Welcome!

[Shari]

Welcome to the new Romani Community Forum! Unfortunately, the content from 2006 to 2014 DNA Consultants Romani Forum was lost due to the disappearance of the server and circumstances beyond control. We can rebuild what was lost with your help. We invite all previous contributors as well as new to take part in this endeavor.

Perhaps you found within your DNA test results that you have Romani ancestry. This may be a surprise, as it was for me, or you may have known about it before testing.

If you have them, Romany genes, just like Native American, will alway show up on personal DNA Consultants’ autosomal tests no matter how many generations ago your Romani ancestors lived. I found two of our great...grandmothers born in the mid-1700s in the Shetland Islands, Scotland with the surname FEA which is believed to be of Romani origin. Our family’s Romani ancestry was not known before my mother and I took our DNA Consultants Fingerprint Plus tests. My mother’s 2010 test taken when she was 95 indicated that her Romani ancestry was “Oriya Brahmin (India).” My 2015 test also indicated Romani ancestry.

Soon posts will be added to help us gain more knowledge about the Romani culture and, of course, we hope you will take time to share your Romani DNA posts with us as well.

[ymidualc]

Hi!I am new here.I have the Sinti gene,Sub -Saharan II and Asian II(India).It looks like I have a good chance of Romani descent.right?
I still intend to do the Premium Upgrade.

[Shari]

I think it’s pretty certain that you do have ROMANI ancestry. Do you have an idea of who these ancestors might be?

Glad you’re taking part in the DNA Communities forums! I, too have the SINTI gene. From http://dnaconsultants.com/Default.aspx?PageID=6875740&A=SearchResult&SearchID=9099282&ObjectID=6875740&ObjectType=1. - “This consists of three characteristic autosomal lineage markers tracking back like the Romani people themselves to Northwestern India (Himachal Pradesh, Kashmir, and Punjab)...”

My mother’s rank number 38 in her Special Cherokee Match Update is “India - Indo-Caucasoid - Brahmin.” My November 2014 Fingerprint Plus test report did list “Romani.”

I also have the RAIN GODDESS gene which is described at http://dnaconsultants.com/Default.aspx?PageID=6875763&A=SearchResult&SearchID=9099245&ObjectID=6875763&ObjectType=1 - “...Its highest incidence is in Pallar in South India, home to Dravidian peoples (24%).”

“Dravidians are native speakers of any of the Dravidian languages of South Asia...” - from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dravidian_peoples.

And, like you, I have Sub-Saharan African II. This is from the description pages of my DNA report, “...SSA II originates apparently in Southwest Africa, is deep seated and includes West Africans, ROMANI, Melungeons, Basques and Levantine peoples...”

As for ASIAN, my mother’s Special Cherokee Match Update (October 2015) listed Japanese, Chinese Han, and Korean.

The Premium Upgrade for you will be interesting!

[ymidualc]

Thank you shari,
I have it too native american II,european I and II,eastern european II,jewish I and Jewish III,Asian IV,Rare genes:Scythian,Thuya,Akhenaten,King Tut,and Europa.besides the already mentioned(Sinti and Asian II,and Sub-Saharan II).I have no idea where it could have been my ancestry likely Romani.I am descended from Sephardic Jews.Your feedback is welcome.

[suelevin1]

The Premium upgrade will answer a lot of your questions!! It will also give us more data for reference in discussing your results with you.

Sue

[Shari]

I also have Native American I and II, European I and II, Eastern European II, Jewish I, II, and III, and Scythian.

Absolutely, as Sue said, first of all getting the Premium upgrade sounds like the way to go.

I am not an expert but I can tell you a few things I did that might work for you. First, I had a family tree with many surnames to check on the Internet and this is how I found out about the Romani surname FEA.

I also found many of our ancestors’ surnames listed in Don Yates and Elizabeth C. Hirschman’s books, WHEN SCOTLAND WAS JEWISH and JEWS AND MUSLIMS IN BRITISH COLONIAL AMERICA. My two great...grandmothers FEA (b. mid-1700s Shetland Islands, Scotland) married into families with Sephardic Jewish surnames, most of which were listed in one or the other of these books.

Both my mother and dad’s ancestors had many Jewish surnames, but in almost all families, Jewish traditions were not continued through the years by descendants. One of the exceptions was one large family whose patriarch was from Devon, England. It seems they tried to continue their Jewish faith in Virginia and North Carolina for some years but again the later descendants did not carry on.

I had no knowledge of Romani or Jewish ancestry until I saw the results of Mom’s and my DNA Consultants’ tests. From there I did my personal research...

If you want to get into more details of your family’s genealogy, you might want to join Ancestry.com.

Hope this helps a bit...