New Sephardic Cluster for MyOrigins

[deniseneufeld]

Does anyone know when the new Sephardic Cluster for MyOrigins will be added to Family Tree DNA?

[josh w.]

Does anyone know when the new Sephardic Cluster for MyOrigins will be added to Family Tree DNA?

Have not seen any announcement. My guess is within a year.

[deniseneufeld]

Thanks Josh, I wonder if the Population names will change again? My mother, my sisters and myself were first part Mozabite and Russian/Finnish in the Population Finder and then the Mozabite and Russian/Finnish was all grouped together and changed to South Europe in the new "My Origins",I wonder if our South Europe will change again and be called Sephardic Jews with the new Serphardic Cluster......can't wait to find out!!!!!

[josh w.]

Thanks Josh, I wonder if the Population names will change again? My mother, my sisters and myself were first part Mozabite and Russian/Finnish in the Population Finder and then the Mozabite and Russian/Finnish was all grouped together and changed to South Europe in the new "My Origins",I wonder if our South Europe will change again and be called Sephardic Jews with the new Serphardic Cluster......can't wait to find out!!!!!

Yes, it is confusing. At least Ftdna should explain why Sephardim were no longer classified as Jewish. I am not sure why Russian/Finnish was reclassified as South Europe. My hunch is that you have some Ashkenazi lines that might have been changed. There are Ashkenazi Mtdna lines that are Russian/Finnish in origin.

[Armando]

Pop Finder had a lot of problems. Some of the Siberian that Hispanics had from Native Americans were causing them to partially be classified as Russian/Finnish. Now myOrigins has a problem of incorrectly labeling too much of the Native American as Northeast Asian. Many times there is also some Siberian.

If you use Gedmatch or get a DNA test at 23andme and Ancestry.com you will get a much better calculation of your Native American ancestry.

[josh w.]

Pop Finder had a lot of problems. Some of the Siberian that Hispanics had from Native Americans were causing them to partially be classified as Russian/Finnish. Now myOrigins has a problem of incorrectly labeling too much of the Native American as Northeast Asian. Many times there is also some Siberian.

If you use Gedmatch or get a DNA test at 23andme and Ancestry.com you will get a much better calculation of your Native American ancestry.

Yes, at this point Gedmatch with Oracle is the only choice if there is a possibility of Sephardic background.

[khazaria]

Yes, at this point Gedmatch with Oracle is the only choice if there is a possibility of Sephardic background.

The Jtest's oracle correctly interpreted my data as meaning I descend from four Ashkenazic grandparents. Most of the other oracles also identified me as Ashkenazic. MDLP World-22 showed I'm overall much closer to Romanian Jews than to the group they call Sephardim although it is known that many Romanian Jews have part-Sephardic roots.

But I must have some Sephardic ancestry because of the particulars of some of my part-Sephardic remote matches. I am looking forward to seeing if FTDNA will reinterpret their "Ashkenazi" portion as "Sephardi", which would be logical for their families' historical circumstances (Crypto-Jews living for five centuries in Mexico).

There are Ashkenazi Mtdna lines that are Russian/Finnish in origin.

Are you thinking of U5? Could you list all the lines you're aware of?

Some of the Gedmatch tools suggest I have traces of Russian, Uralic, and Chuvash ancestry from northern and central Russia. I cannot immediately dismiss these as noise even though the percentages are usually under 1%, especially as the Gedmatch calculators (unlike FTDNA) consistently show I have above-average amounts of Polish/Lithuanian/Ukrainian-related ancestry, well above noise levels. Another "full-blooded" Ashkenazim registers over 2% in each of the "Balto_Finnic" and "Volga_Uralic" categories in MDLP K=12 but that calculator seems less accurate including its Oracle. Nevertheless, Eurogenes K36 also claims he has more than 3% "Fennoscandian" which is an element based on Finnish reference samples. I don't have "Fennoscandian" or "Balto_Finnic" showing for me.

[josh w.]

The Jtest's oracle correctly interpreted my data as meaning I descend from four Ashkenazic grandparents. Most of the other oracles also identified me as Ashkenazic. MDLP World-22 showed I'm overall much closer to Romanian Jews than to the group they call Sephardim although it is known that many Romanian Jews have part-Sephardic roots.

But I must have some Sephardic ancestry because of the particulars of some of my part-Sephardic remote matches. I am looking forward to seeing if FTDNA will reinterpret their "Ashkenazi" portion as "Sephardi", which would be logical for their families' historical circumstances (Crypto-Jews living for five centuries in Mexico).



Are you thinking of U5? Could you list all the lines you're aware of?

Some of the Gedmatch tools suggest I have traces of Russian, Uralic, and Chuvash ancestry from northern and central Russia. I cannot immediately dismiss these as noise even though the percentages are usually under 1%, especially as the Gedmatch calculators (unlike FTDNA) consistently show I have above-average amounts of Polish/Lithuanian/Ukrainian-related ancestry, well above noise levels. Another "full-blooded" Ashkenazim registers over 2% in each of the "Balto_Finnic" and "Volga_Uralic" categories in MDLP K=12 but that calculator seems less accurate including its Oracle. Nevertheless, Eurogenes K36 also claims he has more than 3% "Fennoscandian" which is an element based on Finnish reference samples. I don't have "Fennoscandian" or "Balto_Finnic" showing for me.

I am only familiar with Mtdna J. A couple of subclades of J1c7 are found in Russia/Finland and Ashkenazi lines. I suspect the same is true of some H subclades. Russian Jews have significantly higher rates of H than Polish Jews (Feder, 2007)---subclades were not identified.

The J test (apparently aimed at Ashkenazis) has many false positives, especially in the Mediterranean region. I have not found MDLP helpful for Jewish ancestry.

[josh w.]

I am only familiar with Mtdna J. A couple of subclades of J1c7 are found in Russia/Finland and Ashkenazi lines. I suspect the same is true of some H subclades. Russian Jews have significantly higher rates of H than Polish Jews (Feder, 2007)---subclades were not identified.

The J test (apparently aimed at Ashkenazis) has many false positives, especially in the Mediterranean region. I have not found MDLP helpful for Jewish ancestry.

To explain, MDLP does not use an eastern Mediterranean or Levantine geographical component. Some of these lines might possibly be lumped under Caucasian which is an overlapping but not identical region. In my case, I also had a significant North African component, but this might really reflect southwest Asian lines.

[josh w.]

Thanks Josh, I wonder if the Population names will change again? My mother, my sisters and myself were first part Mozabite and Russian/Finnish in the Population Finder and then the Mozabite and Russian/Finnish was all grouped together and changed to South Europe in the new "My Origins",I wonder if our South Europe will change again and be called Sephardic Jews with the new Serphardic Cluster......can't wait to find out!!!!!

It will be important to note the specific sample for the Sephardic category. My impression was that 'eastern' Sephardim would be used, rather than Iberian 'conversos' or Anusim. The eastern and western groups might show different admixture patterns due to 'host' country influences.

[josh w.]

To explain, MDLP does not use an eastern Mediterranean or Levantine geographical component. Some of these lines might possibly be lumped under Caucasian which is an overlapping but not identical region. In my case, I also had a significant North African component, but this might really reflect southwest Asian lines.

Correction, some versions of MDLP do have a Near East component. However, Ashkenazis tend to score much higher on the Caucasian component. Eurogenes is just the opposite with it's Eastern Mediterranean component. Not sure what region the MDLP Near East component taps. Does it reflect the non Jewish Levant.

[kingjohn]

sefhardi cluster in ftdna my origins 2.0

now there is a Sephardi cluster
in ftdna my origins 2.0.
my grandfather is Sephardi
so it is nice it was confirmed by dna
i score 36% Sephardi very high
i should have score 20-27% what you get from 1 grandparent
now
regards
adam
p.s
i looked at some non -Jewish Brazilians and Mexicans
results and some of them score 10% and above Sephardi
very cool probably they are anusim descendnets and it is proabably the real deal