GENEALOGY-DNA-L Archives

From: Bonnie Schrack <>
Subject: [DNA] Y Haplogroup C (again)
Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2003 18:50:41 -0500

Hi Susan and all,

We oldies have to remember that new people constantly join the list who
haven't seen things that have been posted over and over. So, if you've
seen this a lot of times, sorry to be redundant, but Susan needs ...

> HELP!!

Susan wrote:

> While I only have two results back one of them was not the expected
> R1b but rather a Haplotype C whis is defined " found throughout
> mainland Asia, the south Pacific, and at low frequency in Native
> American populations. Haplogroup C originated in southern Asia and
> spread in all directions. This lineage colonized New Guinea,
> Australia, and north Asia, and currently is found with its highest
> diversity in populations of India."
>
> This man traces his roots to N. Ireland with paper documentation but
> his DNA is anything but. What do I tell him? Would a Haplotype C
> person have Easter Indian charachteristics? He doesn't appear to nor
> does his ancestors photos.

Susan, it's no big deal any longer for a European person to turn up with
Y Haplogroup C. Its becoming a regular thing, every ?couple of months?
someone in near panic asks how their study participant from Europe can
possibly be a C. Well, the answer is that there have been very
significant waves of invasion from Asia during the last couple of
millenia, not to mention the original settlement from Central Asia back
in the Paleolithic. Who knows when or if FTDNA will ever revise their
description to reflect this, but C is simply one of the small minority
haplogroups in Europe that has a perfectly good reason to be there. Of
course, the vast majority of C people live in Asia, and it's at its
highest levels among Mongols, Kazaks, etc.

What Annie said about Haplogroup O is even more true of C. O is just
starting to be found among us here, so it's even more rare in Europe,
but both of these haplogroups probably came to Europe via the Huns,
Avars, Mongols, other assorted Central Asian warriors, and the traders
of the Silk Road.

There is no reason at all in either of these cases to think Native
American or Easter Island. There has been the rare Native American
found in C, but it's hardly a major haplogroup among them. The part
about India is a surprise to me -- that's a part of the world I need to
find the time to read more studies about.

The Genghis Khan story is very interesting, and you can find it written
up various places if you're interested. He, and probably his whole
clan, left a huge genetic wake.

And in answer to this query,

> I didnt think yDNA and mtDNA could be the same Haplotype. Can they?
> Is there a C mtDNA? I have no idea.

mtDNA and Y DNA each have their own systems of haplogroups. Some of the
mtDNA and Y DNA haplogroups just happen to have the same names, since
they both use the letters from A-Z. The mtDNA haplogroup C is also
found in Asia, and it's a major Native American haplogroup. Easy to
become confused, but since you are not testing mtDNA, don't worry about it!

Bonnie Schrack

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• [DNA] Y Haplogroup C (again) by Bonnie Schrack <>