Erik Bjarling

Erik has a high level mtDNA match to the Oxendine family line. You can read about the mtDNA matching results of Elizabeth and Ailsey Oxendine

Here's Erik's message to me:

Lisa,

Unfortunately, there is no female in my direct female line in TN around 1940. I'm Q3TGF on Mitosearch.org, and you can see that my line is Norwegian. Clearly, a perfect HVR1 and HVR2 match means we have a common ancestor, but not in any meaningful time frame.

Your genealogy webpage is absolutely fascinating, especially the details about the Lumbee and Croatan tribes. I spent more than an hour reading stuff. That was before I looked at your "main" website and spent another half-an-hour spellbound. (I wonder if mtDNA has any connection to personality; I noticed that you're into many of the same things that I am - respect for nature, compassion for other people, gardening, mountain biking, Tolkein novels - but you're life is supercharged, whereas I'm just kind of treading water.)

I've noticed, in a general, non-scientific sense, that mitochondrial haplogroup T* seems to cluster in a broad crescent extending from Turkey, southeastern Europe (such as Romania), up through Germany, Poland, western Russia (such as St. Petersburg), and finally, into the British Isles and Scandinavia. Look at the mtDNA search page in FTDNA and you will also see this trend. So my gut feeling is that the mystery woman who had four kids with Hilson Oxendine is southeastern European or Anatolian. I've read that some "Melungeons" can trace their roots to Turkey. Perhaps you might consider taking part in some kind of Melungeon DNA test that would look at your maternal line?

Good luck!

I plugged our specific HVR1 + HVR2 into the FBI's mtDNA Population Database and it points to a probable German origin for our common maternal ancestor (including Oxendine's mystery wife / lover). See attached files.

- Erik Bjarling

erikbjarling - AT - yahoo.com

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