Is there a particular ethnic origin/nationality that many Ashkenazi Jewish descendants come from?

Question

I am adopted and have no real history as to where my origins lie, other than the fact that my birth mother was of meditteranean appearance. Im always asked where I am from and could pretty much pass for any Mediterranean nationality, sometimes Arabic, Turkish etc (Dark hair, eyes, olive skinned etc)! Basically I do not appear 100% white caucasian shall we say. In an effort to find out some further information I have done a DNA test with the DNA Ancestry Project which came back with the information that within my 'Halopgroup' many women were Ashkenazi Jewish (descendants). Now, this didnt really help as it never gave me a conclusive area per say as these people were spread throughout Europe & the middle east. So my question is if anyone knows of the Ashkenazi Jewish 'race' if they could give me more information on where in the last 30 years the majority of these people have settled etc or anything to help so that I can use this information to help define my blood origins/ethnicity etc.

Answer 1

It did not give you a conclusive answer as to recent locations.. because that is not what dna tests do.  Persons from any haplogroup (which is a very broad term) can be anywhere in the world.  

The other issue that you are overlooking is that regardless of dna results concerning your mom.. your genetics include that which comes from your father.  The same is true for your mother.. her genetics are not limited to the maternal side, EVEN IF DNA TESTS focus on the maternal line.

Unfortunately, dna testing is very broad, and there is nothing to do about that limitation.  Finding info within the last 30 years REQUIRES finding explicit and factual records about your birth mother.  No way around that.

Answer 2

There were tribes called Khazars in East Europe who converted to Judaism when it became the state religion.

http://www.khazaria.com/

Many Jews from Israel would look Mediterranean as Israel is on the Mediterranean and even in Lebanon the country next to it many people look European as that area has had all types of people such as Europeans in the crusades and French people. Anybody can convert to any religion anyway. Jews in France would have more DNA in common with other French people than Jews from another country.

Answer 3

The Ashkenazi Jews descend from the Khazars, a Turkic race who inhabited the steppes North of the Caucasus. They converted to Judaism around the 800 AD, and migrated en mass into Eastern Europe following the fall of their empire several centuries later.

Answer 4

I don't think your search will help you find out who 'you' really are! The answer is: within you.

We are all the same.

Answer 5

The others have given you a good background.  I would also suggest the following website:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi

But let me get this straight:

Your mother was of Mediterranean appearance;

You had a DNA test done;

You do NOT appear to be 100% Caucasian;

You are uncertain as to your origins, other than having Ashkenazi Jews;

You want to know where in the World the Ashkenazis are today.

Well, today they are all over Europe, the Middle East, some in Africa, Asia, and of course the Americas.

But WHERE THEY ARE TODAY has nothing to do with your "origins"! If you are trying to get in touch with Askkenazis, contact the local Synagogue.

If you want to learn your ancestral origins, your DNA test SHOULD HAVE SHOWN YOU THAT.  I used www.familytreedna.com and it revealed that I, too, have Ashkenazi from about 7 - 8 countries. That is the point: your DNA will show you WHERE your ancestors came from. It will not reveal dates, exact locations (such as, perhaps, villages) or names, but it WILL show WHERE your ancestors came from.

If that is not the answer you seek, log into some of the National Geographics Genotype Programs which map human migrations around the world.  THAT WOULD SHOW you where groups of people came from.

Answer 6

Having a DNA test actually doesn't reveal that you are Jewish necessarily, because when there are converts to Judaism a long time ago, they will show up as Jewish descendants; you may be related to them, but not actually descended from that particular person.

I think this is applicable/true-- not 100% experienced in that.

However add a detail of your haplogroup and maybe I can study it.  Actually I don't have to study it except I'd like to study it anyways.  Study your haplogroup and study the mtDNA study of Jews by Doron Behar that says that (according to the media, which can twist things and leave out caveats) 40% of Ashkenazi Jews cluster in 4 mtDNA clusters.  Find out if you fit with one of those clusters.

If you're "H" like me, don't get your hopes up-- common in Europeans-- but don't get your hopes down.

I think K might be exciting.  It is not all this simple.  Not all of K I'm saying is Jewish.

You are Jewish according to Jews if your mother is Jewish; thus this may be of interest to you (if you agree).  I don't know what they think about DNA tests to show it.  

I don't know why "the last 30 years" matters and I don't really know, (unless you mean about your mother specifically), but I think they are wrong that Ashkenazi Jews are descended mostly from Khazars. They supposedly converted. I do not know if they stayed or made a big contribution to the race.  I can't tell them apart from Europeans (e.g. Bob Saget, William Shatner), are other Jews white too? (I've been to synagogues alot, but I don't know who's Sephardi for sure or Ashkenazi).  I know that some are darker.

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Addition

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I should mention that Ashkenazis are the most populous group in the world.  They have settled in the US, but I don't know where else.  

Anyways, there are three large clusters of K in Ashkenazi Jews, as well as a very very very small amount of other K; but non-Ashkenazi Jewish K had lots that were not these clusters. The three clusters are apparently K1a1b1a (the largest), K1a9 and K2a2a, if the names are still the same.  The rest of K can be Jewish, but as far as I can tell can also be Gentile.  Look up your subgroup in the statistics in the study, and find out what countries have it.  (and make sure that the haplogroup you're in, hasn't changed its name in the past several years).  In Y-DNA they change the names, and the names now no longer mean what they did last year.

Answer 7

Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for the region which in modern times encompasses the country of Germany and German-speaking borderland areas. Ashkenaz is also a Japhetic patriarch in the Table of Nations (Genesis 10). Thus, Ashkenazim or Ashkenazi Jews are literally "German Jews." The word "Ashkenazi" is pronounced with a [z] sound, rather than with [ts] as in a few similar instances in the English language.

Many Ashkenazi Jews later migrated, largely eastward, forming communities in non German-speaking areas, including Hungary, Poland, Russia, Eastern Europe and elsewhere between the 10th and 19th centuries. With them, they took and diversified Yiddish, a Germanic Jewish language that had since medieval times been the lingua franca among Ashkenazi Jews. To a much lesser extent, the Judæo-French language Zarphatic and the Slavic-based Knaanic (Judæo-Czech) were also spoken. The Ashkenazi Jews developed a distinct culture and liturgy influenced, to varying degrees, by interaction with surrounding peoples, predominantly Germans, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Kashubians, Hungarians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Letts, Belarusians, and Russians.

Although in the 11th century they comprised only 3% of the world's Jewish population, Ashkenazi Jews accounted for (at their highest) 92% of the world's Jews in 1931 and today make up approximately 80% of Jews worldwide.[4] Most Jewish communities with extended histories in Europe are Ashkenazim, with the exception of those associated with the Mediterranean region. The majority of the Jews who migrated from Europe to other continents in the past two centuries are Ashekenazim, Eastern Ashkenazim in particular. This is especially true in the United States, where 6 out of the 7 million strong American Jewish population — the largest Jewish population in the world when consistent statistical parameters are employed[5] — is Ashkenazi, representing the world's single largest concentration of Ashkenazim.

PLEASE read the below link for livescience. It gives the actual science behind the truth of the genetics of the Ashkenazi Jews.

ALSO please read the link from George Mason University about The Myth of the Khazar.