MIGRATION OF MY MATERNAL ANCESTORS FROM AFRICA TO GOA

 

MIGRATION OF MY MATERNAL ANCESTORS FROM AFRICA TO GOA

Only women transmit mitochondrial DNA to their children; men inherit it from

their mothers but cannot transmit it. Since women do not have a Y DNA

chromosome, migration is tracked by following the mutations in

mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). There are 3 regions that are investigated for this

purpose: Hypervariable regions HVR1 and HVR2 and a Coding region. The

HVR regions have been found to mutate every 400 years or so and the

Coding region every 1600 years.

My mother was a Cordeiro, her mother a Correia Afonso whose mother

was Claudina Pacheco and so on. It is this maternal lineage that I discuss

here.

My mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup is U5a1a2a according to a

complete Family Tree DNA analysis and very recently an analysis by Y Full

placed it in the sub-clade U5a1a2a-5a. Unfortunately, unlike Y DNA, not

enough people have tested their mtDNA in Asia and therefore tracking

migration solely through haplogroups as can be done with the paternal

lineage is not possible at this time. Family Tree DNA has tracked the

migration starting with the first woman code named EVE in Africa till the

appearance of the first woman with mtDNA haplogroup U in Ukraine (See

map).

The mutations that define present day U5 are C16192T, C16270T, T3197C,

G9477A, and T13617C. I compared the mutations of my mtDNA with all the

U5a1a2a in the FTDNA database as well as other available databases and

published data but did not find a match; we all share the defining mutations

of that haplogroup but the other mutations differ considerably. What

distinguishes my mtDNA is an extra mutation A16309G that does not appear

in any of the U5a1a2a that I had studied.

And then I came across a paper by Professor Morten Erik Allentoft et al in

the journal Nature reporting on findings of project RISE in which 101

ancient bronze age humans across Eurasia were analysed. I was delighted to

read that a sample code named RISE 496 belonging to an adult female

exhumed from Arban 1 cemetery in Polyakov, Republic of Khakassia,

Russia, not only belonged to the same mtDNA haplogroup as I do but also

exhibited the extra mutation A165309G that I had not found anywhere else.

As Prof. Allentoft pointed out to me, RISE 496 may not have been a direct

ancestor because thousands of women with my extra mutation may have

existed but my ancestor definitely belonged to the same clan/family as RISE

496. In any event, there is no doubt that my maternal ancestors inhabitedPolyakov, Russia, 3000-1000 BCE i.e. three thousand to five thousand years

ago.

RISE 496 belonged to the bronze age KARASUK culture, preceded by

Andronovo, Sinthasta, Abashevo and other cultures derived from the

Yamnaya and responsible for spreading the Indo-European languages. Thus,

by following the evolution of these cultures, it is possible to track the

migration of my maternal ancestor to Polyakov.

We know from a major study published by Narasimhan et al, led primarily by

Harvard Professor David Reich that the Sinthasta and related populations

from the Steppes entered India from the North and can conclude that my

maternal ancestors came with them and finally settled down in Salcete, Goa.

Unfortunately, we do not have enough endpoints at the present time to be

more precise regarding the geographic locations.

The journey from Africa to Goa passing through the Middle East, Ukraine, the

Russian Steppes, Mongolia, Northern India and finally Goa must have been

an arduous, a dangerous and perilous one, specially for a woman to survive.

I look back with awe, respect and pride at this courageous and spectacular

achievement of my maternal ancestors.