GENEALOGY-DNA-L Archives

Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2007-04 > 1176685652


From: ellen Levy <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] Malaspina et al (2001)'s Cohens -- an answer ?
Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2007 18:07:32 -0700 (PDT)
In-Reply-To: <f3f05ce80704151737s556cc0bcu10e99e112ef2a3d9@mail.gmail.com>


Dienekes:

I don't know what the frequency of the 12-marker CMH
is in non-Jewish samples, do you? Or what the SNP
results are of non-Jewish CMH samples.

This is anecdotal evidence, obviously, but I'll keep
saying it, because along with insightful lay studies
on DNA like Bonnie performs, it is one of the few bits
of actual DNA evidence we have right now. My
grandfather is Cohanim. He has the 12-marker CMH and
has been SNP'd J1. He matches many (and I do mean
very many) other Cohanim, both Sephardic and
Ashkenazim, also SNP'd J1 with the CMH. I haven't
heard of any other similar group (yes, there are
smaller groups with traditions of being Levites or
Cohanim in other haplogroups and with other
haplotypes, but nothing the size of the J1 Cohanim
group that I am aware of).

You are correct in noting that we don't know whether
the TMRCA for the J1 Cohanim will date back to the
Bronze Age. Not yet. But like Bonnie, in time, I
believe the studies will show that it does indeed date
back to that time. I don't know why a study on this
topic hasn't been published yet, but I wouldn't assume
it is because the data is not available or it is
contradictory. Hammer hasn't exactly been prolific in
publishing anything in the DNA field these days. And
Behar seems to be working mostly on Jewish mtDNA
issues.

I don't necessarily think, however, that a Bronze Age
date will make the J1 CMH more "authentic" or
"genuine" than later Cohanim lineages in other
haplogroups. That terminology makes me a bit
uncomfortable. The R1a Levites are "legitimate" or
"genuine" Levites despite having a probable origin
among non-ethnic Israelites. An R1b Cohanim, even if
shown to be of European origin, would be just as
genuine a Cohanim as a J1 "Israelite" Cohanim.

Ellen Coffman

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