Genealogical/Anthropological DNA analysis

[lethargic_man]

Preamble

This year, for my birthday, I thought I'd get myself DNA typed. I'm into genealogy, and I thought it would be fascinating to find out what my DNA told me about my ancestry: Is my family tradition that I'm a cohen backed up by the genetics? What about that that my patrilineal great-great-grandfather was a Sephardi from Istanbul; does the DNA support his ancestors being amongst those kicked out of Spain four hundred years earlier (though I have no idea whether there are markers that selective)? Do my patrilineal ancestors go back to the mixture of peoples at the eastern end of the Mediterranean two thousand years ago from whom the majority of today's Jews are descended? What about my matrilineal? (If not, that's cool too.)

Of course, DNA is for all time, not just for Christmas the course of Jewish history; there are layers upon layers of parahistorical^* information in my genes, just waiting to be extracted. Assuming my ancestors do go back to ancient Israel, what about before that? The Semitic languages originated, in the fourth millennium BCE, as the only non-African branch of the Hamito-Semitic language family; but language dissemination does not always correlate with that of the peoples that speak them; were, then, my ancestors in the fifth millennium African Hamito-Semitic speakers, or Levantines speaking something else altogether?

* <googles> Damn, this word appears already to exist, and doesn't mean quite what I mean by it. Never mind; I doubt anyone is going to pedant me on it. :o)

And what about further back still? Stephen Oppenheimer's Out of Eden: The peopling of the world gave a fascinating insight into how you can trace the movement of peoples into the areas of the world they have inhabited in historical times through their genes. What do my ancestors' genes tell me about this? Where were they during the Last Glacial Maximum? Retreating before deserts in Africa, or before glaciers in Asia or Europe?

Get to the point, already!

A quick google shows there are a variety of companies out there offering DNA analysis of this kind. The DNA Ancestry Project came out Google's favourite link, however Family Tree DNA claims that 90% of genealogists choose them. They're more expensive, though.

Does anyone reading this have any experience or recommendations about any of these? (Also, should I be worried, from a data protection perspective, about the fact both of these companies are located outside of the UK, in the USA?)

Comments

You get what you pay for...

[rebekahthorn.livejournal.com]

Hi,

If you want to match other people of Jewish Ancestry go with Family Tree DNA. They have THE Jewish DNA Database.

They do the testing for the National Geographic Genographic Project. They have a reputation for ethics. They both store your sample for 25 years and treat it like it is Your sample.

They also have advanced testing options and keep up with new research. For example female lineage testing in major scholarly papers now uses the full amount of the mitochondrial DNA. Family Tree DNA offers a test for that. You can order it to start of upgrade at a latter date.

It might look like a bit more upfront but they do not nickel and dime you down the road. Should you go for single nucleotide polymorphism, SNP, tests for deep ancestry they will not charge you for a backbone test and then another more advanced test. They predict and let you get right to the advanced testing.

***Order through a project for a big discount.***;-)

Regards,
Rebekah
rebekahthorn@gmail.com

Re: You get what you pay for...

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Hello, Rebekah; thanks for your assistance. (Might I ask how you found this blog entry?)

It looks from what you say (and what the site says) that this is probably the one to go for, then... and that I've got a lot of reading to do before I plump for placing an order. (I'd not even heard of the National Geographic Genographic Project before... but then, it's not my nation...)

Re: You get what you pay for...

[rebekahthorn.livejournal.com]

Hi,

How I found your blog entry... Google Alerts! http://www.google.com/alerts
They keep information about what interests me flowing to my inbox.

I am a project administrator for a few projects at Family Tree DNA. It is an entirely unpaid position and I do not get kick backs.

Reading.:-) It all depends on what part of the DNA and Ancestry of Jewish interests you. Let me think. A friend suggested "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared Diamond. I recommend "Abraham's Children: Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People" by Jon Entine even if you disagree with every word he writes. Beyond that, there is the general stuff such as "Deep Ancestry: Inside The Genographic Project" by Spencer Wells and the heavy stuff such as journal articles by Dr. Doron Behar and Dr. Michael Hammer.

Regards,
Rebekah
rebekahthorn@gmail.com

Re: You get what you pay for...

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Actually, I meant just on the Family Tree DNA site. :o)

[curious-reader.livejournal.com]

Do you think one could find out if his/her ancestors were Jewish? I don't know how it really works. I have no family tree. At the time of my grandmother's birth people were not even registered in Iran.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

No, because Judaism is not racially defined. However, Judaism makes it hard to marry in, there is a core Jewish ethnicity, and the genetics may point to membership of this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jew#Genetic_studies).

Cohanim, however, all do seem to be descended from one man (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y-chromosomal_Aaron), three thousand years ago, dubbed Y-Chromosome Aaron.

[curious-reader.livejournal.com]

It does not necessarily hinder people to marry out or even convert to a different religion. In the past it was even more convenient to convert to Christianity or Islam because they got more rights.
I know that Rabbis and some parents did not like to see that but sometimes situations changed for them, too. They converted themselves and their children married out. You never know whose ancestors were Jews or not. I agree with the ethnicity. Jews had been mixed a lot which comes from intermarriage. But if Jews are originally semitic Hebrew tribes you might find out about that.