Part 462s – Smith Robertson Genealogy – Possible mtDNA J1b1 Subclade – Abraham, Castex, Charbonnier, Chevalier, Clergeau, Clopath, Emery, July, Merle, Olton, Rénier, Smith, Titus, Vogt…

Good Afternoon,

ZC just received news from Administration of the J-mtDNA Group at Family Tree DNA.

The classification of Haplogroup J could, based on the results, be restated as J1b1.

“I see that they have classified you as Haplogroup J, but based on a quick review of your HVR1/HVR2 results, I believe you should more properly be classified as J1b1 and thus I have moved you into that subgroup within the project.”

What does this mean to our genealogy and search?

From Wikipedia - “A Haplogroup is a group of similar haplotypes that share a common ancestor with a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) mutation.”

The Subclade, J1b1 is “a term used to describe a subgroup of a subgenus or haplogroup.” (Wikipedia)

Here is an updated DNA Pedigree Chart, which does now include the tracing of the possible J1b1 mtDNA lineage.

See my Posts Part 456s, Part 450s, Part 449s, Part 448s, and Part 447s for my preceding discussion of our paternal grandmothers’ mtDNA.

To date our documented paper trail is to gg-grandmother Catherine Cora (née Merle) July who was born in France in 1836 and passed away in French Guiana in 1886. I do know the ggg-grandmother Jeanette Etienette (née Castex) Merle is also a part of this mtDNA lineage but I am yet to discover an physical evidence of her vital records.

The Cambridge Reference Sequence (CRS) differences for the HVR1 and HVR2 tests are, respectively: 16069T, 16126C, 16145A, 16172C, 16222T, 16261T, 16519C, and 73G, 242T, 263G, 295T, 315.1C, 462T, 489C. The inserted extract of the J1b1 subclade is from a paper by Mannis van Oven and Manfred Kayser.

To date the related surnames that I can include that may also be recipients (albeit owners) of this mtDNA classification include: Abraham, Castex, Charbonnier, Chevalier, Clergeau, Clopath, Emery, July, Merle, Olton, Rénier, Smith, Titus, Vogt. Please let me know if I have forgotten a surname which may also belong.

The following paragraph was found as an ancestry description of the J1b1 subclade.

J1b1: The mitochondrial haplogroup J contains several sub-lineages. The original haplogroup J originated in the Near East approximately 50,000 years ago. Within Europe, sub-lineages of haplogroup J have distinct and interesting distributions. Haplogroup J1b is found distributed in the Near East and southern Iberia, and may have been part of the original colonization wave of Neolithic settlers moving around the Mediterranean 6000 years ago or perhaps a lineage of Phoenician traders. Within haplogroup J1b, a derivative lineage haplogroup J1b1 has been found in Britain and another sub-lineage detected in Italy. Further research will better establish the relationship of these two geographically distant, yet evolutionarily related, haplogroups. Bryan Sykes in his Seven Daughters of Eve book named this mtDNA haplogroup Jasmine.

(See Charles Kerchner’s MtDNA Haplogroup Descriptions & Information Links).

That's it for now.

Enjoy,

Jim