Dear Elizabeth Marcheschi, What a fascinating experience! Any investigations should ultimately be to indicate just how much one doesn't actually know about the subject. Brian of Yass nr Canberra, Australia. -----Original Message----- From: cornish-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:cornish-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Elizabeth Marcheschi Sent: Tuesday, 21 January 2014 2:33 PM To: cornish@rootsweb.com; cornish-gen@rootsweb.com Subject: [CORNISH] My DNA Experiences Hi Everyone, I finally got around to testing my DNA. This was in part, spurred on by my ailing father, in an effort to give him something to look forward to. Unfortunately, between the time the test was ordered and the time when the results appeared, my almost-95-year-old father passed away. Forntunately, part of him remains. At the same time, I decided to do my whole mtDNA. Dad's YDNA results came back much quicker than mine. He had no matches and nothing closer than 11 markers and he was tested at 37. His haplogroup was R1b1a2 or M-269 in "shorthand." He usd to say that he's 100% Norwegian and would tell my mother that she was not Cornish but a transplanted Norwegian! I guess that it's good that he didn't survive to learn that his DNA was really closer to being Cornish than anything, especially Scandinavian! I'm still unravelling his tale since no one matched him and the closest was from the UK - Cornish! I figured that, since my mother was clearly Cornish, based on a careful paper trail, and since I am able to trace my maternal line to 1721 in Stoke Climsland, I would have few surprises. Wrong! My maternal line is referred to as "The Travelers" and is rather unique, meaning no matches. A very, very old haplotype and rather rare now, but it was very common in mesolithic times. Since then, well, there's me ... and then in the overall, basic haplogroup, U5, there's the Cheddar Man. I'm sure there's more, they just have yet to join the DNA testing party. Forgive me as I am still, after many months, trying to grasp DNA. It will make the most arrogant genius feel humbled. I feel like Forrest Gump is a genius after all I have (tried) to grasp about DNA. That said, my weird haplogroup, for those interested, is specifically, U5a2c3a. I think that it's recently been expanded, adding the last batch of letters and numbers, c3a. I have all sorts of additional mutations in my coding regions, which I still do not grasp. Should any of you actually be part of my haplogroup, please let me know. It is well worth the testing and I have invested in further testing for both my late father, my in-laws, and myself. My husband just expressed that he knows what's coming and is in shock that I haven't jumped him and swabbed his cheek already. Guess what I'm sending for next... I am so glad that I did the testing, despite the weird outcomes. I'd love to hear about your experiences, too. Warm regards, Beth Marcheschi Colorado ------------------------------- Subscribe to digest by sending an email to CORNISH-D-request@rootsweb.com with the word SUBSCRIBE in the subject line and body text. If you want, MIME digests, email CORNISH-admin@rootsweb.com. Unsubscribe from either by sending an email to CORNISH-request@rootsweb.com. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to CORNISH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message