Courtesy of  Hawkesbury-Nepean Chapter Fellowship of  First  Fleeters

ELIZABETH PULLEY – DNA RESULTS

Our member Monica Hutchinson is a direct “female to female” descendant of our ancestor Elizabeth Pulley. Monica was very pleased to be asked to do a DNA test for us, and she is very happy for us to share the results with everyone.

We did a Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) test which shows us the complete profile that Monica inherited from her mother. As this profile was passed unchanged from daughter to daughter, then this is the same profile that belonged to Elizabeth Pulley.

This means that we now know which mtDNA group Elizabeth Pulley is in, and where her ancestral female roots are from.

Elizabeth Pulley ‘s MtDNA group is U4d

To clarify this further, we did an autosomnal test for Monica. The autosomnal test shows us the historical makeup for Monica herself, which is mostly British Isles based. We are already aware that Monica’s history is British, but it also confirms that Elizabeth Pulley’s background was basically British.

The mtDNA results show that although Elizabeth Pulley was born in England, her most distant female ancestor lived in the Ukraine 18,000 years ago. That early ancestor’s name is given as Ulrike by DNA scientists. 2% of Europeans share this ancestry. U4d is a rare group, but it is found in other Norfolk descendants. It will be interesting to see how many other links we can make to this group as time goes on. Many women from Norfolk and surrounds were sent to Australia as convicts. It will be exciting when many more convict descendants do their DNA testing. We may then see changes in the numbers of people in various groupings currently known to have come from Norfolk.

For present purposes, this means that anyone else who is a direct female to female descendant of Elizabeth will have the same mtDNA group. If you are a male but your mother was a direct female to female descendant of Elizabeth Pulley, you will also have the same mtDNA group of U4d. However, for males, this group will stop with you as your children will have their mother’s mtDNA.

Monica has made several links to cousins through the family tree dna

website, where the autosomnal results have been made available to share with people who match her profile. These links have been very exciting confirmations of her family and have added to her nderstanding of her own family history.

The mtDNA test is expensive so you may not be able to afford it. However, I do encourage members to do the cheaper autosomnal test if they wish to explore new branches of their own family tree.

Article submitted by Eileen Reid with kind permission of the Rope Pulley Heritage Association