MITOCHONDRIAL DNA TEST RESULTS ON THE FTDNA WEBSITE

The results on the Family Tree DNA website are the only ones that are up-to-date, since results are added automatically as soon as they are available. The results on the FTDNA site can be seen here. This version of the results table is comparing all results to the RSRS (the Reconstructed Sapiens Reference Sequence). On the FTDNA website you can also choose to see all results compared to the CRS (Cambridge Reference Sequence), which was the comparison standard when mitochondrial DNA testing first started. Today, the RSRS comparison standard is the one used, but the CRS is shown in case useful for historical records. For a discussion of the two comparison sequences, see a blog article here.

MITOCHONDRIAL DNA TEST RESULTS ON THE GFA WEBSITE

The table below includes the mitochondrial DNA tests results for everyone in the Graves-Greaves group who has been tested for this type of DNA, as of the last time it was updated. It is generally recommended to use the complete results shown on the FTDNA website, discussed in the preceding paragraph. The results on the GFA website use the CRS comparison. However, there is one possible advantage of the GFA website table, which is that it gives the female surname lineage (where known) in the ancestor column. We may try to get people to add that to their information on FTDNA.

In the future, mtDNA testing will probably be used to determine or confirm relationships that cannot be determined by Y-DNA testing. In addition, since mtDNA test results provide information about direct female lineages, they are of considerable interest on their own.

In the ancestor name column of the following table, the first number is the genealogy number of the Graves/Greaves ancestor the tested person is descended from. The series of surnames shows the surname of the person (maiden surname), the person's mother, grandmother, etc. If Graves, Greaves, etc. is not listed, then the direct female line is not known to go back to that surname. In the future, we may replace these listings with ancestor charts, which will provide more information in less space. Note that in the HVR1 column the actual sequence numbers start with 16000, so a position such as 223 is actually 16223.

After the test results are helpful links to learn more about mtDNA, and descriptions of each mtDNA haplogroup. There are also links to charts of female lineages.

Female Lineage Charts

• Chart from Capt. Thomas Graves of VA (gen. 169)
• Chart from John Graves, son of John Graves of Northamptonshire, England & VA (gen. 270).
• Chart from Thomas Graves, son of John Graves of Northamptonshire, England & VA (gen. 270).

To learn more about mtDNA

• Human Mitochondrial DNA Haplogroups
• Various References on Family Tree DNA Website. See Tutorials section at bottom of main page, especially links for Books and Scientific Papers.
• mtDNA Haplogroup of L. David Roper
• Genetics and Human Migration Patterns

Descriptions of Each mtDNA Haplogroup

The following descriptions are from several souces, including Answers.com and Wikipedia.

• Haplogroup C: This is believed to have arisen in Asia some 60,000 years before present. It is a descendant of the haplogroup M. It is found in Northeast Asia (including Siberia) and is also one of five haplogroups found in the indigenous peoples of the Americas, the others being A, B, D, and X.
• Haplogroup H: The Cambridge Reference Sequence (CRS), the human mitochondrial sequence to which all other sequences are compared, belongs to haplogroup H. About one half of Europeans are of mt-DNA haplogroup H. The haplogroup is also common in North Africa and the Middle East. According to FamilyTreeDNA, currently the largest genetic genealogy testing firm, approximately 32% of the their database is haplogroup H. Of those H results, approximately 21% of them has a 519C mutation, which is volatile and generally not useful in characterizing subclades.
• Haplogroup J: This derives from the haplogroup JT, which also gave rise to Haplogroup T. In his popular book The Seven Daughters of Eve, Bryan Sykes named the originator of this mtDNA haplogroup Jasmine. Around 45,000 years before present, a mutation took place in the DNA of a woman who lived in the Anatolian-Caucasus region, creating the J haplogroup. Average frequency of J Haplogroup as a whole is highest in the Near East (12%), followed by Europe (11%), Caucasus (8%) and North Africa (6%).
• Haplogroup K: This is part of the larger haplogroup U considered together as the supra-haplogroup UK. It is a mostly Eurasian haplotype, and is believed to have first appeared when human populations expanded through Europe after the last glacial maximum in 16,000 BC. Approximately 32% of the haplotypes of modern people with Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry are in haplogroup K. In his popular book The Seven Daughters of Eve, Bryan Sykes named the originator of this mtDNA haplogroup Katrine.
• Haplogroup T: This derives from the haplogroup JT, which also gave rise to Haplogroup J. Haplogroup T is believed to have originated in Mesopotamia or Anatolia approximately 10,000 years before present, and to have moved northwards. It is found with particularly high concentrations around the eastern Baltic Sea, and the Urals. In his popular book The Seven Daughters of Eve, Bryan Sykes (who is himself in haplogroup T) named the originator of this mtDNA haplogroup Tara.
• Haplogroup U:This is believed to have arisen somewhere in Near East around 50,000 to 55,000 years before present. It is found throughout Europe, and contains many subgroups, each reflecting unique geography and history. It is descended from Haplogroup UK along with the parallel subgroup Haplogroup K.
  Haplogroup U5 was the very first mtDNA haplogroup to settle Europe, approximately 40,000 years ago, at a time when many other mtDNA and Y-chromosome haplogroups were arising far to the East. Haplogroup U5 originated somewhere between Turkey and the Ukraine, possibly in Greece or Macedonia. In his popular book The Seven Daughters of Eve, Bryan Sykes named the originator of haplogroup U5 Ursula. Cheddar Man, a male from 7150 BC whose remains were found in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, England was shown to be U5a, a very early and Europe-specific haplogroup clade.
  Haplogroup U6 is common in North Africa and the Canary Islands. It is also found in the Iberian peninsula due to recent gene flow from North Africa.
• Haplogroup W:This appears in the western Ural Mountains and the eastern Baltic, though it is also found in India as well as Spain, Finland, Poland, Iran, Pakistan and Thailand. Its ancestral haplogroup was Haplogroup N.

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