Hettie Brown

MtDNA and Ethnicity

Mitochondrial (mtDNA) testing is for female to female lineage.
Grace Perryman Roberts granddaughter of Hettie Brown Johnson and daughter of Carline Johnson took the HVR1 and HVR2 testing through Family Tree DNA 1/25/2007. Her haplogroup tested at L1c2. L1c (noted on FTDNA's website) is found in Africa and dates to approximately 60,000 years ago with the highest frequency in central and southeast Africa. Unfortunately we cannot upgrade to a specific subclade because Grace's DNA degraded in storage. At the time of her testing only one tube was taken. President and Founder of FTDNA Bennett Greenspan personally confirmed that further testing could not be done. Grace died at 106 years old in 2011. It would have been advantageous to be able to have autosomal DNA testing done as well.
However, Grace matched to a Latressa G-----. Latressa's female line goes back to a Bettie Alexander. This is where it gets very interesting.
Bettie's 1870 census' records indicate that her mother Delia (black) born in 1830 Virginia according to 1870 census and North Carolina in 1880 census and father William Alexander (black) born in 1812 came from Virginia in 1860, presumably enslaved. Bettie was born about 1861 in Mississippi or Virginia.
Are Bettie and Hettie sisters? MtDNA would indicate they are related but it could be thousand of years ago. MtDNA does not mutate as often as Y DNA. Y DNA can be measured in closer generations by its mutations and SNP matches.
Is Delia a Brown?
Autosomal DNA from other family members indicate we descend from a Brown surname based on the plentitude of Brown's in the matches. Indeed, I have tracked an autosomal match to Elizabeth Brown of Virginia. Do you recall the story of ghostly lights appearing in the North Carolina "Brown" mountain? That land was owned by Elizabeth. Latressa also matches through autosomal DNA to the same Brown match as a Perryman-Johnson male. Fascinating stuff! Further work needs to be done on the Brown name as the common ancestor.
Documentation also shows that Hettie and Bettie had a close personal relationship in Kemper County, MS.
In her 1906 probate record the Judge makes a comment about Hettie being at Ben Eichelberger's funeral. Ben was the first husband of Bettie. In addition it appears that Bettie married secondly a George Brown. Is this George the same person as Louvenia's son named George? Age is the same but Louvenia's son is living in 1940 with his daughter and Bettie Alexander Brown is listed as widowed (by whom?) and living with her daughter in 1930.
The relationship with the Brown's and Johnson's are plentiful as George (Louvenia Brown's son) and his wife Sue had 5 children . Their three daughters married Johnson brothers (sons of Frank Marion Johnson, grandsons of Jack Johnson 1820).