Glad to find you, and especially because you're discussing Jewish genealogy. Can you do more talks about tracing genealogy in Europe and Russia? Also more education on DNA (for beginners)? Awesome info! ❤️
Hi Jarrett, Taz here from Rootstech in Salt Lake City. Hope you are going well! I am enjoying your videos and watching with interest. Loved your recent Amsterdam video. Most of my more recent Jewish ancestors lived in Amsterdam, then moved to London in the 18th and early 19th centuries. I have a quick question about AncestryDNA. I cannot remember exactly how much Sephardic background you have, other than it being an overall minority for you. Some of my 3rd and 4th cousins still have an entirely Jewish recent ancestry, and a few of them have as much as 1/16 or 1/8th Sephardic origin on paper (surnames like Mendoza, Gomes, da Costa and so on). Despite this, their latest AncestryDNA results are indicating 98-100% Ashkenazi Jewish origin, and only 0-2% Sephardic. One of my distant matches is a Rabbi, who does have one Sephardic parent and one Ashkenazi parent. His estimate reads 55% Sephardic, 39% Ashkenazi, with the remainder being various Mediterranean and Middle Eastern elements that can be expected. So, clearly for some people, the new Sephardic DNA panel is accurately assigned, but for others, it's hit-and-miss. For those with a majority Ashkenazi background, the identifiably Sephardic DNA is being disproportionately drowned out by Ashkenazi, on this test. Regardless, I would imagine that some fully Sephardic folks would incidentally score a percentage of Ashkenazi DNA, due to the genetic overlap and shared ancestry that exists between the two groups. How are the new AncestryDNA estimates looking for you and your folks?
Hey Taz, I definitely remember you! I don't have enough experience with the new Ancestry results to know for certain, but my guess is that your match who has a Sephardic parent is from an Eastern Sephardic community as opposed to a Western Sephardic community, such as the Amsterdam community. Basically, their reference population may have a bias towards the Eastern Sephardic communities. For my own families' results, the Sephardic component has been there, but at a much smaller amount than expected. For my mom, she would expect about 14% Sephardic DNA and the rest Ashkenazi, but she only gets 1% Sephardic, along with about 6% in non-Ashkenazi communities, and then 93% Ashkenazi.
@@GeneaVlogger Of course, it feels like yesterday, yet it was already 7 months ago! Thanks for this reply, it was helpful and insightful. Yes, now that you mention it, I think you're correct on this. Most "pure" Sephardim around today are Eastern Sephardim, and they would have constituted most of the sample panel for Ancestry DNA's category. In comparison, there are not as many "pure" Western Sephardim left. Some, if not a majority, of those Western Sephardim who relocated to Amsterdam and/or London have intermixed, to varying extents, with Ashkenazic families by now (and we happen to be the product). So it makes sense that Ancestry's 'Sephardic' category is biased towards the Eastern Sephardim. Plus, there would have been a little bit of additional genetic drift over the last few centuries to further skew it in favour of Eastern Sephardim at the expense of Western. I have always had a hunch that the 'Ashkenazi' category used by Ancestry and others is somewhat broad, as it does cover up/encompass some slight but noteworthy variations in ancestry. Western Ashkenazim (in this case excluding the community of local French Jews whose core population never left Alsace Lorraine in the last millennium or so) have less Eastern European admixture than Eastern Ashkenazim have (only by a few percentage points, but still a notable distinction). Other than that, it is of course regarded as a homogenous and insular group. In the absence of rigorous sampling of Western Sephardim, it is interesting to us that some/much of that origin is perceived by AncestryDNA to befit the Ashkenazi category. Looking forward to seeing the future advancements in this space - one day there will probably be more granularity and clarity to all of this. Also, I didn't know what the Rabbi's parentage is, as he didn't have a family tree up, but my guess is that you're right, he would most likely be half-Eastern Sephardic. Thanks so much Jarrett, take care, I'll keep tuning in to your videos and comment if justified.
Glad to find you, and especially because you're discussing Jewish genealogy. Can you do more talks about tracing genealogy in Europe and Russia? Also more education on DNA (for beginners)? Awesome info! ❤️
I missed this booo.... I have been working on online training and on my family book I totally missed the notification
Hi Jarrett,
Taz here from Rootstech in Salt Lake City. Hope you are going well!
I am enjoying your videos and watching with interest. Loved your recent Amsterdam video.
Most of my more recent Jewish ancestors lived in Amsterdam, then moved to London in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
I have a quick question about AncestryDNA. I cannot remember exactly how much Sephardic background you have, other than it being an overall minority for you.
Some of my 3rd and 4th cousins still have an entirely Jewish recent ancestry, and a few of them have as much as 1/16 or 1/8th Sephardic origin on paper
(surnames like Mendoza, Gomes, da Costa and so on).
Despite this, their latest AncestryDNA results are indicating 98-100% Ashkenazi Jewish origin, and only 0-2% Sephardic.
One of my distant matches is a Rabbi, who does have one Sephardic parent and one Ashkenazi parent.
His estimate reads 55% Sephardic, 39% Ashkenazi, with the remainder being various Mediterranean and Middle Eastern elements that can be expected.
So, clearly for some people, the new Sephardic DNA panel is accurately assigned, but for others, it's hit-and-miss.
For those with a majority Ashkenazi background, the identifiably Sephardic DNA is being disproportionately drowned out by Ashkenazi, on this test.
Regardless, I would imagine that some fully Sephardic folks would incidentally score a percentage of Ashkenazi DNA, due to the genetic overlap and shared ancestry that exists between the two groups.
How are the new AncestryDNA estimates looking for you and your folks?
Hey Taz, I definitely remember you!
I don't have enough experience with the new Ancestry results to know for certain, but my guess is that your match who has a Sephardic parent is from an Eastern Sephardic community as opposed to a Western Sephardic community, such as the Amsterdam community. Basically, their reference population may have a bias towards the Eastern Sephardic communities. For my own families' results, the Sephardic component has been there, but at a much smaller amount than expected. For my mom, she would expect about 14% Sephardic DNA and the rest Ashkenazi, but she only gets 1% Sephardic, along with about 6% in non-Ashkenazi communities, and then 93% Ashkenazi.
@@GeneaVlogger
Of course, it feels like yesterday, yet it was already 7 months ago!
Thanks for this reply, it was helpful and insightful.
Yes, now that you mention it, I think you're correct on this. Most "pure" Sephardim around today are Eastern Sephardim, and they would have constituted most of the sample panel for Ancestry DNA's category.
In comparison, there are not as many "pure" Western Sephardim left.
Some, if not a majority, of those Western Sephardim who relocated to Amsterdam and/or London have intermixed, to varying extents, with Ashkenazic families by now (and we happen to be the product).
So it makes sense that Ancestry's 'Sephardic' category is biased towards the Eastern Sephardim.
Plus, there would have been a little bit of additional genetic drift over the last few centuries to further skew it in favour of Eastern Sephardim at the expense of Western.
I have always had a hunch that the 'Ashkenazi' category used by Ancestry and others is somewhat broad, as it does cover up/encompass some slight but noteworthy variations in ancestry.
Western Ashkenazim (in this case excluding the community of local French Jews whose core population never left Alsace Lorraine in the last millennium or so) have less Eastern European admixture than Eastern Ashkenazim have (only by a few percentage points, but still a notable distinction). Other than that, it is of course regarded as a homogenous and insular group.
In the absence of rigorous sampling of Western Sephardim, it is interesting to us that some/much of that origin is perceived by AncestryDNA to befit the Ashkenazi category. Looking forward to seeing the future advancements in this space - one day there will probably be more granularity and clarity to all of this.
Also, I didn't know what the Rabbi's parentage is, as he didn't have a family tree up, but my guess is that you're right, he would most likely be half-Eastern Sephardic.
Thanks so much Jarrett, take care, I'll keep tuning in to your videos and comment if justified.