On September 8th, I posted my first blog post about genetic testing results from 23andMe regarding Kalonji’s maternal haplogroup. This time, I’m posting about his paternal haplogroup.
Kalonji’s paternal haplogroup is E1b1a7a.
This haplogroup is subgroup of E1b1a. E1b1a has its origins in sub-saharan Africa. This of course is not surprising to us given Kalonji’s descent from former slaves. The 23andMe site shares the information that
E1b1a is also the most common haplogroup among African-American male individuals. About 60% of African-American men fall into this haplogroup primarily due to the Atlantic slave trade, which drew individuals from western Africa and Mozambique, where E1b1a is accounts for the majority of men.
At this point, I am unsure of what to take away from this, except, that as Kalonji gets matches in Relative Finder knowing the haplogroup will help differentiate shared ancestry among paternal vs. maternal lines. The Relative Finder feature in 23andMe is awesome! The next posts will describe our experiences with that. Stay tuned 🙂
I Love your blog and your posts about 23and me are very interesting. One thing–the haplogroups of your cousins in your Relative Finder will not help you to differentiate between paternal and maternal matches. Your haplogroup represents only one line in your tree. The Mt Haplogroup is your mother’s, mother’s, mother’s line and a man’s Y Haplogroup is his father’s, father’s, father’s line. Many of your cousins will NOT share your haplogroup and even if some happen to, it only signifies that you share an ancestor with that person sometime in history–not necessarily within 5, 10, or even 15 generations! And even someone who has the same Maternal Haplogroup as you may in fact be related to you on your father’s side!
Another thing–you would probably consider your father, paternal grandmother, and maternal grandfather CLOSE relationships, right? You do not have the same Maternal Haplogroup as your father nor your paternal grandmother and a man does not have the same Paternal Haplogroup as his maternal grandfather. So even someone as close to you as your parents and grandparents will likely have a different Haplogroup than you.
Relative Finder includes Haplogroups just for knowledge but they have no basis on the matches you have. All of your Relative Finder matches come from your other 22 chromosomes and your X. Hope this helps! 🙂
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for the comment! Since posting this, I have come to understand that indeed, knowing the haplogroup won’t help differentiate the two sides. I have been extremely fascinated with the results we are finding. I am wondering if we’ll ever find a documentable connection for some of these :-). So much to explore!
Hi Taneya,
I know! I have 5 family members tested (pre-RITF) and 5 more in RITF that are being processed. It is so neat to see the various cousins that pop up in Relative Finder. I hope someday to be able to find some paper trails. 🙂
Will all the females in my family have the same haplogroup? I did the 23andme test and my Paternal Haplogroup:E1b1a7a and Maternal Haplogroup:K2a
Yes, all children of one woman will have her maternal haplotype. The woman passes it down to her sons and daughters through the DNA of the mitochondria.
Thanks, that just made the search for my maternal line harder to research because I don’t know of any Europeans on my mother’s side! 1880 census is the only record I have from my maternal line and she was listed as mulatto like every other black person in those days, but thanks!
Has Kalonji learned much more things about his origins? My haplogroup is also E1b1a7a and I am bantu, from the Democratic Republic of Congo. I am trying to rebuild my father’s paternal family origins.
Hi Jean – we’ve not explored which tribes he may have ancestry from. It has not been a research priority for us. Best wishes to you as you seek your father’s origins!
Hi,Taneya. For your information (but I suppose that you already know it): Kalonji is a very common and typical name of Luba people (Democratic Republic of Congo). Thanks.
Thanks for sharing that Jean!