Sephardic Jewish DNA

[jnu]

Hi folks, just wondering what you would expect to see in a autosomal DNA test if you have Sephardic ancestry. I cant seem to find site that tests it.

[whiteout7]

Read this link, very interesting " "Sephardic" should be taken to mean the classical definition of term; Jews with roots in the Iberian Peninsula. In other words descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jews, not Middle Eastern Mizrahi Jews. According to tradition, Sephardic Jews descend from the Jewish exiles that were expelled from the Land of Israel to Spain in the year 70 by the Romans."
https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/dominicansephardim/about/results

[jnu]

Thank you for that reply, it was a very interesting article  . I have a small amount of middle eastern 2% and 11% iberian/southern European shown in my autosomal DNA test taken through ancestry and FTDNA. I was wondering if this is due to my Sephardic Jewish grtgrt grandfather?

[shellyesq]

One of my husband's grandfathers was descended solely (as far as the paper trail shows) from Russian Jews.  The remainder of my husband's ancestors were northern European Christians.  My husband's DNA test showed, among other things, 20% European Jewish, 6% Iberian Peninsula, 2% Middle East, and <1% Caucasus.  I figured those results were likely from the Jewish portion of the family.

[hdw]

I've posted about this on other threads, but one more time won't hurt.

My original results from the FTDNA FamilyFinder test were:

63% British Isles
32% Western & Central Europe
5% Finland and Northern Siberia.

My revised results are:

52% British Isles
33% Scandinavian
11% Iberian
3% Sephardic Jewish
with a trace element of West Middle East.

I'm a Lowland Scot with a well-researched family-tree showing Scottish, Northern English and Ulster Presbyterian ancestry. So the Iberian and Sephardic components are rather exotic. Maybe the Iberian element comes from the fact that my Y DNA R1b ancestors would have spent the last Ice Age in the Iberian refuges before heading up the Atlantic seaways to the British Isles. I know that DNA changes very slowly. As for the Sephardic 3%, I suspect this is a blanket term for southern and eastern Mediterranean. My mtDNA is haplogroup J, which is supposed to have originated in the Middle East. Although the first agriculturists brought that haplogroup into Europe during the Neolithic, it's still commonest among the Bedouin!

Harry

[hdw]

I meant to add that the 33% Scandinavian I now have might represent a re-classification of my Angle ancestry, which was probably responsible for the 32% Western & Central Europe they gave me before. The Scots and the northern English must have a strong element of Angle ancestry, and as they came from the area between north Germany and southern Denmark, I suppose you could classify them as either German (West European) or Scandinavian.

It would be good if the testing agencies would make their ethnic classification criteria clear.

Harry

[hongkong1956]

I also have through DNA testing Sephardic ancestry.  Does anyone know of any families living in Cambridgeshire around 1790 or earlier.  It looks like a gggg grandmother was.  Thank you

[hongkong1956]

I tested with FTDNA for mothers line and Ancestry.com for autosomal.  It seems my English female ancestors were likely Sephardic although I can only come up with a woman who was born in Ely, Cambridgeshire around 1795.  I know who she married but have only her first name.  I'm wondering if her father might have worked at Cambridge.  Most Sephardic people would have lived in London.  Just wondering if anyone has any ideas.  Thank you.