Mitochondrial DNA Haplogroup U is popularly known as "Clan Ursula,"
though strictly speaking, "Ursula" applies only to one subclade, U5, the
oldest group of modern humans in Europe. They were there before the
Last Glacial Maximum and would have encountered, if not extinguished, the
Neanderthals. Today they are about 11% of modern Europeans and are
most common in western Britain and Scandinavia. We have four project
members who are Haplogroup U:
In the "gee whiz" ("cheez whiz"?) department, the famous
"Cheddar Man" of Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, England,
was subclade U5a.
The Cambridge Reference Sequence (CRS) is arbitrarily designated
as the standard against which all mtDNA sequences are compared, and subject
test results are expressed as differences from the CRS. The
CRS happens to be negative for the 519C mutation,
which is otherwise very common, so the majority of tested individuals will
have this mutation listed in the HVR1 region.
In the table below, a darkened empty cell means the test was not ordered.
All HVR1 marker designations begin with "16___"; so, to save space and
improve readability, I've dropped the 16 in the tables. With regard
to results, a letter in red indicates a mutation
(a base has changed); a letter in green indicates
a new base has been inserted; a minus sign (-) indicates a base has been
lost.
With regard to lineages, given names and patronymics are shown as Initial
Caps, while surnames are shown in ALL-CAPS (these are the womens' maiden
names, not their married names).
Your project admin recommends uploading your mtDNA results to MitoSearch.org,
which can be done at your FTDNA member page (on the "mtDNA Matches" tab).
The earliest complete skeleton found in Britain is dated to about 9000
years ago. It is the skeleton of a young man found in a cave in Cheddar,
Somerset, England (and was thus dubbed, "Cheddar
Man"). Testing of mtDNA extracted from a molar shows he is Haplogroup
U5a. Twenty-eight living local residents of Cheddar were also tested,
and two of them had the exact same mutations as Cheddar Man, while one
other individual had a single additional mutation.
Subclade
U2
Kit
#
MitoSearch
UserID
Differences
from Cambridge Reference Sequence
Known
Lineage
HVR1
HVR2
N43228
QFGTC
51G, 129C,
182C, 183C, 189C,
362C, 519C
73G, 146C,
152C, 217C, 263G,
309.1C, 315.1C,
508G
Dau7, Dau6, Enger Karine MILLER5,
Hedevig Elisabeth JØRGENSEN4, Karen Henriksen SLOTT3,
Kristiane KRAGE2, Karen Pedersdatter1 — of Vejle,
Vejle Amt, DK
This individual has dozens of matches in her HVR1 region, but her combined
HVR1+HVR2 haplotype is rare, with no full matches in the FTDNA or mitoSearch
databases. The mutation that is preventing her from having at least
a few full matches is 146C in HVR2.
Subclade
U4
Kit
#
MitoSearch
UserID
Differences
from CRS
Known
Lineage
HVR1
HVR2
67908
PE23X
134T, 172C,
356C, 362C, 519C
Son [awaiting lineage] Karen Nielsdatter1 (1797-1829)
— of Sandvig, Mern Sogn, Bårse Herred, Præstø Amt, DK
This individual has no matches in the FTDNA database and only one near
match at Ysearch (GD=1).
