Alden/Mullins DNA match, NO?

Question

WHY?  does my mtdna test results tell me that John Alden/Priscilla Mullins-7, yes of the same year and mentions Mayflower,  but when I go to Priscilla Mullins-Alden  the DNA box say "no known carriers"   --How do I link my match?

Answer 1

Hello Carole,

Your mtDNA goes back to http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-281637 and Priscilla Alden is not on that direct maternal line.

Sincerely, Peter

Answer 2

Hi Carole,

As Peter mentioned, and so others are aware, mtDNA is passed through the matrilineal line.  So mothers pass it to their children, but only their daughters pass it on.  So... your earliest known matrilineal ancestor is Friedricka (last name unknown).  As such, that's the end of your known mtDNA.  Friedricka passed the mtDNA to her daughter Caroline, who passed it to her daughter Augusta Budtke, who passed it to her daughter Elsa Toepfer, who passed it to her daughter Eileen Puttenney, who passed it to you.

Answer 3

Priscilla's mtDNA wasn't unique, she shared it with many distant cousins.  Those connections are untraceable, so this kind of result is useless.

However, somebody thinks they do know what WikiTree doesn't, a carrier, ie an mt-descendant who has taken a test.

Answer 4

Just as with paper genealogy research, we must start with the known (the living woman who tested her mtDNA) and work back generation by generation.

To expand on RJ's comment...

Priscilla Alden's mother is identified as Alice Mullins (Unknown-259877), but Alice's mother - who is Priscilla's maternal grandmother from whom she inherited her mtDNA is unidentified. Also unidentified is the mt DNA from Priscilla, Alice and Alice's mother. Could it become identified? Maybe.

Priscilla is shown on the tree as having six daughters. Each of them passed the mtDNA to their daughters ect. If you could trace the decendents of each of them to the present day through an unbroken matrilineal line and a few of the descendent women are willing to test, then you might be able to acertain the mtDNA for Priscilla et al.

Alice Mullins (Unknown-259877) has three daughters in addition to Priscilla shown on this tree. IF you were able to trace the matrilineal  descendents of each of the sisters to a living woman who was willing to test, they would also be carriers of the same mtDNA.

IF you were to research and identify Priscilla's matrilineal grandmother and the grandmother's sisters and mother, the same tracing to living women to be tested could also be made.

Once Priscilla's mtDNA is identified, then you could contact the testers and ask to compare your results. IF they match, you would still need to continue researching your matrilineal ancestors and those of Priscilla until you find the common maternal ancestor that started the mtDNA chain.

It would be a lot of research and we don't know if records exist to substantiate the identification of the common ancestor, should one be presumed to exist from the DNA comparison. On the spectrum of possibilities, I think this would technically be possible but the probability of identifying the connection without exhuming bodies or finding a rare cache of previously unknown documents is slim.

Answer 5

The Mayflower Descendant 66[2018]:23-30 had an article which included the mtDNA of Alice MULLINS Alden (H6a1a9). This article traced a total of seven "umbilical"/mtDNA (all female) lines of descent from four of Alice's daughters (Elizabeth, Sarah, Ruth & Rebecca).  Some of these lines had an additional mutation or two, but otherwise they all match each other.

Answer 6

Yes sometimes the dna testing company you use might try to share other historical figures whose dna is known.  They had told me my mtDNA matches Otzi the Iceman.

I think it's more that you share the same haplogroup with that person as opposed to the dna site having figured out your "paper family tree" relationship to them.