Being as Richard III did not have any sons, it was mtDNA, from his sister Anne of York that allowed for the identification of the bones.
There were three DNA matches, one of whom belonged to Joy (née Brown) Ipsen, now deceased, courtesy of her son Michael.
In the paraphrased words of Steve St. Clair, administrator of the Clan St. Clair DNA Research Study … There is much more female (mtDNA) in each of our cells than there is male (YDNA). As bones deteriorate, there is more female DNA to test, but the male DNA is much more difficult. There is a technique that replicates the male DNA for such testing, allowing a small amount to be replicated into a large enough sample for the test, but it is an expensive venture.
Richard III’s mother was Cecily Neville, daughter of Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmorland, and his wife Joan Beaufort.
Tracing the female line back from Joan Beaufort, courtesy of Rondo Blue, and this website, should it prove to be accurate, we have:
1. Katherine Swynford, née Roet, born 1350 in Picardy, France, daughter of ———-
2. Catherine de Hainault, born 1320 in Hainault, Belgium, daughter of ———-
3. Jeanne de Valois, born about 1294 in Longpont, Aisné, France, daughter of ———-
4. Marguerite d’Anjou, born about 1273, whose father was Charles II, King of Naples and Jerusalem, her mother was
5. Maria Arpad of Hungary, born about 1258 in Budapest, Hungary, whose father was Stephen V, King of Hungary), her mother was
6. Erszébet of the Kumans, born about 1240, maybe in Cumania.
The Cumans or Kumans are described as a nomadic Turkic people whom the Russians called Polovtsi (the word in old Slavonic for “pale yellowish”). A good history of them and the move into eastern Europe can be found here.
Now for the direct line of descent, as taken from Plantagenet DNA, the DNA of England’s Plantagenet Kings’s, courtesy of Ron Sinclair.
The British genealogist was John Ashdown-Hill. It was he who first contacted Joy (Brown) Ibsen in 2004, when she was aged 78.
1. Starting with Richard’s mother, Cecily Neville, Duchess of York, 1416-1495.
2. Anne of York, Duchess of Exeter, 1439-1476, his sister.
3. Anne St. Leger, 1476-1626.
4. Catherine Manners, 1500-?
5. Barbara Constable, 1525-?
6. Margaret Babthorpe, 1550-1628
7. Barbara Cholmley, 1560-1618
8. Barbara Belasyse 1609-1641
9. Barbara Slingsby 1637-?
10. Barbara Talbot 1665-1763
11. Barbara Yelverton 1687-?
12. Barbara Calthorpe 1716-1782
13. Barbara Gough-Calthorpe 1744-1826
14. Anne Spooner 1780-1873
15. Charlotte Vansittart Neale 1817-1891
16. Charlotte Vansittart Frere 1846-1917?
17. Muriel Stokes 1884-1961
18. Joy Brown (Ibsen) 1926-2008