J-Z40558 in Lebanon

[qallezan65]

Hi everyone. Although I am still waiting for his full Y-700 results, today I discovered that my maternal grandfather’s haplogroup is J-Z40558. He is Lebanese and Melkite Greek Catholic, and he claims to be descended from the Ghassanid kings through his male line.

I have a book written in Arabic about his lineage. According to legend, he is descended from the Attieh family, which is in turn descended from a Ghassanid prince whose descendants settled in the Houran in modern-day southern Syria. In 1440, they migrated to a small Lebanese town near Zahlé where my grandfather’s family lives to this day. The Attieh family branched off into several families, many of which still live in this town today.

I also noticed that there are a few Jewish samples under this haplogroup. Before I upgraded my grandfather's test, I saw that he had a Tunisian Jewish match at the Y-37 level with a genetic distance of 4 (same exact terminal SNP). Does this make sense with his family’s oral history, or is it possible that the Ghassanid story is not completely based on fact? My grandfather has a match from the Attieh family who has the haplogroup J-CTS5368 instead, which is another reason why I have become skeptical of this account of his ancestral origins.

[Shanck]

With what you said, bear in mind many Christian families of Lebanon claim Ghassanid heritage, so it's not a unique claim to your maternal grandfather's family. It's akin to their Muslim counterparts claiming a homeland in Yemen, oral traditions aren't always true.

[qallezan65]

With what you said, bear in mind many Christian families of Lebanon claim Ghassanid heritage, so it's not a unique claim to your maternal grandfather's family. It's akin to their Muslim counterparts claiming a homeland in Yemen, oral traditions aren't always true.

Yes, that makes sense. What I find interesting is that all of the families in that town that claim to be descended from the Attieh family (and by extension the Ghassanids) all share the same haplogroup on 23andMe (J-M67, which is upstream of J-Z40558). I guess that means one member of the Attieh family several hundred years ago had a different haplogroup than the rest, and thus wasn’t actually descended from the Ghassanid kings.

[qallezan65]

For those interested, I have just put my grandfather's DNA on YFull. Here is the link.

https://www.yfull.com/tree/J-Y22041/