mtDNA Results

[Sorely Confused]

My husband recently received his results, which I do not pretend to really understand other then he is Halogroup H with 2 mutations?  These are 16256T and  16352C.  He matched 7 others who have nothing to do with him as far as I know.  He was told that his great grandmother was part Cherokee.  From what I'm reading this is bologna...  Am I correct? 

We know very little about her other then she was born in Kentucky between 1850-1854 (depends on whether to believe the bible or the 1900 census).  She has 2 obits, one for each approximate date, and every census I've found her in indicates her parents were born in North Carolina.  Her death certificate says her maiden name was "Bowling", but I don't trust it, nor can I find her in any census earlier then 1900 with any variation of that name.  Her name was Laura Ann "Annie", she married John Strayhorn, also born NC.  Don't know when or where but the grandmother, Berta Vashti Strayhorn,  was born in Durham in 1877.  North Durham census records are virtually impossible to read in 1880 so I haven't found them.  I "think" from other family ties that John was the son of James P and Catherine Borland Strayhorn and they lived in Kentucky in 1850, then returned to NC.  John is obviously left out of the bible records so we're not sure if Berta knew nothing about him and didn't ask or didn't want to know.  She had a younger sister born in 1886 so John must have been around for the 1880 census.

I guess my question is, what the heck do I look for now?  I don't know who she was and I don't know what happened to him either and this Halogroup tells me nothing other than my husband is European just as his YDNA showed R1b, which we expected.  This one we didn't.  Would it be worth it for him to take the HVR 2 test?  Has anyone gotten more from this?
 

 

[Peter J. Roberts]

You would be a lucky person if you made a traditional genealogy connection using just HVR1.  Those 7 other matches are maternal line cousins but your shared ancestor may have lived many thousands of years ago.  If two people match on both HVR1 and HVR2 and their maternal line is from the same geographic area and from about the same time, you have a better chance of making a connection but it is still difficult because surnames change each generation on the direct maternal line.  However, if both maternal lines point to the same place and time and both ancestors have the same surnames then those ancestors may likely be sisters.

The Bahamas DNA Project http://home.comcast.net/~libpjr1/bahamasdna.html has done pretty well testing mtDNA.  There are 20 participants with mtDNA results who have direct maternal line ancestry from the Bahamas.  10 of the participants match one other participant (i.e. 5 matching pairs on HVR1 and HVR2).  Those pairs likely share a matriarch who lived in the Bahamas. One pair was able to join their maternal line family trees.

Your husband's great grandmother is not Cherokee on her direct maternal line.  It could be that her father's mother has Native American ancestry.  To determine the origin of that mtDNA would require testing a cousin (male or female) who is a direct maternal line descendant of your husband's great grandmother's father's mother.

Sincerely, Peter

Peter J. Roberts
mtDNA Pin-Back Buttons
http://home.comcast.net/~libpjr1/dnapins.htm

[K]

Dear commentator

I happened to read this confusing results you had commented on. I have a suggestion that I sure hope it helps. I have done geneaology for about 6.5 years now. I have found discrepencies in the Federal Census. First let me tell you what I have found concerning my family. My great grand parents are from Turkey. Put they also have Jewish blood. We were told that they hide the Jewish side of their inheritance. When I did the Federal census. I found that my gr. grand father was from Kentucky, then from greece, & then Turkey. & His Father was from France & then Kentucky. As I use to be a private Investigator I have found that if we consider the Era in which they lived there was no way that The taker of the Federal Census new the truth of the information they were receiving was correct. The fears that the Jewish people lived under would explain the different accounts of why my Grandma gave diffent answers. The last census she gave because her husband was dead by then, had end up being the correct one, she no longer had much to fear. I got my grandfather Death Certificate and both  Great Grandparents were from Turkey we were told by mom Great grandpa was from Germany. but mom died of Alzhemeirs & had probably not been told the truth because of fear of that getting out, it was better in those days to be German if you were Jewish. and His middle name Adolph. Now that was not the case from This death certifcate and it has also answered the puzzle of the 2 photos of and middle eastern picture that looked like a married couple. Could only make the prefect sense they are my great grand parents from Turkey. Now confirmed from their sons death certificate listing the parents. My grand mother never became a citizen & died as an alien. I think her roots and fears were justifable. So if you can get death certificates then compare them to the other perponderances of other factors you might come up with a clearer senario. Hope this help & feel free to respond if you need more help!

[Beetle]

One's mtDNA comes only from one's Mother. Therefore, your husband's mother's mother's mother would have had to be the part Native American. And then that part would have to have been passed to her from HER Mother. I'd say that somewhere in his maternal line is a woman of European ancestry.