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.
