The Beginner's Guide to Interpreting Ethnic DNA Origins for Family History: How Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi & Europeans Are Related to Everyone Else [Paperback]

Anne Hart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 8, 2003

Genealogists are now using molecular genealogy-comparing and matching people by matrilineal DNA lineages-mtDNA or patrilineal Y-chromosome ancestry and/or racial percentages tests. People interested in ancestry now look at genetic markers to trace the migrations of the human species. Here's how to trace your genealogy by DNA from your grandparents back 10,000 or more years.Anyone can be interested in DNA for ancestry research, but of interest to Jews from Eastern Europe is to see how different populations from a mosaic of communities reached their current locations. From who are you descended? What markers will shed light on your deepest ancestry? You can study DNA for medical reasons or to discover the geographic travels and dwelling places of some of your ancestors.How do Europeans in general fit into the great migrations of prehistory that took all to where they are today based on their genetic DNA markers and sequences? Where is the geographic center of their origin and the roots of all people? Specifically, how can you interpret your DNA test for family history as a beginner in researching ancestry and your own family history?

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Anne Hart is the author of 35 books in print, holds a graduate degree, and specializes in writing about DNA origins, roots, and archaeogenetics.

Product Details

• Paperback: 262 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse, Inc. (July 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595283063
• ISBN-13: 978-0595283064
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,749,096 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The most sloppy book I have ever seen, May 19, 2006

By 

L. Malinin (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Beginner's Guide to Interpreting Ethnic DNA Origins for Family History: How Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi & Europeans Are Related to Everyone Else (Paperback)

Other than copying and pasting from various Web sites, no attempt was made to structure the material or coordinate its flow in different chapters. No editing work can be traced in the whole text. A good alternative to buying this book is to type in Google a few words from the title. An average reader should be able to do a better job compiling the references than the author did.

2.0 out of 5 stars Dated Good, March 18, 2011

By 

William L. Lipton Jr. "Bill Lipton" (Downeast Maine) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Beginner's Guide to Interpreting Ethnic DNA Origins for Family History: How Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi & Europeans Are Related to Everyone Else (Paperback)

OK two stars -- only because it is dated ...
The terms used for the groups were state-of-art when book was written, but have been changed ... the Standards Group has renamed (dispensed with) the EU designations. That said, it is an ideal beginners guide. It will give a want-a-be-new-be a feel for the subject matter and a place to start. However, the field is moving quickly and things are changing ...with an abundance of data on the Ashkenazi and Icelandic ... which relates them back to Central Asia and the founders of the Aryan founders of the Indus Valley Civilizations. For the rest (Far Eastern/African/Native American) -- much is still missing. But you need not concern yourself with that -- this book will give you what you need to go there too.

2.0 out of 5 stars Real title: Jewish Mothers searching for Jewish Grandmothers, February 15, 2011

By 

Donald W. Campbell (Gloucester VA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Beginner's Guide to Interpreting Ethnic DNA Origins for Family History: How Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi & Europeans Are Related to Everyone Else (Paperback)

Several things this book is not:
1) Beginner's guide - madding cryptic on DNA, good beginner's guide to genealogy. (Which I did not need).
2) The title doesn't completely lie, there are some discussions of Europeans, especially Jewish Europeans, just not much about the non-Jewish ones.
3) Better than Ethnic DNA, title it mitochondrial DNA... that is, the non-nuclear cellular DNA that is passed on from mothers to daughters. If you are interested in a beginner's guide to Y-chromosome DNA that is passed on from fathers to sons, that portion of the book fills about one page.

The title is over-broad and deceptive; however, perhaps the Ashkenazi, Sephardi and Mizrahi are a clue to the emphasis on Jewish Ethnicity, but if you are a BEGINNER, how are you supposed to know that?

There is no real discussion on genetic markers, how multiple alleles are typed, and how and why some occur singly and others as multiples. How many generations it takes for most of the marker shifts or how to compare two similar people's DNA to gauge when their ancestral lines diverged.

If you are interested in tracing Jewish roots (which my understanding after reading is that for American Jews, this can be somewhat challenging due to the different branches re-uniting in this country) and if you are intent on tracing Maternal lineage (which again is more difficult since Males keep the same last name) then this book may be of use to you.

But a general beginner's guide it is not.