Cynics Unlimited

See also: Part 1, Part 2

In the final installment of the series on DNA ancestry testing we will look at mtDNA and the maternal line. Read part 1 of the series to learn the difference between mtDNA, yDNA and autosomal DNA.

To quickly recap: a patrilneal test can determine haplogroup and tribal association as dictated by the father’s father’s father’s … father. My test results traced back to a strain I-Haplogroup (I1a) originating from and most commonly found in Scandinavia. Independent research verified that my paternal great grandfather was a native of Scotland, where the I-Haplogroup is alleged to have spread via Viking invasion. Needless to say, the yDNA test provided no information about which African ethnic group I may have descended from.

My Ancestral Journey – Mama Edition

The mtDNA test can determine haplogroup and tribal association by way of the mother’s mother’s mother’s … mother. MtDNA Haplogroups are denoted by different labels than male haplogroups, though the geographic regions represented are roughly the same.

Given the previous test results, I knew better than to have any explanations in terms of discovering exact African ancestry:

• mtDNA, like yDNA, only traces a single gender line of ancestry. Nearly all of the family tree is left untested
• Autosomal DNA can test both male and female DNA but is accurate for only a few generations back and sometimes cannot differentiate between closely-related populations
• My maternal grandmother is visibly and verified to be mixed. As she is from the Caribbean, her mother/grandmother could be from … virtually anywhere.

Genbase performs mtDNA testing based on a buccal swab from the user or a member of the user’s family. The latter option allows users to trace lines not directly accessible from their own sample (e.g. a father’s matrilenial line).

The default mtDNA test can predict a user’s haplogroup. My test predicted membership in the L-Haplogroup. An additional SNP backbone test confirmed my subclade to be L1C. The L1 Haplogroup appeared approximately 150,000 years ago in East Africa and is closely related to the original L0 group (Mitochondrial eve). The L1C subclade is commonly found in central and southern Africa, particularly among Pygmy ethnic groups and Bantu-speaking African groups.

Multiple years passed before I had a single “close match” on DNA Reunion (matches users to other users). The original assumption was that there weren’t many black users on the Canada-based Genebase system but a quick user profile search dispelled that idea. This was an early sign that the mtDNA result might contain another “surprise”, despite being within the African realm.

For Indigenous DNA testing, matrilneal tests can be performed on comparison of just the HVR-1 region (provided as part of the default Genebase mtDNA package) or additionally on the HVR-2 region (requires an additional package). Testing based on two regions should improve the accuracy of the matches at the cost of comparing samples to fewer indigenous groups. Comparing the HVR-2 region did not provide much value in my case, as most of the available HVR-2 data seems to be for European and Asian ethnic groups.

The Indigenous DNA test reads the users genetic profile and presents several sets of journals to perform comparison. As with the yDNA testing, the journals contain overlapping and non-indigenous samples.

The two strongest matches in my sample were to two African samples: the Maure and the the Sena. The names didn’t instantly ring a bell and the associated modern-day nations (Mauritania, Mozambique) are at opposite ends of Africa.

First to decode the names … some quick research revealed that Maure is the french adaptation of the latin term Maurus, which translates to “coming from Mauretania”. Ancient Rome acquired Mauretania (so-named after the Berber Mauri tribe) as a client kingdom in 33BC after defeating Carthage. The once-Christian region eventually fell to Arabic invasion and in 711BC the Islamic Moors conquered the Iberian Peninsula, holding European empires over several hundred years. The term Moor does not denote a single ethnic group but collectively refers to the groups involved with Moorish conquest. The Moors comprise chiefly of Berbers, Arabs and Sub-Saharan Africans.

The Sena are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group located mainly in Mozambique. Smaller groups of Sena people can be found in Zimbabwe and Malawi, where farm labourers and refugees fled to after Mozambique’s post-independence civil war. Zimbabwe is also the home of the Lemba, who refer to the ancient Yemen settlement of Sena as their original home. DNA testing performed in 2006 revealed that a substantial portion of the Lemba belong to the male haplogroup J, most common among Jews and Middle Easterners. Many of the males in the group also carry the Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH), hypothesized to indicate Jewish lineage and possible membership in the Jewish priestly caste. This is noteworthy mainly because the Maure also have genetic ties to the Middle East.

So which is it? It’s impossible to know from these results as the difference in RMI for both groups is small, but it can be stated with some confidence that my matrilineal heritage is a mixture of African and Middle Eastern influence.

Final Thoughts

So are you really part-Italian? Is your mother trying to hide her Jewish heritage? Do your full lips indicate a black ancestor? A DNA ancestry test may be able to answer these questions. As stated, current DNA technology can’t reliably identify any ancestry that is not patrilineal, matrilineal or within the last couple of generations. It is almost certainly not possible to calculate ethnic percentages as some websites advertise.

Thus, DNA testing isn’t the silver bullet for ancestry that some may imagine.  However it can be a useful tool, along with traditional genealogical research, for discovering family history.