Questions about father's GED Match Results (mostly Ashkenazi, some sephardic roots)

[curiousabouthist1212]

I used MDLP, since my dad got a few percentages of 'Baltic States' on his Ancestry results, so I thought this might be a good one to look into that but instead found this (the family that was said to have ended up in Lithuania had Sephardic origins):

Using 1 population approximation:
1 Jew_Ashkenazi @ 2.895266
2 Jew_Ashkenazim @ 4.148148
3 Italian_SouthItaly @ 4.241465
4 Sicilian_Sicily @ 5.081845
5 Italian_Abruzzo @ 5.188938
6 Jew_Bulgaria @ 5.395282
7 Maltese_Malta @ 6.022078
8 Jew_Ashkenazi @ 6.187353
9 Greek_Macedonia @ 6.644475
10 Jew_Italian @ 6.695021
11 Greek_Athens @ 7.113007
12 Jew_Sephardim @ 7.275535
13 Jew_Turkey @ 7.345114
14 Greek_Peloponnes @ 7.638781
15 Greek_Greece @ 7.850793
16 Greek_Greece @ 8.270462
17 Jew_Turkish_Sephardim @ 8.493503
18 Jew_Algeria @ 8.655915
19 Albanian_Albania @ 9.151669
20 Greek_Thessaloniki @ 9.426654

Using 2 populations approximation:
1 50% Jew_Ashkenazi +50% Jew_Ashkenazi @ 2.895266


Using 3 populations approximation:
1 50% Jew_Ashkenazi +25% Jew_Georgia +25% Spanish_Castilla_la_Mancha @ 2.695821


Using 4 populations approximation:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++
1 Armenian_Armenia + Jew_Ashkenazi + Jew_Bulgaria + Spanish_Castilla_y_Leon @ 2.599420
2 Armenian_Armenia + Italian_Abruzzo + Jew_Turkish_Sephardim + Spanish_Castilla_y_Leon @ 2.609455
3 Armenian_Armenia + Jew_Ashkenazi + Jew_Turkish_Sephardim + Spanish_Castilla_la_Mancha @ 2.642932
4 Armenian_Armenia + Jew_Ashkenazi + Jew_Italian + Spanish_Castilla_y_Leon @ 2.651415
5 Armenian_Armenia + Jew_Ashkenazi + Jew_Bulgaria + Spanish_Castilla_la_Mancha @ 2.651634
6 Armenian_Armenia + Italian_Abruzzo + Jew_Turkish_Sephardim + Spanish_Extremadura @ 2.677033
7 Armenian_Armenia + Jew_Ashkenazim + Jew_Bulgaria + Spanish_Castilla_y_Leon @ 2.678671
8 Jew_Ashkenazi + Jew_Ashkenazi + Jew_Georgia + Spanish_Castilla_la_Mancha @ 2.695821
9 Jew_Ashkenazi + Jew_Bulgaria + Jew_Georgia + Spanish_Castilla_la_Mancha @ 2.696078
10 Armenian_Armenia + Jew_Ashkenazi + Jew_Turkish_Sephardim + Spanish_Castilla_y_Leon @ 2.696745
11 Armenian_Armenia + Jew_Ashkenazi + Jew_Bulgaria + Spanish_Extremadura @ 2.698200
12 Armenian_Armenia + Jew_Ashkenazim + Jew_Bulgaria + Spanish_Castilla_la_Mancha @ 2.707993
13 Armenian_Armenia + Greek_Macedonia + Jew_Morocco + Spanish_Castilla_la_Mancha @ 2.710037
14 Armenian_Armenia + Jew_Ashkenazi + Jew_Bulgaria + Spanish_Galicia @ 2.713551
15 Armenian_Armenia + Jew_Ashkenazi + Jew_Italian + Spanish_Castilla_la_Mancha @ 2.718323
16 BedouinA_Negev + Georgian_Tbilisi + Italian_Bergamo + Spanish_Castilla_y_Leon @ 2.720711
17 Armenian_Armenia + Italian_Abruzzo + Jew_Turkish_Sephardim + Spanish_Galicia @ 2.727474
18 Armenian_Armenia + Jew_Ashkenazim + Jew_Turkish_Sephardim + Spanish_Castilla_la_Mancha @ 2.730189
19 Georgian_Tbilisi + Portuguese_Portugal + Samaritan_Israel + Spanish_Extremadura @ 2.736351
20 Armenian_Armenia + Jew_Ashkenazi + Jew_Morocco + Spanish_Castilla_la_Mancha @ 2.736679

A few questions:
- Why is he closer to South Italians, Sicilians, Abruzzese more than other types of Jews (besides Ashkenazi)? And then all those plus Maltese, Macedonian Greeks, Jewish Italians, and even Athenian Greeks before Sephardim?
- What is the reference population for Jew_Bulgaria? Is it a sephardic community?
- How interchangeable are the different Spanish regions? I was able to trace my dad's sephardic origins to Burgos, Spain (exactly in Castilla Leon) - is this just a coincidence?

Thanks in advance

[kleenex]

I would say that is a pretty quintessential result. Pretty solid in terms of population distances.

[kaltar]

nothing weird

[curiousabouthist1212]

I would say that is a pretty quintessential result. Pretty solid in terms of population distances.

Thanks! I know it’s fairly standard - the post focused on 1) asking about what the bulgarian jewjsh ref population is and 2) inquiring about the differences (or lack thereof) between the regional spanish differences (as they match exactly to where my grandma’s family is said tk have originated). Hope this clarifies.