frostymama

I'm not sure if this is the appropriate forum for this post. Hopefully one of the moderators will move it if it isn't.

I'm curious as to what people think of mtDNA testing. I'm seeing a lot of talk about mtDNA testing and the book "The Seven Daughters of Eve" all over genealogical forums. I know that a lot of people are using this to help to determine maternal family ethnicity when it is in question (for instance, there is a big debate about the origins of the Melungeoun people involving DNA testing right now). I'm so confused about the whole thing.

Can someone please tell me how sound the science is behind it? Would it reliably tell me anything worth $300?

Queen of Swords

I wrote a report on "Mitochondrial Eve" for a Human Evolution class, and one of the problems with mtDNA inheritance is that there's a possibility of what's called "paternal leakage". Sperm cells contain mitochondria and some of them may enter the egg. Of course, they are very few compared to the number of mitochondria the egg cell contains, and in mice, removal mechanisms have been observed that degrade paternal mitochondria. However, it's unclear of how much of human mtDNA is due to a paternal contribution.

I recall this much from the report though : the differences in mtDNA from the various populations tested were very convincing.

tronvillain

I don't think that paternal leakage is going to be much of a problem, but if it has occurred to some degree then we will have underestimated the age of the current Mitochondrial Eve.

David Gould

I have read the book and the arguments and evidence in favour of the way the author used mDNA seem pretty convincing. I think he should have skipped the fiction at the end of the book, as I felt it detracted from the science some what.

From what I can tell, the methods and the conclusions drawn from them seem to be pretty widely accepted and have been tested a fair bit.

frostymama

What exactly would I be able to do with the results of a mtDNA test? Would it just tell me "a long long time ago one of my anscestors came from this area of the world"? I mean if we were to go back far enough we all would end up in Africa, right?

The reason that I was thinking about this is that my maternal grandmother is very dark. Her father was almost brown. My father is dark. I am kind of dark, but my skin isn't even close to half as dark as my grandmother's (and her father's was even darker than hers.)

<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~frostymama/bride.jpg" target="_blank">http://home.earthlink.net/~frostymama/bride.jpg</a>

<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~frostymama/frosty.jpg" target="_blank">http://home.earthlink.net/~frostymama/frosty.jpg</a>

I have been asked my entire life what my ethnicity was. I have my genealogy on my maternal grandmother's line back to 1180 AD with no hints as to where the coloring comes from. The only thing that I can think of is that maybe a woman of color (maybe melungeon?) married into the family. My grandmother does not answer any of my questions about our unusual coloring.

Could a mtDNA test performed on my father help solve this question? ... Or am I better off continuing to search for "FCP" on censuses (have had no luck with this).

Aquila ka Hecate

Frostymama,

Your colouring is so like mine that it's uncanny.

I am .75 celt and .25 germanic origin.

The darker colouring comes tyo us also from my maternal g'mother, who was known as one of the 'throwback' 'little people' of Wales-ie a precursor of the Celts, or the race of unknown (for sure) origins which inhabited much of pre-Celtic Britain.

But your thread has set off my scientific (matriarchal and patriarchal) instincts.

I'm off to bone up on mtDNA!

Thanks

edited to fix the unpardonably rude misspelling of your name

[ February 20, 2002: Message edited by: Aquila ka Hecate ]</p>

Boro Nut

Send me $250 only and I will send you a report reliably telling you that your ancestors definitely came from Africa.

Boro Nut

Oh dear. I seem to have broken the first rule of business again. I am willing to accept $150.