Richard III of England - Richard Plantagenet-DNA Question

I'm afraid that your contribution wouldn't be very helpful. Richard III was identified through the contribution of a man who descended from Richard's mother Cecily in the direct female line. As we inherit our mitochondria, relatively unchanged, from our direct female line, the man who contributed his genetic material and Richard III had the same mitochondria, as they both descend in the direct female line from Cecily Neville, Richard III's mother. You descend from Cecily Neville too (through her daughter Anne), but her mitochondria is not the same as your mitochondria as Cecily is not your direct female ancestor. Cecily would have to be your mother's mother's mother's, etc. Any time a man enters the chain of inheritance from Cecily Neville, the mitochondria changes in the next generation.

I hope that makes sense! If I wasn't clear, here's a link that explains the inheritance of mitochondrial DNA pretty well: https://phillipsdnaproject.com/faq-sections/144-mitochondrial-dna-e...

Thank you for your response. It is very confusing! I read an article that there had been 2 men, one named and the 2nd wished to remain private, that contributed their DNA which positively ID'd Richard III's remains. I swear I read that one of the men descended from Anne of York. This is what made me curious as it is my grandmother's line to Anne. I understand what you are saying but it's hard to wrap my head around this when it was a male's DNA that led to the discovery. I will definitely check out your link and hopefully it will help to get this whole mitochondrial DNA thing straight in my boggled mind. Lol. Thanks again!

Hi Dawn
I agree, it is very difficult to understand DNA testing. I'm still learning but wonder if this helps.
In this case they were able to use Mitochondrial DNA, which descend from the mother in a direct line. After locating the descendant, as Emily explains, going through the maternal line, then even though this was from a males DNA, it was still his maternal mitochandrial DNA which was analysed. Richard didn't have any male descendant in direct line and neither did his brothers, as far as we know, so the Y couldn't be directly used.
So for your DNA to be used you would also have to have a clear direct maternal line to Cecily/Anne being your 16th great maternal grandmother - never having any paternal grandmother links during the generations.
Unsure if this helps or confuses but thought I would give a try in explaining. Good luck

They could use the male DNA going upp to Edvard III. The problem was that there were broken links due to infidelity in the line. http://www.le.ac.uk/richardiii/science/familytreeMale.html
In the female line every person must be a female except for the very last in line now living person. http://www.le.ac.uk/richardiii/science/familytree.html

They're still trying to figure out exactly where the broken links occurred. One of them was fairly recent, as one of the Somerset testees did not match the other four (and didn't match Richard either - none of them did).

The Somerset line is a lot longer, with accordingly more opportunity for cuckoos to appear, and several instances where the game was not being played according to Hoyle.

Seven American lineages have been identified as matches and I'm working with the author of this paper, Ian Logan to help find the direct female descendants. It's going to be difficult as so much was not recorded about women, but since 2 of the lineages are part of my line, I'm going to be sorting through as best I can.
Here's the link for the paper:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&sou...

Interesting, but hardly conclusive, since the female lineage is unknown pastward of Katherine Swynford and they could possibly be collaterals of *her* line.

Thanks for the discussion and links everyone. I do understand and my family line would be a wash. We aren't direct maternal or paternal descendants. My DNA at Ancestry shows I am more of English descent which kind of surprised me since my mother and her side are German. I haven't progressed that side of my tree very far yet as my dad's side has kept me too captivated. This all started with me wanting to find my link to Hannah Dustin, The Indian Slayer who turns out to be my 8th Great Grandmother. From there I linked into the World Family Tree and off I went. This genealogy thing is fascinating and addicting!

I had a mtDNA match to Richard III. My results were only just recently updated to include him and Jesse James.

Well, I finally found my connection to King Richard III. I had a DNA (maternal and paternal) match to him but had difficulties finding the connection. He is one of my great grandfathers. I found the information on the Mormon genealogical website.

The “case of too many Richards”...it was actually his father that was my great...grandfather. This Richard was my apparently my uncle.