DNA Testing

Curious about his family history, photographer Dannee Hazama from Polynesia, ordered Ethnicity, Common Male and Common Female Ancestor DNA Tests.

In 2007 Danee visited Asia documenting the indigenous peoples of Taiwan. He was doing a exposition on the ancient connection between Polynesia and their Asian homeland.

1. His Common Female Ancestor DNA Test results showed that his maternal lineage traced back to a woman who belonged to Haplogroup A. His Common Female Certificate had the following mtDNA test results:

Danees report contained genetic and archaelogical information about his Haplogroup. For example, Danee’s maternal ancestor line is thought to have lived about 30,000-40,000 years ago in Siberia and then migrated to the Americas. Sometime between the start of this maternal line and its eventual colonization of the entire North and South American continents, Haplogroup A colonized Beringia (Alaska and the land bridge connecting North America and Asia during the last ice age). After settling in Beringia for a number of years, Danee’s maternal line crossed the Alberta ice-free corridor and spread throughout the American continent. Eventually, the land bridge became flooded with the end of the ice age isolating those peoples still in Beringia, the Na-Dene and Inuit, from those that traveled south, the Amerind-speaking people. Haplogroup A is now found in high proportions among the Chukchi, the Eskimo-Aleuts, the Na-Dene and the Amerind populations.

The Haplogroup A lineage has been subdivided into several subgroups A1 to A5. Most Native Americans that are Haplogroup A, fall into the sub group A2 which has the DNA motif 16111T, 16223T, 16290T, 16319A, 16362C. Sub group A3 carries the Beringian-specific 16192T. Haplogroup A4 is very widely spread in Asia, representing about 10% of Chinese. Haplogroup A5 appears to be isolated to the Japanese and Koreans.

The Ice Maiden belonged to Haplogroup A. She was a12-14 year old girl who was apparently sacrificed by Inca priests 500 years ago. She was a frozen and well preserved mummy, discovered in September 1995 on Mt. Ampato in the Peruvian Andes by anthropologist Johan Reinhard and Miguel Zarate. Her mtDNA was analyzed at The Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, Maryland. Some mtDNA from a heart sample was analyzed and scientists concluded that the Ice Maiden belonged to the native American Indian Haplogroup A. Scientists concluded that she was slender in build, had not suffered any illness, had perfect teeth and strong bones, and had a well balanced diet. She appeared to have fasted one day before sacrifice and had a fissure to the skull.

2. His Common Male Ancestor DNA Test results showed that his paternal lineage traced back to a man who belonged to Haplogroup O. His Common Male Certificate had the following DNA test results:

Danees report contained genetic and archaelogical information about his Haplogroup. A large part of Y chromosome lineages in Eastern Europe and East Asian human populations belong to Haplogroup NO, which is composed of two sister clades N (M231) and O (M175). The O-clade is relatively old (~ 30 thousand years) and encompasses the vast majority of east and Southeast Asian male lineages, as well as significant proportion of those in Oceanian males. Haplogroup O probably originated in East Asia and later migrated into the South Pacific. The lineage expanded into Taiwan (high frequency in the aboriginal Taiwanese), Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia.

Haplogroup O is divided into sub-groups. Haplogroup O3 is the predominant sub-group in China. The O1 and O2a lineages are found in Southeast Asian populations of Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and southern China. The O2b sub-group is of high frequency in the Japanese and Korean populations. Taiwanese Aborigines all belong to Haplogroup O in particular Haplogroup O1a. Genetic data show that the Polynesians and Micronesians are most closely related to Taiwan Aborigines and East Asians. They support the view that these migrating seafarers originated in Taiwan and coastal China at least 3,500 years ago.

Recent advances in genetic testing have put the answers to genealogy questions like these at your fingertips. Whether your goal is to assist in validating your eligibility for government entitlements, such as Native American Rights or just to satisfy your curiosity, Ancestry DNA testing is the only scientifically rigorous method available for this purpose in existence today.