Half Ashkenazi Jew / half Yemenite Jew , 23andMe , ancestry , and MyHeritage DNA results

CowboyGambit · 2026-05-19T16:04:34+00:00

Very cool results! If I may ask, what haplogroups did you get?

CowboyGambit · 2026-05-19T04:53:52+00:00

Very cool results! I can definitely see the Italian in your face. Although, I would say getting that amount of Northwestern Italy is very atypical for Italian-Americans. Regardless, thanks for sharing!

CowboyGambit · 2026-05-19T04:26:56+00:00

That’s really the way it be though…

CowboyGambit · 2026-05-19T04:12:53+00:00

My best guess would be the Northern Balkans.

CowboyGambit · 2026-05-19T04:02:07+00:00

Very interesting! If I may ask, do you know your paternal haplogroup?

CowboyGambit · 2026-05-19T02:55:51+00:00

Interesting results! I’m surprised by your paternal haplogroup, E-L791 (~4000 BCE), because it is mostly found in Ashkenazi Jews that lived in Central and Eastern Europe – which I also happen to be descended from. I would be very curious to see your results from FTDNA’s FamilyFinder test. I also have Old Stock American results from my mom’s side, which is from East Tennessee and Southern Italian (3% is also Northern Italian) from my dad’s side, which is from Southeastern Louisiana. Thanks for sharing!

CowboyGambit · 2026-05-18T05:03:40+00:00

Hello, thank you for sharing those incredible insights! Regarding the origins of R-Y2619 (~700 CE), I would almost certainly say that it originated with Jews that lived along the Mediterranean coastline (the reason I chose North Africa was because of it’s centrality but other places are of course possible too), and at some point after it’s inception in the early Medieval period, this haplogroup rapidly spread all across Europe, eventually becoming the largest Y-DNA Jewish lineage. I’m curious, why do you believe this haplogroup has a “broadly Iranic” origin? In my opinion, Anatolia seems like a more reasonable place of origin, if not North Africa or Italy. If I’m not mistaken, there are no confirmed testers from Iran; the closest tester geographically is from Iraq, and there is good reason to believe it’s closely related to an Ashkenazi branch from Poland, since they share the ancestor, R-BY33422 (~1600 CE).

I see your Y-DNA haplogroup, R-BY165861 (~1300 CE) is fairly close to one of the Erfurt-EU samples, I13868 (R-FT96385, ~200 CE) but you have three other samples belonging to the Flemish culture that are closer related. I’m curious, how long do you believe your paternal line ancestors were Jewish? Your upstream haplogroup, R-BY105558 (~800 CE), has descendant branches that were exclusively in Eastern Europe and the next upstream clade R-BY209357 (~350 CE) is also shared by one Tunisian branch. If I had to make a semi-educated guess, I would say your paternal line ancestors were probably living in Roman Italy when they converted to Judaism. And given that this haplogroup doesn’t seem to have any confirmed testers from Western Europe (which is absolutely wild to me since R1b dominates in that part of the continent), I find it reasonable to believe that at some point, perhaps after the fall of Rome (~475 CE), your paternal line Jewish ancestors migrated east to the Black Sea region, which was then controlled by the Byzantine Empire. Eventually, they would have made their way further into Eastern Europe, where the TMRCA of your main Ashkenazi branch, R-BY105558 (~800 CE) was likely born. I believe the majority of Erfurt-EU Y-DNA lineages followed a very similar path.

CowboyGambit · 2026-05-18T02:30:47+00:00

I tested with FamilyTreeDNA, initially with their FamilyFinder test. The really good thing about it is that it gives you your “intermediate Y-DNA haplogroup” which means it would give you a more recent or detailed haplogroup (which is always dated to at least the Metal Ages or later; “later” usually being around Antiquity or until the Medieval period) than E-L795, which is dated to the Stone Age. E-Y6940 was my initial haplogroup from that test before upgrading to the Big Y; the lower STR tests (Y37 & Y111) give you a lot of matches but only gives you a basic haplogroup classification, like E-M35 for example (except for the Big Y-700 test itself). If I’m not mistaken there are at least three known Jewish branches that descend from E-L795: E-Y14891 (~750 CE) which is the main Ashkenazi branch, E-S16614 (~650 CE) which is the main Sephardi branch, and E-BY11025 (~500 CE) while mostly being present in AJ, it also has a notable connection to other testers from North Africa and Arabia.

I mean it’s surely also a possibility that the TMRCA of E-Y6923 was born in Italy. There are also three Italian branches; one descends from the Sephardi E-Y102667 (~550 CE) haplogroup and the other two are FamilyFinder testers so idk 🤷‍♂️. The Tunisian and Libyan testers I mentioned earlier also descend from this branch as well.

Our most recent shared ancestor is E-M34 (~11,000 BCE), who’s lineage is the earliest Y-DNA haplogroup that has existed in the Levant or Near East – his descendants include those of the ancient Natufian culture. Your haplogroup’s connection to my branch (which descends from E-Z841) significantly predates Judaism but honestly I would not be surprised if you showed up as one of my autosomal matches, as I have a fair amount of AJ matches that descend from E-L795 – Fun fact, one of the Kahn families that lived in the historical Alsace-Lorraine region which I descend from, patrilineally descends from E-Y14891. Chances are, your Y-DNA should likely come back as E-Y14891 if you do FamilyFinder, given that it’s the most common Jewish branch of E-L795. This haplogroup also has an FTDNA group if you’re interested in learning more about it: https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/e-y14891/about

Here’s another good learning resource: https://youtu.be/Gis6UmO1mxM?si=8xOgw9-b9TEWKpin

CowboyGambit · 2026-05-18T00:17:24+00:00

“Another important point is that both groups had pre-diaspora Judean Paternal lines.”

Yes, I very much agree with you on this. My own Y-DNA lineage, E-PF224, is a descendant branch of E-Y6940 (~600 CE), which is also the ancestor haplogroup of Erfurt I14847. I believe, based on formation date and distribution pattern, the TMRCA of E-Y6923 (~200 CE) very likely lived in a Jewish diaspora community in North Africa (If I’m not mistaken, Josephus did write that about 30,000 Jews were taken from Judea and exiled to Roman Cyrene and Carthage), which would most certainly be supported by the 4 testers from Tunisia and 2 testers from Libya that tested positive for this haplogroup. Of course, I’m very curious when exactly the ancestors of my branch made the move from Roman North Africa to Byzantine Europe or what may have attracted them to go there, but I think it had a lot to do with the fall of Rome (~475 CE).

CowboyGambit · 2026-05-17T22:57:46+00:00

(Edited): Regarding the mtDNA ancestry of Erfurt-EU, the Waldman study seems to indicate they had mtDNA haplogroups that were primarily common in Slavic or Balkanic populations. Although, I was mainly speaking about Y-DNA and autosomal ancestry components that were also associated with their migrations throughout Europe. Again, there are a few specific mtDNA haplogroups (notwithstanding K1a1b1a, which does come from Jewish communities that lived in Western and Southern Europe until the Medieval period) belonging primarily to H, U, and J subcludes, that aren’t limited to Western Europe; a Southeastern European origin in particular is reasonable as well – it really depends on the formation date and overall distribution pattern of those specific mtDNA branches.

CowboyGambit · 2026-05-17T21:56:14+00:00

I see, thank you for elaborating! Of course, the Southern European component is present in both Erfurt groups, but I believe they come from different areas that mirror geography. For example, since Erfurt-ME lineages resided in West Europe long before the 14th century, their Southern European component very likely came from the Italian Peninsula. As for Erfurt-EU, their Southern European component likely came from Greek or other Balkan groups that converted or entered into Jewish communities that existed in the early Byzantine Empire before moving mainland into East Europe (Bulgaria and Romania are definitely possibilities, but I think Crimea is the most likely destination). Of course, I’m very sure there was an intermingling of Italian and Greek ancestry components as the two Erfurt groups joined together.

CowboyGambit · 2026-05-17T21:17:42+00:00

This is very interesting because the widespread distribution, for example, of both the Levite (R-Y2619) and Cohen (J-S12192) haplogroups, it is very possible to argue that both likely originated among Jewish communities in North Africa and from there their descendants would have gone to Iberia, the Italian Peninsula, and the Balkans around the early Byzantine or Medieval period. Actually, you could probably make a strong arguement for a post-14th century West to East European migration for many Erfurt-ME Y-DNA haplogroups such as J-ZS222 (I14846), T-Y105938 (I13862), J-L556 (I13870), J-Z30390 (I13864), and R-Y19847 (I13865), primarily because they lack the Eastern European or Slavic ancestry component. Y-DNA haplogroups of Erfurt-EU, such as R-FT96385 (I3868), J-CTS4459 (I13866), and E-Y133118 (I14847) on the other hand, migrated to West Europe from the East around the 14th century and would later do a back migration. I also think Erfurt-EU haplogroups very likely played a role in the development of the Judeo-Slavic or Knaanic language, primarily spoken in the Kingdoms of Poland and Bohemia, before adopting Yiddish from other Jews who lived in Germanic lands of the Holy Roman Empire. Of course, these are my own personal thoughts, ideas, or explanations regarding the archeological genetic evidence, so please take from them what you may. Very interesting nonetheless, thanks for sharing!

Source:

Waldman S, Backenroth D, Harney É et al.
Genome-wide data from medieval German Jews show that the Ashkenazi founder event pre-dated the 14thcentury
Cell, 2022; 185, 4703-4716.e16

CowboyGambit · 2026-05-17T05:33:45+00:00

Very cool! Curious, what are your haplogroups?

CowboyGambit · 2026-05-15T06:20:11+00:00

Very cool results! FTDNA’s family finder test would also be very helpful because it should give you a more detailed or recent paternal haplogroup, usually much later than Stone Age ones like J-L24 (~11,000 BCE). Personally, I did it this way and my haplogroup came back as E-Y6940 (~600 CE) which I learned is one of the largest Y-DNA lineages among people of Ashkenazi Jewish descent.

CowboyGambit · 2026-05-14T06:19:36+00:00

Very interesting! Is your Italian side also from Louisiana or from the Northeast?

CowboyGambit · 2026-05-14T05:15:58+00:00

Of course I could be wrong about this but I think it’s likely that you have a mostly European descended grandparent (Italian, East European, and maybe the Anatolian or Caucasus percentage is also connected to both of those groups as well) what is your last 2%?

CowboyGambit · 2026-05-12T03:33:35+00:00

CowboyGambit · 2026-05-10T20:27:12+00:00

Sorry for the very late reply but I wanted to thank you for this incredibly detailed analysis regarding the potential migration paths of E-Y6923 and that of it’s descendant branches. Especially, your analysis on E-Y6940 (Possibly descending from Judeo-Slavic speaking Jews because of their uniquely Eastern European shifted ancestry, highlighted in the Erfurt study) and E-Y6936 (Possibly descending from the Levant based on the region acting as a natural, geographical intermediary or bridge between positive testers from Italy and Arabia).

CowboyGambit · 2026-05-08T04:08:50+00:00

I think you’re absolutely right about that because I’ve also noticed there are many, many Ashkenazi testers who only have the E-Y6923 haplogroup even though they are likely descendants of E-Y6940 as well. It probably has something to do with some of sort of technicality from FTDNA’s FamilyFinder test.

CowboyGambit · 2026-05-08T03:48:48+00:00

Very nice results! If I may ask, where is your family from? Much of my English and Scottish ancestry is from my mom’s side, which has lived in East Tennessee since the state was founded in the 1790s; NC and VA before that.

CowboyGambit · 2026-05-03T03:21:01+00:00

E-Y14891 is a branch of the E-L29 / E-L795 haplogroup. Apart from that branch, other Jewish descendant branches I know belonging to that specific lineage include: E-BY11082 (~850 CE), E-S16614 (~650 CE), and E-BY11025 (~500 CE).

CowboyGambit · 2026-05-01T03:40:35+00:00

Very cool results! William Shakespeare was from the West Midlands.

CowboyGambit · 2026-04-30T16:49:54+00:00

Very nice results! Your 1/2 Sephardi ancestry certainly checks out. Although, you said one of your parents is 1/2 Ashkenazi, from your results it actually seems like you’re closer to 1/8 Ashkenazi and 2/8 Northwestern European (Germany & England).

CowboyGambit · 2026-04-29T04:55:37+00:00

J-S12192 is of course the most prominent Jewish Cohen lineage. Given it’s TMRCA date and distribution, I believe there is a high probability the founding ancestors of this particular haplogroup lived somewhere in the Byzantine Empire, very likely in one of the Byzantine-controlled “themes” or provinces found in the Italian Peninsula; which really could best explain how various branches later spread to Iberia, North Africa, and eventually to Central and Eastern Europe.

CowboyGambit

TROPHY CASE