Genetic Genealogy · Ethnicity Analysis
DNA
Discoveries
What the genes reveal: a portrait of migration, survival, and hidden heritage spanning the Mediterranean, the Levant, and beyond.
The Results
A genome that tells the story of diaspora, survival, and memory.
DNA testing is not just a number — it is a historical record written in biology. Every percentage point in these results represents generations of people who loved, fled, hid, prayed, and ultimately survived long enough to pass something of themselves forward.
My results reveal an overwhelmingly Mediterranean ancestry — Southern European at the core, with a substantial Middle Eastern component that confirms what archival research has long suggested: Sephardic Jewish lineage carried through centuries of Converso practice in southern Italy and Iberia.
The South Asian trace points to Romani ancestry. The North African thread speaks to the Moorish heritage that shaped Iberian culture. Each fraction tells a chapter of a hidden history — one that this research is dedicated to recovering.
Overall Composition
Region
European
72.36%
The Mediterranean heart of the lineage — dominated by a deep Southern European signature that speaks to centuries of Iberian, Italian, and Balkan ancestry. The European Jewish component reflects the Sephardic and Converso heritage at the core of this research.
Region
Middle Eastern
25.46%
A striking quarter of the genome traces to the ancient crossroads of the Levant, Caucasus, and Persian territories. This is the signature of Sephardic migration routes — families who carried their faith and culture from Jerusalem through Babylon, Persia, and the Ottoman Empire before settling in Southern Europe.
Region
Asian
1.4%
A small but meaningful South Asian thread — consistent with the Romani genetic signature, which originates in the Punjab region of northwestern India and traveled westward into Europe over a thousand years ago.
Region
African
0.79%
A North African trace that points to centuries of Moorish presence in the Iberian Peninsula — the Moriscos and Berber populations whose culture, cuisine, and genes wove deeply into southern Italian and Spanish communities long before the Inquisition tried to erase that history.
What This Means
The DNA confirms what the archives suggest —
a Sephardic soul in a Mediterranean body.
The dominant Southern European signature (51.49%) — with its sub-labels spanning Iberian, Italian, Greek, and Balkan populations — is exactly what you would expect from a family that moved through the Mediterranean for centuries after the 1492 expulsion, adopting local identities while quietly preserving older ones.
The Middle Eastern quarter (25.46%) is the genetic fingerprint of that ancient origin — a lineage that traces back to the Levantine heartland, filtered through centuries of migration along the Ottoman trade routes. Combined with the European Jewish component, it makes the Sephardic hypothesis not just plausible, but genomically visible.
Deep Ancestry · Iron Age Model
Iron Age
Ancestry Model
A second deep-ancestry model, calibrated against Iron Age reference populations. At a genetic fit of 1.661 — even closer than the Bronze Age model — this is the sharpest genomic portrait of the lineage, placing it squarely in the Classical Greek and ancient Near Eastern world.
Classical Greek populations — the dominant component, spanning the Archaic through Classical periods and the full sweep of the Aegean world.
Late Period Egyptian ancestry — reflecting the ancient Jewish diaspora in Egypt and the broader North African Mediterranean corridor.
Migration-era Germanic peoples — consistent with the long Roman frontier and the later barbarian migrations that reshaped early medieval Italy.
The ancient kingdom of Urartu (modern eastern Anatolia/Armenia) — a significant Near Eastern component linking back to the Caucasian ancestry thread.
Iron Age through Hellenistic Anatolian populations — the bridge between the Greek world and the ancient Near East, central to the Byzantine era that follows.
Pre-Roman Italic and Etruscan populations — the indigenous peoples of the Italian peninsula before Roman expansion unified the region.
An early Baltic/Slavic trace — consistent with the small Slavic signal in the modern ethnicity breakdown.
A minimal but notable East African Neolithic trace — potentially connecting to ancient trade networks across the Red Sea and Horn of Africa.
A very small trace, likely reflecting the same Romani/South Asian thread visible in the modern and Bronze Age models.
The Iron Age Picture
The Classical Greek dominance (37.4%), combined with Urartian and Anatolian components that together add another 27%, draws a direct line to the ancient world of the eastern Mediterranean — precisely the world in which the earliest Jewish diaspora communities formed and spread westward. The Egyptian component at 16.6% reinforces this: the Jewish presence in Egypt during the Late Period is historically documented, and this lineage carries its genomic echo.
Deep Ancestry · Prehistoric Components
Bronze Age
Ancestry Model
Going deeper than modern ethnicity, this model maps the genome against prehistoric population components — the ancient building blocks that shaped every lineage in the Mediterranean world. Genetic fit: 1.874 (exceptionally close).
Neolithic farmers who spread from Anatolia into Europe — the agricultural backbone of Mediterranean civilisation.
Steppe-related ancestry from the Caucasus corridor — the same migration stream that reshaped much of Bronze Age Europe and the Near East.
Ancient Near Eastern ancestry reflecting the deep Semitic populations of the Arabian Peninsula — consistent with Levantine Jewish heritage.
Pre-Hittite Anatolian populations — the ancient heartland connecting Europe to the Middle East.
Among the oldest components — Iranian Zagros hunter-gatherers, ancestors of the earliest Near Eastern farming communities.
Late Period Egyptian ancestry — a trace consistent with Mediterranean trade networks and the ancient Jewish diaspora in Egypt.
A minimal but detectable trace — possibly linked to the South Asian / Romani thread visible in the modern ethnicity results.
The Deeper Picture
The dominant European Farmer component (38.8%) is the Neolithic agricultural population that built the Mediterranean world. The Bronze Age Caucasian and Arabian Peninsula components together (41%) reflect the ancient Near Eastern heritage that also underlies Levantine Jewish ancestry — confirming that the Sephardic signal in the modern results has roots stretching back thousands of years before the Inquisition or the 1492 expulsion. This lineage is old.
Deep Ancestry · Roman Era Model
Roman Era
Ancestry Model
Of all era models, this is the sharpest fit — placing the lineage with extraordinary precision in Roman-era Italy, Anatolia, the Levant, and Sardinia. The Roman world, at the height of the Jewish diaspora, is where this genome feels most at home.
Late Roman Sardinia — an island that preserved ancient Mediterranean genetic patterns with remarkable continuity, and a known refuge for populations fleeing persecution on the mainland.
Roman and Byzantine Anatolia across eight centuries — the crossroads of Europe and the Near East, and a major corridor for the early Jewish diaspora moving westward.
The ancient Semitic heartland — a consistent thread across every era model, anchoring the deep Near Eastern Jewish heritage of this lineage.
Imperial through Late Roman Italy — the direct ancestor of the medieval Italian communities that appear as the closest population matches across all models.
Ancient Colchis/western Georgia (modern Lazica) — a Caucasian kingdom on the eastern Black Sea coast, reinforcing the Caucasian thread that runs through every era.
Migration Period Germanic peoples — the barbarian groups that moved through and settled in the Western Roman Empire, leaving a genetic mark across medieval Italy.
Roman and Byzantine Levant — the land of ancient Israel and Judea. The presence of this component is a direct genomic echo of Sephardic origins in the ancestral homeland.
A small Migration Period Baltic component — consistent with the Northwestern and North European traces in the modern ethnicity breakdown.
A minimal East African/Horn of Africa trace — appearing across multiple era models, likely reflecting ancient Red Sea and trade-route connections.
Roman-era Balkans (modern Croatia/Albania coast) — a small but notable link to the South Slavic and Balkan signals in the modern results.
The Roman Picture
Roman Sardinia, Roman Anatolia, Roman Italy, and Roman Levant together account for nearly 60% of this model — a striking convergence on the exact geography of the Roman-era Jewish diaspora. The Levant component (9.8%) is a direct genomic link to Judea and Israel. Combined with the Arabian Peninsula thread (15%), this model offers the clearest evidence yet that this is a lineage shaped by Jewish families who moved through the Roman Empire, settled in Italy and Sardinia, and carried their ancient Near Eastern heritage quietly across the centuries.
Deep Ancestry · Medieval Era Model
Medieval Era
Ancestry Model
The Medieval model produces the closest fit of any era — and the reason is unmistakable: European Jewish populations of AD 1160–1400 are the single largest component at 33.2%. The genome finds its most precise mirror in medieval Jewish Europe.
Medieval Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jewish communities of Europe — the single largest component, placing this lineage unambiguously within the medieval Jewish diaspora at its height.
Medieval Italian populations across eight centuries — the continuous southern Italian thread that runs from Roman times through the Converso period and into the modern results.
Byzantine-era Anatolia — the eastern Roman world that sheltered Jewish communities for centuries and maintained the genetic bridge between the Levant and the European Mediterranean.
Early medieval Balkan populations — consistent with the South Slavic and Balkan signals in the modern ethnicity breakdown, and with Sephardic communities that settled across the Ottoman Balkans.
A recurring Egyptian component across every era model — the ancient and medieval Jewish presence in Egypt leaves its mark here too.
The ancient Semitic anchor — diminished in this model compared to earlier eras, but still present, reflecting the deep pre-diaspora Near Eastern roots.
Medieval Levantine populations — a direct line to the ancestral homeland, persisting through Byzantine and early Islamic periods into the medieval world.
Medieval Iberian ancestry — the Sephardic homeland before the 1492 expulsion, small in this model but historically significant as the origin point of the Converso lineage.
A trace of medieval Sardinia — the island that appears as the single closest ancient population match, here reduced to a whisper but genomically present.
What This Confirms
A third of this genome mirrors medieval European Jewish communities — the very populations that were being expelled, converting under duress, and dispersing as Conversos across Italy and beyond during the 13th and 14th centuries. The Italian component (19%) and Byzantine Anatolia (17.6%) together trace the precise routes those communities travelled. The small but meaningful Iberian component (1.6%) is the genomic fingerprint of a family that passed through — or originated in — the Spain of the Reconquista. This is what Sephardic heritage looks like in the genome.
Ancient DNA Matching
Closest Populations
The top 50 ancient populations most genetically similar to this lineage. A lower score means a closer match. The results are strikingly concentrated in Roman Italy, medieval Italian Jewish communities, and Byzantine Anatolia — a genomic map of the exact corridors through which Sephardic and southern Italian ancestry traveled.
Exceptionally Close · Score under 3.0
Close Matches · Score 3.0 – 4.5
Extended Range · Score 4.5 – 5.6
What This Tells Us
The closest ancient populations are nearly all Roman, Medieval Italian, and Medieval Jewish from the same geographic corridor — Italy, Greece, and Byzantine Anatolia.
This is the genetic signature of a family rooted in Roman-era Italy, shaped by the Jewish diaspora that settled in southern Italy and Sicily after the destruction of the Second Temple, and then by centuries of Byzantine and Anatolian cultural exchange. The medieval European Jewish populations at Erfurt and Norwich appearing in the top ten confirms the Ashkenazi/Sephardic overlap that characterises many southern Italian Converso lineages.
Genetic Genealogy
Notable Individuals
These historical figures are the closest genetic relatives to this lineage — ranked by genetic fit score. A lower score means a closer match. The top results cluster around medieval Hungarian royalty, Iberian clergy, and Bronze Age Mediterranean populations — a remarkable confirmation of the ancestral story the DNA tells.
Closest Matches
Further Relatives
Ancient & Distant
Ancient and geographically distant populations — included for full reference. High scores indicate the vast genetic distance to deep prehistory.
True Ancestry · Individual DNA Matches
Ashkenazi & Sephardic Ancestral Connections
True Ancestry matches Katherine's DNA against ancient samples from archaeological sites worldwide. Genetic Distance (GD) measures closeness — lower numbers indicate a stronger match. Deep Dive entries report total shared SNPs and largest identical-by-descent chain.
Ashkenazi Matches
Medieval Jewish Cemetery, Erfurt
Late Medieval · Germany · ~1325–1350 AD
One of Europe's best-preserved Ashkenazi burial sites, the Erfurt cemetery yielded exceptional ancient DNA. Matching individuals here places Katherine's ancestry within the core Ashkenazi gene pool of 14th-century central Europe.
Y-DNA Matches · Erfurt
| Sample ID | Location | Date | Dist. | mtDNA | Y-DNA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I13864 | Ashkenazi Cemetery Erfurt | ~1350 AD | 11.25 | H3p | J2a1a1a2b2 |
| I13865 | Ashkenazi Cemetery Erfurt | ~1350 AD | 11.70 | L2a1l2a | R1b1a1b1b |
| I13862 | Ashkenazi Cemetery Erfurt | ~1350 AD | 16.51 | K1a1b1a | T1a1a |
| I13870 | Ashkenazi Cemetery Erfurt | ~1350 AD | 16.51 | K1a1b1a | J2a1a1a2b2a |
| I13866 | Ashkenazi Cemetery Erfurt | ~1350 AD | 17.52 | K1a1b1a | J1a |
| I14846 | Ashkenazi Cemetery Erfurt | ~1350 AD | 19.34 | K1a1b1a | J2b |
mtDNA Matches · Erfurt
| Sample ID | Location | Date | Dist. | mtDNA | Y-DNA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I13864 | Ashkenazi Cemetery Erfurt | ~1350 AD | 11.25 | H3p | J2a1a1a2b2 |
| I14851 | Ashkenazi Cemetery Erfurt | ~1350 AD | 11.34 | K1a1b1a | — |
| I13863 | Ashkenazi Cemetery Erfurt | ~1350 AD | 13.57 | K1a9 | — |
| I14736 | Ashkenazi Cemetery Erfurt | ~1350 AD | 14.89 | K1a1b1a | — |
| I14737 | Ashkenazi Cemetery Erfurt | ~1350 AD | 16.50 | N1b1b1 | — |
| I13862 | Ashkenazi Cemetery Erfurt | ~1350 AD | 16.51 | K1a1b1a | T1a1 |
| I13870 | Ashkenazi Cemetery Erfurt | ~1350 AD | 16.51 | K1a1b1a | J2a1a1a2b2a |
| I14852 | Ashkenazi Cemetery Erfurt | ~1350 AD | 17.39 | H6a1a1a | — |
| I14740 | Ashkenazi Cemetery Erfurt | ~1350 AD | 18.60 | N9a3 | — |
| I13869 | Ashkenazi Cemetery Erfurt | ~1350 AD | 20.42 | — | — |
| I13867 | Ashkenazi Cemetery Erfurt | ~1350 AD | 412 SNPs · 162 chain | K1a1b1a | — |
Norwich Chapelfield Well
Ashkenazi Mass Grave · England · 1190 AD
Remains of at least 17 individuals discovered in a Norwich well in 2004 were later identified through DNA as Ashkenazi Jews — likely victims of the 1190 massacre preceding the Third Crusade. Matching here links Katherine's lineage to the pre-expulsion English Jewish community.
Y-DNA Matches · Norwich
| Sample ID | Location | Date | Dist. | mtDNA | Y-DNA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SB604 | Norwich Chapelfield Well · Ashkenazi Mass Grave | 1190 AD | 15.59 | J1c5c1 | J1a2a1a2d2b2a2b |
| SB696 | Norwich Chapelfield Well · Ashkenazi Mass Grave | 1190 AD | 19.98 | U6a1b1b | T1a1a1b2b1 |
mtDNA Matches · Norwich
| Sample ID | Location | Date | Dist. | mtDNA | Y-DNA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SB676 | Norwich Chapelfield Well · Ashkenazi Mass Grave | 1190 AD | 15.32 | H3w | E1b1b1b2a1b1a |
| SB604 | Norwich Chapelfield Well · Ashkenazi Mass Grave | 1190 AD | 15.59 | J1c5c1 | J1a2a1a2d2b2a2b |
Sephardic Matches
From Iberia to the Levant — A Diaspora in DNA
Sephardic genetic fingerprints surface across thousands of years and thousands of miles — from medieval Iberian pogrom victims to Bronze Age Canaanites, from Achaemenid Lebanon to the Philistine coast. Together they trace the deep Levantine and Iberian roots woven through Katherine's ancestry.
Sephardic · mtDNA Matches (18 entries, sorted by GD)
| Sample ID | Location | Date | Dist. | mtDNA | Y-DNA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I3808 | Torna Alta · Post-Reconquista Granada | 1550 AD | 14.38 | H1 | — |
| ALA095 | Ancient Alalakh · Syria | 1830 BC | 16.12 | HV | J2b2 |
| I3575 | Late-Roman Montefrio · Granada | 500 AD | 17.71 | U5b1+16189+16192 | I2a2b4 |
| ROQ1 | Tàrrega Pogrom · Medieval Spain | 1348 AD | 17.72 | L2a1c+16129 | J2a2a1 |
| I7424 | Morisco · Post-Reconquista Granada | 1550 AD | 17.96 | U5b1+16189+16192 | — |
| I7003 | Bronze Age Yehud · Southern Levant | 2250 BC | 18.00 | N1b1a2 | J2b1 |
| ALA002 | Amorite Nobleman · Alalakh Syria | 1443 BC | 18.43 | N1a3a2 | J1a2a1a2d2b2b2c |
| I27075 | Phoenician Spain · Málaga | 300 BC | 18.68 | HV0+195 | J |
| I3980 | Early Medieval Iberia · Granada | 515 AD | 18.73 | H1e1c | — |
| ASH066 | Philistine Ashkelon · Canaan | 1150 BC | 19.42 | L5c | J |
| SGBN6 | Medieval Sicily · SegestaPotentially Sephardic | 1120 AD | 19.79 | J1d4 | — |
| I2200 | Late Bronze Age Canaanite · Megiddo | 1570 BC | 20.06 | U3b1 | — |
| ASH135 | Philistine Ashkelon · Canaan | 1150 BC | 20.49 | L2 | — |
| I3890 | Urartian Kingdom · ArmeniaPotentially Sephardic | 850 BC | 20.95 | J1b | — |
| ETM014 | Middle Bronze Age Amorite · Ebla Syria | 1900 BC | 21.50 | U3b2a1 | — |
| ROQ5 | Tàrrega Pogrom · Medieval Spain | 1348 AD | 21.91 | L2a1c+16129 | — |
| I22082 | Pre-Roman Spain · Granada | 201 BC | 21.92 | U3c | — |
| I22236 | Phoenician Italy · Sicily Motya | 578 BC | 21.97 | — | — |
Sephardic · Y-DNA Matches (14 entries, sorted by GD)
| Sample ID | Location | Date | Dist. | mtDNA | Y-DNA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R3359 | Early Medieval Tell Masaikh · Syria | 750 AD | 13.75 | — | J1a2a1a2d2b2b2c4d2a2a5a1e2b |
| R3477 | Byzantine Era Chhim · Lebanon | 565 AD | 14.46 | — | R1b1a1b |
| I20572 | Medieval Ottoman Muğla Yatağan · Turkey | 1375 AD | 14.66 | X2p | J2a1a1b2a1b1b3a |
| I10542 | Ancient Marmara Bursa · Anatolia | 3500 BC | 15.33 | H13a1 | J2a1a1a2a |
| GOR001_L | Classical Galatia Gordion · Anatolia | 165 BC | 16.21 | H14a | J2a1 |
| I20326 | Medieval Ottoman Muğla Yatağan · Turkey | 1475 AD | 16.37 | T2a1a | J2a2a1a1a |
| SFI-42 | Achaemenid Empire Saifi · Lebanon | 468 BC | 17.70 | H2a | J1a2a1a2d2b2b2c4b1 |
| SFI-34 | Achaemenid Empire Saifi · Lebanon | 500 BC | 17.63 | T1a2 | J1a2a1a2d2b2b2c4b2a |
| ROQ1 | Tàrrega Pogrom · Medieval Spain | 1348 AD | 17.72 | L2a1c+16129 | J2a2a1 |
| I7003 | Bronze Age Yehud · Southern Levant | 2250 BC | 18.00 | N1b1a2 | J2b1 |
| ASH066 | Philistine Ashkelon · Canaan | 1150 BC | 19.42 | L5c | J |
| I3930 | Ancient Armenia · Masis Blur | 7900 BC | 19.44 | K | J2a1a1a2a |
| I4519 | Late Bronze Age Canaanite · Megiddo | 1439 BC | 20.47 | H+152 | J2a1a1a2b2a1a |
| Ido115 | Medieval Ibiza · Al-Andalus Spain | 950 AD | 20.65 | H1cw2 | R1a1a1b2a2a1d6a |
What This Means
"The J haplogroup — dominant across both Sephardic and Ashkenazi matches — is the genetic watermark of the ancient Levant. It traveled with the Israelite diaspora through Iberia, across Europe, and into the medieval world."
The convergence of Erfurt Ashkenazi matches (1350 AD), Tàrrega pogrom victims (1348 AD), Achaemenid Lebanese populations (500–468 BC), and Bronze Age Levantine samples suggests a continuous genetic thread — one that predates the Ashkenazi / Sephardic divergence entirely, stretching back to a shared Levantine ancestral homeland.
Continue the Journey
The full story is in the books.
The numbers above are a starting point. The books trace the archival records, the family histories, and the cultural threads that give each percentage its human meaning.