Sunday, December 28, 2014

New Genetic Analyses

I've been playing with updated GEDmatch analyzers (of my raw genetic data) and here are some of my results! These results pretty much confirm what I already know about myself - that I am predominantly Northern and Northwestern European. The second image also supports my Anglo-Saxon ancestry as a primary one for me as I am genetically closer to the West German (historical territory of the Angles and Saxons) population than to any other, with Southwest England (the English Anglo-Saxon kingdom) coming in second. Although the next orders vary a bit depending on the type of analysis, then comes the Norweigian Viking contribution. Then comes North Sea Celto-Germanics (Saxons and Celts in the area of the Dutch Netherlands) contribution. Then comes Swedish and Danish Viking contributions. Then comes the Gaelic-Celtic contribution. So, even though my interpretation is simplistic, this explains why I am most drawn to the pantheon of my Germano-Scandinavian ancestry than to any others - I am mostly Germanic (Anglo-Saxon-Scandinavian) with Celtic contributions coming in a close second.

Northern & Northwestern European

Western German & English Anglo-Saxon, Norweigian Viking, North Sea Celto-Germanic, Swedish and Danish Vikings, Gaelic-Celtic

Northern & Northerwestern European

Northern & Northwestern European

4 comments:

Lori said...

Considering my Ashkenazi genetic result in the third image - My mother's mother's mother's father's name was William Grunwald and is said to have been Jewish. But looking at my DNA results, I don't have any Middle Eastern ancestry, and in other genetic results I have had some matches in Anatolia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Armenia (where many Ashkenazi phenotypic traits can be traced to biologically) and in that general area, so most likely, my Ashkenazi ancestry is genetically Indo-European and not actually Middle Eastern in origin. In other words, my Jewish ancestor was most likely a European convert to Judaism as opposed to being a born Jew. I think the fact that none of Will's descendants (and he and his wife had 12 children) continued the claim of being Jewish or of practicing Judaism supports that hypothesis. None were buried in a Jewish cemetery (all were buried in a Christian cemetery in Kentucky). All of my family (prior to myself) in my experiential memory have been Christians. Many also on my mother's side have Freemasons with many British-American Hirams in the family), where Freemasons tend to socially interact alot with Jewish people typically (such that my male ancestor may have been drawn to conversion to Judaism through Freemasonry). All of this supports that Will was likely not a born Jew, but may have either himself converted to Judaism or have been descended from converts. Of course, I can probably never know for sure unless I could get one of his male descendent's Y-DNA line tested for a Middle Eastern origin. I think though that if he had been a born Jew, I would have registered some kind of Middle Eastern percentage in the JTest, but I don't. So, neither from a genetic nor from a traditional Jewish law perspective could I make a valid claim to being a born Jew. My ancestral mothers were not genetically Jewish, and my one male ancestor who did claim to be Jewish bequeathed to me no evidence that he was genetically
Jewish and likewise bequeathed no tradition to me or my family of being Jewish ourselves. He is the sole ancestor of mine that I am aware of who claimed to be Jewish. He may have been Jewish through conversion, but most likely he was not born Jewish. Consequently, given all of the data and from what I know of my family history, I personally have given up the claim of being Jewish. The evidence doesn't support such a claim for myself and I am averse to appropriating a spiritual heritage that does not belong to me. - http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/science/indo-european-languages-originated-in-anatolia-analysis-suggests.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Lori said...

The possibility does exist that Will himself wasn't a Jewish convert but a German Jew (of Indo-European Armenian genetic stock) who immigrated to the US in the general time frame surrounding the 1850's (when the trail of ancestral investigation runs cold). Large numbers of German Jews did immigrate to this country during this time (beginning in the 1820's) and many of them settled in the South. Will and his family settled in Kentucky, where they owned a small old time grocery store (if I am recalling oral family history correctly). These little facts are consistent with the idea that Will may have been a German Jew of Indo-European genetic heritage and not himself a new convert. I also believe that most of the German Jews who settled in the South were primarily religious (Reform) and political liberals. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_American#Jews

Lori said...

On the Turner family into which Will married - Will married the (British-American) daughter of a Freemason who was a physician surnamed Turner. Neither Dr. Turner nor his daughter Sue claimed to be Jewish. Turner is a name of Norman origin, and the Normans are descended from Norse (Danish) Vikings who settled in a Northern region of France. Turner is also one of the most common surnames in Britain, so very likely the Turner family in my ancestry were Anglo-Normans. Also explains the French in my least-squares populations results.

Lori said...

"The Anglo-Normans were mainly the descendants of the Normans who ruled England following the Norman conquest by William the Conqueror in 1066. A small number of Normans had earlier befriended future Anglo-Saxon King of England, Edward the Confessor, during his exile in his mother's homeland of Normandy. When he returned to England some of them went with him, and so there were Normans already settled in England prior to the conquest. Following the death of Edward, the powerful Anglo-Saxon noble, Harold Godwinson, acceded to the English throne until his defeat by William, Duke of Normandy at the Battle of Hastings.The invading Normans and their descendants formed a ruling class in Britain ..." --- This is consistent with oral family tradition that many of my ancestors from Britain were wealthy and well-placed socially. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Norman

Dare to be true to yourself.