SNGF: Matrilineal Line

For Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun post, he asks:

1. List your matrilineal line – your mother, her mother, etc. back to the first identifiable mother. Note: this line is how your mitochondrial DNA was passed to you!
2. Tell us if you have had your mitochondrial DNA tested, and if so, which Haplogroup you are in.
3. Post your responses on your own blog post.

I’ve already done this since, yes, I have had my mDNA tested. I had it done for the National Geographic’s Genographic Project.

1. Me, Brian ZALEWSKI
2. Sharon THIELKE (Living) married John ZALEWSKI
3. Marjorie DeBROUX (Living)  married LeRoy THIELKE
4. Mildred Vida VAN PRICE (1903 Mattoon, WI – 1994 Port Washington, WI) married Leon DeBROUX
5. Minnie M MUHM (1879 Norwood Twsp, WI – 1959 Port Washington, WI) married Pieter Franciscus VAN PARIJS
6. Ida SCHAVANDIE (1852 Wisconsin or Germany – 1934 Antigo, WI) married Peter MUHM
7. Anna RASCH (? Germany – ?) married Lawrence SCHAVANDIE

So, Anna RASCH is as far back as I’ve traced so far. When I took the test, I only had up to Ida and not much info about her, so I am making progress. Pieter VAN PARIJS changed his name to Peter VAN PRICE, which is why the name changes during that generation. That caused me some headache until I figured it out.

According to my DNA test, my Mitochondrial line hapolgroup is H. According to the Haplogroup H Wikipedia entry,  it is the most common mtDNA haplogroup in Europe.  About one half of Europeans are of mtDNA haplogroup H. That does back up the German heritage of my line.