Three types of personal DNA tests

Where to Test if you are Jewish?

• Family Tree DNA * is the only place for Y testing, has projects, but the smallest database, however many jewish testers, cheek swab

• 23andme gives health results and top level haplogroups

• MyHeritage * has more European testers and connects to trees

• Ancestry.com is least likely to have matches for recent immigrants but has the largest database and best tree matching for now

Diagrams from the NIH http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov

2 Types of Y DNA Tests

Y Haplogroups from SNPs

Jewish Y Haplogroups: J1c3, J2a Cohanim
R1a1 most Levites
E1a1 is frequent
Others: various J subgroups, T1, and E1b

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_studies_of_Jewish_origins

Sample Y DNA STR results for 37 markers

A project at Family Tree DNA for Jewish Y markers

Mitochondria under a microscope

Near Eastern origin mtDNA Haplogroups:
K1a9 and N1b2
 

others are H variations, possibly European

Your autosomal DNA results are about 700,00 lines of data in a spreadsheet

Inheritance from 8 g-grandparents,
courtesy of Angie Bush

Aunt Shaindel is found!

larasgenealogy.blogspot.com

Lara is collecting Ashkenazi data and her preliminary report is here: https://larasgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/05/ashkenazic-shared-dna-survey-data-by.html

Above, results in my family, see also this paper
academia.edu/7236789/Why_Autosomal_DNA_Test_Results_Are_Significantly_Different_for_Ashkenazi_Jews

Match to a maternal side Ashkenazi 3rd cousin

Comparison to a paternal side Norwegian 3rd cousin

Kitty's Guidelines for Jewish DNA Matches worth following up on

• At least one segment > 20 cM
• Another segment > 10 cM
• Several more good sized segments

Israel Pickholtz documents his extensive family DNA project

He blogs at allmyforeparents.blogspot.com/

Getting New Cousins to Respond to You

• Have a family tree online
• Upload friendly picture of yourself
• Include details of who matches whom (they may have multiple kits)
• Offer them information when you write to them

blog.KittyCooper.com