Friday, December 13, 2013

Y-DNA and Haplogroup Result

There are a few different companies that do DNA testing for genealogy. I have written before about my experience using AncestryDNA, first at AncestryDNA - One Jewish Result, then at AncestryDNA Updates Ethnicity Results ~ Jewish Results. AncestryDNA does autosomal testing, which means it is a test that provides a breakdown of one's ethnic percentages, to find out where all your ancestors may have come from going back hundreds of years. However, you don't know which ancestors (maternal or paternal or your mother's grandfather) these ethnic percentages apply to.

Family Tree DNA is another testing company which does Y-DNA testing and mtDNA testing, in addition to autosomal DNA testing.

Y-DNA testing, which only men can take, traces a man's father's father's father's line, which can be used for surname studies for men trying to confirm if they descend from the same man (assuming the surname has remained the same over the years). This doesn't really apply to Jewish genealogy, as surnames do not apply for enough generations to go back very far.

Then mtDNA (maternal) testing, which traces a person's (either male or female) maternal ancestors (mother's mother's mother, etc.), lets that person know what his or her maternal origins are 20,000 to 100,000 years ago.

Awhile ago, I had my husband take the Y-DNA test (at 37 markers), and the results show that his haplogroup is R-M198, also known as R1a1a. [Update: this has been updated and his haplogroup is now identified as R-M512.]

According to my notes from Bennett Greenspan's talk at the IAJGS Conference in August, this Haplogroup goes back to Eastern Europe or Western Asia. Half of Levites are in this Haplogroup, so the story that has been passed down orally in my husband's father's family that they are Levites is supported by this testing result. It has been suggested (via Wikipedia) that the R1a1 Haplogroup originated about 21,000 years ago in southern Russia. This Haplogroup is most often associated with Russians, Hungarians, Poles, Ukrainians and Belarusians (also Wikipedia).

Below is a screenshot of the map that shows where the R Haplogroup split and then where R1a ended up - in Eastern Europe.


My husband's grandfather, Joseph Handler (1884-1947) was born in Ilok, formerly in Hungary, then Yugoslavia, now in Croatia. I know nothing more about his father than his name was Aaron (or Adolf, or Arthur), that he was believed to have been born in Yugoslavia (based on that notation on the death certificates of his sons, Joseph and Sam), and that his Y-DNA was the same as my husband's.

For better explanations of genetic genealogy, visit Your Genetic Genealogist blog, written by CeCe Moore. She also wrote an article for Geni.com explaining Y-DNA testing, where she explains it much better than I ever could.

12 comments:

  1. I am from South of South Asia. A Tamil Brahmin. And my haplogroup is R-M198.

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    1. Very interesting to see where this Y-DNA haplogroup can be found. Thank you for sharing and for the comment.

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    2. I am from Portugal and i'm R-M198 with exact match at Z93 (but i only was tested 12-marker). Cheers

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    3. R-M198 must be a haplogoup that's found in lots of places, as the map above shows. Thanks for the comment.

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  2. I am also R-M198 and i live in Norway. But my father is from Yugoslavia. This is very interesting.

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    1. Testing the current haplogroups of individuals certainly shows interesting migration patterns. Thanks for reading and commenting.

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  3. I am from Pakistan and i am R-M198, I belong to Tribe of Yousufzai and our ancestors told us that we are Bani-Israel(children of israel). I am muslim but we believe we are decedents of Israelites. My family tree dna making match with over 90% jews mostly from Halevi tribe.

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    1. Yes, this haplogroup has been identified as that of the Levites of Israel. It's very interesting that these male lines have spread across the world! Thanks for reading and commenting.

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  4. I'm a ashkenazi levite from Spain. I'm r1a1a and have links with ancient levite families either Benveniste or Horovitz surname. Try your matches. If you find that surname you are surely a levite.

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    1. If you have test results at FamilyTree DNA, join the R1a project. Many of these DNA test takers self identify as Levites. Thanks for reading and commenting.

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  5. I'm Jewish and downstream from R-M198. I've already taken an autosomal test and found my mt-DNA haplogroup to be Israelite.
    Soon enough I'll take a Big Y test to find out my exact subclade and terminal SNP. For the time being, I have an idea what my non-terminal SNP is thanks to studies that found the Y-DNA haplogroups of famous Rabbinic figures, but have no proof for it.
    May I write to you privately about something you've mentioned? Perhaps post an email address that I can reach you at (I don't see another way to do it), if you don't see my own address (I don't know if Blogger is showing you mine).

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    1. Zvi, you can contact me using the "Contact Me" section in the upper left-hand column of this page. I look forward to hearing from you.

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