14 May 2017

Happy Mothers' Day Mitochondrial DNA haplogroup H7e!

A couple of years ago I posted a Mother's Day homage to my mother's mother's mother's line (mitochondrial haplogroup L2a1l2a). This year let's talk about my father's mother's mother's mother's line (mtDNA haplogroup H7e).
 
Happy Mother's Day to my late grandmother Dora, great grandmother Sarah, great great grandmother Ida (Chaye Sura) and my great great great grandmother Devora!

I do not know Devora Kesselman's maiden name (if she had one). Nor do I know if she and her husband Baruch Yisrael Kesselman had any children beyond my great great grandmother Chaya Sura. 


Morris family: (l-r) Jeannette, Max, Sarah, Murray, Esther and Dora; inset is Saul
Chaye Sura adopted the name Ida after she arrived in the USA with her husband David Malzmann (later Myers) in 1913. She was born about 1844 in the Russian Empire and died in the Bronx on 16 November 1926. David and Ida had six children: Myer, Sarah (my great grandmother), Rebecca, Louis, Joseph and Harry. It would seem to me that some member of the Myers family must have some photos of David and Ida Myers. But, so far, I have not located anyone with a family archive.

My great grandmother Sarah was born about 1876 in Labun, Volhynia Gubernia, Russian Empire and married Itzig Mazewitsky. She died on 9 August 1956 in the Bronx. Itzig adopted the name Isidor Morris upon immigration to New York City in 1906. Sarah followed with their children in 1910. She and Isidor had six children: Dora (my grandmother), Jeannette, Max, Murray, Esther and, their only US-born child, Saul.

Isidor and Sarah's eldest child was my grandmother, Dora. She married her first cousin (Isidor Morris' sister's son) Jack Garber in New York City in 1916. Dora  (originally Dvora) was born in Labun about 1897 and died in Brooklyn in 1954. Jack and Dora had three children: Leah, Bernard and Leonard.

Two of my cousins tested to identify this line's mtDNA haplogroup. One is a grandchild of Sarah Myers Morris and the other is a great grandchild. Interestingly, they are each other's only exact matches for mtDNA. There are 45 matches at a genetic distance (mutation) of 1; 39 at 2 and 6 at 3. This indicates the possibility of a fairly recent mutation separating this line from others in the haplogroup. If we ever find another previously unpredicted exact match, we'll likely have a cousin.

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