Mitochondrial musings

This is my maternal ancestry, highlighted in yellow.

This is the path, through these women, that my mitochandrial DNA took across the landscape of this county.

Letty Durham is my "Most Distant Known" maternal ancestor, following my mother's line. She was born about 1744, probably in North Carolina. In 1776, when the Revolutionary War began, she was about 32 years old and had about 5 children (the birth dates of her children are not certain). She had a total of about 10 children by 1790.



Some time after 1790 she migrated from North Carolina (or possibly Georgia) to Kentucky, with her children, through the Cumberland Gap and lived the rest of her life in Kentucky.

The "Wilderness Road" through the Cumberland Gap - my people took a sharp right after they passed through the "Gap" and travelled up the Licking River.

The woman at the bottom of this tree, Dora Howard, is my mother's maternal grandmother. She was born in 1903 in Magoffin County, Kentucky.

In the family tree, above, you may notice the places "Licking River" and "Middle Fork". These are not towns, they are farms built by the banks of the Licking River, and the "Middle Fork" of the Licking River, in the mountains of eastern Kentucky in what became Magoffin County in 1860.

My mother was born in her grandmother's house, by the banks of the middle fork of the Licking River, in 1939, near a place called Gullett. She spent the first few years of her life there. Her parents (Josephine Risner and Seville Gose) moved to Ada, in Hardin County, Ohio before 1944.

Maureen Gose, about 1941.

Class, and teacher, at her one-room schoolhouse in Magoffin County, Kentucky. She circled herself in the left of the picture.

Maureen Gose, by the front porch in Ada, Ohio, 1962.

Christmas, 1970's, Ada, Ohio. Maureen Gose is seated in front.

Dora Howard (in back), John Henry Risner (right). Maureen Gose (white hat).

Dora Howard, her husband (John Henry Risner) and their other two children moved to Winchester, in Clark County, Kentucky.

Dora Howard, 1970's, Winchester, KY.

I used the following website, along with a Chrome extension called PhyloTree MT AddOn, to plug my FamilytreeDNA mitochondrial test results into the Haplotype tree.

Phylotree.org

My results:

http://www.phylotree.org/tree/R0.htm

This is a  a link to the results for my FamilyTreeDNA test kit #747482 on Phylotree.org for my mitochondrial DNA.

If you use your browser to search the page for T16189C! it will get twelve "hits".

This site maps a haplotype on the "phylogenetic tree", showing you where your mitochondrial haplotype is in the larger tree.

Unfortunatly for me my haplotype, H1-T16189C!, is a back-mutation that has occured at at least 12 points in the tree. Since my mutation begins with H1, I think I can discount all but 5 of the possible hits.

The particular version of the tree I used for this is current as af 18 June 2018 (this is the day I ran my analysis.)

PhyloTree.org - mtDNA tree Build 17 (18 Feb 2016): subtree R0

My haplotype is under subtree RO-H1, it could be one of these five:

H1a-T16189C!
H1a6-T16189C!
H1c3b-T16189C!
H1j9-T16189C! (listed as unstable)
H1ap1-T16189C!

I really have no idea which it may be, or if I am on the right track in my understanding of how the mutation mapping works.

I belong to the Mitochondrial DNA Haplogroup H & HV Project on FamilyTreeDNA and submited this as a question. I hope to add the answer to my website soon.

Other links to information (actually, more questions) about this Haplotype:

https://www.geni.com/discussions/160517

https://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/35184-H1-T16189C!-Help-!!

https://www.snpedia.com/index.php/Gs1006

http://www.thecid.com/mtdnatree/ppl/c/5/d420cc4cd3c1d579949b3f3745c.html

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25208176

http://www.ianlogan.co.uk/sequences_by_group/h1-t16189c_genbank_sequences.htm

Current Research Projects

I have two projects at the forefront currently.

The currect active one is creating a timeline for the family and descendants of my most distant maternal ancestor, Letty Durham and her husband Thomas Howard, they lived during the time of the American Revolution. Since the time of her grandchildren Letty has been reputed to be a "full-blood" Cherokee. The DNA evidence coming in strongly disputes this. I have had a FamilyTreeDNA full mtDNA test done, and my Haplogroup is H1-T16189C!. This is a European Haplogroup.

I have not really looked at my data for Letty and her family since I first added her to my tree about 30 years ago. I knew at the time that the information was sketchy. I wanted to wait until I was a more experienced researcher. The timeline plotting out their lives is showing me just how sketchy. The family jumps arbitrarily from one state to another, one daughter seems to be married to two men at the same time, no other reasearcher seems to have any actual documents.

After I create the timeline I will start looking for census records, then birth, death and marriage records. This should give the the framework for correcting major errors and finding additional documents with greater confidence.

The second project I mentioned involves a half-second cousin three times removed. His name is John D. McPherson. He was born in Marion County, Ohio in 1873 and died in Michigan in 1950. There are at least two other John McPhersons in the United States who were born at about the same time, and the records of these three men are sometimes mixed up. I am trying to document their lives so that they will not be confused with one another.

My document of the day is a newspaper article about John McPherson's grandmother, Elizabeth Dey Clark.

The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio), 04 July 1907. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

I only have an image of the headline because every time I tried to clip the entire article I could not get a copy with decent resolution.

This is a transcript of the text, followed by the source citation.

CELEBRATES THE FOURTH

-

Although She is 88 Years of Age

-

MRS. ELIZABETH LITTLE

-

Is Truly a Daughter of the Revolution

-

She is the Only Person in Marion County That Can Claim Such an Honor.

-

     To no one In Marion county Is the Fourth more glorious this year than to Mrs. Elizabeth Dey Little, aged 88 years, who lives on the Garden City pike, near the north corporation limits. Mrs. Little Is one of the few people living who can claim the distinction of being really children of men who fought In the war of the revolution, and on the strength of this distinction, she was recently admitted to membership in the Daughters of the Revolution. Mrs. Little, the weight of whose years has made her feeble and infirm, says that no gift which she has received during her long life has made her happier than has the pretty souvenir spoon which she Just received In commemoration of being-admitted to membership. These spoons are given only to these members of the society who are children of men who fought in the great struggle for Independence.

     Mrs Little Is the only person In Marion county, and possibly the only person in the state, who Is a child of a Revolutionary war veteran. Her father, Israel Clark, who died February 5, 1827, and whose body Is buried In the Smith cemetery In Richland township, not only fought In the Revolution, but had the honor of meeting and talking with General Washington. Mrs. Little, his only surviving child, has a memory sufficiently keen to enable her at this time to recall what her father often told her regarding his meeting with Washington.

     The fact that at this late date a child of a revolutionary soldier still lives is explained when it is known that Mrs. Little is a child of Clark's fourth wife. Thirteen children were born as a result of Clark's four marriages, and of this number, Mrs. Little is the only one surviving. Her mother was married three times.

     Although afflicted with blindness in addition to being feeble and infirm, Mrs. Little says that she is happy during the declining years of her life. She takes pleasure in talking with friends and members of her family concerning years gone by and particularly of the days of pioneer life, which she is able to recall with remarkable accuracy.

     When Israel Clark died, his daughter was only eight years of age. During the last few years or his life he often took the little girl on his knee and delighted her with, stories of the great struggle for Independence. Mrs. Little says that in her study of the history of the Revolution she has read a number of incidents which she often heard her father relate from his own experiences.

     A peculiar coincidence In connection with Clark's burial in the Smith cemetery is the fact that beside his grave lie the remains of Joseph Powell, another veteran of the Revolution. According to the stories which Powell told Mrs Little. he and her father were messmates during the war. It was only by chance, it is said, that their graves worn placed side by side.

     Mrs. Little was born in Delaware county, March 16, 1819. She was married to John Little In Marion county in 1843. Her surviving children are Mrs. Mary E. McPherson, with whom she now lives on Leader street, Thos. Judson, Rushylvania (sic: Rushsylvania), Logan county; George Clark Little, Lima and Mrs. Martha E. Hogan, Holden, Auglaize county. One child, Mrs. Alice M. Mentzer, died March 3, 1900.

     Israel Clark, the father, was born in Connecticut and moved from there to Pennsylvania, where he remained six months. From Pennsylvania he moved to Delaware county, Ohio, and In February, 1821, came to Marion county. During the early part of his life, Clark was a Presbyterian, but later changed and became a devout Methodist. 

"CELEBRATES THE FOURTH," The Marion Daily Mirror, 4 July 1907, p. 8, col. 4; digital images, Chronicling America (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov : accessed 4 January 2018), Chronicling America Historic American Newspapers. Cit. Date: 4 January 2018