I initially did my DNA test with Ancestry DNA, and a small amount of European Jewish showed up on my results. Which DNA Test is Best for Jewish Ancestry?Īll the major DNA testing companies will show whether you have European Jewish DNA, but there is one company in particular that seems to have a more comprehensive approach to finding Jewish ancestry: My Heritage DNA. For those of us taking genealogical DNA tests in the 21st century, this genetic isolation that our ancestors experienced means that we can often find Jewish ancestry in our ethnicity results just by taking a swab or saliva test. Most Jewish communities around the world have historically lived in similar genetic isolation. This cycle of isolation also produced genetic isolation, meaning it was uncommon for Jews to marry outside their Jewish community. More commonly, European Jews were the targets of discrimination and violence, which resulted in even more isolation. Sometimes, this isolation was voluntary, as the Jews desired to maintain their faith and culture. The Ashkenazi Jews had a very different culture, language and religion than the people who lived in the lands where they settled, and they tended to remain relatively isolated from their communities. The exact trajectory of their migration is disputed, since there are conflicting theories. This is the group that people also call “European Jews”, and they are descended from groups of Jews who gradually migrated out of the Middle East into southern, central, and eastern Europe. There are several distinct communities of Jews around the world, and the largest group of Jews are called “Ashkenazi Jews”. The history of the Jews is very complicated, and you probably didn’t come here expecting to learn history, so I will try to make it brief.
How is it possible for DNA tests to isolate Jewish ancestry?
If you think you have Jewish ancestry even further back, there is still a possibility that at least a small amount of that ancestry is still present in your DNA and can be shown on your ethnicity report. If you have Jewish ancestors within the past 5-7 generations, there is a very good chance that you inherited some of their DNA and that your DNA test will show this Jewish ancestry on your results. Can Jewish ancestry show up on a DNA test?Īs it turns out, many of the DNA tests being sold in the US today do report Jewish ancestry on the ethnicity estimate provided to test takers. On my mom’s side of the family, there were rumors that my maternal grandmother was descended from Jewish immigrants from Germany or Poland, but we really didn’t know any more details. I first became interested in DNA testing for genealogy in order to investigate possible Native American ancestry on my dad’s side of the family, and of course, I was excited about what else I might learn about my family’s past.Īt the time I did my first test, I didn’t know that Jewish ancestry could show up on a DNA test. Plus, which DNA test is best for Jewish ancestry? In this post, you will learn the answer to these questions. Do you think that you might have Jewish roots based on your Eastern European, German, or Iberian ancestry? If so, you might be interested in learning whether this ancestry can be detected by a genealogical DNA test.
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