An Insider’s Look at the Genealogy DNA
Field
Max Blankfeld
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In the summer of 1999 Bennett
Greenspan was updating his mother’s father’s lineage, as she hadn’t seen most
of her cousins since she was a youngster in the 1930’s, and was coming soon to
visit her grandchildren…He was considering the genealogy as a reward for ‘baby
sitting’, or perhaps it was the other way around! While nearing the completion of the American
branch of the NITZ family he searched a familiar web site and found a person in
Argentina
searching for the same name…and claiming one city in common with the genealogy
that he had recently updated. Within a
few seconds he composed an email and let it fly…not to California
where nearly all of his Nitz family went during the Depression, but all the way
to Buenos Aires!
Over the next several weeks and
despite great efforts on the part of the cousin’s from ‘down under’ they were
not able to link the families by paper…that singular coveted item that all
genealogists consider sacrosanct! After
receiving word that for a few hundred dollars and about a year of his research he
might get some ‘valuable’ documents from a researcher in the former Soviet Union he had had it…again! Maybe he should take up gardening?
A few nights later he was walking
the dog, late at night (Houston
can be balmy in the summer) and he recalled two different studies that had used
a part of our DNA for lineage confirmation and authentication. These two articles achieved both notoriety
and enough press that he remembered them a few years later. Upon returning home he searched the web and
found both articles, which dealt with the male inherited Y-Chromosome.…One was on
a group of Jews, called Cohanim, who claimed to be direct male descendents of
Aaron, the brother of Moses. Cohanim were always males, and generally had
surnames like Cohn, Cohen, Kahn, Katzman, and Rappaport…just to make it
confusing. The other story was of great interest, as it dealt with early
American History, slavery, and the Jefferson family of Virginia.
Soon he was reading the comments
of those who agreed with and disputed the finding of each of these two original
Y-Chromosome papers…he was learning what one could and could not expect to learn
from DNA testing. For example, he discovered:
- All males have a Y chromosome and they only receive
their Y from their father, who received his Y from his
father, and so on….!
- Women don’t have Y-Chromosomes, and therefore cannot take
the Y-DNA test or be tested as part of a surname project.
- The women he was in contact with from Argentina
could facilitate, but not contribute to, Y-Chromosome testing, and that
was assuming he could find a lab willing to deal with a genealogist!
- Males obtain their surnames AND their Y chromosome
from their fathers; therefore men make great candidates for genetic
reconstruction. In other words, two males living in different continents,
having similar surnames, could verify if they shared a common ancestor in
recent times, by checking their Y-DNA!
Armed with these facts he looked
around for a testing facility willing to test his VERY reluctant male NITZ
cousin in California and one of the several very
willing NITZ males in Argentina.
He discovered that no commercial Y-DNA testing facility existed although dozens
of firms were conducting paternity tests (which he found used an entirely
different portion of our DNA). The upshot of this was a challenge offer from
the University of
Arizona’s Michael Hammer
(co-author of the 1997 Cohanim study). Hammer volunteered to test 2 dozen
males, of his choice, as a proof of concept, with the quid-pro-quo being that
IF this technique worked he would start a commercial enterprise, with them
providing the science and me organizing a company to deal with the clients on
the front end.
After six weeks of collecting
samples and 90 days of waiting for the lab to get around to processing his
stuff, the results came back. Of the 24 men tested the twins matched, as did both
other sets of men who had paper trails indicating that they shared a common
male ancestor. His two Nitz volunteers, from California
and from Argentina, were an
exact match as well…even better, no random matches occurred and therefore of
the 24 samples 4 sets of 2 matched each other and all the rest (16 men) matched
no one, which according to the anthropologists in Arizona clearly showed that the samples came
from unrelated males. The results of his ‘old’ cousin, and his ‘new’ cousin’s
12 marker results are shown below:
|
DYS#
|
|
Kit
|
Name
|
3
|
3
|
1
|
3
|
3
|
3
|
4
|
3
|
4
|
3
|
3
|
3
|
|
9
|
9
|
9
|
9
|
8
|
8
|
2
|
8
|
3
|
8
|
9
|
8
|
|
3
|
0
|
|
1
|
5
|
5
|
6
|
8
|
9
|
9
|
2
|
9
|
|
|
|
|
|
a
|
b
|
|
|
|
-
|
|
-
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1
|
|
2
|
|
1
|
Nitz
|
12
|
22
|
14
|
10
|
14
|
15
|
11
|
15
|
11
|
14
|
11
|
31
|
|
2
|
Nitz
|
12
|
22
|
14
|
10
|
14
|
15
|
11
|
15
|
11
|
14
|
11
|
31
|
This is when in April of 2000
Family Tree DNA started, pioneering this new field of Genetic Genealogy, and
helping answer questions such as:
-
is this person possibly related to me?
-
if so, when could our common ancestor
have lived?
-
and what is his ancestral background?
While this service has been now
available for over six years, and tested more than 100,000 people, most of
which non-Jews, Genetic Genealogy is of particular importance for the Jewish
people as throughout centuries Jewish populations have dispersed, forced into
other religions and decimated by the Inquisition, pogroms and the Holocaust. By
analyzing one’s DNA we can now find long lost relationships, have hints of
ancestral origins, or tell if someone who is not Jewish could possibly descent
from an Inquisition convert. It can verify a possible adoption that could have
happened generations ago, as well as determine if the two families with the
same or similar surname are related.
|
|
|
|
DNA tests provide new
solutions to old genealogical challenges.
|
A DNA test kit from Family
Tree DNA company.
|
Many articles were published on
the subject since 2000, like the one by Schelly Talalay Dardashti, who covered
one of the several DNA related presentations at the 26th IAJGS International
Conference on Jewish Genealogy: Ashkenazi or
Sephardi? DNA Unites Jewish Families, but Raises Questions. The article talks about a study that traces
several non-Jewish families to a possible common Sephardic ancestor.
The new frontier of Genetic
Genealogy provides a very powerful tool to be used in conjunction with your
family history research. Testing is
affordable, can provide information that is not available from other sources,
and is often helpful in solving brick walls.
Family Tree DNA, the largest Genetic Genealogy company in the world, with
whom Beth Hatfutsoth decided to partner, offers several different tests. You
can take one or more, depending on your genealogical DNA testing goals.
Following is a summary of the tests available:
|
Paternal line (Y-DNA)
|
Maternal line (mtDNA)
|
|
Men only.
Father's father's father's ... father
Have 12, 25, 37 or 67 markers tested on your Y chromosome, as well as learn
about your ancient origins.
|
Both men and women.
Mother's mother's mother's ... mother
Have 1 or 2 regions of your mtDNA tested, or have your entire mtDNA tested,
as well as learn about your ancient origins.
|
|
12-Marker
Benefits:
- Get started in Genetic
Genealogy! Obtain your first 12 Y-DNA markers.
- Compare your DNA to FTDNA's
extensive database of Ashkenazi and Sephardic Y-DNA, as well as Levite
and Cohanim Y-DNA.
- Determine relatedness
between two men with the same
surname. This is the most common goal of those who
participate in genealogical DNA testing. Two men with the same surname
who match on 12 markers are virtually guaranteed to share a common
patrilineal ancestor.
- Learn about your ancient origins. With your
12-marker results, Family Tree DNA will notify you of your Y-DNA haplogroup -- your branch
on the human genetic tree. Everyone in the same haplogroup shares a
common ancestor who lived thousands of years ago.
|
mtDNA
(HVR1 - hyper-variable region 1):
- Get started in Genetic
Genealogy! Learn how your mtDNA differs from the Cambridge Reference
Sequence (CRS) in the HVR1 section of your mtDNA.
- Compare your mtDNA to
FTDNA's extensive database of Ashkenazi and Sephardic mtDNA.
- Determine possible
relatedness between two people who suspect having a common matrilineal
ancestor.
- Learn about your ancient origins. With your HVR1
results, Family Tree DNA will notify you of your mtDNA haplogroup -- your branch
on the human genetic tree. Everyone in the same haplogroup shares a
common ancestor who lived thousands of years ago.
|
|
25-, 37-
and 67-Marker Benefits:
- Refine your same-surname matches. With large
same-surname families,
testing more markers can help to determine where and when one family
group branched off from another.
- Refine your different-surname matches.
Testing at least 37 markers is necessary to determine if you share a
recent ancestor (within a few hundred years) with your different-surname matches.
Remember
that surnames were adopted by most Jewish families in only the last 200-300
years. There were also many instances where children were legally required to
use their mother's maiden name, especially in Galicia. So never assume that you
can't share a recent ancestor with your different-surname matches.
|
|
mtDNAPlus
(HVR2 - hyper-variable region 2):
- Learn how your mtDNA
differs from the CRS in the HVR2 section of your mtDNA.
- Narrow down your matches
to determine to whom you're more closely related.
|
|
mtDNA
Full Sequence:
- Learn how your entire
mtDNA differs from the CRS.
- Since your entire mtDNA is
tested, you'll never again have to take another mtDNA test!
|
|
|
Deep-Clade
Test:
Learn to which sub-branch of the human genetic tree you belong and further
refine to whom you're related.
|
Deep-Clade
Test:
Learn to which sub-branch of the human genetic tree you belong and further
refine to whom you're related.
|
To order a DNA test
please click here.
You may also order
a test by searching for your surname, and joining a surname project if there’s
already one for your family name.
|
Below is
a list of known Family Tree DNA projects which focus on Jewish ancestry. For
surname projects, although only one spelling is listed below, most projects
welcome and encourage participants with variant spellings. Some projects have
specific requirements and qualifications for joining, so be sure to carefully
read the information on each project's website before submitting a request to
join.
If you
do not find your surname or another project of interest listed below, use the
search box to the right to see if there are other projects that include your
surname. If there isn't a project for your surname, considering initiating a
surname project of your own. By initiating a surname project at FTDNA, you'll
be tapping into the most comprehensive of DNA results from samples submitted
by Jewish people. This is the ideal opportunity for those of you with
unconnected branches on your same surname tree!
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Regional Geographical Projects
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Project
Name
|
Description
|
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Belarusian Jewish Polesie DNA Study
|
We're
studying the similarity or diversity of our Jewish ancestors from the former
Polesie region of Poland/Russia, which today comprises southwestern Belarus.
Towns such as Brest, Kobrin, Pinsk, Kamenetz and more are included in
this region.
|
|
Kremenets Shetel CO-OP Project
|
Descendants
of Jews who lived in Kremenets and surrounding towns since the 14th century.
Kremenets is in a border region of western Ukraine. The area was under
Polish rule until the partitions of Poland in the 1790s, when it
became part of the Russian Empire. The Kremenets area returned to Polish rule
during the interwar years, but after the war was shifted to Ukraine.
|
|
Przedborz
|
Trace
the common ancestry of Jewish familes from the town of Przedborz,
Poland and surrounding
towns, such as Opoczno, Konskie, Checiny, Radom,
Radomsko, Wloszczowa, Koniecpol, Kielce, Czestochowa, Piotrkow
Trybunalski and nearby smaller shtetls.
|
To order a DNA test
please click here
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Max
Blankfeld is a VP Operations/Marketing with
Family Tree DNA. He contributed this article to the website of Beth
Hatefutsoth.
