Any mtDNA T haplogroup folks out there? My maternal line is T1 Just curious. Steve ----- Original Message ----- From: "jane gilbert" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 1:44 PM Subject: Re: [SC-BUSHRIVERQUAKERS] Surname, welsh, and Quaker projects! > If I can just comment on the mtDNA issue a little... > > mtDNA is all but useless for genealogy except in very specific > circumstances where a maternal relationship is suspected, but can't be > proven, and qualified donor descendants have been identified. > > mtDNA doesn't mutate anywhere nearly as readily as Y-DNA, so an exact > match with mtDNA even at the high resolution level could mean you have > a common maternal ancestor dating back thousands of years. From the > Family Tree DNA website on this subject: > > "A high resolution match occurs when two individuals have exactly the > same sequence in both the HVR1 and HVR2. High resolution matches are > the ones which are more likely to be related within a genealogical > time frame. A high resolution match has about a 50% chance of sharing > a common ancestor within the last 28 generations (about 700 years)." > > That's only a 50/50 chance that you have a common maternal ancestor in > 28 generations! I don't know about you, but I'm nowhere close to have > my maternal line back 700 years. > > To make matters worse in my case, I've had the Full Genome Sequence > done on my mtDNA (the absolute highest resolution possible), and my > mtDNA has not incurred any mutations in an estimated 6000 years. My > mtDNA reflects (unchanged) the mtDNA of the H1a "clan mother" who > lived about that long ago somewhere in Europe. Her ancestor Helena, > the clan mother of the entire H clan, lived about 20,000 years ago in > south central France. > > Bottom line, mtDNA should be considered more of a test to satisfy your > curiosity of your deep maternal ancestral roots versus being of any > genealogical significance. > > Jane > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' > without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >