Wednesday, October 1, 2008

My mtDNA Results on GeneTree

I posted about receiving my mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) results in My mtDNA is in the K Haplogroup. I thought it might be useful to share what the mtDNA results look like.

After I logged in to www.GeneTree.com, I clicked on the DNA tab and this screen appeared:


The mtDNA results are right at the top of the screen - they show that my mtDNA sequence has 10 differences with the Cambridge Reference Sequence. The Haplogroup K distribution map is also shown.

The bottom half of this web page provides text information about Haplogroup K, most of which I posted in the previous blog post.


Under the mtDNA test results are two links - I clicked on Understanding Your Test Results, and this screen appeared.

More information is provided about the specific test sequence, the reference sequence and the haplogroup prediction.

The other link right under the mtDNA results was Find others that match your DNA. The screen below shows the result:


It told me that I could find exact matches, and matches with one or two differences. I chose Exact Matches, and this screen appeared:


There were two exact matches to my mtDNA in the GeneTree/SMGF database. Both of these persons have identity protection. The maternal line names for the first person are Anderson (Canada) and Beattie (Canada). For the second person, the maternal line names are MacIlwaine (Ireland) and Kennedy (Ireland).

GeneTree permits the user to send an email through their system to the persons that are matches, so I did that inviting them to join GeneTree or to contact me via email.

I had 19 matches with one difference, and 47 with two differences. All of these matches the K Haplogroup, except for six matches with two differences had the K1 haplogroup and one with two matches had the U8b haplogroup.

A scan of the maternal line surnames for all 70 of these matches showed none of my maternal line surnames. Nearly all of the 70 matches have a pedigree chart attached to them, so I can search the exact and 1-difference matches to see if there is any commonality with with my families.

www.GeneTree.com has something called DNAvigator that has a timeline and maps showing where the DNA matches were located at specific points in time. I'll show some screen shots of that in the next post.

2 comments:

Genealem said...

Hi!

You didn't say if your test results was for the HVR1, HVR2 or Full Sequence mtDNA test. That makes a HUGE difference with any matches.

mtDNA mutates so very slowing that any perfect match on the HVR1 or HVR2 can be tens of thousands of years ago. The full sequence perfect matches are given a high probability of a common ancestor within the last 300 yrs, give or take...that is according to the mathematicians.

Without the above information, testing your mtDNA could be misleading for genealogists who wish to use it to find ancestors. There are ways of using it, however. Go to www.isogg.org and click on SUCCESS STORIES for examples.

If anyone has more questions, email me at:
aulicino@hevanet.com

Also see my blogs, below...
Emily
http://writingyourmemories.blogspot.com/
http://www.rootsweb.com/~orgco2/speaker/EmilyAulicino.html
http://genealem-geneticgenealogy.blogspot.com/
Northwest Regional Coordinator and Speaker for ISOGG (www.isogg.org)
Administrator for eleven FTDNA DNA Projects

Colleen - the AmAzINg Mrs. B said...

Hello!

The results from GeneTree are for all three regions, HV1, HV2 and HV3. I am with Customer Service at GeneTree and I do love my job! It's through them I have been lucky enough to speak with people and help them navigate the site as well as answering questions, hearing their stories etc. I feel we are at the brink of even more fun things to learn about this DNA genealogy ! Fun, fun fun!
Colleen