New Mexico Genetic Genealogy

Our Indigenous Roots

Investigating, acknowledging, practicing and collaborating.

Consciousness

Background

Colonial New Mexico settlement occurred at various times by both large and small family groups. Genealogies tracing to this time period can often be quite challenging as many have papertrail roadblocks. Those that are traceable deep into this era can be traced to the first settlement by Juan de Oñate in 1598 and others to settlers of the Reconquest, Mexican or Territorial periods. In many cases, lineages are showing traceability to known Native American ancestors of classifications such as Genízaros, Coyotes, or simply Indio.

DNA is a tool that can help confirm or distinguish branches of the same surname, help these roadblocks by possibly linking them to surname lineages or family branches that have been confirmed using paper trail and DNA comparisons. The New Mexico Genealogical Society has well known genealogists and volunteers that assist inthe researching, validating, and finalizing genealogies associated with this project.

NMGS DNA PROJECT

Human Migration

Migration is defined as “movement from one country, place or locality to another.” Ever since the earliest humans began to spread from Africa, humans have been on the move. Even today, 3 percent of the world’s population—at least 258 million people—live outside of their country of origin. Whether voluntary or forced, migration has profoundly shaped our world.

By National Geographic

High-Resolution SNPs and Microsatellite Haplotypes Point to a Single, Recent Entry of Native American Y Chromosomes into the Americas
Stephen L. Zegura, Tatiana M. Karafet, Lev A. Zhivotovsky, Michael F. Hammer

Native American mtDNA prehistory in the American Southwest
Ripan S Malhi¹, Holly M Mortensen, Jason A Eshleman, Brian M Kemp, Joseph G Lorenz, Frederika A Kaestle, John R Johnson, Clara Gorodezky, David Glenn Smith

Using peer reviewed research is critical to understanding the Nuevomexicano data.

mtDNA Connections

Pearl is my paternal grandmother. Via my father’s mtDNA test, the results for this maternal line is Haplogroup X2a1b. My father has matches to folks who are current members of the Ojibwee tribe which are part of the Algonquian language group. Among many tribes, both the Cheyenne and Arapahoe belong to this language group, both of whom were heavily impacted by Ute and Comanche slave trade into NM in the 18^th century.

Although this mtDNA lineage ends with Ygnacia Villapando per a paper trail, it matches a another mtDNA individual tested who traces to Maria Catarina de la Trinidad Villapando, wife of Marcos Antonio Alire who lived at Bosque. This is the same place and time that Ygnacia lived. We can presume that they are sisters. Catarina is a confirmed daughter of Manuela Martin and Cristobal Villapando (Coyotes), and there is an extreme high probability they are also parents of Ygnacia. Haplogroup X2a1b is a minority in Nuevomexicano mtDNA and data suggests that this DNA occurs in high frequency in the Great Lakes region and the aforementioned Algonquian language group.