Tag: DNA

5,300 Year Old Ice Man, Our Ancestor

How cool is this?!  My husband and I have done DNA testing with multiple providers.  This is copied from his 23andme profile.

Maternal Haplogroup

You descend from a long line of women that can be traced back to eastern Africa over 150,000 years ago. These are the women of your maternal line, and your maternal haplogroup sheds light on their story.

Your maternal haplogroup is K1b1a1.

As our ancestors ventured out of eastern Africa, they branched off in diverse groups that crossed and recrossed the globe over tens of thousands of years. Some of their migrations can be traced through haplogroups, families of lineages that descend from a common ancestor. Your maternal haplogroup can reveal the path followed by the women of your maternal line.

Migrations of Your Maternal Line

Haplogroup L

180,000 Years Ago

If every person living today could trace his or her maternal line back over thousands of generations, all of our lines would meet at a single woman who lived in eastern Africa between 150,000 and 200,000 years ago. Though she was one of perhaps thousands of women alive at the time, only the diverse branches of her haplogroup have survived to today. The story of your maternal line begins with her.

K1
22,000
Years Ago

Origin and Migrations of Haplogroup K1

Haplogroup K1 is a relatively old branch of haplogroup K that traces back to a woman who lived approximately 22,000 years ago. She and her early descendants likely lived in the Middle East, where the K haplogroup traces its origins and continues to have a strong presence. Then, about 12,000 to 15,000 years ago, some women carrying K1 likely joined early migrations that moved west into Europe. The Ice Age was ending and temperate forests spread over the previously frigid continent. Human populations that had been blocked by massive ice sheets now expanded into the interior. Others came later, entering Europe with the spread of agriculture from the Middle East about 8,000 years ago.

Today, members of K1 can be found throughout Europe, the Middle East, and even in Central Asia.

K1b1a1

8,000 Years Ago

Your maternal haplogroup, K1b1a1, traces back to a woman who lived approximately 8,000 years ago.

That’s nearly 320 generations ago! What happened between then and now? As researchers and citizen scientists discover more about your haplogroup, new details may be added to the story of your maternal line.
 K1b1a1 TodayK1b1a1 is relatively uncommon among 23andMe customers.
Today, you share your haplogroup with all the maternal-line descendants of the common ancestor of K1b1a1, including other 23andMe customers.
1 in 1,200
23andMe customers share your haplogroup assignment.
See references 

Ötzi the Ice Man also belonged to haplogroup K

Ötzi was named for the Ötztal Mountains

Ötzi the Iceman was discovered in 1991, protruding from a snow-bank high in the Alps near the Austrian-Italian border. His 5,300-year-old remains turned out to be so well preserved that researchers were able to construct a detailed account of his life and death. Chemical analysis of Ötzi’s teeth indicates he came from the Italian side of the Alps. He had suffered during the year before his death with whipworm, a stomach parasite that was found in his digestive tract. Yet he was fit enough to climb 6,500 feet in elevation during the day or two before he met his end in a rocky alpine hollow. Ötzi apparently was murdered, struck by a stone arrow point that was found lodged in his left shoulder. The twisted position of his body indicates that the murderer, or one of his accomplices, pulled the arrow’s shaft out of Ötzi’s prone body.

Yet whoever killed Ötzi did not take the valuable and finely wrought copper axe that he carried with him — an indicator that at the age of 45, the Ice Man may have been a figure of some importance in his community. Recently, scientists who were able to extract DNA from Ötzi’s remains discovered that he belonged to haplogroup K, which reaches levels of 20 to 30% in present-day populations in the region. But Ötzi’s maternal line, which fell into the K1 family of haplogroup K, did not match any of the branches that are known today. His maternal line must have died out in the 5,300 years since Ötzi’s death.

The Genetics of Maternal Haplogroups

  • Mitochondrial DNA
  • Maternal Inheritance
  • Maternal Haplogroup Tree
  • Tracing Female Migrations
  • Mitochondrial DNA

    Maternal haplogroups are determined by sets of genetic variants in a tiny, unusual loop of DNA called mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). As the name suggests, mtDNA is found in the mitochondria, small but mighty structures inside our cells that turn fuel from the food we eat into energy.

    Mitochondria evolved over billions of years from an independent bacterial cell that was engulfed by another cell. Instead of becoming lunch, the bacterium helped its new host use oxygen to produce energy. Over time it completely lost its independence and became an integrated part of the larger cell.

Double Irish

In researching the family history of the New England Settlers, there are several prominent families in many of our histories.  It gets confusing because the names seem to be repeated, and cousins share names.  Around the time of the Civil War and with the westward expansion of the territories, new names and DNA matches crop up.  In researching the Hadley tree I discovered that there was a new name, which was also quite prominent in early New England records, that of Gregg.   The Greggs and Hadleys were members of the Quaker Communities in Delaware and intermarried.  In researching the Greggs we ultimately end up with William “the Quaker” but their history precedes the colonies.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centimorgan

And this is when I found that Nellie A. Hadley was a distant cousin to Luella Belle Burrus.  These two women were descendants of brothers; sons born to William “the Quaker” Gregg.

This finding is the reason for the Double Irish title on this post.  My father has a DNA match which is so close to someone living in Ireland, it appears that my father was only second or third generation American.  This has been a puzzle, but the DNA only gives a piece of the story.  What the DNA cannot tell us is how the centimorgans seem to get doubled up, giving the results which appear to be less diluted due to whom we descend from.  In some cases, when there are two descendants who share DNA their offspring end up with a “double dose” of DNA characteristics.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centimorgan

Unbeknownst to my father’s parents, they were distant cousins sharing strands of DNA which gave him a “double dose” of the Irish.

The grandmother and great-grandmother came from two different areas of the United States; Luella from Texas who ended up in South Dakota.  Nellie from Iowa who went to Nebraska and then to Wyoming.

Records…Surprising Sources 2

A new found acquaintance of mine, someone who was new to my circle of friends, began discussing hobbies.  I mentioned that mine was in records research to support DNA matches.  I shared that through my research, I had discovered that my family (as are many) was descendants of the Gardner family in New England.  Her eyes lit up.  Her husband, she stated, was a Gardner.  In fact, his great grandmother had provided him with a book about the family history, and highlighted the relatives which he was descended from, and whom he was named after.

Her husband, graciously offered to let me read the book.  A short book, a fascinating read, gave me insight into our Gardner lineage.  The bonus was the genealogical records included in the last few chapters.  I discovered the mystery  behind the Widow Shattuck and was able to sort out the names and dates of birth of the Gardner family for our own tree.

https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/010027961

Records…Surprising Sources 1

In this computer age, and with the many various research tools on the internet, it is important to remember that past generations took time to write books.  Some of these books can be accessed at local, regional libraries.  One of our early forays was to a library in Canon City, Colorado.  We knew that we had family history from the Wet Valley in Colorado.  A relative who was a Fire Chief in Canon City, as well as family members who are buried there.  In the research section of the library was a written history of the area, around the time of the 1800s.  This was of particular interest to me, because of the oral tradition that Great Grandfather Powell had worked at a farm, as a hired hand.  In reading the book, I discovered his name was included in this document.  This was a fact that I relied upon when beginning the research on the internet.  I did find, that in fact he worked as a hired hand in his later years, but through the internet research I also found that he worked for CF&I.  I happened upon a pictorial history of CF&I at the Sangre De Cristo Arts Center in Pueblo, Colorado.  I was fascinated by the photos but the maps, oh the maps, showing all of the CF&I Company “towns” within Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico.  Suddenly, the pieces came together.  I had discovered records online which showed that Great Grandmother Patterson-Powell had died in a town named Berwind.  Living in Colorado my entire life, I had never heard of Berwind.  Yet, in this pictorial history and in the maps, clearly CF&I had a coal mine in Berwind.  http://scalar.usc.edu/works/mines-of-the-colorado-fuel-and-iron-company/berwind-coal-mine-el-moro-no-2

Great Grandfather Powell worked for CF&I, I went back to my research on the internet, and sure enough found the family at various mines up until his wife’s death.