Haplogroup H15a and some other questions

[TXbama]

I have had some big questions for years about origins. I did the full sequence MTdna. My main Haplogroup was the H15a1 and there isn't much info on that group. Does anyone know anything about that group?

Also, I am confused....one my ancestral origins most of my matches appear to be more middle eastern, and mostly Jews. Does that really mean anything? I don't have just one Jewish match in that group, there are many! The middle eastern and Jewish matches outnumber the European. I have read that matching in that way is unreliable because it is based on self reporting, so I would say a couple of people would be coincidence but many? I don't know (that is why I am asking).

I specifically purchased the MTdna full sequence because there were some things we were told about my grandmother being of native american decent. However, nothing so far adds up!

[dna]

[----] I specifically purchased the MTdna full sequence because there were some things we were told about my grandmother being of native American decent. However, nothing so far adds up!

The way is mtDNA is inherited, your grandmother could have been of some native American decent, but not on her direct maternal line.

Did you take the Family Finder test?

Mr W

[TXbama]

No, and I can't really get it for some time.

[TXbama]

how significant is it to have so many reporting jews? I am trying to understand what any of it means (if anything). It appears to be a mostly Jewish line...here are my extra mutations C146TC152T309.1C309.2C315.1C522.1A522.2CT10604CC16 189TC16519T

[thetick]

A single MtDNA mutation can be between a mother and daughter or can go back many thousands of years.

The Jews matches just means your direct mtdna line has matches that include Jewish matches. Most likely most if not all are thousands of years back.

Thus my MtDNA is well not very useful for most genealogists.

Below is list of publicly available mtdna for h15a. You can look to see which are closest to you.
http://www.ianlogan.co.uk/sequences_..._sequences.htm

[TXbama]

how would you be know the most recent match in the maternal line? Is there a way to know that? As far as genealogy goes, I am limited to 4 generations. Possibly some of them traced back to Germany.Overall, there isn't much information or a good place to start. It is the same on my fathers side with Y. His father, I've possibly traced back to Jews who changed their name.

[thetick]

how would you be know the most recent match in the maternal line?

You look at matches with 0 Steps. But again they could be your mother or thousands of years back.

MtDNA really is that broad and not very useful for genealogy.

YDNA is much more useful as a single step in YDNA STRs is likely in genealogical time.

[TXbama]

I just did the family finder to help answer those questions. In general if they already have a swab do you have to get a new kit or can they just run the existing information?

[dna]

@TXbama, to have some idea of the major populations in your ancestry, you need the Family Finder test.

Even if Y DNA and mtDNA test results were able to tell you your exact matriline and patriline origins (and they are not!), they account only for a tiny fraction of your ancestors.

Let's say 10 generations ago you had 1024 ancestors****, only one of them is identifiable by your mtDNA and only one of them is identifiable by your Y DNA.

Mr W

**** Due to the pedigree collapse http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pedigree_collapse, you might have had less than 1024 ancestors 10 generations back.

[TXbama]

Is this percentage on mtdna meaningful?


Morocco 37 255 14.5% Sephardic (26)

It seems debatable.