# Just got results from a DNA test, got a big surprise



## Melensdad

Did a DNA test. So it turns out that I am:

67% Eastern European
25% European Jewish
7% Western European
1% divided between two overlapping regions which both include Israel
I knew there was German bloodlines on my mom's side of the family which is mostly Polish, that would account for the Western European DNA.

Dad's side of the family always claimed to be 100% Slavic.  He came to the US in the early 1940's from the northeastern region of (then) Czechoslovakia (now) known as the Tatra region of the nation of Slovakia.

My daughter long suspected/insisted that we had Jewish blood due to migration patterns of Jews up into Eastern Europe. We suspected that it was on my dad's side of the family because there seems to be a lot of history from my mom's side that was done by other relatives, none indicated Jewish bloodlines.

However, with 25% of the DNA showing as European Jewish it must mean that a good % of the European Jewish DNA came from the each side.

Have any of you done a DNA test?

Any surprises?  

I was not surprised I had *some* Jewish DNA, I was *very* surprised it was such a large amount.  Funny part is that I've never heard any relative ever in our history mention anything about marrying into a Jewish family or any Jews marrying into either side of our family.  So the ancestry must go back at least 3 or 4 generations ... and it must have been on both sides of my family at fairly high levels of inter-marrying.


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## JEV

I'm afraid of having it done because of the potention for a higher than normal percentage of "a$$hole" being revealed. We all know it's there, but not sure just how much. Some days the Mrs says it's 100%. I have to agree...

Glad you're happy with knowing all that. Now, what are you going to do with the information?


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## MrLiberty

Did mine a few years ago when doing the family tree.  I always thought we were 100% Belgium, but it turned out that my dads side of the family was 65% Scandinavian.


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## Melensdad

JEV said:


> I'm afraid of having it done because of the potention for a higher than normal percentage of "a$" being revealed. We all know it's there, but not sure just how much. Some days the Mrs says it's 100%. I have to agree...
> 
> Glad you're happy with knowing all that. *Now, what are you going to do with the information?*



I'm checking with my cousins on my mom's side of the family to see if any of those cousins took a similar test.  I'm curious to find out what % of their DNA might come from Jewish Europeans.  It would be more telling to test on of my still living Aunts but not sure either of them would be willing.  Both are very elderly.  

I'm not one of those people who really wants to dig really deep into this stuff.  My daughter gave me the test for Father's Day, I think largely to satisfy her curiosity.  But I am somewhat curious so I'm sending out some inquiries.  If nothing comes of it then so be it.






MrLiberty said:


> Did mine a few years ago when doing the family tree.  I always thought we were 100% Belgium, but it turned out that my dads side of the family was 65% Scandinavian.



So someone got an a boat, even if only for a short trip.

But considering the wanderings of the Swedes/Norwegians and their longboats during the Viking days its probably not a big surprise that a Belgian intermarried with someone from across the water to the North.


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## JimVT

after my adopted as an infant uncle's death someone run his and turned out to have our family blood. one of the elders said their was a rumor it was from one of the girls and to leave it alone.
lots of native indian in our tree.


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## pirate_girl

I know my Grandmother on Dad's side was part Cherokee and was adopted, and he Grandpa was Welsh and came over with the family to work in coal mines.
He was born in Swansea.
On Mom's side, it was Norwegian- Dutch/Swedish/Danish, Irish and Scot.
Haven't really looked in to it in depth much since, just going by what I've always been told.

It's all interesting.


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## NorthernRedneck

I know my dad's family came over from Wales in the late 1800s. Mom's family is part Swiss and french I believe. 

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk


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## JimVT

ever run the same test twice?  just me being suspicious but if you don't know how do you believe it?


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## Melensdad

To all those from the English Isles, you can almost bet you have some Scandinavian DNA in you.  Vikings interbred with the natives and brought over their DNA.

For those from France, don't forget that the English invaded, as did the Germans, and there were plenty of Jewish communities in France too.






JimVT said:


> ever run the same test twice?  just me being suspicious but if you don't know how do you believe it?



I wondered the very same thing.

Another reason that I'd like to see and compare with some relatives.  Clearly any relative is going to have some overlapping areas.  If not then the test is a sham.


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## JimVT

good idea on the relative  testing.
what do they charge?


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## Melensdad

JimVT said:


> good idea on the relative  testing.
> *what do they charge?*



I don't know!

I suspect about $100.  I received it as a gift from my daughter.  

Didn't bother to look over my credit card receipt to see how much my gift cost me


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## XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq

I won't do it unless they can guarantee the results are 100% confidential and never end up in some big government dna database.  The current services that are out there will sell all your information to anyone that has the $$$ including .gov.  I guess I could pay for it with some anonymously purchased pre-loaded credit card and use a fake name and address but that seems like more effort than I want to do.


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## Melensdad

CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER

Got results from a 1st cousin _(his mom & my mom are sisters)_ and it turns out that he is also exactly 25% Jewish.  

He also had trace amounts (less than 1%) that included the area which includes Israel.  

He also has mostly Eastern European DNA, but his dad's bloodline clearly is scattered all around Europe.  

The fact that he also contains exactly the same amount of Jewish European DNA leads me to believe that the DNA came from our mothers.

My Great Grandfather (Deering) which I presumed was where my 7% Western European DNA came from clearly only contributed 3% to my 1st cousin so 4% of my Western European DNA must have come from my father, yet there was never any mention of Western European in his family tree.


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## zekeusa

Yes, I have had the DNA test done. 99% European, 39% Scandinavian. The whole Family did it.


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## Adillo303

The CIA, NSA and FBI thank you all for your contribution to their DNA databases.


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## EastTexFrank

I don't know if it would be worthwhile for me to have it done.  My family has been in the north-east of Scotland forever.  We didn't travel around much.  Although, there may be some Scandinavian (Viking) blood in there somewhere.  They landed in the north-east and tried to colonize it but didn't stay long.  They got their butt kicked and left for the west coast and the islands.


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## zekeusa

Adillo303 said:


> The CIA, NSA and FBI thank you all for your contribution to their DNA databases.



Yes, We are all illegal aliens that have been grandfathered in.


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## Melensdad

zekeusa said:


> Yes, We are all illegal aliens that have been grandfathered in.



Well my dad's name is in the record book at Ellis Island so I know he was a legal immigrant.  

Not sure about my Great Great Grandfather on my mom's side.  He might have been a sneaky Jew trying to hide his identity


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## zekeusa

One of my relatives was a stowaway on a ship because he didn't have the money for a ticket....


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## MrLiberty

Melensdad said:


> Well my dad's name is in the record book at Ellis Island so I know he was a legal immigrant.
> 
> Not sure about my Great Great Grandfather on my mom's side.  He might have been a sneaky Jew trying to hide his identity




Had a cousin who was coming to America in 1912 along with three friends.  They missed the boat, and ended up staying in Europe.  The boat was the Titanic.  I have the article from Belgium with my family tree stuff.


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## Catavenger

If you can get onto the Mormon data base they have family trees for many people. My brother traced my dad's side of the family all the way back to 1385.

My mom's side nobody is sure of but family gossip says my great grandfather illegally crossed to NY state from  Canada.


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## Melensdad

Well now it turns out that my mom's mother was likely adopted.  Nobody seems to have any real information but it appears likely that she was adopted and was likely 100% Jewish _(or as close to 100% as is possible)_ but was raised as a Polish-Catholic.

What we also have learned is that while it has long been believed that my mom's side of the family was roughly 80% Polish/20% German _(give or take)_ we were able to get results from one of my surviving aunts and it shows that she has only 29% Eastern European DNA and only 3% Western European DNA.  Even if you factor out her mother's DNA because she was adopted into the family, the % of Eastern European is very low compared to family folklore.


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## Melensdad

Lots of arguments among the family (cousins) since my first DNA test.  

They totally deny any Jewish ancestry.

A few more tests by cousins later and BOOM they are all roughly 1/4 Jewish 

But there are still whole families that deny any Jewish connection.

We have confirmed grandpa's ancestry, through birth records, to the early 1800's and every trace is Polish.  We have confirmed that Grandma was ADOPTED.  

Today I received a revised "estimate" of my DNA heritage.

The European Jewish component went up 4%.  The middle east Jewish component was eliminate.  

So I am: 

61% Polish/Slovak/Hungarian/Romanian/Russian
29% Jewish of European origins
10% Baltic states (which overlaps northern Poland)


Posted this update on our family Facebook group page.  Waiting for  to begin


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## XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq

So uhh why does anyone care about the Jewish part?  Is that supposed to be bad or something?  Someone could have been from a Jewish family but no longer a practicing Jew?


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## Big Dog

One of my best friends just discovered he has a daughter he never knew about. It’s a cool story but detailed. Long story short, his niece had a test done and it resulted in him being notified of having a daughter.


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## JimVT

when I did mine you were not required to use your real name.


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## bczoom

Pardon my ignorance, but how does being Jewish get embedded in your DNA?  It's a religion.  Does anyone's DNA test come back with a percentage of Christian or some other religion?


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## Melensdad

PBinWA said:


> *So uhh why does anyone care about the Jewish part?*  Is that supposed to be bad or something?  Someone could have been from a Jewish family but no longer a practicing Jew?



I dunno

It seems like there is one wing of the family that has issues with it.  Makes no sense to me.  They are adamant that they are Polish-Catholic.  I suggest that they are Polish/Jews who happen to be Catholic.  They don't like that.  Like I said, I don't understand their issues





bczoom said:


> Pardon my ignorance, but how does being Jewish get embedded in your DNA?  It's a religion.  Does anyone's DNA test come back with a percentage of Christian or some other religion?



It is both a race and a religion.

The Jewish race has its own DNA markers just like there are markers for Egyptian which are different than Arab (Iraq/Saudi region) DNA markers which are different from Persian (Iran) DNA markers.

You can be Jewish of race and any religion you wish to be.

Just like you can be Arab/Persian/African by race and Jewish by religion.


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## bczoom

Melensdad said:


> It is both a race and a religion.
> 
> The Jewish race has its own DNA markers just like there are markers for Egyptian which are different than Arab (Iraq/Saudi region) DNA markers which are different from Persian (Iran) DNA markers.


Thanks. Didn't know that.


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## Melensdad

Well surprise surprise, a member of the family that is in the wing that objects to the thought that they may be Jewish had a DNA test and she sent me her test.

So now those who object to the thought that "Grandma is Jewish" have a sister who is Jewish!  

I posted this on Facebook too.  But this is one of the daughters of my mom's oldest sister.  So a first cousin to me.  My mom was on the younger side of the 12 children.


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## Danang Sailor

PBinWA said:


> So uhh why does anyone care about the Jewish part?  Is that supposed to be bad or something?  Someone could have been from a Jewish family but no longer a practicing Jew?



It is *alleged* that a couple of millenia back a Jew might have had something to do with the death of another Jew who may (or may not) have lived in the area now known as modern Israel.  This seems to be of some importance to certain religious sects.


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## luvs

my Family got a chart; we already knew that we were mostly german/irish, etcetera, & then beyond-- then, my aunt got us this genetic chart, & we're american indian, as well--
kinda neat to know-- that's on my 1 Grandma's & Pap's end~~


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## Melensdad

luvs said:


> my Family got a chart; we already knew that we were mostly german/irish, etcetera, & then beyond-- then, my aunt got us this genetic chart, & we're american indian, as well--
> *kinda neat to know-- *that's on my 1 Grandma's & Pap's end~~



Yup I agree 

It's the little surprises that make life interesting.


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