Spanish Inquisition Left Genetic Legacy in Iberia

After reading this article in New Scientist I was amazed that I've yet to find any Jewish ancestry in my family tree. For those of you just tuning in, my family, Hernandez Morales, is of Spanish descent. We've all had our DNA tested by the National Geographic Genographic Project just for fun and I will say our findings do concur with the findings in the article. We pretty much split evenly between European and North African DNA with Y Haplogroups I1 (Germanic) and E3b (Berber) and Mt Haplogroups U4 (Celtic) and U6 (Berber) as the norms. Again, it's very odd that I've yet to find any Sephardic Jew in my genes...

My DNA Revisited

I’ve got additional information concerning my own personal blue print. It seems my grandfather on my mom’s side was Haplogroup E3b, mostly associated with the Berbers (Moors) of North Africa and Spain. Even though I can’t really be tested for it, since I get my Y chromosome from my dad’s side of the family, my uncle got tested through the National Geographic Genographic Project. Ultimately, I am 25% Berber/Moor, which explains why I don’t look particularly Scandinavian as both my Y and Mitochondrial DNA suggests.

On a rather cool note, genetic testing of the mummy of Ramses II shows that he was also of Haplogroup E3b. It is also known that he had 110 children! If you increase that exponentially over time, chances are my grandfather (and myself) could very well be distant descendants of Ramses the Great.