Family Tree DNA Project - Sephardim and Moors

["Arturo Ramos" <arturo.ramos2@...>]

I just got back the first set of results for my Y-DNA-12 marker and 
it places my paternal lineage in the E3b haplogroup... This 
haplogroup is related to ethnic groups originating in Southern Italy, 
Southeastern Europe and the Middle East.  Looks like this is a 
Sephardic lineage.

I will be getting back the remainder of the markers (13 through 25) 
as well as the MtDNA (matrilineal) results in a couple of weeks.

I saw from previous posts that group members' maternal lines tend to 
be Haplogroup A. Is that correct?

--- In ranchos@yahoogroups.com, "Victor Villarreal" <vela_este@y...> 
wrote:
>
> Emilie,
> 
> As always, it is evident that you're doing your homework and usually
> marching one step ahead of the rest of us.
> 
> Like yourself, I have been most intrigued by all those stories that
> you mentioned about the early Spanish colonizers, particularly more 
so
> when I realised that the Y haplogroup to which I belong to is not 
the
> typical Western European haplogroup but one that is, as I previously
> said, very widespread all around the Mediterranean sea, including
> North Africa, the Middle East, the Balcans and, of course, the 
Iberian
> Peninsula.
> 
> As I understand many of our group here have not studied this topic 
in
> detail, I felt compelled to point out a couple of facts that I 
believe
> could be helpful to all:
> 
> Ethnicity is not determined alone by your DNA haplogroup.  In other
> words, having "X" haplogroup does not automatically place you in any
> ethnic group, regardless of all those ancient stories.  If your
> genealogical and historical research shows documented ancestral
> evidence of certain ethnicity AND your genetic testing shows a
> haplogroup correlated to the same ethnicity then you can start to
> assume the possibility that your ancestors might have been indeed 
such
> and such ethnicity.
> 
> By the same token, physical phenotype (physical traits like eye, 
hair
> or skin color, etc.) is not dependent or necessarily correlated to
> genetic haplogroup either.
> 
> Hope this helps. One important advice for all is not to jump to easy
> conlusions right away.  ;)
> 
> Victor
> 
> 
> --- In ranchos@yahoogroups.com, "Emilie Garcia" 
<auntyemfaustus@h...>
> wrote:
> > Joseph,
> > 
> > That is so interesting about the DNA Project.   
> > 
> > I have talked with Mr. Greenspan (via e-mail), president of the
> Family Tree DNA project, several times.  He is very nice.  He says 
to
> e-mail him any time.  He is a professor at the University of 
Arizona.
>  I had seen a story about a Hispanic priest in Albuquerque who now
> wears both a cross and a Star of David, since the DNA project showed
> not only that he was of Jewish heritage, but of the highest order, 
the
> Cohanim, direct descendants of Moses and his brother Aaron.  Mr.
> Greenspan said that he started the project for Jews to find out what
> Jewish groups they belong to (where in the hierarchy they fit).  The
> highest is the Cohanim [priest], then there is the Levite [temple
> servant], everybody else is Ysraelite.
> > 
> > I have heard many stories that many of our early 15th century
> Spanish ancestors in Mexico were Sephardic Jews and Moors.  We are 
not
> related too much to the people that live in Spain now.  So Joseph, 
you
> are not really descended from an African slave, but maybe from 
someone
> with Moorish or Arab blood.  The Moors were the powers in Spain only
> until shortly before the ancestors of the current Spaniards had 
kicked
> them and the Jews and Arabs out.  A Spanish friend from the Basque
> country told me she was proud not to be "hija de moro ni de indio". 
> (She can't help it- the Basques are very proud).   
> > 
> > I knew that my father's surname OLAGUE is Basque, because he told 
me
> so.  They were fair, with blue eyes.  People in Mexico have told us
> that all Olagues descend from one Miguel Olague who together with 
his
> brothers went with the conquistador Don Juan de Onate to New Mexico 
in
> 1598.  They returned to Zacatecas shortly.  My maternal ancestors, 
the
> MARQUEZ, did stay and colonize New Mexico.  They were all Espanol
> until my great-great grandfather's time.  Somehow a  Piro Indian got
> in the family, thus he was dark, and on my mother's side the females
> look Indian (go figure).   
> > 
> > In Gary Felix' website I read this:  "It is widely believed that a
> large percentage of the earliest settlers of Mexico may have origins
> in the Middle East  and were a result of the expulsion of
> non-Christians out of Spain, just befoe the conquest of Mexico".  I
> believe this, since when we first saw pictures of Saddam Hussein, we
> yelled out "He looks just like Uncle Jess [my father's first cousin
> Jesus, whose mother looked very Moorish or Arab]!    
> > 
> > The project has Garzas [Garcias] with family lines in Northern
> Mexico [Jalisco?].  My husband was told in Mexico that he looked 
like
> a typical Norteno---quite tall and fair--a Tapatio--- and his
> Garcia-Cervantes line is from Encarnacion de Diaz in Jalisco.
> > 
> > Gotta go---thunderstorm above--don't want to fry this computer.
> > 
> > Emilie Garcia
> > Port Orchard, WA Get more from the Web.  FREE MSN Explorer 
download
> : http://explorer.msn.com
>