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Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2004-09 > 1096246146


From: "Dra. Ana Oquendo Pabón"<>
Subject: Re: [DNA] mtDNA and Genealogy
Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2004 20:49:06 -0400
References: <1ca.2c466db7.2e88196b@aol.com>
In-Reply-To: <1ca.2c466db7.2e88196b@aol.com>


Hi, Julia:

As co-administrator of the Puerto Rican Geographical Project which has a
fairly large mtDNA group (34 to date), it is nice to see something other
than yDNA as a topic on this DNA list. 'cause of course without mothers
.....

(I did try to reply earlier to your message, Mr. Carr, but my power went
out. )

The second part of your statement is true, Julia, only if you are
speaking about English speaking and European countries other than Spain,
Portugal, the Caribbean, Mexico, South and Latin America. Although faced
with many other similar obstacles as are other genealogists, one that is
not as much of a problem is locating the records for female ancestors
since they invariably retain their surname (paternal and maternal) from
birth to death. Women also had deeds, made testaments (often pages long
& rich in information) and paid taxes or "subsidios" as far back as the
late 1600s. So, if someone has female ancestors in those regions, the
search is not as futile. By the way, a fairly large number of our mtDNA
group match each other exactly and except for a few husbands and wives
and knowingly related genealogists, no one knew each other prior to joining.

Haplogroup R1b (the majority of our own males) and Celts
notwithstanding, my delete trigger finger is exhausted.

Back to watching my pool enclosure sway and watch my trees fall over and
hope they don't blow into the house but the lake. My poor neighbor lost
their roof. Power has been off and on. Mostly off. The winds were
gusting to 78 mi/hr. and it isn't over. Now, to wait for the storm surge
until just after 2:00AM. I am at just a little above sea level.

There are more important things to nitpick at other than Welcome List
messages aren't there?

I wonder if Hurricanes have haplotypes. ;-)

Regards from St. Pete in Tampa Bay,
Ana ©arbolito

wrote:

><snip>
>While the mtDNA is more stable and mutates less often than Y-DNA, the
>problem with using it for genealogy research is that the females changed their
>surnames every generation, therefore a mother, her mother, all her sisters, all
>her daughters and all their daughters will have the same mtDNA but different
>surnames. That, coupled with the fact that females do not have the documents
>that males have, i.e., deed records, court records, tax records, and even Wills
> unless they were a widow, so it is difficult to trace them for many
>generations.
>


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