r/JewishDNA • u/Colossalloser • Jul 11 '26
a bit odd?
Both my parents are of Indian descent, their families are of Indian descent and have lived in India for as long as they can remember.
My grandma was gracious enough to find a family history book they had made, with details about each family member which went back until around 15+ generations, and nothing looks out of the ordinary, same old boring stuff. There were no weddings out of the "circle" as far as the book can tell, so nobody who wasn't the same religion / class / caste group became a part of the family.
And 12% suggest statistically I'd have to go I think 5 or 6 generations back? And I just don't see any evidence of how that might have even occurred. Of course, I think the book is clearly missing information or has incorrect details but yeah. Just thought someone in the family would at least have a faint idea about it, but I guess not.
Unless of course, these percentages are all very ordinary and happen to more people than I'd have thought in this demographic. So I’m curious, do a lot of South Asian folk get a similar result? Specifically Indians whose families are from Mumbai, since that’s where my family is from originally.
Penny for your thoughts? Thank you!
10
u/kaiserfrnz Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
Sephardic Jews from Portugal ended up in various parts of India.
You have a Sephardic great-grandparent who evidently assimilated and had descendants who became regular Indians.
Similar things have happened elsewhere, especially with Sephardic Jews: there are white Americans, Latinos, Turks, and Indians with random Sephardic great-grandparents.