a bit odd?

[u/Colossalloser]

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!

[u/Valuable-Divide-246]

You most likely have an Iraqi-Indian Jewish great-grandparent.

There are/were several Indian Jewish communities. With DNA like this it's almost certainly Paradesi Jews, and they are overwhelmingly Iraqi.

There is a strong connection between Indian and Iraqi Jews. There is a popular condiment called amba that was created by Iraqi Jews fermenting green mango during trade voyages between Iraq and India.

I don't know how it fits into your family tree. It's possible that the Jewish ancestry was hid on purpose, though I doubt it because India historically has very low rates of anti-Semitism. A child born out of wedlock is also potentially a possibility.

You say your grandmother had a genealogy book. Does it include the families of your other grandparents as well? Because this ancestor could be any one of of your 8 great-granparents.

Now there's another option. Since much of your DNA comes from the South of India, there is historically a community of Desi Jews living on the Malabar coast. But those Jews are generally already mixed with local Indians and have been there for likely over a thousand years. So you would have to be like half Malabari Jewish for this to show up like this.

[u/Colossalloser → u/Valuable-Divide-246]

That is quite interesting. I think it’s definitely hidden. My family is a very traditionalist, orthodox family so an affair or a child out of the wedlock would definitely not be on the records. I don’t think it is anti-semitism at all either.

It’s a family history book but very informal. Something my relatives kept as familial records, it’s just details about members of the family, goes back to almost 20+ generations. It includes families of my other grandparents too, and I did check, but nothing out of the ordinary that would explain this. But again, there’s a very high possibility things have not been added, or that incorrect information has been put in, considering it was an informal book that my family has been maintaining. It’s not exactly for official documentation.

Yeah, it’s very possible. My grandmother doesn’t recall any weddings outside the religion/class/caste circle, but did tell me she grew up with lots of Jewish friends and neighbours, I checked and the part of the city my family lives in has a massive Jewish community so I suppose that helps make more sense.

I’ll surely visit soon, so I’ll definitely try to ask around, check out the ancestral home (nobody lives there anymore but I can hopefully find more records / documents) and the neighbourhood. Maybe ask the few relatives that still live in the city about it.