Mother’s Day 2020

Every last one of the people in this photo shares mitochondrial DNA with The Legal Genealogist:

Front row (L-R): my aunt Cladyne; my mother Hazel, called Totsy; my grandmother, called Mama Clay; my aunt Carol; my aunt Marianne; and my aunt Trisha. Back row (L-R): my uncle Billy; my uncle Monte; my uncle David; my uncle Jerry; and my uncle Mike.

And when better than Mother’s Day 2020 to honor that whitehaired woman in the front row — my mother’s mother, Opal (Robertson) Cottrell, 1898-1995 — whose 10 living children were all at her side on that summer day in 1985?

My grandmother received her mitochondrial DNA — mtDNA for short — from her mother, my great grandmother Eula (Baird) Robertson, who received it from her mother, my second great grandmother Martha Louisa (Shew) Baird Livingston, who received it from her mother, my third great grandmother Margaret (Battles) Shew and so on back through the generations.¹

She passed her mitochondrial DNA — mtDNA for short — to all of her children,² 12 in total and the 10 who survived to adulthood and are pictured above.³

Each of those daughters passed that same mtDNA on to all of their children; and their daughters passed it to all of their children; and so on down the generations.

The mtDNA lives on…

Happy Mother’s Day.

Cite/link to this post: Judy G. Russell, “Happy mtDNA Day 2020!,” The Legal Genealogist (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : posted 10 May 2020).

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