mt-DNA Haplogroup J

Maternal DNA, mt-DNA, is passed from a mother to her children. The mt-DNA results shared here would trace Ruby Jean (Strunk) Molineux, Jessie Alice (Myers) Strunk, Ida Mae (Ducommun) Myers and so on.

The ancient ancestors of this haplogroup are referred to as The European Travelers. They probably lived in the Near East and migrated widely across Europe. This haplogroup emerged around 50,000 years ago in the Near East, not long after the first modern humans left Africa. About 10&pcnt; of today's Eoropean population belongs to the European Travelers, although they did not arrive in Europe until the end of the last major ice age, about 10,000 years ago.

This timing associates the European Travelers with the Neolithic or late Stone Age peoples, whose emergence is characterized by the rise of advanced farming and herding techniques. Irrigation, pottery and other technologies and cultural hallmarks of advancement came about as a result of this farming lifestyle. Lives were instantly transformed when humans could manage their own food sources and did not have to move with the changing of the seasons or evolving climate just to survive. Crops were eventually produced in surplus, which led to trade. Our ancestors were probably key players in the realization of this critical progress.