## ***Y-DNA AND THE JEWS***## *WITH WIM PENNINX*## *SEPHARDIC WORLD, SUNDAY 5 MARCH 2023*Y-DNA is passed from father to son, normally unchanged from generation to generation. This means that if two men share the same Y-DNA, they share a common paternal ancestor. Y-DNA testing can reveal the migration patterns of a person's paternal line, including when and where their ancestors moved over time. Many of us only have a vague understanding of the subject. This week we have an expert introduction.***Wim Penninx*** was born in The Netherlands. For his Ph.D., he researched radio and X-ray observations of low-mass X-ray binary stars. He pursued a career in IT, first as an IT consultant and later as an IT architect in the IT Department of Delft University of Technology. After researching the genealogy of the Pennings/Penninx families in the Netherlands, using Y-DNA he checked whether these families were male lineage related. He discovered he had an unusual Y-DNA for someone of Dutch lineage (J1). This raised the question: does his J1-ancestor have a Jewish origin?Wim began to research Jewish Y-DNA. In 2014, he studied DNA characteristics of Ashkenazi men. It appeared that Ashkenazim had a small number of male-line ancestors (about 80 were identified at that time), and it was possible to date the most recent common ancestors of each of the Ashkenazi branches. When Avotaynu started to collect Sephardic and other non-Ashkenazi DNAin 2016, Wim structured the DNA results and grouped the samples in branches; each branch having a male line Jewish ancestor. In this Sephardic World talk he will explain how the data is analysed and how the quality of the branches can be determined.This meeting is on Sunday 5 March 2023 at 11am in LA, 2pm NYC, 7pm London, 8pm Paris/Amsterdam and 9pm Jerusalem. Patrons can join us on Zoom. The link is shared at our Patreon page at: https://www.patreon.com/sephardi Everyone else is invited to join us at: https://www.youtube.com/SephardicGenealogyAndHistoryJoin the Movement for Sephardic History & Genealogy. Be a Part of the Leading Forum - Sephardic World. No Fees, No Commercial Sponsorship, No Public Funding. Help Us Keep it Free for All. Consider Supporting Our Work with Your Generous Donation. Become a Patron Today! https://www.patreon.com/sephardiThe International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies is holding its 2023 conference in London from 30 July to 3 August. Registration will open in the next few days. We hope to see you in London!Share the link below with family or friends who may want to join our mailing list. https://www.sephardic.world/sephardic-world*Best wishes,**Ton and David**Sephardic World**Image: Jewish costume through the generations*