Goldfoot Genealogy

Charles b: 1906 and Morris Goldfoot b: 1908
at home in SW Portland, Oregon
Nadene Goldfoot

Dr. Behar is a famous geneticist. Reseachers, after discovering the haplogroup Q among Ashkenazi Jews, declared that only 5-8% of the Ashkenazi gene pool is made of Y chromosomes that originated from non-Jewish European populations. Haplogroup Q is a "minor founding lineage" among the Ashkenazim. It is found in 23 out of 442 Ashkenazi results (5%). They were interested to find that out of 50 non-Jewish Hungarian results, Q did not appear at all.

19 out of 23 Q results followed this pattern. DYS 19=13; DYS 388=12; DYS 389i=13; DYS 389ii=16; DYS 390=22; DYS 391=10; DYS 392=15; DYS 393=13; DYS 426=12; DYS 439=16.

The Goldfoot test of Q1b shows our DYS 389ii=29 and 30 instead of 16; and DYS 439=12 and not 16. Yet, after having the Deep Clade Test which comes after having all 67 alleles tested, we are in the category of M378, P36.2 along with many other Q's.

Behar called Q a "minor founding lineage," placing our group amng "those haplogroups likely to be present in the founding Ashkenazi population." The problem is that Q is rarely found in Middle Eastern populations in DNA studies, so most likely did not originate in Israelite ancestry. It's found among all Ashkenazi groups showing that the founders of this group either mixed with a number of separate Ashkenazi populations or entered through western Europe before Ashkenazis migrated in large numbers eastward in the 13th and 14th centuries.

The low haplotype diversity shows that a small number of closely-related founders merged with the Ashkenazim while living in Western Europe (most likely Germany, I think, due to our name of Goldfus/ss-Goldfoot). You can assume that the Ashkenazi population had 25,000 around 1200-1300 CE. This would mean that 1,000-1,500 Q's became part of the population then. Our ancestor was among them.

Q is rare in Europe as well. It occurs in Hungary 2.6% and much higher % in Siberia. It is found in Norway and the Shetland Islands of Scotland where many Norwegian Vikings settled. Q is found among Scandinavians as much as in Ashkenazim, and this is where most Q's are found. Both these groups evidently share a common ancestor from Central Asia or Eastern Europe.

Dienekes writes in 2004 that if Proto-Khazars were similar to today's Altaians, then they would have a frequency of about 22%Q. He thinks that Khazars have mixed into the Ashkenazi Jewish populations likely. The Khazars of Khazaria most likely were somewhat mixed with Western Eurasian elements, decreasing their frequency of having a Q haplogroup. He said that Q is found in high frequencies in only a few regions of the world. He agrees with familytree in that the origins were in Siberia or the Altai where Q continues to be a common Y chromosome haplogroup. Native Americans are Q3 and also originated there. They had left their Altai homeland earlier than the Ashkenazi or Scandinavians. They migrated to the New world between 10,000 to 17,000 years ago, giving them time to develop their own subgroup of Q3.

The Kets and Sekups who live on the eastern part of Western Siberia and the Yenisey River Valley can trace their origin further south on the slopes of the Altai mountains where Scandinavia's Q and K ancestorss originated. It could also be the homeland of Khazarian Q ancestors whose descendants are found today among Ashkenazi Jewish groups.

Research: A Mosaic of People: The Jewish Story and a Reassessment of the DNA Evidence by Ellen Levy-Coffman http://www.jogg.info/11/coffman.htm