http://mctiernan.com/mtdna.htm   4-16-2021

This mtDNA test that I had done shows ONLY my maternal route back to Tara one of the 7 daughters of Eve in Africa. This test result only applies to you if you are the son or daughter of a woman that descends maternally from a female Blaies / Blaes or Bender.

At the end of this site is the info on the mtDNA test that I had done. It shows that I fall in the Tara group one of the 7 European daughters of Eve. Any of us that descend maternally from a Blaies / Blaes or Bender would have the same genetic type and mutations. It does mean as an example that if your mother's maiden surname was Fries and your grandmother's maiden surname was Blaies / Blaes then you also descend from Tara via your maternal line. Even with the very confusing previous sentence, you could have the same mtDNA if your maternal line matches the example at the end of this page. All this is much better explained at http://www.duerinck.com/migrate.html

Dr. Wallace's mitochondrial DNA lineages are "haplogroups" but known as "daughters of Eve," because all of the lineages are branches of the trunk that stems from the mitochondrial Eve.

Dr. Wallace is now exploring the root of the mitochondrial tree. In the March 2000 American Journal of Human Genetics, he and colleagues identify the Vasikela Kung of the northwestern Kalahari desert in southern Africa as the population that lies nearest to the root of the human mtDNA tree. Another population that seems almost equally old is that of the Biaka pygmies of Central Africa.

THE 7 EUROPEAN DAUGHTERS OF EVE

Prof. Sykes and Oxford University researchers in England have identified seven ancestral matriarchal groups from which all Europeans appear to be descended. Every European can trace his or her evolutionary history back to the seven ancestral mother groups, also referred to as the Seven European Daughters of Eve. Sykes et al obtained buccal cells from 6,000 individuals and analyzed the samples using the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis. It is known that mtDNA mutates at a very slow rate, such as 1 mutation in every 10,000 generations or 20,000 years. So they figured that the women would have lived between 8,000 and 45,000 years ago. What is amazing is that all seven of the genetic groups appear to be descended from the Lara clan, one of three clans that still exist today in Africa. This is called the African Eve theory. It was proposed in the late 1980's by Allan Wilson, Mark Stoneking and others. The African Eve theory states that all humans share a common African ancestor. Migration routes of the 7 daughters are at this site: http://www.oxfordancestors.com As of 2002, there are believed to be 36 distinct genetic groups worldwide.

From Patrick Guinness, "In mtDNA, there are a maximum of 14 mutations between all humans (so far). From the middle of them, there are 26 mutations between humans and neanderthals, and more when you look at the great apes. The experts say that we and neanderthals had an ancestor ~250,000 years ago."

The Seven European Daughters of Eve matriarchal groups correspond to Dr. Wallace's lineages above, and were given names by Prof. Sykes:

1. Helena: (Greek for "light")  This clan's descendants are the most numerous in Europe, having started 20,000 years ago from a hunting family in the Dordogne region of the ice-capped Pyrenees in southern France. As the climate warmed, Helena's descendants trekked northward to what is now England, some 12,000 years ago. Members of this group are now present in all European countries.
2. Jasmine: (Persian for "flower") Her people had a relatively happy life in Syria 10,000 years ago, where they farmed wheat and raised domestic animals. Jasmine's descendants arrived in Europe too late to experience the hardships of the Ice Age. Her clan brought agriculture into Europe.
3. Katrine: (Greek for "pure") lived 15,000 years ago near Venice. Her clan ventured north, but many are still to be found in the Alps. The 5000 year old IceMan was one of her descendants. Today most of Katrine's clan live in the Alps.
4. Tara: (Gaelic for "rock") This is our family line of descent and holds for any male or female family member who descends maternally from a female Blaies / Blaes or Bender.  This clan settled in Tuscany in Northern Italy about 17,000 years ago when the hills were thick with forests. After the Ice Age, her clan moved into France and trekked across the dry land that was to become the English Channel into Ireland.
5. Ursula: (Latin for "she-bear") lived about 45,000 years ago in Northern Greece. She was slender and graceful and hunted with stone tools. Her clan spread across Europe including Britain and France.
6. Valda: (Scandinavian for "ruler") Originally from the hills of northern Spain, Valda and her immediate descendants lived 17,000 years ago and shared the land with Ursula's clan. They spread out after the Ice Age, some of her clan becoming the Saami or Lapps of northern Finland and Norway.
7. Xenia: (Greek for "hospitable") lived 25,000 years ago on the plains beneath the Caucasus Mountains on the eastern edge of the Black Sea. As the Ice Age ended her clan spread to Europe and across Asia to America. [As Dr. Wallace discovered, the X pattern is a rare European lineage and is also among the northern Native Americans such as the Ojibwa and Sioux.]

   A great deal of work has been done on other parts of the world in the past decade and it is very clear that there are plenty more clans than just the 7 Daughters of Eve in Europe. The precise definition of what makes a clan depends on having a very good sample of different countries. The present estimate is that there are at least 30 clans in the rest of the world of equivalent standing to the seven European clans. Fourteen of them in are found in Africa, six in Eastern Asia and four in native Americans. But some parts of the world have been only very sparsely studied so far and they just don't know what to expect. For instance, it should't be a surprise if they find several completely new clans among native Australians.
   
   

• female in the Lara Clan of Africa
• n number of female generations
• Tara lived c. 15,000 BC around 17,000 years ago in Tuscany of Northern Italy when the hills were thick with forest.   After the Ice Age her Clan moved into France and trekked across the dry land that was to become the English Channel into Ireland.
• n number of female generations
• Anna Maria Metzger, 1723-->1753, born and died in Germany
• Maria Elizabeth Metzger [Walter], 1753--1816, born and died in Mühlhausen, Germany
• Maria Zezilla Burkard, 1781--1834, born and died in Mühlhausen, Germany
• Maria Elizabeth Herrman, 1805--1870, born in Mühlhausen, Germany, died in St. Clair Co, IL
• Theresia Blaies, nee Bender, 1833--1898, born in Mühlhausen, Germany, died in Belleville, IL
• A daughter of Theresia, like Anne Katherine Fries, nee Blaies, 1879--1948, born in Mascoutah, IL
• A daughter of Anne Katherine Fries, nee Blaies, like Florence McTiernan, nee Fries, 1911--2000, born in Belleville, IL
• A son of Florence McTiernan, nee Fries like Michael McTienan, 1943--, born in St. Louis, MO

This example may better explain how the mtDNA travels down the line of descent.

• great grandmother
• grandmother
• mother
• son or daughter has the same mtDNA as their mother
• only sons and daughters of the daughter above have the same mtDNA, sons and daughters of the son do not have the same mtDNA as their aunt. If you are a male Fries or Blaies / Blaes this test result, i.e. Tara may not apply as you got your mtDNA from your mother.

A worldwide list of all Surname DNA studies done by Chris Pomery is at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~allpoms/genetics1a.html

The 128 McTernan / McTiernan's from 11 different countries and 5 contentents DNA study is at http://mctiernan.com/dnatest.htm

Michael McTiernan

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