Does anyone know of a female-only descendant of Catharina van Paliacatta who had their DNA tested?
Such Mitochondrial DNA information would be available if a child (male or female) of a daughter of a daughter ... (back up through females only) of a daughter of Catharina van Paliacatta had his/her Mitochondrial DNA tested to determine the Mitochondrial haplogroup of this lineage.
Only the last child can be a male, as Mitochondrial DNA is only carried further by mothers (not by fathers). Both sons and daughters inherit Mitochondrial DNA from their mothers though.
This is of great interest as there is still some debate on the origins of the Snyman lineage, with suggestions of male progenitors from at least Germany, Bengal and France, and female progenitors from at least Bengal (Catharina) or France.
According to Mansell G. Upham's book: "In hewigen woede" Catharina van Paliacatta is the progenitor of all Snymans, so Catharina forms part and parcel of the question (or of the answer!).
Two examples of continuing debate:
1. One of five goals listed for "The Cape Dutch Y-DNA Stamvader Project" on FamilyTreeDNA is:
SNYMAN - Was Christoffel SNIJMAN the son of Hans Christoffel SNIJMAN or Anthony Jansz DE LATER of Bengale?
(Catharina van Paliacatta was married to Anthony Jansz and she apparently had an illicit relationship with Hans Christoffel Schneider.)
2. Discussion on geni: "Christoffel Snyman, SV/PROG - Is Snyman derived from Seugnet (Senaye) (Senayement =? from Senaye)"
In this discussion (http://www.geni.com/discussions/125743) the question is asked if Snyman could have had French ancestors, due to him signing his surname as "Senayement" at his wedding and baptisms of his children, and references to surnames similar to Senayement in early French Huguenot lists (including Tenayement) etc. There is also a reference to old records by Anthony Turton noting that Christoffel Snyman's parents were from Flanders.
I was asked by a curator of "The Cape Dutch Y-DNA Stamvader Project" to get my DNA tested, which I did. Those results were the first Snyman DNA results available for genealogical research as far as I known. Assuming this sample of one is valid (no adoptions), it seems clear that Christoffel Snyman was of European descent, but it could be German or French etc. The majority people with that haplogroup (M253) is actually Scandinavian!
If there are people (male or female) whose female lineage goes back to Catharina van Paliacatta, SM/PROG, a relatively simple (cheap) genealogical test could show whether Catharina van Paliacatta was actually the SM/PROG of all the Snymans, or if the other theories (French) are plausible.
I tried to search for geni profiles that are in female lineage of Catharina van Paliacatta, but the tool I'm using (http://historylink.herokuapp.com/graph) seems to be very inefficient for this purpose. Is there perhaps other tools to try to find descendants in the female line only?
(Thanks to Piet Retief Venter for starting a discussion on Maternal lineage Progenitors which sparked this posting.)
