Hello,
I was wondering whether some of you could help me out with interpreting my my origins results.
I am half Dutch/South Italian and half Middle Eastern Arab of Palestinian origin (With most of my family living in modern day Israel).
These are my FtDNA my origins results:
(30% West and Central European, 8% British Isles, 35% Sephardic Jewish, 22% West Middle East, 2% East Middle East, 3% Trace Regions).
Most of the ethnicity estimates showed up as we had expected. The highest estimate, 35% Sephardic Jewish, was a total surprise as I have no known Jewish Ancestry on either side of the family. So was the fact that 0% Italian DNA showed up, despite having a direct Italian ancestor.
Could it be possible that the FtDNA calculator has mistaken my Italian ancestry for Sephardic Jewish ancestry?
I'm asking this because MyHeritage showed me as having 50% Italian ancestry and 0% Jewish ancestry.
Now, I must say that 50% of Italian ancestry is in itself an overestimation, as I only have one Italian grandparent.
My maternal grandfather comes from a very isolated area in South Italy close to Napoli and not much is known about his ancestry but as far as we know his family has always been Catholic. The surnames, however, are very ambiguous and are used by both Jewish and non-Jewish individuals.
The same applies to my paternal grandparents. As far as we know they have always been fully Arab. We were therefore very surprised to see how small the Middle Eastern estimate was in both of the results (MyHeritage only showed 15% Middle Eastern with 10% North African and 10% West Asian with the rest being European whereas FtDNA only showed 24% Middle Eastern).
Despite not having any known Jewish ancestry, a good number of matches have showed up with people that have Jewish sounding first names and surnames (Both Ashkenazi and Mizrachi) in the family finder.
Does anybody have a clue as to why the results are the way they are? 35% of Sephardic Jewish DNA is a very high percentage and would suggest very recent Sephardic Jewish admixture (provided that the FtDNA results are indeed accurate).
Should I get another sample tested?
I was wondering whether some of you could help me out with interpreting my my origins results.
I am half Dutch/South Italian and half Middle Eastern Arab of Palestinian origin (With most of my family living in modern day Israel).
These are my FtDNA my origins results:
(30% West and Central European, 8% British Isles, 35% Sephardic Jewish, 22% West Middle East, 2% East Middle East, 3% Trace Regions).
Most of the ethnicity estimates showed up as we had expected. The highest estimate, 35% Sephardic Jewish, was a total surprise as I have no known Jewish Ancestry on either side of the family. So was the fact that 0% Italian DNA showed up, despite having a direct Italian ancestor.
Could it be possible that the FtDNA calculator has mistaken my Italian ancestry for Sephardic Jewish ancestry?
I'm asking this because MyHeritage showed me as having 50% Italian ancestry and 0% Jewish ancestry.
Now, I must say that 50% of Italian ancestry is in itself an overestimation, as I only have one Italian grandparent.
My maternal grandfather comes from a very isolated area in South Italy close to Napoli and not much is known about his ancestry but as far as we know his family has always been Catholic. The surnames, however, are very ambiguous and are used by both Jewish and non-Jewish individuals.
The same applies to my paternal grandparents. As far as we know they have always been fully Arab. We were therefore very surprised to see how small the Middle Eastern estimate was in both of the results (MyHeritage only showed 15% Middle Eastern with 10% North African and 10% West Asian with the rest being European whereas FtDNA only showed 24% Middle Eastern).
Despite not having any known Jewish ancestry, a good number of matches have showed up with people that have Jewish sounding first names and surnames (Both Ashkenazi and Mizrachi) in the family finder.
Does anybody have a clue as to why the results are the way they are? 35% of Sephardic Jewish DNA is a very high percentage and would suggest very recent Sephardic Jewish admixture (provided that the FtDNA results are indeed accurate).
Should I get another sample tested?
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