

It is possible that Ann Scott and Bridget are sisters. However, the common ancestor is more likely further back.

More About the MtDNA – H5’36

 

Here are my H5’36 matches at FTDNA:

The Genetic Distance (GD) is listed on the left. I have been in touch with the first four matches. I should also look into the matches that have a GD of 1. It occurs to me that a line could have had a mutation in the 1800’s or 1900’s and have a closer common ancestor with me than someone with a GD of 0.

FTDNA’s mtDNA Haplogroup Project

My mtDNA Haplogroup and that of my matches is H5’36. The H Haplogroup is very popular in the area of Europe and the British Isles. Here are those that have joined the H5 Haplogroup Project at FTDNA:

H5’36 is listed first on the H5 Project page. That is because I believe that this group is the oldest. H5’36 is listed before H5 as it was discovered after H5, but found to be older. The oldest maternal ancestors listed above were found to be from England or Ireland.

More About Genetic Distance

In the image above, there are five people that have tested positive for H5’36. Yet they have different HVR1 and HVR2 Mutations. It would make sense to assume that those with the fewest mutations would be from an older branch and those with the most mutations from a newer branch of H5’36. The last two people listed have the same and fewest mutations:

In the next step, I have one mutation that is different from the descendants of Howe and Touhey. This mutation has been named A16129G:

Because I have zero GD with Nancy, John, Terrence and Gillian, I can add them into this group.

Next, I just have to fit in the descendants of Pearson and Privette. These two testers have mutation 309.1C in common. But I see that Pearson and Privette also A16129G. The tree is still correct, but the second box from the top should say common ancestors of all except for Howe and Touhey.

Here is what I get for the H5’36 Tree based on those that belong to the H5 FTDNA Project.

The descendant of Privette has a lot of mutations which could mean that there could be more branching going on there. The branch of the tree that I am in with the other four is defined by being positive for A16129G but negative for 309.1C.

One question I have is that from my tree, I appear to be a GD of one from the descendant of Touhey. Yet on my match list I am listed at a GD of three from this person.

The Matches Map

FTDNA also has a helpful Matches Map:

This shows me in white – or rather, my mother’s mother’s mother’s, etc. location. The most important balloon after that is the red one. That is for John’s mother’s mother’s mother’s, etc.

Here is John’s mtDNA tree added in:

From the above:

• The female common ancestor that John, Gillian, Anthony, Nancy, Terrence and I have has a Haplogroup of H5’36 and a perfect match in the coding regions.
• As far as I know, my four perfect mtDNA matches have ancestors in Ireland. That means that it is most likely that my maternal line also goes back to Ireland.
• I had previously proposed that perhaps a common ancestor lived in Scotland and one group went to Ireland and another to the Sheffield area. However, the mounting evidence of matching with people who have ancestors in Ireland makes it look like Ireland could be where the common ancestor came from.
• It appears that Gillian’s ancestor Bridget was not afraid to travel. Gillian has her ancestor born in Ireland, giving birth in India and later living in Kent, England.

Summary and Conclusions

• The mtDNA test shows that there are five people who have a common genetic ancestor that is H5’36 with the same coding.
• I have been getting 0 GD (that is, perfect) mtDNA matches for four years. That is an average of one match per year. I had one match in 2014, one in 2015 and two in 2018.
• The mtDNA matches suggest that one strand of my mother’s line came from Ireland.
• I drew an mtDNA Tree to show who is aligned with who and to who whose mtDNA has mutated more or less from the original H5’36 Haplogroup.