Results of the E-Y17357 Geographic Census

Hello all,

Many thanks to all E-Y17357 members as well as the other admins in their help with this initiative. Last month we sent out a survey to all confirmed or predicted E-Y17357 members on FTDNA, asking for genealogical and geographical information on their paternal lines. Our goals included wanting to get a better sense of the geographic spread of the subclade, as well as trying to see if we could identify where the Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) lived based on the spread of his descendants. 

As stated in the email sent to E-Y17357 members, this subclade makes up 16.5% (107/649) of the whole lineage on FTDNA, yet is only 450 years old according to YFull. This means the MRCA and his descendants were very reproductively successful in a relatively short amount of time, founding many surviving subclades. Here is the map with results from the census, along with the pertinent numbers for context. 

Important things to keep in mind:

1) This is a map of ancestor locations, mostly c. 1850 CE although many are much older.

2) This map was made with member-submitted data from both FTDNA and direct responses to the survey.

3) The response rate of the survey (including the data already on FTDNA) was 32/107=30%. We believe that this is high enough to accurately see geographic trends.

The first thing to note is the geographic and cultural differences that exist in the map. The Litvish-speaking areas of modern Lithuania, Belarus, western Russia, and northern Ukraine make up a solid majority of the members, with members from the historical regions of Galicia and Podolia making up a major cluster as well. Geographic outliers include a family with deep roots in Prague as well as an English line from West Yorkshire County. 

The census also revealed a series of individuals with oral traditions of recent Sephardic ancestry. Given the density of these claims within E-Y17357 and the lack of a common ancestor with Ashkenazim outside of E-Y17357 back until 1000 CE (a time before significant differences between the two communities), this warranted further research. It was found that there was no genealogical evidence to directly support these claims, and none of the surnames held by the families in question had unique or provable connections to Spanish Jewry. 

In looking into the submitted genealogies of project members, one jumped out-- it had a solid paper trail back into the late 1500s in Prague. As all of E-Y17357 is estimated to be descending from a common ancestor who lived in the mid 1500s, this tree could be the key to understanding the origin of E-Y17357. Prague has one of the oldest Jewish histories in non-Mediterranean Europe, and was a major center of Jewish life in the Medieval period. There's no doubt that many of the Jews that ended up in Eastern Europe came directly from Bohemia, or stayed in Bohemia for some time after coming from modern day Germany and before going to Eastern Europe. Based on the combination of genetic and genealogical data, we can confidently suggest that Prague was where the MRCA of E-Y17357 lived, with the MRCA's descendants spreading all over Eastern Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. We can also specifically identify northern Lithuania and Galicia/Podolia as being places of early settlement for the MRCA's immediate descendants. 

While genealogies for Eastern European Jews rarely go past 1700 CE, the existence of this genealogy from Central Europe- combined with the Y-DNA test results of E-Y17357 predicted individuals- reveals that the migration history of these related yet geographically disparate lines can be accurately reconstructed and modeled. We hope that what we learned here can be applied to other subclades in E-Y14891 and in other Ashkenazi Jewish Y-DNA lineages. If anyone has a question about the census or our conclusions, please comment here or email me at leorcooper19@gmail.com. 

Thank you all for your support of the E-Y14891 (AB-005) Project!

- Leo