sephardic designation

[LBIRD]

I completely understand that the ethnic origins part of this test are rough estimates at best and I do not place much faith in them but I have a question about the difference between 2 of the designations. With the recent changes, my grandson's results now show 5% Sephardic. His previous results did not show this, in fact it didn't even have any southern European. My new results show 8% Iberian and 16% southern European whereas my previous results just said 33% southern European. My question is; What makes Iberian and Sephardic different on the actual DNA test and is it possible that they are easily mixed up and confused with each other?

[josh w.]

I completely understand that the ethnic origins part of this test are rough estimates at best and I do not place much faith in them but I have a question about the difference between 2 of the designations. With the recent changes, my grandson's results now show 5% Sephardic. His previous results did not show this, in fact it didn't even have any southern European. My new results show 8% Iberian and 16% southern European whereas my previous results just said 33% southern European. My question is; What makes Iberian and Sephardic different on the actual DNA test and is it possible that they are easily mixed up and confused with each other?

Sephardim would have more West ME (Levant) lines

[josh w.]

Sephardim would have more West ME (Levant) lines

This can be seen at Gedmatch Eurogenes. Sephardim have higher rates of East Med (Levant)

[Reimund Krohn]

Sephardic vs Ashkenazic dna

I have a related question about the Sephardic designation for the autosomal tests. My results just came in, and I was expecting to see a small percentage of Ashkenazic dna. Instead, what I got was a result for Sephardim dna, in a proportion which might suggest a Sephardic great grandparent. When I run my results through Gedmatch however, I get a slightly higher percentage of Ashkenazi dna with no mention of Sephardim (although I don't know that Gedmatch has a measurement for this).

My question is how does Ftdna differentiate between these two main Jewish lineages? Does my 4% Iberian dna coupled with southern Mediterranean and Levantine dna cause you to conclude that there is Sephardic ancestry and rule out Ashkenazi?

[khazaria]

When I run my results through Gedmatch however, I get a slightly higher percentage of Ashkenazi dna

Which calculator(s) at Gedmatch suggest that for you?

My question is how does Ftdna differentiate between these two main Jewish lineages? Does my 4% Iberian dna coupled with southern Mediterranean and Levantine dna cause you to conclude that there is Sephardic ancestry and rule out Ashkenazi?

FTDNA is unable to perfectly differentiate between Ashkenazim and Sephardim because some of the same DNA is shared by both populations. You'd have to study the situations and paintings of individual segments that you may match Jews on. Do you match "full" European Jews in Family Finder and Gedmatch? Do you match Puerto Ricans/Mexicans/Cubans/North African Jews/Turkish Jews/Syrian Jews as well?

[josh w.]

I have a related question about the Sephardic designation for the autosomal tests. My results just came in, and I was expecting to see a small percentage of Ashkenazic dna. Instead, what I got was a result for Sephardim dna, in a proportion which might suggest a Sephardic great grandparent. When I run my results through Gedmatch however, I get a slightly higher percentage of Ashkenazi dna with no mention of Sephardim (although I don't know that Gedmatch has a measurement for this).

My question is how does Ftdna differentiate between these two main Jewish lineages? Does my 4% Iberian dna coupled with southern Mediterranean and Levantine dna cause you to conclude that there is Sephardic ancestry and rule out Ashkenazi?

Gedmatch Eurogenes differentiates because its Ashkenazi sample has a Baltic component and its Sephardic sample does not. At this point there is no information on MO 2's samples

[NCroots]

This can be seen at Gedmatch Eurogenes. Sephardim have higher rates of East Med (Levant)

With the new MyOrigins I show trace amounts of West Middle East; additionally, I now show 8% Southeast European and 4% Iberian. With the old MyOrigins I showed 5% Southern European and 7% Middle Eastern (broken down as 6% Asia Minor and 1% North African). My son now shows trace amounts Ashkenazi and Southeast European.

I know that Sephardi is a blending of Levantine & Iberian, Ashkenazi is a blending of Levantine & Eastern European, Romaniote is a blending of Levantine & Greek, etc. Do you think it's possible that some of my Iberian and/or Southeastern European could be Jewish and connected to the trace West Middle East? Or are the populations easy to differentiate?

[vinnie]

Eurogenes K13 gives my Sicilian mother a mix of Ashkenazi and Sephardic, but mostly gives her Algerian Jewish. Eurogenes K15 gives her primarily Libyan Jewish. North African Jewish populations also show up for her with other calculators. How do these populations differ from Sephardim genetically, if at all?

[josh w.]

With the new MyOrigins I show trace amounts of West Middle East; additionally, I now show 8% Southeast European and 4% Iberian. With the old MyOrigins I showed 5% Southern European and 7% Middle Eastern (broken down as 6% Asia Minor and 1% North African). My son now shows trace amounts Ashkenazi and Southeast European.

I know that Sephardi is a blending of Levantine & Iberian, Ashkenazi is a blending of Levantine & Eastern European, Romaniote is a blending of Levantine & Greek, etc. Do you think it's possible that some of my Iberian and/or Southeastern European could be Jewish and connected to the trace West Middle East? Or are the populations easy to differentiate?

At Eurogenes, Sephardim and Ashkenazis have a very similar West Med component. They only differ in regard to Baltic.