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Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2005-05 > 1117169805


From: ellen Levy <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] Charles is Jewish
Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 21:56:45 -0700 (PDT)
In-Reply-To: 6667


Hi Robert:

First, a little about the term "Ashkenazi" (plural:
Ashkenazim). In medieval rabbinic literature,
"Ashkenaz" was a word applied to Germany. It also
appears in the Bible, referring to a people residing
in the vicinity of Armenia. Some researchers have
also argued that Khazarian converts who were familiar
with the biblical passages referred to themselves as
"Ashkenazi" when they emigrated to Poland. The
khazarian kingdom existed just north of Armenia,
around the Black Sea in southern Russia.

You ask about "Jewish markers". It should be noted
that there are no haplogroups that can be regarded as
distinctively Jewish - thus, Jews are not a race, but
more properly an ethnic group. They do possess
distinctive haplotypes - for example, MtDNA K among
Jews often has distinctive "Ashkenazi" motifs that are
not generally found among non-Jewish groups.
Jews also retain genetic evidence of their Middle
Eastern ancestry that is much less common in
non-Jewish Europeans: Y haplogroup J1 (about 15-18%),
GxG2 (7-8%) and MtDNA haplogroup N1b (10%). But these
groups are not distinctively "Jewish," just rare in
non-Jewish Europeans. They do occur in low frequency
in other Mediterranean groups (there was a recent
study on Portuguese DNA, for example, that found
plenty of J1) and in much higher frequencies in the
Middle East and North Africa in general. Thus, if you
are non-Jewish northern European with haplogroup J1 or
GxG2 results, it MAY be an indicator of Jewish
ancestry.

You have to remember that the Jewish community in
Europe was extremely small during ancient times.
Researchers estimate the community was composed of
only 20,000 individuals in the 13th century. Thus,
gene flow out of the Jewish community into the general
European population would have had a very small
genetic impact (given the much larger European
population). Gene flow into the community, on the
other hand, would have had a huge genetic impact, as
the Khazarian imput, for example, appears to have had.

However, there does appear to have been significant
gene flow between the ancient Jewish community and
other Mediterranean peoples, particularly Romans,
Greeks and Balkan groups. This admixture probably
affected all these populations. It also impacted the
Jewish population which appears to have received a
huge influx of Greek & Roman converts. Additionally,
there appears to have been a significant Jewish
genetic impact on Spanish & Portuguese groups, as well
as possibly on the Russian population as well.

Ellen Coffman

--- Robert Davenport <>
wrote:
>
>
> I have quite a few Askenazi matches on
> FamilyTreeDNA.
>
> I always thought it ironic that Askenazi ended in
> "nazi," by the way.
>
> Does anyone know which markers and values would
> track as Jewish?
>
> I don't have any known Jewish ancestry, but since
> most of my lines only go
> back to 1600, and they are in Germany, I would think
> it would be easy to
> have Jewish ancestry mixed in there somewhere.
>
> Thanks!
>
>
> ==============================
> Jumpstart your genealogy with OneWorldTree. Search
> not only for
> ancestors, but entire generations. Learn more:
> http://www.ancestry.com/s13972/rd.ashx
>
>

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