DNA Testing Reveals History of Maternal Line

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Maternal Haplogroup: T1a1 T1a1 is a subgroup of T1, which is described below. Haplogroup T1 may have arrived in Britain with the Vikings. Introduction Haplogroup T originated in the Near East about 45,000 years ago, not long after humans emerged from Africa. The haplogroup mostly stayed in place until about 15,000 years ago, when the glaciers that had covered much of Eurasia during the Ice Age began to retreat. As Europe's climate warmed and its long-frozen landscape turned green, people began moving north into the Alps and beyond. Representatives of haplogroup T were among those first post-Ice Age migrants into Europe. Today about 8% of Europeans can trace their maternal ancestry to the haplogroup, although some of them are descended from people who arrived after the advent of agriculture about 10,000 years ago. Haplogroup T can still be found in the Near East as well, where it reaches levels of about 10% among Palestinians, Turks and Syrians. Over the years it has spawned a number of sub-haplogroups, some of which have notable histories of their own. Royal T The mitochondrial DNA of Russia's final Tsar, Nicholas II, falls into the the T haplogroup. According to his genealogical pedigree, which is well-established because of his membership in the European royal house, his maternal ancestry traces back to a 15th-century empress of the Holy Roman Empire who was born in Slovenia. Haplogroup T1 Over the years Haplogroup T has spawned a number of daughter haplogroups, some of which have notable histories of their own. Haplogroup T1 originated about 22,000 years ago, when the main T line was still confined to the Near East. After the development of agriculture in the region some people began traveling westward, bringing their haplogroup as well as their crops and livestock to Europe about 9,000 years ago. They also introduced their languages to Europe. Today nearly every European language, with the notable exception of Basque and a few other isolated languages, stem from the Indo-European tongues spoken by the first Near Eastern farmers. The Basque appear to be descended from pre-agricultural Europeans who managed to remain separate from the new arrivals both linguistically and genetically; although the T1 haplogroup is found in most European populations, it is absent among the Basque. A Rich History Although T1 is relatively rare in Europe today, it appears to have been much more common at some times in the past. Though it is present in only 2% of the modern English population, T1 was found at levels of 23% in DNA extracted from skeletons buried in Norwich, England during the 10th century AD. 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