Nearly Pure W1

[ChristieMoore3]

Hi all! I'm new to this forum and to using DNA to unlock genealogy information. My full mtDNA results just came back and I am a W1. I copied my results and sent an email to Mark Wade at the thecid.com website last night. Here is what he told me:

"Your result is quite unique. You are nearly a 'pure' W1... Your lineage is unchanged from the original W1 around 15,000 years ago except for one mutation... The 16223t mutation (that most W's have) changed back to 16223c in your line. Other nearly-pure W1s (W1 with only one mutation) are known from the Baltic - North Sea area (Lithuania, Norway, England, Netherlands). What seems to have happened is that there was a small band of Siberian hunters that maintained the original W1 lineage (small population size = less likelihood of mutations over time). They migrated (among the ancestors of the Balts or Finns) to the Baltic coast near Lithuania around 4000 years ago, and then spread via sea routes to Scandinavia, the British Isles, and the Dutch coast.

Your result is unique so far. So no help there on origins. But most likely your ancestors came from England, given the North Carolina origin and result."

Speaking about my Carolina connections, all sides of my families - both paternal and maternal branches - are old Colonial families from Colonial North Carolina and Colonial Virginia. My ancestors were not those immigrating in the 19th or 20th centuries. My people have been here since the 1600's and 1700's.

[Kvenlander]

Hello. I do not have any new insights to you, as there is very little to be found about W1. However, I just wanted to add my five cents to the ancestry since Mark wade refers to that above. Even if your all ancestors are from old colonial families from 1600's and 1700's, there is a slight chance that there is a connection to Finland or Sweden where w1 mtDNA is common: The colony of New Sweden on Delaware river (established 1638) had many Finnish families and those of course stayed there after first Dutch and then subsequent English take-over of the colony. I just recently read a book about this family and it caught my eye that it was mentioned in the book that already during the Swedish in the 1600's rule some of the Finnish families moved from the colony to the English colony of Virginia. It is very likely that some of the women would have been W1 and their names would have been Anglicized early, just like Marttinen became Morton. I am not saying this is the case but it cannot be ruled out just because you trace your ancestry back to the colonies in 1600's. Now, 1500's (or actually pre 1638) would be another matter.
By the way, Y-DNA I-M253 is also the dominant Y-DNA haplogroup in Sweden and in Western Finland.