Father's, Father,s, Mother's, Mother

[nathanm]

Would the Family Finder be as specific for finding Margretha's background when I have a direct female to female to female to female line to test?

No, Family Finder will match relatives from every branch of her family tree. If you have identified a direct female descendant, an mtDNA test would be perfect for this purpose. If it comes back as haplogroup L, that would be a slam-dunk case for African ancestry on the maternal line.

[QUARTET]

Specificity of the Family Finder

Thanks for the recommendation. At this point I'm really trying to hone-in on a tidbit of Margretha's history. In her picture she appears to be of some African origin, however, I know she came from Prussia in the late 1850's or very early 1860s (prior to the Civil War). That being said, I could not find any reference to African's living in Prussia during this time. Then the family stories that say she was a dark-skinned Jewish person and we know her maiden name was Schneider. Would the Family Finder be as specific for finding Margretha's background when I have a direct female to female to female to female line to test? thanks

[tomcat]

Why not do Family Finder for your father's female cousin? If you went with 23andMe's PGS you would get a read on her maternal haplo as well ... although there are other drawbacks to that option ...

[tomcat]

Sorry, found the link to the snap.

[tomcat]

the women in the picture is clearly mixed African and European what would be considered as Mulatto on old census records.

Whoa. Can the rest of us see the pic?

(Having seen another posted photo of an EEuro Jewish family with a distinctly "African-looking" female I have no problem with "dark Jew").

[msc_44]

You would have to ydna test a direct male descendant of Margretha SCHNEIDER father not a male descendant of John PROHASKA.

[QUARTET]

Combo

Good point msc44! So a combo of mtDNA (for my father's female cousin) and yDNA test for my father?

[Mudgeeclarke]

... clearly mixed African and European ...

Wow, I think I'll just post some photographs and skip any further DNA tests ...

[msc_44]

African or "Dark Jew"

the women in the picture is clearly mixed African and European what would be considered as Mulatto on old census records.

[msc_44]

I've been e-mailing my dads cousin and she is willing to do a test. That would be a direct maternal link to the woman in question (back 4 generations). Do you think the mtDNA test for her would be the correct test to figure out if my G,G,GM was black or jewish.

A mtdna test might not work if the African was not from that grandmothers mothers line if it was from her fathers line you need a ydna test.

[QUARTET]

Using a relatives test in my profile

Ahoy, I am going to order an mtDNA test for my father's cousin so we can test her maternal line back to a specific person (my GGGM). I will register her name for the sample but can I use her sample results for my project (using my name)?

[QUARTET]

Photo of GGGM in question

African or "Dark Jew"

[QUARTET]

mtDNA Plus

Thanks for all the good information. I think I will start by having my father's female cousin do the mtDNA plus test ($159). I am paying for her test so don't want to have to sell the farm to get the information. It appears that the mtDNA plus test will help identify regional information about my pictured ancestor--mainly, is she of African decent and possibly why has she been know as a "Dark Jew". I am not sure if she was married when she came to America but I do know that her eventual husband was also from "Prussia" and that he enlisted in the civil war as a "Musician".
Does this pathway seem reasonable? I would like to get the Family finder test for myself after this initial test to help get some information on the pictured woman's husband (my GGGF). Thanks

[nolnacsj]

Hello, I have a picture of my Great, Great grandmother on my father's side sitting with her husband during the Civil War. Family legend has always called her a "dark Jew" but she appear to be of African decent. Does anyone know what test I would use to help verify her origin, if any? My other grandparents can be traced back to the British Isles area--English, Irish, Scottish---oh and Norwegian thanks,

QUARTET, back to your original post. In my opinion, the autosomal Family Finder test with basic mtDNA would be a good place to start as it will be helpful. You can then take your FF raw data and use it with some of the third party sites who calculate your "admixture". It may not give you a definitive answer, but again it may help narrow it down.

Judy

[Javelin]

The Wikipedia article is not great but the takeaway should not be that three people who don't claim Jewish ancestry have K1a1b1a, it's that >1,000 K1a1b1as do.

To return to the original poster's question, a basic mitochondrial test could definitively point to African ancestry and possibly to Jewish ancestry, but that may be harder to tell because many top-level haplogroups are common to both Near Easterners and Europeans (for example H, K, HV, V, T, X). That's why I would suggest combining a basic mtDNA test with Family Finder, which also include Population Finder. Non-trivial African ancestry will show up as African in Population Finder. Non-trivial Middle Eastern ancestry (significantly over the typical 0-10% Middle Eastern many Western Europeans get) will also be an excellent clue. If there is no African and less than about 15% Middle Eastern and a typical European haplogroup, it does not completely disprove African or Near Eastern ancestry but it does make it less likely.