![]() My American friend, Satshanti, was messaging me what was for us an amazing discovery. A cave being excavated in Israel on Mount Carmel has been found to harbour our matriarchal DNA N1b and is between 11,000 and 13,000 years old, found there in the remains of a 2 or 3 year old boy. N1b, so rare, and yet found. This boy, as Satshanti said, is one of our relatives and this is 'our cave'. Raqefet cave. The boy would be a brother, son, cousin. From this we can deduce that our people were part of the Neolithic Natufian Culture and Israel was their homeland, how wonderful. A few thousand years later my ancestors had moved northwards to Anatolia, as said Satshanti, as an N1b has there been found at that time. I don't even know how the Caucasus fits into this now. Satshanti says the journey up into those mountains would have come later. The mountains would have been a refuge from the tribal annihilations in the lowlands, as usual. I was so very excited as this was news long awaited, to have a sure ancestral connection to a specific place, and even a name given to that culture, and even more amazingly, some detail of lifestyle. The people back then lived in semi-subterranean round houses, wow, that in itself stirred my emotion. They laid on beddings of mint, sage and sedge grasses (this had been discovered in the caves where the bodies had been laid). They hunted gazelles and gathered almonds and pistachios. They made adornments from bone and little sacred statuettes out of limestone, of both human and animal forms. They were the first nomads to settle into established homes, and this was before farming. Mount Carmel is known to have anciently had a high altar and holy groves. It was such a sacred mountain that not everyone was allowed to step upon it. Pythagorus, the hero of my friend Trebha, said it was the most sacred mountain in the world and went there on pilgrimage. Satshanti sent me some pictures of the cave, one with its wide entrance and views, and of the archaeologists who are still present there. Oh, gosh, I want to go and tune into my ancient people. This is 'our cave' Satshanti and I are saying. AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees.
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My Familytree matriarchal DNA analysis arrived, naturally linking me to my son George. It's still rare as can be, there having been no new matches for our DNA for many years now. I saw that the old classification system of that 176G had been replaced by a new one. Wow. Ah, that's why there have been all different numbers, so many of them, which I can little understand. Being of old N stock it is quite recognised that newcomers since such old times have overwhelmed us and one day will totally replace us. Oh dear, really? But, this is just the way things happen. As it is stated in the Haplogroup N mtDNA group 'The branches of N are some of those that sprang from the earliest routes, closer to the time of exodus from Africa than the later haplogroups which have become the majority. Over millenia many human lineages always die out, so that there are fewer and fewer of the oldest lines that survive. That is the reason why there are so few members of these N clades still found today, due to their great age'. AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees. I ordered the full mtDNA sequencing from Familytree, at much expense, and wrote to my mother suggesting that she also do the autosomal test. As this costs money she is likely to disregard my suggestion. The rest of my family is nowhere as interested in all of this as I am. I looked through a list of my SNP's, of my mtDNA, to see how they related to an Armenian sample, and to another one of anonymous origin, but both being N1b1a2a's. So far I just see masses of numbers which bewilder me. Though Familytree has listed that I am N1b1b1, the Genographic Project has taken more care in looking at the numbers, and now I see it too, that my 4904T puts me in the N1b1a2. With the two given samples I match many of their SNP's, but not all, and I have many numbers not shared with anyone. For now this is what I see. Which yet again reveals the total rarity of my DNA, or as I say it, the almost extinction. I still don't know if anyone in this world, other than my mother and daughters, has this same DNA. Or rather as Peter had pointed out, this same kind of mitochondria within our cells. I want to feel it, who are we, Georgian? Armenian? Who were these mysterious mothers? Can I not tune into something, somehow. AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees. The response to my autosomal family finder upgrade is instantaneous. Of course, they have my DNA samples; there is no need to dilly dally. Raw data is now there to access, though I don't have a programme to unzip it. What I do get to see is a list of distant cousins and I look through them, but not one do I understand how I link to. How would I fit even one of them into my family tree, I cannot see. Satshanti, of far away California, says he will work on helping me to make sense of it all. And, meanwhile, I look more into this possible ancient Armenian connection. There is an Armenian specialist group that has on its list my rare DNA, so I wrote to the people hosting this. One of these fellows, Peter Hrechdakian, confirmed that N1b1a2a is of the Caucasus and Near East. He recommended that I upgrade with Familytree's mtDNA full sequence, so it can be compared in depth with other N1b1a2a's. Not that I haven't spent out on this already with the Genographic Project. The more angles the merrier, I do presume. Only by immersing myself will more pieces of the puzzle come together. The Genographic Project wasn't so informative really as I would have liked. Transferral is there to Familytree, but only in the basest form. So apart from learning I am minutely Neanderthal, I don't see really what advantage the Genographic Project has over the Familytree. Mitochondrial DNA, Peter Hrechdakian makes mention of, from an angle I'd never really examined, pointing out that it comes from an organism living in symbiosis in our cells. That's something to get the head around. So, genealogy and DNA, always a subject I shall come back to. AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees. ![]() Reading about the early Middle East Christians, the Armenians and Syrians, along with the Georgians, I feel this so, and want to be there, to travel and explore, to find the special ancient places. I feel that these people, with their old nobility and good Christian morality, are beacons of light in a world of increasing darkness. Their intellectual capacity, their elite freedoms, with their beautiful gardens and lovely homes and grand architecture. And yet they have been ravaged, raped, murdered and sent into exile. Armenians are also of the Caucasus, once having vast lands stretching across to the Mediterranean. For the reading of this, I was inspired to look back at my DNA results. In transferring the Genographic results to Familytree, an upgrade is needed, to access raw results and be matched with near and distant cousins. This I paid to be done, luckily a very reduced rate for Genographic customers. What I am then faced with, again, is a more sophisticated mtDNA classification from modern updating of the systems. N1b1a2a according to the Genographic, and N1b1b1b as given on the transferral to Familytree. As ever, it is totally rare and mysterious. I find that this is, though, a recognised Armenian type of DNA. This blows my mind all of a sudden. For long I've known this DNA is rooted in the Caucasus mountains, but had always looked to the more northern Georgia, and not the southerly Armenian. Actually, all is close. This type of DNA is of Georgia, but not only. Somehow it is also found in Italy and Ireland, but the strength of origin is not in Europe, but in the Middle East. Specifically, the A2a part has been recognisably linked to an Armenian. Armenian does have more of an exotic appeal than Georgian, even though that in itself is fascinating. I have immersed myself already in the connection with ancient Georgia, the very source of N1's, but there is a step on from there, and it appears to be Armenian, or at least of some tribal group which would have come to take on that designation. Such borders were not always there. Does a line need to be drawn between one part of the Caucasus and another? Is my origin Armenian? This now becomes my question. I have been reading of it and now wonder if I am that. Indian friend, Deepak, had long ago suggested Armenian when I talked of my mother line, with this curiosity in there of black hair and alabaster skin. In photos I see that most of the Armenians, though, look quite dark and dusky. Georgians are fairer. Somewhere in their midst, middle to all, maybe there lies my people. Sucked into one great cultural definition or another, but previous to that a tribe, probably invisible now and lost. I have seen all these historical skirmishes, one people reigning, then another, massacres, enslavings, deportations - always this has been the way. Islam carries on this primal genetic battle of superiority, and this was the way of others before them. It totally fascinates me, who is such a Britisher, to have a deep connection to this vast medley. My nearer DNA is overwhelmingly British and Viking, but over time such things are transient, over vast time that is, when cousins no longer take habit to marry cousins. A high Viking percentage for me becomes maybe minor for my great great great grandchildren, depending on where they are and who has been chosen for partners. For six or seven generations all is intact, but beyond that all is increasingly watered down to minute proportions. Our nearer ancestors in this regard are always more relevant. My own discovery of royal ancestry is so distant as to become but a fractional influence. The only constant over the eons, at least for a female, as I am, is that which does not water down and evaporate, and that is an unbroken lineage I find to these exotic and mysterious lands. How can I not be fascinated. What I do still have of the temporal, which will become lost to my descendants, is this 3% input from what I have been told is Central Asia. This, also, both fascinates and confuses me. I wonder if somewhere along the way one of my ancestral ladies was adopted into an English family. Was it Eleanor Caroline Barton, she who was raised in an orphanage and died so young of tuberculosis? Or was it Maria Harrison, clearly described as having jet black hair, alabaster skin and twinkling eyes? I never stop being fascinated by such mysteries. I have to consider, also, that this un-English appearance may derive from Italy, or maybe this Central Asian land, and be quite distinct from the root Caucasian mountain more ancient ancestry. Although a link may be there, all may be totally separate and distinct. That old Silk Route 3%, it's not that it couldn't have been an Armenian or other settlement, a trading colony, a religious centre, an exiled people, an enslaved group, removed from their origins. But this I can't yet know. The Central Asian designation kind of radiates out from Afghanistan, tumbling into the surrounding lands. Again, how fascinating. At least pre-Islam, a culture which still hoovers its way through the ancient places, covering over and disguising all that was. That destruction of Afghanistans great Buddhist mountain deities, what a heartfelt tragedy that was. I don't know all these people and places in the same way that I have come to know India. They are not so accessible, not open to travellers and explorers, they are risky and dangerous. Until, and if ever they become free from Islam, then they may recover some of their old glory and repute. In effect these lands have been taken hostage by Arab imperialism. I do wonder if because my ancient people have suffered this religious oppression, that I now feel it so. What the Armenians went through was like the holocaust against the Jews, who I also sympathise with, rather than joining in with the never ending scape-goating against them. Does the clue to my origins lie with the Armenians? Does it? Does it? AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees. My American friend, Satshanti - Peter Pynchon, wrote on my mtDNA page, which is inactive really, but for this now, that which are his latest understandings. In taking to a geneticist he has gleaned that the origins of our shared rare mtDNA, non Jewish N1b, appear to be in the North East Caucasus, many of this type being found in Dagestan, and a lesser amount in Ossetia, a bit to the west. I suppose this is, for now, the best we can know of it, and it's pretty cool really. From being told at first we are total Middle Eastern but rare, to our working out the source is really the Caucasus mountains, to hearing now it is to the very north east of those mountains in the regions of Dagestan and Ossetia. Satshanti has looked at his autosomal results, and regardless, understanding so much more on this subject that I can make of it, he has deduced that from the high Caucasus his people migrated down to Lebanon, being drawn to the mountains there, the stronghold of the Christian Maronites, underneath Mount Lebanon. One of the strongest cousin connections he had found is to Hadchit in Lebanon, which is on the edge of the Qadisha Sacred Valley. From there his people had emigrated to America, possibly through Montreal. Well, this is amazing, what he has researched. I wish I could likewise suss all this out for my own people so neatly. It is really a delight. Maybe I need to do whatever autosomal test he did, rather than the so vague Genographic. The only clue I have so far deduced, maybe, is that my Caucasian line may have come via the Silk Route. From Dagestan/Ossettia to the Silk Route to London. And all is too vague. I mean I have no certainty even if that silk route descent is through my actual matriarchal line, though it would make sense. And this vast classification of Central Asia, could it be stretched to include the Caucasus, but one side of the Caspian to the other. I have far more questions than answers as regards this. AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees. On checking my emails, I saw that at last my Genographic results were through, oh my, how exciting. And so I found out that I was 1.2% Neanderthal, and just to know that was a joy, and my mtDNA type now had a more sophisticated classification, rather than just being a non-Jewish N1b. It was now an N1b1A2A, a haplogroup which remains a mystery and which being so rare is unresearched - no nearer to it being pinned down to a specific location then. As for my autosomal admixture I am found to be, in total of all components of my DNA, 48% British and Irish, 38% Viking Scandinavian, much of which will be owing to my Shetland Island ancestry, and this also being particularly more than general people of Britain and even Scotland have, 11% Southern European (Mediterranean), and 3% Central Asian. What?! OK, well, aligning this to my genealogy then may be a little confusing. For as far as I can understand the 11% equates to a great grandparent, which means that one of mine then is almost full Italian, Spanish or Greek, and yet according to what I know of my family how can that be. And as far as the 3% Central Asian, that would equate to one of my great great great grandparents. Now if, for instance, this had been where Maria Harrison got her black hair, alabaster complexion and twinkling eyes, then that would be because her mother was fully central Asian. And this is where I begin to wish the location information was more specific and that some raw data had been supplied, which I could over time analyse, but it had not. All was quite pretty but vague, and the zonal areas are so vast. Now, if Maria's mother, Eleanor Caroline Barton, was from west of the Caspian Sea in the classification zone, that would make some sense, in aligning with the Caucasus mountains, or even if south of there, as far down as Armenia. But the zone I'd been appointed was east of the Caspian Sea and north of Tibet, the area of the various 'S'tans', Kazakhstan, Turkestan, etc, historically being of the old Silk Route. Although confusing, this is also exciting and suitably exotic to appeal to me. All was much on my mind throughout the night. It doesn't seem to make sense unless I stray from the map I've so far laid down genealogically. Because I do have Eleanor Caroline Barton's genealogy going further back and all remains English sounding. So one wonders, had a foreign child been brought into the family and adopted as if their own. And as for the maybe Italian or other Mediterranean type great grandparent, I end up thinking of one other possibility, on account of my nanny Eileen's parents only having married when her mother Florence Maxted was nine months pregnant, and with her husband Percy's family having been very lax to accept her: could a Mediterranean seaman, sojourning at the seaport pub where Florence worked as a barmaid, have got her pregnant and then sailed away, never to return. Looking at this DNA result it does now seem quite a possibility. Really, I am stuck when it comes to find out more or being sure of anything. I did dream in the night that my mother was me and I asked her to take the Genographic test too, for then I could make more sense of all, by knowing which half of my autosomal DNA is from her and which from my father. But she had no interest in such things and would not do it. AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees. ![]() It was time to do my DNA testing, the last time my son George having done it, and now me. Two toothbrushes to scrape the insides of ones cheeks. And then to town to post the DNA samples off to America. In the post office along came Val and I excitedly told her about this Genographic Project, which she herself was curious about. She has read up all about matriarchal DNA, though has not tested to see what type she is. She believes her origins to be Basque because of her red hair and rhesus negative blood. 'And they descend from the gods' she says, whereas rhesus positive blood is of those descended from monkeys. AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees. I have sent off to do a DNA test for my autosomal and mtDNA, even though this latter I'd done already through my son George, I nevertheless want a second opinion that it is indeed correct, as well as for my percentage of Neanderthal and Denisovan (rather intriguing), all to be done by the National Geographic, a vast ambitious survey, also supporting research, and not cheap, oh dear! AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees. I watched on the internet a whole black American ex slave genealogy series which was so interesting. General research was combined with the addition of DNA study, which much appeals to me. The black gentleman who made the series turned out to be only half African and half European, and he did have pale parents, while being darker himself. This analysis was uncovered by a an admixture DNA test. How fascinating that is. Some slaves had even mixed with native Americans (red Indians) and some with Chinese imported labourers. Many have European Y-DNA in their male lineage, because of slave owners having had children with their women slaves. Therefore it is the matriarchal DNA that has to be followed to source back to an original tribal area of Africa. For almost all this will work, though not for our gentleman producing the film, who was most surprised to find that not only his male lineage, but his female too, came from Europe. Yet another newly developing DNA test, though, can look at all the middling DNA, in between the Y and the Mt, focusing just on this mans black parts, and in this way parts of Africa could at last be pin-pointed for him. It does get me thinking, I should get back into this DNA support of researching, but I also know I need ample money to do so.
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