This is the second video in my origins series, which explores several of the Haplogroups that exist in my ancestry including my paternal and maternal genetic groups. The series will include a few How to videos, including How to begin researching your family history, how to record and source the data you collect, how to get past those early parish records, break down walls and how to publish your family history.
These are all videos planned over the coming weeks, so if any of the subjects interest you, then please keep watch for those upcoming videos. This series of videos goes live every Monday at 12 Noon British Standard Time.
Todays video takes a look at my maternal Haplogroup.
A group called K1A1A, Which can be traced back to a genetic mutation that occurred 9,000 years ago, This woman lived 360 generations ago, and every person that carries the genetic marker K1a1a are descended from this one woman.
So maternally she is our Eve and this group is relatively uncommon too, on 23andme it is a genetic marker shared with only1 in every 1,400 people
As mentioned already K1a1a, broke away from it’s parent group 9,000 years ago and this maternal line stems from a branch of haplogroup K called K1a. K1a is a widespread haplogroup that traces back to a woman who lived nearly 20,000 years ago, right around the time of the last great peak of the Ice Age.
As the Ice Age gradually loosened its grasp on the global climate an event which took several millennia, waves of migration began to spread across Europe from the middle East
I’m going to take a brief look at the more distant ancestry of K1a, before moving on to more recent times, so please keep watching as there is a few interesting things coming up in this video.
Haplogroup K, is a human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup. It is defined by the HVR1 mutations 16224C and 16311C. It is now known that K is a subclade of U8b
In more simple terms, these Haplogroups are all branches of a tree, our human phylogenetic tree.
U8b is a dominant much older branch, and from that branch stems K1 and K2, two separate subclades that mutated and broke away from U8b.
As mentioned previously Haplogroup K is believed to have originated in the mid-Upper Paleolithic, 20,000 years ago. It is the most common subclade of haplogroup U8b
Overall the mtDNA haplogroup K is found in about 6% of the population of Europe and the Near East.
The mtdna group K, is divided into two subclades, K1 and K2, The latter branch being the smallest.
K1 divided again into K1a, K1b and K1def
K1a being the parent group of nine subclades and mutations. I have included the U8 Phylogenetic tree to give a clear example of what this maternal tree actually looks like.
The descendants of which include, Near East, European and Askenazi Jewish descendants.
The following gives examples of where K1a appears in history, these are K1a’s more famous connections.
analysis of the mtDNA of Ötzi, the frozen mummy from 3300 BC found on the Austrian-Italian border, has shown that Ötzi belongs to the K1 subclade. Sadly Otzi’s DNA cannot be categorized into any of the modern branches of that subclade including K1a, K1b or K1c . The new subclade has provisionally been named K1ö for Ötzi.
Ötzi is believed to have been murdered, due to the discovery of an arrowhead embedded in his left shoulder and various other wounds.
A lock of hair kept at a reliquary at Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte Baume basilica, France, which local tradition holds belonged to the biblical figure Mary Magdalene, was also assigned to haplogroup K. Ancient DNA sequencing of a capillary bulb bore the K1a1b1a subclade, indicating that she was likely of Pharisian maternal origin.
Mary Magdelenes mtdna K1a1b1a is a close cousin group to my own K1a1a
Thuya, the great-grandmother of Tutankhamun passed haplogroup K to her descendants, including Tutankhamun himself. Haplogroup K has also been observed among ancient Egyptian mummies excavated at the Abusir el-Meleq archaeological site in Middle Egypt.
In regard to more recent times and my own ancestry, I know as far back as my 8th great-grandmother through my direct maternal lineage.
Researching your maternal line is one of the more difficult branches to undertake whilst researching your ancestry.
All of my known maternal ancestors came from either London or its home counties, they include.
My mother Christine who was born in 1957
My grandmother Joyce Margery Plaskett born in 1934, in Romford Essex
My great-grandmother Doris Margery Taylor born in 1904 in Walthamstow, Essex
My 2x great-grandmother Barbara Eliza Walker, born in 1875 in Guildford, Surrey
My 3x great-grandmother Hannah North, born in 1839 in Waltham Abbey, Essex
My 4x great-grandmother Sarah Hubbard, born in 1807 in Woodford, Essex
My 5x great-grandmother Sarah Geiss, born in 1788 in London, England
My 6x great-grandmother Mary Ann Biggs, born in 1753 in Cripplegate, London
My 7x great-grandmother Sarah Palmer, born in 1722 in Cripplegate, London
Finally my 8x great-grandmother Sarah Osborn was born about 1690.
Sarah is a brick wall for me, and I suspect she may have come from Norway as many Norwegians settled in London around this time, and my mtdna matches on 23andme are for Norwegian families.
So for now, Sarah will remain a brick wall until more records for Norway are released online.
If your interested in which European prehistoric cultures include the mtdna haplogroup k1a1a, then the following will help you build a much bigger idea of the distribution of this subclade. This evidence has been established by taking samples of DNA found in the skeletons of those belonging to these particular cultures.
Interestingly, they are very much central Europe,
They include-
The Linear Pottery Culture, The evidence for this was found in Austria in a location called Schletz, the remains were dated to 7048 years before present time and were found in what is now known as the Talheim Death Pit.
It was discovered in 1983. This pit contained 34 bodies and the evidence pointed towards signs of organised violence in Early Neolithic Europe.
The bodies included that of 16 children, 9 adult males, seven women and two adults of unknown sex.
The wounds consisted of fractured skulls caused by the sharp edge of adzes and wounds caused by arrows, there were no defensive wounds, so this group of people were fleeing when they were killed.
The second is the Grossgartach Culture, which dates from the middle neolithic in the first half of the 5th millennium BCE, Evidence for this was found in France whilst analysing skeletal remains that dated to 6600 years before present time. The remains were discovered in Rosheim.
The third takes us to Hungary, and the Kyjatice Culture, which was a late Bronze Age culture, the culture was a local group connected to the broader Urnfield Culture which existed between 1300 BCE – 750BCE, The name comes from the custom of cremating the dead and placing their ashes in urns which were then buried in fields. The Urnfield Culture was widespread across Europe, evidence for this came from remains analysed in Hungary and dated to 2858 before present time.
The fourth comes from the Bell Beaker Culture named after the inverted-bell beaker drinking vessel used at the very beginning of the European Bronze Age. Evidence for this came from skeletal remains analysed in Germany and dated to 4051 before present time.
So this gives us four prehistoric cultures across Europe that included within their group the mtdna haplogroup – k1a1a.
The countries are – Hungary, Germany, France and Austria – DNA analysis of remains carrying k1a1a have also been found in Ireland dating back 5200 before present time.
So whether my maternal lineage hails from Norway and then across the baltic seas and back into Europe is certainly possible.
Anyway a very big thank you for watching…
I hope you have found this video interesting, if you have then please give this video a big thumbs up, leave a comment and feel free to subscribe, which certainly helps the channel grow and helps the video reach a bigger audience.
Next week, will be our third video in this series and we are going to be taking a look at how to begin researching your family history, whether your a novice or advanced, I hope the video helps you get started or helps continue your ancestry research further.
From Yhana and I, we wish you well, take care and speak soon.
Bye for now.
The Lives of my Ancestors 