My most “distant” ancestor is one that precedes recorded history. She is the hypothesized female from whom I received my mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and I share her as a maternal ancestor with an estimated 10% of all Europeans. MtDNA is passed in a near carbon copy from mother to daughter. (Men receive mtDNA from their mothers, but they also get a Y-chromosome, as well.) My understanding is that the X-chromosome mutates more slowly than the Y, so it is best for revealing deep ancestry.
My mitochondrial DNA followed this path down to me:
- Margaretha (maiden name unknown) – date and place of birth unknown (7th great-grandmother)
- Catharina Eisner – Born in 1704, Rhein-Pfalz, Germany (6th great-grandmother)
- Maria Appollonia Ringe – born in 1733, Stausteinerhof, Southwest Pfalz, Germany (5th great-grandmother)
- Catharina Schatz – born in 1759, Kröppen, Southwest Pfalz, Germany (4th great-grandmother)
- Anna Odillia Greiner- born in 1790, Vinningen, Southwest Pfalz, Germany (3rd great-grandmother)
- Catharina Elsasser – born in 1815, Vinningen, Southwest Pfalz, Germany (2nd great-grandmother)
- Julia Magdalena Stephan – born in 1858, Ripley, Ohio (great-grandmother)
- Alma Elisabeth Maier – born1893, Cincinnati, Ohio (grandmother)
- Alice Claire Lindner – born Cincinnati, Ohio (mother)
- Me
Naturally, Margaretha was a link in the chain, not the beginning.
A woman’s haplogroup is determined by her mtDNA and mine is K, specifically the K1a2b subclade. My “clan mother” is Katrine – the name given by human geneticist, Bryan Sykes, to my female ancestor whose unique DNA split off from the next most similar group (U8) in West Asia anywhere between 18,000 to 35,000 years ago. Haplogroup K spread into Europe about 15,000 years ago. This map from Eupedia represents the geographic ratio of haplogroup K in Europe and the Middle East:
Distribution of mtDNA haplogroup K in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East
Eupedia says:
In Europe, mtDNA K is particularly common in Northwest Europe, with peaks observed in Belgium (14%), Ireland (12%), the Netherlands (10%), Iceland (10%), Denmark (9%) and France (8.5%). In the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, haplogroup K reaches high frequencies in Cyprus (20%), among the Druzes of Lebanon (13%), in Georgia (12%), as well as among the Avars (13%) and the Dargins (12%) of Daghestan.
The migrations of the various haplogroups are represented in this map from Family Tree DNA, which is where I had my full mtDNA sequence tested:
Katrine is one of the “seven daughters” of Mitochondrial Eve. She is described as having lived 15,000 years ago in the wooded plains of northeast Italy, now flooded by the Adriatic, and among the southern foothills of the Alps. Ötzi the Iceman, the 3,300 year-old mummy that was found in 1991 in the Ötztal Alps, carried maternal DNA from haplogroup K, although no living being has mitochondrial DNA that matches his. This makes Ötzi a very distant cousin of mine.
This is how Ötzi may have looked.
You can learn more about Ötzi and his incredible story here.
Great post! I didn’t think of going the DNA route. You got back even farther than I did with my 14th great-grandfather!
Great, creative post! I’m haplogroup K also.
[…] one year ago I posted “Katrine – REALLY Far Away – 52 Ancestors 2015 #6.” The theme for the week was “So Far Away,” and I thought, who is more distant […]
Hello, I recently received mtDNA results and am K1a2b. Your blog came up in my researching. My 4x Great Grandmother also lived in Ohio though her name is Elizabeth Turner and she was born around 1806 so probably no relation to yours. I don’t know Elizabeth’s maiden name or siblings so Ive more work ahead of me. Anyway, not a common subgroup of K so I thought I would reach out to you since we may have a distant common ancestor?
🙂
Lisa,
I haven’t been monitoring my blog for a while, so I apologize for the delay in responding to you. I think we probably won’t have a close DNA match simply because we share the same haplogroup, but you never know. Where did you test? I tested with Family Tree DNA. One way we could determine if we match in the past eight generations would be to compare our DNA on Gedmatch.com. Let me know if you are on there or if you need more information.
Hi,
Thanks for getting back to me, better late than never 🙂 besides I forgot I had left this message! Yes, we are on FTDNA Kit # 518796 with name Ramona Sadlon (my Mother). I think I did sign up for Gedmatch originally and looked at the site once. If not able to compare on FTDNA, let me know! Lisa >
Lisa,
Too bad. I don’t find you in my mtDNA matches or those in Family Finder either. We might look a little closer if you submit to Gedmatch. I am assuming that you also did autosomal DNA (Family Finder).
Feel free to stay in touch. We are at least very distant cousins!
Cheryl
Hello lisaobrien
I am Haplogroup K but new to this as I have only recently had the results of my DNA. Can you tell me how iI can trace my ancient links? I would be very grateful for any help.
Thank you so much
Brenda
Brenda,
You cannot trace ancient links. A tree has to be traced beginning with your parents, grandparents, etc. You have to move back through time with one ancestor leading to the next set of parents, Most people find a point where they cannot go back further, because of a lack of written records, or confusion because there are too many people with the same name.
You can, however, learn general information about the ancient ancestor who was the progenitor for Haplogroup K as I have outlined here. If you are trying to find more recent ancestors, you want to take an autosomal DNA test. Individuals receive half of their autosomal DNA from each parent. By comparing shared matches, you can sometimes identify previously unknown ancestors. Unfortunately, autosomal DNA is randomly inherited and typically gets passed along in smaller and smaller segments (or not at all) with each passing generation. This means that it can rarely take us back farther eight generations.
Hi Cheryl,
I have several surname matches on Ancestry:
Lindner, Maier, Greiner, Schatz, Eisner, Hartley.
I am Haplogroup K. And K1a3a1
Wonder if we have a DNA match(es) in our lineage??
Hi, Gail. Hartley would not be in my lineage, as this is my married name, but Lindner, Maier, Griener and Schatz are all direct ancestors. Are you on GEDmatch so we can compare?
Cheryl
April 25th, 2020
Greetings, cuzzin Gail! My name is Dana (nee Ellison) Hegna, living in Montana, U.S., and my hg-subclade is K1a3a1. You are the first other I’ve seen in the past year of searching. I’m haphazard in communicating at this time (due to feeling a bit overwhelmed by a few self-imposed duties, as my husband died almost two years ago, and my mother died four months later, and we never had kids, and I’m an ‘only child,’ and although I’m independent and capable and increasingly again gaining a zest for life, I’m VERY, VERY SLOW at this time.)
None-the-less, I’m continually searching for knowledge of our ‘type’ and will eventually ‘get back into the swing of things’ and be more consistent, and cite sources (unlike this time, although I think I can find them). For example, K’s have genes that protect from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Also, professional athletes aren’t K’s, according to a few studies, including results showing no K’s in a Finnish group of super-athletes, although the general pop. has a %. However, K’s do have what they call “a sprint gene” – sort of a ‘spurt of high energy’ followed by relaxing. (They CAN win a 50-yard dash!)
Also, K’s have a higher pH level (a tic more alkaline) which apparently helps ‘thinking.’ On the health-tests I’ve taken, there is no tendency for the diseases tested, although a tendency is shown for low amounts of vitamin D, and low omega-3 for me, specifically (and I’ve always craved fish and eggs and any dairy products, and primarily ingest those today).
I’m on ancestryDOTcom, so if you have a subscription, or a 2-week free-trial, I think I have it set up so my “Dana Ellison” family tree can be seen by others. I don’t yet know if my mtDNA test-results can be viewed by others. Hope so. (I got my K1a3a1 result from a “NatGeo” project that is now closed.)
From the genealogical perspective, my dad’s dad emigrated from Glimakra, Sweden, and then married the daughter of Swedish immigrants from Smaland.
Genealogically, my mother’s genes come from *Saxons in southwest England, *German (Prussian from Minden), *English infused with the Vikings’ nordic-DNA from central Yorkshire, *”Black-French” from Aquitaine, France, who had dark brown eyes, medium-dark skin-color and jet-black wavy hair, and had originally come from *Hungary (whom I suspect were a branch of *(?)Romani who migrated towards Europe from northwest India about 1,000 CE and were called “Gypsies,” which is the inappropriate “G word”), and *Scottish (Clan Little) from Dumfriesshire near the English border (who have a bit of Swedish in their genealogy AND mtDNA).
My regular email is my first and last names with no space and no caps, @gmail. I’ll eventually get back here, but feel free to communicate any time via any avenue (except phone or Skype, at this time), although as I said, I’m unpredictable regarding responses – sometimes replying right away, and sometimes much later. But, do ask questions and comment if you wish. I am very interested, there’s just too much ‘on my plate’ right now – distributing belongings and heritage-stuff to relatives, etc.
Chat with you soon!
Sincerely,
cuzzin Dana
Hello distant cousins, my haplogroup is K1a3a1. Are you still actively researching your ancestry?