Progress on y_mt_DNA haplogroups?

 This post was written back in March 2020.  Six months down the track, having explored many many related, and un-related rabbit holes it is time I actually published it. Not a lot of progress has been made since then!

How many to go: Helen SINTON mtDNA update

Further research into descendants of Helen WIGHT nee SINTON, and a resulting update to WikiTree for her daughters' families in particular has extended the chart of those carrying Helen's mitochondrial DNA.
Unfortunately, it looks to be a rather short list of living candidates, and with at least one branch apparently in Sth Africa and another in Portugal, information is a little harder to come by. 

Would love to hear from:

• any descendants of Jane Wight BECKINGHAM nee McGREGOR, although indications are there's only one daughter, unmarried at age 30 when travelling to/from the UK in 1960.
• any descendants of Margaret Scott NORTH nee CROWDEN, born Edinburgh, but apparently marrying and living in Lisbon, Portugal in the 1950s
• any descendants of Isabella Wight SCOTT nee BELL, who married George Gideon SCOTT in 1936 at Innerleithen. 
• any living family for Helen Euphemia Leckie BROWN nee SOUTAR? 

The search might have to go back another generation and down the mtDNA candidates from Jane WIGHT, which might actually be easier.
Surely at least one of the Jane SINTON/James TELFER/TELFORD branch will have a living mtDNA descendant in Australia?

Love to hear from you if you can help in this quest.

How many to go?

As you can probably deduce, I'm a DNA junkie.
Apart from using my autosomal DNA matches (and a lot of genealogical research) to map my chromosomes so that I know (eventually - I hope!) which bits on which chromosomes were inherited from which ancestors*, another of my aims to is document the haplogroups for each of my ancestors out to my 2*great grandparents (at least) -  yDNA and/or mtDNA.

Knowing this data is of help in working with autosomal DNA matches to rule in or out of contention certain lines, and you never do know what else you may learn.

So I thought it was time to take stock.
The above is a screen shot of my ancestry tree pedigree with the symbols I've attached for the appropriate haplogroups where known.

How am I doing?
Grandparents: one to go, George Ernest ANDREWS.
There's a test in progress for a descendant of Simon ANDREWS, due next month.

Great Grandparents: two to go, other than George Gibson ANDREWS who will be sorted next month.
Helen Sinton WIGHT (WorldConnect / WikiTree / Geni / FamilySearch) and
Ellen TURNBULL (WorldConnect / WikiTree / Geni / FamilySearch.

Can you help?
Concentrating on Helen Sinton WIGHT first.
Helen Sinton WIGHT has no living descendants who inherited her mitochondrial DNA.
Working back to her mother, Helen WIGHT nee SINTON (my webpages / WorldConnect / WikiTree) there may be some options, but although (or because) this WIGHT family is the one that started my whole genealogy journey back in the 1970s, it is the least documented, and very poorly sourced given how new I was to this back then! 

Can YOU help by contributing any knowledge you have on descendants of Helen?
The three main collaborative world trees that anyone can access for free, that I follow and work with are: WikiTree, Geni and FamilySearch.
Let's see if we can turn up any living descendants down any of the lines in general, hopefully at least one in particular that carries Helen's mitochondrial DNA AND one who may be convinced to indulge my curiousity.

Both WikiTree and Geni have DNA related tools that can be quickly checked for DNA candidates of interest - and easily rechecked as the tree grows:
WikiTree -  descendants of Helen who have inherited her mtDNA a short list - but I am working on an update as we speak. None on the current list are still with us, and the first two branches I've worked on don't appear to have any likely surviving candidates for mtDNA.
Geni - living descendants of Helen who have inherited her mtDNA (none as at Jul 2016)
FamilySearch - descendants of Helen WIGHT nee SINTON

Regardless of this specific quest for mitochondrial DNA candidates, there may well be some cousins still around who would be most welcome to contribute autosomal DNA and see what that adds to our overall DNA knowledge of connections.
Pop along to my atDNA project FFLornaHen on FamilyTreeDNA and order a FamilyFinder test, or test at Ancestry and then transfer that file to both GEDMatch.comhttp://GEDMatch.com and to FamilyTreeDNA so we can all fish in both ponds for matches and use the tools only available on the latter two sites to make the most of our investment(s).
I'd love to hear from any of you - contact form on most of my webpages.

* the main aim of all that work with my atDNA is to concentrate on the matches at the spots where I don't yet know which ancestor is to blame - can you hear the sounds of the crumbling brickwalls?
A wonderful side effect is of course confirming the family tree, testing theories, and as recently highlighted, finding new siblings for some of the ancestors.
Some of the distant cousins you get to "meet" may even be able to shed more light on our shared ancestors with photos, family knowledge etc.

Naomi

Naomi is a sister of one of the "Seven Daughters of Eve".
This is of interest as the mtDNA results are just in for the direct maternal descendant of Margaret McEWAN, wife of Archibald HENDERSON.
Don't think our overall sum of genealogical knowledge has been advanced a lot, but it is good to know that her descendant belongs to haplogroup W, a subgroup of haplogroup N.
The results did make me check where the direct maternal line led back to, and as a result a few dates have been amended, and an extra generation added - that of George STEVENSON & Jean OSWALL of Stirling, parents of Margaret.

Familton Matriarch

Check the FAMILTON DNA project blog for latest dna results - mtDNA this time.
And as Elizabeth is the mother of Margaret RUNCHAMAN, that's some of the RUNCIMAN mtDNA identified as well.

Nearly the end of 2011 here in NZ, all the best for 2012.

17th: We're all connected really

One of those wonderful coincidences that I love about this hobby.
An email from a (4th) cousin from the WIGHT/RICHARDSON part of my tree, living in Edinburgh, greeted me this morning to point out that his mtDNA "Jasmine" (J) appears to have a fellow Jasmine descendant with Fairbairn ancestry, living in Wyoming.
Given that mtDNA matches fairly seldom result in anything useful within genealogical timeframes, I was treating that as of rather passing mild interest, until I spotted who the person was.
Her brother is represented in the FAIRBAIRN Surname DNA project (F-20) so the FAIRBAIRN is not his mtDNA connection.
Regardless of that, his ancestry is from the same area of Fife as my cousin's, and we have in the past corresponded about these FAIRBAIRNs and their IRELAND connections.
As to whether or not they'll find a match in their respective maternal trees, I do not know, but it does seem a wonderful coincidence that these two "met" and share me as a common contact.

9th: Still no matches

Given Family Tree DNA have just announced some greatly reduced mtDNA testing prices (yes, I've ordered the new Mega, full sequence mtDNA for myself), I also thought it was time I checked whether or not anything had popped up lately re the HENDERSON dna.
No, Bill and Russell, still show as the only matches each has in the entire FT DNA database. Some day, someone else will test that will match and give me some leads as to where Archibald may have come from.

Dec 22, 2007: DNA results

A day for DNA results. Nothing as exciting as the FAIRBAIRNs completely unexpected match with the first SINTON set to arrive back, but one day maybe there will be. At 12 markers, about 1200 tested people share the same dna, but none of them are SINTONs, so any match is unlikely to be in a genealogical timeframe.

I've also had it confirmed that I'm unique. My mtDNA results are also back, with nary a match. The nearest did however have her earliest maternal ancestor from Cambridge, England, which is pretty close to Braintree, Essex where I think mine came from!

Oct 25, 2007: FAIRBAIRN & not forgetting the mothers

Thought I'd better get one of the FAIRBAIRN families a bit more up to date given it is the first that will feature in the FAIRBAIRN surname dna project. Chart updated.
And as for my mtDNA, I found a Nordic & Celtic DNA project, interested in the assorted clans of Europe which seemed rather more relevant than any surname project for mtDNA. I predict a crash course in dna coming up.