From roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Fri Feb 10 21:58:43 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by lists5.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k1B4whE0002188; Fri, 10 Feb 2006 21:58:43 -0700 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l.rootsweb.com [66.43.16.22]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k1B4whIB008759 for ; Fri, 10 Feb 2006 21:58:43 -0700 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l [127.0.0.1]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id k1B2U6FI010888 for ; Fri, 10 Feb 2006 21:30:06 -0500 Received: (from roots-in@localhost) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.8/Submit) id k1B2U63F010887 for roots-approved@rootsweb.com; Fri, 10 Feb 2006 21:30:06 -0500 Received: from lists5.rootsweb.com (lists5.rootsweb.com [66.43.27.41]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with SMTP id k1B1cjFI010739 for ; Fri, 10 Feb 2006 20:38:45 -0500 Received: (from slist@localhost) by lists5.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) id k1B47DRC011252 for roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com; Fri, 10 Feb 2006 21:07:13 -0700 X-Envelope-From: glen@glentodd.net Fri Feb 10 21:07:13 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by lists5.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k1B47DE0011243 for ; Fri, 10 Feb 2006 21:07:13 -0700 Received: from mx1.warpdrive.net (mx1.warpdrive.net [24.56.130.31]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k1B47BV1006235 for ; Fri, 10 Feb 2006 21:07:12 -0700 Received: from smtp-1 (mta1-2.warpdriveonline.com [24.56.130.8]) by mx1.warpdrive.net (Spam Firewall) with ESMTP id 8B0D7D03031E for ; Fri, 10 Feb 2006 23:07:07 -0500 (EST) Received: from mail1.warpdriveonline.com (mail.warpdriveonline.com [24.56.136.181]) by smtp-1 (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id k1B41p68009476 for ; Fri, 10 Feb 2006 23:01:51 -0500 Received: from [24.56.181.38] (account glentodd@warpdriveonline.com HELO groucho) by mail1.warpdriveonline.com (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 4.3.7) with ESMTPA id 16390853 for ROOTS-L@rootsweb.com; Fri, 10 Feb 2006 23:14:08 -0500 From: "Glen Todd" To: Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 21:03:37 -0700 Message-ID: <002801c62ec0$25866100$0101a8c0@HighReaches.local> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 11 In-Reply-To: <200602110301.k1B31niH005713@lists5.rootsweb.com> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2180 Thread-Index: AcYuu4wM/CLKHtgzTEKmfaQIUWqxCAAAfmjQ X-Virus-Scanned: by Barracuda Spam Firewall at warpdrive.net X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 Sender: roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Subject: [ROOTS-L] mtDNA testing (was RE: African American DNA) > Let me second this posting. I saw it last week and it was > absolutely compelling. The one part of it I really enjoyed > was the DNA test which traced the mother's mitochondrial > dna to different parts of the world. I would love to have > that test done on me. I'm going to do research and see > if I can. A good many of the major labs have mtDNA tests available. I had mine done by Family Tree DNA in Houston. Came back as H1 (H is the most common European mtDNA haplogroup, and H1 the most common subvariety of H), which I promptly labelled H1bernian because my maternal line is known Irish immigrant (and I love a bad pun.) > I wasn't aware, however, of the specific racial make-up that > could be discerned by the test. This, too, is intriguing. The jury is still out on just how accurate these 'percentage of ancestry' (the technical name is autosomal DNA) tests actually are. In my case the autosomal test told me exactly what I would have expected from family history and phenotypic evidence, but some combinations can be confusing, especially when they attempt to differentiate between closely related groups like some Native American and East Asian. They also lose resolution very quickly as you go back into the past - rarely will a single contribution more than half a dozen generations old even show up - while Y-DNA and mtDNA, since they are single undiluted lines, can be read back to the last ice age and beyond. Glen