A few months ago I hired a genealogist to explore the possibility of my connection to the royal family through my mother’s father, Dallas James, primarily because of the striking resemblance of my relatives to the royal family.  I am still waiting for the results from that search.  The amazing development is that I recently took a Family Tree mitochondrial DNA test, which has returned amazing results. www.familytreedna.com 

Human mitochondria DNA (mtDNA) have distinct properties, which makes it an invaluable tool for genealogical and anthropological study. The fascinating thing is mtDNA is inherited only from the mother. As a result, the study of mtDNA is basically the study of female genetic lines within human populations. 

Mitochondria are present in all human cells and contain their own DNA. Both males and females have mtDNA, but only the mothers pass it on to their children. Therefore, mtDNA is passed from mother to daughter along the female line without any influence from fathers. 

My grandmother, Girlean James was 11 years old when her mother disappeared only to return when my grandmother was 33 years old to visit. She was a white woman who fell in love with a black man during a time when it was illegal for blacks and whites to marry. She passed as a high yellow black woman and married my great grandfather. When her secret was almost out that she was in fact white she rushed to New York to avoid prosecution. She moved to New Rochelle, New York and worked on a ship as a cook for the remainder of her life. My DNA test revealed that I am in Haplogroup-T1. The mitochondria haplogroup T is best characterized as a European lineage. With an origin in the near East greater than 45,000 years ago, the major sub-lineages of haplogroup T entered Europe around the time of the Neolithic 10,000 years ago. Once in Europe, these sub-lineages underwent a dramatic expansion associated with the arrival of agriculture in Europe. The origin of haplogoup T1 dates to at least 6000 years ago, and today, we find haplogroup T1 distributed in populations living in southeast, central, and northwestern Europe. My HVR1 differences from CRS were 16126C 16163G 16186T 16189C 16294T 16519C. I received a list of 1100 email addresses of people from all over the world whose DNA revealed that we shared at least one common ancestor. I have 107 cousins in Germany, 78 cousins in England, 28 in France, 14 in Italy, 16 in the Netherlands, 19 in Norway, 38 in Scotland, 25 in Sweden, 1 in Israel, 77 in Great Britain, 17 in Sicily, 16 Finland etc. etc. etc. 

I am in the process of communicating with these newfound cousins hoping to find my connection to the Queen. Until that connection is found my next project is to explore my African roots through my dad. I want to know what Tribal chief I was related to. Does that sound arrogant?