Project Surnames
Abelman, Abrams, Adler, Ashkenazi, Backalenick, Baker, Barkin, Bitterman, Black, Black Altshuler, Block, Blumenthal, Borrus, Brandt, Brenner, Briel, Broudy, Brown, Calhoun, Carp, Catania, Chervin, Cohen, Cronk, DeBow, Diamond, Dunn, England, Farkas, Fechheimer, Feigenbaum, Feist, Fogle, Frank, Friedman, Friehling, Frost, Geber, Glass, Gold, Goldfoot, Goldman, Gordon, Haber, Hackin, Hart, Heiman, Henry, Herbst, Herman, Herwitz, Holland, Horowitz, Horwitz, Howard, Jay, Jerochim, Jewish, Jewish_Q, Kamin, Kelm, Kochman, Krupa, Kurrass, Kushner, Leibman, Levite, Levy, Lewis, Loebman, M378, Magid, Margolis, Mark, Marks, Matthews, Meyer, Miller, Morton, Mushinsky, Nemer, Orlen, Palmer, Panich, Pelta, Podolski, Pohler, Poles, Porter, Principe, Rabbinical, Reichbaum, Rich, Rosenberg, Rosenstraus, Ross, Rothschild, Sacks, Schoemann, Schuster, Shapiro, Sherman, Shevin, Silver, Silverman, silvestre, Singer, Sinnreich, Siref, Sooper, Sundheim, Thaler, Tobert, Trier, Tufel, Weinberg, Werlin, Wick, Wieder, Winder, Winter, Wohl, Wolin, Zeidman, Zwick
You do not have to be Jewish to join this group! We need your participation regardless of your current religion or the religion of your ancestors. Your data will help us determine if the high concentration of Jewish men in our group is merely a statistical anomaly or a reality.
We invite you to join if Family Tree DNA has assigned you a red or green Q, Q1 or Q1b and are of European descent. We are most interested in Q1b defined by SNP M378 but you do not have to be tested to join. If a person who is a close match to you is in our group then we want you as well. If you have any doubts at all please join.
Haplogroup Q (M242) evolved in Siberia about 20,000 years ago. SNP M378 is a downstream (evolved later in time) mutation which has been found in about 5% of Ashkenazi (northern European) Jewish men and at low frequency among samples of the Hazara and Sindhi tribes of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
For centuries there was little intermarriage between northern European Jews and their neighbors. We wonder how Q1b yDNA came into our group and when.
History tells us that some of the Khazars who lived in an area just north of the Caucasus Mountains between the Crimea and Black Seas (700 AD to 1100 AD) became Jewish and welcomed other Jews to come live with them. Many Jews took up this offer.
When the Khazarian kingdom dissolved their population apparently merged in with other populations in the area. The area they occupied is today in southern Russia and eastern Ukraine. While many Khazars may have converted it appears that not all did. Based on language and other cultural remnants many Khazars merged into the Hungarian population without bringing the Jewish religion with them.
The Jewish group apparently moved west into the what is now the Ukraine. Some may have moved south into what today is Armenia, Turkey and Iraq. When Poland opened their doors to Jews in the 15th century there was another population movement further west.
While men of Askenazi descent still have dominantly Middle Eastern yDNA there clearly appears to have been DNA added from another areas. The Khazars probably were Caucasians of stocky build, with fair skin, red hair, and light colored eyes. Since these physical qualities are found among the Ashkenazim it appears that the Khazars did contribute to the Ashkenazi overall gene pool; but, did they contribute yDNA with the M378 marker?
Another possible source of M378 are the Jewish traders from Europe who traveled freely along the Silk Road (and water ways) from 500 AD to 1000 AD. Is it possible that a trade group came in contact with a person living in Afghanistan or Pakistan who shared his yDNA with them?
We have another problem which we share with other cultures that used patronymic naming pattern e.g. Anders Johnson (Anders the son of John) or Isaac ben Abraham (Isaac the son of Abraham). Surnames are of little help for genealogical research back beyond about 250 years. Except among Rabbinical families and a few others, surnames were not commonly used. Even when surnames were used it was not uncommon for a son to take his mother's maiden name. We have found that few if any of our members share the same surname even though they may match genetically 67 for 67 markers.
While we are focused on one small subgroup of Haplogroup Q we encourage all Qs to join the generic Q-YDA group administered by Rebekah Canada.