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Learning About My Jewish Ancestry

 I am around 1/8 Ashkenazi. My maternal grandmother's mother Ruth Rosenthal was a first generation Ashkenazi Jewish American born in Nebraska. Her father Max Rosenthal immigrated from Romania in 1902, and her mother Irene Hosias immigrated from Latvia in 1912. They were married in Allen, Goshen County, Wyoming in 1913. AncestryDNA says that I am 11% European Jewish.I am actually a multiracial/highly multiethnic American,and I really don't have a specific type of identity nor culture. My AncestryDNA Ethnicity Estimate says that I am 52% African, 47% European, and 1% Native American. I believe that 1% should be added to Native American and subtracted from European. My mitochondrial DNA Haplogroup is J1c14 which has been found in Central and Eastern Europe. It's not one of the main Ashkenazi Jewish Haplogroups, but it seems that mainly Ashkenazi Jews that have it. 


It was only back in 2011 that I have learned that I have Jewish ancestry.


My mother grew up never knowing her mother nor her side of the family.

We first learned about the names of my maternal great grandparents back in 1994 when I obtained my maternal grandmother's birth certificate. We started suspecting that my maternal grandmother's mother was Jewish with her name being Ruth Rosenthal.

Back in 2009, I did AncestryDNA's Mitochondrial Test which told me that I belong to Haplogroup J and that it was European Travelers. Somebody told me about my mutations and informed me that my Haplogroup is J1c.

I did 23andme test in 2011, and I was confirmed to have Jewish DNA. I have the Ashkenazi DNA and the DNA relative matches. One of my Ashkenazi Jewish DNA relative matches helped me with my family tree and told me about the names and birthplaces of my maternal grandmother's maternal grandparents through the Census Records.

In 2013, I connected to my maternal grandmother's side of the family. At 23andme, my mother and I matched a man that ended up being my maternal grandmother's father's maternal first cousin. My maternal grandmother's father's ancestry was Colonial European American.

My first cousin, three times removed told me that my grandmother died back in 2011 which definitely greatly disappointed and saddened my mother and me. On the bright side, he got in touch with my mother's 13th month older maternal halfsister, and we met her for the first time.

She confirmed everything about what I learned about my maternal grandmother's mother.

My mother and I also found out that my grandmother had another daughter 9 years after my mother was born. She ended up contacting me after she found something that I left on my grandmother's internet gravesite. Now, my mother and I have a good relationship with her. There is actually a strong resemblance between my mother and her younger maternal halfsister that everybody noticed.

I hope to connect with more of my close Jewish relatives. My maternal grandmother's mother had many siblings including even a twin.

My mother and I are part Jewish and grew up never knowing about it and just recently have connected with our Jewish roots.

My mother grew up as a Roman Catholic. Her father's side is Cape Verdean, Madeiran, Puerto Rican, and Azorean.

There is definitely a possibility of Sephardic Jewish ancestry somewhere in my maternal grandfather's family tree.

My mother and I could have both Ashkenazi and Sephardic ancestry.

I have a little Acadian ancestry on my Louisianan African American father's side, and one of my Acadian ancestors was Abraham Dugas (my 10th GGF once, 11th GGF once), who was an ancestor of most current living Cajuns/Acadians. Genetic testing revealed that his Y DNA haplogroup was J2a3 which makes some people suspect that he was Sephardic Jewish.

I also found out that the Y DNA haplogroup of my maternal grandmother's father's patrilineal English ancestor William Walker (my 6th GGF) was J2a4h2

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