Mizrahi and Sephardi MyHeritage results + GEDmatch

[curiousabouthist1212]

Oh it's extremely in vogue, my friend, and has been for about a century, I'm reliably informed, I'm afraid. Certainly nowadays it is. I get about one email every two weeks by someone asking if their matching my DNA proves they're distantly Sephardic, and within the Jewish community I know at least a couple of dozen Ashkenazim with vague stories of Sephardic ancestry they like to talk about. I named six in my head just right now.

Not saying it's not true! Some of them definitely will be!

I think I saw they were from Emilio Ferrara (?) and migrated to Salonica right before 1492, like 1490.

The only reason I became interested in this besides my grandma's lore is that it's not infrequent I'm confused as 'something else' a cab driver just told me I 'look like people in her village in the DR' that has 'less black people'. That there's something 'just latin' about your face but couldn't pinpoint. And then an argentinian family came up to me as if I knew exactly what they were saying in their dialect expecting directions. Also a few greek people told me I looked like/reminded them of their cousin, and my friend's italian grandma thought i was italian. I wanted to see if there was something else in there, but I've concluded with my research and this posting i MAY have some distant italian jewish ancestry if anything and there is some 'overlap' phenotypically amongst certain populations.

Still not sure what the 6% 'Broadly European' is though

[Longbowman]

I think I saw they were from Emilio Ferrara (?) and migrated to Salonica right before 1492, like 1490.

The only reason I became interested in this besides my grandma's lore is that it's not infrequent I'm confused as 'something else' a cab driver just told me I 'look like people in her village in the DR' that has 'less black people'. That there's something 'just latin' about your face but couldn't pinpoint. And then an argentinian family came up to me as if I knew exactly what they were saying in their dialect expecting directions. Also a few greek people told me I looked like/reminded them of their cousin, and my friend's italian grandma thought i was italian. I wanted to see if there was something else in there, but I've concluded with my research and this position i MAY have some distant italian jewish ancestry if anything and there is some 'overlap' phenotypically amongst certain populations.

Still not sure what the 6% 'Broadly European' is though

I wouldn't read to far into that stuff. I pass for a lot of stuff. Either way you're overwhelmingly Ashkenazi

My dad is 100% Ashkenazi with no connection to Italy. He came to visit me in Italy once and he 'met' my roommates (obviously about six words were spoken in half an hour) and then he left (with my mum, who actually speaks a few words). As soon as he leaves, they all turn to me and go 'but he's Sicilian, right? He has to be.' His phenotype is apparently unmistakably Sicilian. But - he is 0% Sicilian. Sometimes people just pass for things they're not

It's natural to want to seek out the interesting parts of our ancestry. The Kalymnos family was the original European Jewish royalty! If they ended up in Salonika they'd have at least mixed with Sephardim though, even coming from Italy.

[curiousabouthist1212]

I wouldn't read to far into that stuff. I pass for a lot of stuff. Either way you're overwhelmingly Ashkenazi

.

lol that we already knew

That's super funny, I'm curious about what he looks like now!

I have a few more questions while we are at this:

When I make 23andme less 'confident', it says: 'You most likely had a third-great-grandparent, fourth-great-grandparent, etc. who was 100% Eastern European. This person was likely born between 1720 and 1840. Would this have said Balkan if this were Balkan? Especially romanian

I bunch of calculators on GED match guess me not as Ashkenazi first, but Sephardic, Italian Jewish, even Greek before it guesses me as Ashkenazi. Why?

Single Population Sharing:

# Population (source) Distance
1 Cretan ( ) 3.62
2 Romanian_Jew ( ) 5.88
3 Sicilian_East ( ) 6.02
4 Ashkenazi ( ) 6.35
5 Syrian_Jew ( ) 6.36
6 Turk_Jew ( ) 6.4
7 Italian_Jew ( ) 6.46
8 Ashkenazi_Jew ( ) 6.69
9 French_Jew ( ) 6.76
10 Sephardic_Jew ( ) 6.84
11 Greek ( ) 7.24
12 Greek_Peloponnesos ( ) 7.78
13 Greek_Macedonia ( ) 7.91
14 Sicilian_Siracusa ( ) 7.98
15 Greek_Smyrna ( ) 8.06
16 Greek_Thessaloniki ( ) 8.15
17 Italian_South ( ) 8.23
18 Greek_Phokaia ( ) 8.25
19 Greek_Athens ( ) 8.29
20 Central_Greek ( ) 8.37

[Longbowman]

lol that we already knew

That's super funny, I'm curious about what he looks like now!

I'd love to post his photo, because he does have an extremely dark phenotype. But he is a very secretive person when it comes to the internet, so I respect his wishes, of course.

I have a few more questions while we are at this:

When I make 23andme less 'confident', it says: 'You most likely had a third-great-grandparent, fourth-great-grandparent, etc. who was 100% Eastern European. This person was likely born between 1720 and 1840. Would this have said Balkan if this were Balkan? Especially romanian

Yes, Romanian counts as Balkan on 23andme genetically they're also more Balkan than they are 'Eastern European,' although there are exceptions in the peripheral regions, and Moldovia.

What are your results on the most speculative setting? Speculative is better than conservative.

I bunch of calculators on GED match guess me not as Ashkenazi first, but Sephardic, Italian Jewish, even Greek before it guesses me as Ashkenazi. Why?

As I showed with my family's results, this is normal. It just means you're slightly less northern-shifted than the average Ashkenazi. GEDmatch is a line of best fit, rather than an ancestral breakdown. View it this way:

say the average Ashkenazi gets 30 x, 30 y and 40 z
the average Greek gets 32 x, 28 y and 40 z
you get 32 x, 28 y and 40 z

you'll appear closer to Greeks than Ashkenazim, but you're just an outlier.

That difference can be random, or it can be due to minor admixture that is non-Ashkenazi.

Gedmatch has a lot of references - many hundreds - some of which are very, very close to each other - so sometimes people appear closer to one than another.

[waam]

Got my updated results from Xcode after I contacted them

Makes much more sense than the former composition.

[talombo]

As far as I know I don't have any Greek ancestors,
Is it possible that MyHeritage are mistaking Turkish-Sephardic DNA for Greek ?

[waam]

As far as I know I don't have any Greek ancestors,
Is it possible that MyHeritage are mistaking Turkish-Sephardic DNA for Greek ?

Seems like it. As far as I know their Greek population includes Cyprus, which I believe is the reason it skews a lot of Middle Easterners results and makes them score lots of Greek (or Italian for that matter which is pretty interchangeable with Greek on MyHeritage).
What did your FTDNA results look like? You can upload your raw data for free if you haven't already.

[talombo]

Seems like it. As far as I know their Greek population includes Cyprus, which I believe is the reason it skews a lot of Middle Easterners results and makes them score lots of Greek (or Italian for that matter which is pretty interchangeable with Greek on MyHeritage).
What did your FTDNA results look like? You can upload your raw data for free if you haven't already.

I don't have FTDNA results, I only have 23andMe v5 raw data file and FTDNA won't accept it.

[Sp_loa]

I don't have FTDNA results, I only have 23andMe v5 raw data file and FTDNA won't accept it.

Convert your v5 raw data to v3 raw data- follow these instructions- https://wilhelmhgenealogy.wordpress....match-classic/

And wait a minute- did you really pay 84$ for only the shipping to Israel? I wanted to buy to but 84$ Shipping+100$ the kit is really way to much.

BTW your Y-DNA is Balkanic most common in Kosovo and Albania and your Mtdna is probably North Italian depends on the exact subclaid.
Upload your raw data to https://ytree.morleydna.com/extractFromAutosomal AND TO https://dna.jameslick.com/mthap/

[Sp_loa]

I don't have FTDNA results, I only have 23andMe v5 raw data file and FTDNA won't accept it.

And can you pleases post Eurogenes K36, Harappaworld and Dodecad k7b from Gedmatch?
Also what were your results from 23andme? can you post screenshot of the results? Thank you