Interpreting my Geno 2.0 Results

[rastacourage92]

According to Geno 2.0, my results are as follows:
65% Jewish Diaspora
14% Northwestern European
13% Southwestern European
4% Northeastern European
2% Eastern European

According to Geno 2.0, these results are from 500-10,000 years ago - but do these results consist of more recent lineages prior to 500 years ago? I can ascertain that both sides of my family are Jewish (Polish and Ukraine, on my father and mother's sides respectively) up until late 1700s, but all is lost after that. Consequently, I would have expected to be significantly higher in the Eastern Europe and Northeastern categories (as I should have significant Polish/Ukrainian/Russian ancestry). Why would these stats be so low, and the Southwestern/Northwestern European ancestry far higher than I would have expected? Could Southwest Europe be signaling Sephardic roots? Does my haplotype group (mtDNA T1A1K) provide any further insight? I'd love some help trying to understand these interesting results!:)

[leo76]

OK, easier question first: Your mtDNA haplogroup isn't going to be of much importance here, because it just represents one mother-to-child descendant thread in your overall autosomal SNP tapestry. You have LOTS of "mothers" (grandmothers)--from dozens if not hundreds of different mtDNA haplogroups, probably--but YOU only inherited that one, specifically. So what we're focusing on here is the bigger picture: the complete autosomal SNP "tapestry", not the one mtDNA "thread".

Now:


I would have expected to be significantly higher in the Eastern Europe and Northeastern categories (as I should have significant Polish/Ukrainian/Russian ancestry). Why would these stats be so low, and the Southwestern/Northwestern European ancestry far higher than I would have expected? Could Southwest Europe be signaling Sephardic roots?

14% Northwestern European is pretty low, actually. And yes, since Geno 2.0 Helix doesn't have a "Sephardic" category (AFAIK) then Southwestern European might be picking that up. My guess though is that it's just indicating general Mediterranean ancestry. (Which might, obviously, include the Sephardim.)

So if I were you, I'd ignore the mtDNA thing, and interpret the 13% Southwestern European signal as just "Mediterranean", possibly including Sephardim.

[wombatofthenorth]

An earlier level of your mtDNA seems to peak in both extreme SW France along the border with Spain and even moreso in the Balkans. With a light spread all over the place. So it's hard to get too much of a direct clue.
Although it is not known to be associated with Jewish communities, so your strictly maternal line eventually seems to have started out non-Jewish.