FTDNA - No Matches for MT?

[david64]

I have just had results back from FTDNA for an MT test.

When I open the matches, ancestral origins and haplogroup origins, they all say 'no matches' and there is nothing on any of the other pages of any interest: a basic map and a bunch of number with no explanation.

Does this sound right? How many matches do others have for MT?

It seems all I have gotten is the information that I am of MT haplogroup M35a, which is from South India and Sri Lanka; and barely a paragraph worth of information can be gleaned on it via Google.

[davidft]

I am no expert in mtDNA but I did have a good time seeing what I could find using both yours and my mtDNA haplogroups. I would say if you have not done so it may be worth posting on the forum on the ftDNA site as there seems a fair few people there who can answer questions, not that I always understand the answers! That said I did not see anything in a quick search that was particularly pertinent to M35a.

ftDNA also have a Learning Center which has bits on mtDNA testing in several places so worth a look I think.

Having looked around at haplogroup M and M35a I think the answer to your question does “no matches” sound correct then I would say yes. From the learning center the question is asked are only exact matches shown and the answer is

There are currently two sets of rules for mtDNA matching.
For those who have tested HVR1
 (mtDNA) or HVR1 and HVR2 (mtDNAPlus), only exact matches are shown. SmartMatching is also used to prevent a match between different haplogroups.
For those who have tested the mtDNA Full Sequence (mtFullSequence), three differences are allowed. These differences include cases of heteroplasmy. Two high frequency insertion/deletion locations are completely excluded from difference counts. These are mutations at positions 309 and 315.


Given the distribution of haplogroups around the world and the really quite small number of people who take up DNA testing you would be extraordinarily lucky to get an exact match for M35a which is quite a narrow group that I can see. I say this because on the mtDNA - Migration Maps, frequency map they say that haplogroup M is basically unknown in Europe, only 1% in central Asia and grows to 54% in south Asia. So in short you would benefit from a lot more people from south Asia testing. By comparison my broad mtDNA group is H which is the dominant group in Europe at 42% of the samples but despite that I have no exact matches for my detailed H group and only have 5 matches at -2 and -3 genetic distance.

The learning center also has a table on how far it could be to your most common ancestor and you can see from the data involved that it can be a lot of generations hence the need to use only exact matches

https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/dna-basics/mtdna/
 

Finding out more

1.   You probably saw it but at the bottom of the matches page it said you can upload your results to mitoSearch.org to compare with others who have not tested with ftDNA, however it does warn of a loss of privacy. I have not used this site so cannot comment on it

2.   On the homepage (dashboard) of your ftDNA account you will see in the top right hand corner a box containing your M35a mtDNA result identifier. If you click on that you will get a basic description of your group

3.   I have seen from searching the web that the M35a group is mainly from India but there are also references to Roma found in various Slavic countries in Europe. These links may help

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0007447
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2757894/
This may copy much of the one before

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18205894

I have not looked at this or read it but it appears to be an academic paper and may be of interest
http://www.academia.edu/5641297/Phylogeographic_distribution_of_mitochondrial_DNA_macrohaplogroup_M_in_India

This link has a simplified phylotree for mtDNA but it also has a link to open a full tree on which you can see where M35a fits in and what mutations make it M35a.
http://www.phylotree.org/tree/index.htm

Finally mtDNA haplogroup M is one of the older groups and you may need to look at just group M as well to see how things developed

[david64]

Thank you for your detailed reply.

[hurworth]

Out of interest, who is your earliest known ancestor up your maternal line, and where did she live?

Being from a haplogroup that has been rare in Britain (but the proportion is probably increasing) may well be a good thing.  Consider it "exclusive".  It might be quite common around the area your maternal line originates from and that in itself will be interesting (if now not, someone will probably want to study it in the future).

[david64]

My earliest known ancestor on my maternal line is my great-grandmother, who was born (from word of mouth) in 1899/1900. From word of mouth they had a surname that is either Armenian or English, presumed Armenian, as that is what we were told, she was definitely married to a man who was half Armenian and half British; and from deductions of an autosomal test. There is no marriage for her in the British India church returns or in the Times of India. The first time she shows up is in 1919 on a baptism in Karachi (now Pakistan), then 1921 in Quetta (Pakistan-Afghan border) and in 1923 in Bombay. In my autosomal matches there are two Indians who are likely 5th cousins (themselves cousins) whose ancestry is from around Bombay.

My great-grandmother's family was likely a Catholic, as my grandmother's family was Catholic and in India, the family typically took the religion of the wife if it was Christian.

My maternal aunt who took the autosomal test has come out as:

65% British
a few % Armenian
a few % Egypt/Jordan area
a few percent Persian
8% Ashkenazi Jewish
13% Indian

So from a mixture of records on the paternal side, the autosomal and mtDNA test, it is quite likely the unknown mother of my great-grandmother was 100% Indian.

The issue with the paper trial is that the marriage of my great-grandmother likely took place in a Catholic church, whose records appear sporadically in the church records returned to Britain. All I really know is her first name was Lily Elizabeth; presumed born in 1899/1900, presumably in India, presumably baptised in a Catholic church, presumably to an Armenian-Indian union which also contained Jewish ancestry.

[DevonCruwys]

It's fascinating to have such an interesting and unusual mtDNA result.

I would suggest you join the FIBIS DNA Project:

https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/fibis/about/background

I know they would be delighted to have you in their project. You do not have to be a FIBIS member to join the DNA project.

You might also like to join the haplogroup M project at FTDNA:

https://www.familytreedna.com/public/M%20mtDNA%20Haplogroup