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Yo mama! Maternal line roots



The X chromosome is full of mysteries and information. Defined here is inherited by both biological male's and female's. Mtdna is that single direct female ancestor which we all inherit, for alot of us there may be results that are obvious and for some surprising. As much as we try to define what our last known direct female ancestor looked like, coming from such a mixed ex-colony the possibilities are endless. Your great-great grandmother can be very white but her maternal line be African because perhaps HER great-great grandmother was an African woman, and vice versa. Refer to Tools for Finding your Roots for which DNA test would give you Mtdna information. 

A few years back I averaged out the continental frequency of these maternal lines using the results of 309 of my Dominican relatives. The results where very much in line with DNA studies done in the Dominican Republic. Details here for the amateur one I did myself.


The interesting thing about maternal lines is that for some we can pinpoint exact locations or regions in which they have the highest frequency, pointing perhaps to its origin. 


Mtdna
Location of oldest direct maternal ancestor
Continental Origin
Possibly Region(s)
U6a3
San Francisco de macoris
Africa
[Northwest Africa] Senegal, Guinea, Mauritania, Ghana,
A2
Yamasa, Monteplata
Amerindian
Arawak/ Dominican Republic
L3e1a2
La Vega
Africa
South-Central Africa, Congo, Angola, Mozambique
H2a5a
Puertoplata
Europe
Basque Region of Spain/France
L3d3a
Villa Jaragua, Neiba
Africa
Southeast Africa, Angola, Zambia, South-Africa, Malawi
L3e3b
San juan de la maguana
Africa
Upper West-Central Africa, Chad, Burkina faso
L3ef1b
Hato Mayor
Africa
Northwest Africa, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau
C1b
Santo Domingo
Amerindian
Arawak/Dominican Republic
U3
San Pedro de macoris
Europe
Anatolia, Eastern Europe
L0a2a2Valverde MaoAfricaSoutheast Africa, Mozambique
L1c2b1La VegaAfricaSouth-central Africa, Angola, South-Africa
L3d1-5SantiagoAfricaUpper West and East Africa, Chad, Guinea-Bissau
U6b1JarabacoaNorth AfricaCanary Islands, Guanche people
L1b1aSan CristobalAfricaLower Guinea, Nigeria, Cameroon, Benin, Togo, Ghana
B2BonaoAmerindianArawak/Dominican Republic

There are a few mtdna studies done, most of which are small, there is a large one that was just done but the Mtdna results have not yet been released, an abstract of the upcoming paper.


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