mtDNA Was Onto Something!

A few months back, I wrote about how my mother had one exact mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) match (Michael)--and over 200 matches one mutation away, all of whom were exact mtDNA matches to one another.  Mitochondrial DNA mutates so infrequently that having many mtDNA matches who are actually related hundreds of years ago isn't uncommon.  (And as review, mtDNA is handed down the direct maternal line.)

I hypothesized that Michael and my mother were descended from one woman who relatively recently had a mutation that differentiated her mtDNA from the mtDNA shared by those 200+ people.  Michael took an autosomal test to see how closely we were related.  And his results are in.

From Michael's FamilyFinder Results

Since mtDNA is passed down the direct maternal line, we'd be related through my maternal grandmother.  Michael shares a huge 43cM segment with both my great aunt Ruthie (my grandmother's sister) and my mother's maternal first cousin.  He shares a still large 28cM with my mother and uncle and a 14cM segment with me.  Interestingly, that 28cM segment that my mother and uncle share with Michael is on a totally separate chromosome than the 43cM segment that Aunt Ruthie and Scott share.  It looks like we truly are relatively closely related!

Michael's DNA compared with my known relatives

I have my direct female paper trail back to my 4th great grandmother, Eidel Vizel, who was born around 1805.  Michael isn't sure of his grandmother's maiden name.  So I guess I'll need to do a bit of research on Michael's family to try to figure this out!

Note:  I'm on Twitter.  Follow me (@larasgenealogy).

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