The Gypsies, or Roma, or Romani (so called because of their concentration in Romania) are a far-flung distinctive population with a lot of diversity. In our database, we have samples of four Gypsy populations, plus samples for Romania, Macedonia and Hungary which you can match if you have even a small degree of Gypsy/Romani.
Gypsy DNA can sometimes be conflated or confused with Jewish DNA because both populations originated in the Middle East and often lived in the same Central European areas in modern times, but true Gypsy matches usually come with Indian, especially north Indian matches, because that's where the Gypsies lived around the 900s before they backtracked into Iran and Turkey and eventually crossed the Bosporus into Europe.
The Gypsy language, Romani, shows a strong Romanian influence but its basic vocabulary and grammar point to a north Indian origin.
The Gypsy religion, on the other hand, is not Indian or Hindu but closest to Jewish, Persian and Zoroastrian forms of monotheism.
"It is not known when or why the Gypsies left India but they were living in Iran by the tenth century AD. The Iranian poet Firdausi (c. 930-1020) wrote of the Gypsies in his epic history of the Iranians, the Shah Nama (Book of Kings), that they were originally a tribe of musicians who had been sent to the ruler of Iran by an Indian king. Once they had eaten the ruler out of house and home, the Gypsies took to the roads. By the 11th century Gypsies were living in the Byzantine empire and soon afterwards were spreading through the Balkans. When the Ottoman Turks began to overrun the Balkans in the 14th century, groups of Gypsies dispersed across western Europe, reaching Bohemia in 1399, Bavaria in 1418, Paris in 1421, Rome in 1423 and Spain in 1425. In the early 16th century Gypsies spread to Britain, Scandinavia, Poland and Russia, but the Balkans remained the main Gypsy centre." John Haywood, The Great Migrations from the Earliest Humans to the Age of Globalization (London: Quercus), p. 142.
Gypsy Migrations according to Haywood.
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Gypsy Migrations
Book Deal: Star, Crescent and Cross
After more than eight years in development, a book contract was awarded to Elizabeth Caldwell Hirschman and Donald N. Yates for their collaborative study of Crypto-Jews and Crypto-Muslims in the settlement of British North America. Titled Star, Crescent and Cross: Jews and Muslims in Colonial America, the work will be published next year by McFarland, a leading U.S. publisher of scholarly, reference and
academic books.
Among original investigations by the authors are genealogical studies of the West Country Gentlemen and others who proposed and promoted England's first colonies. From Sir John Hawkins (Sephardic Jewish surname Haquines, "physician" in Arabic) and Sir Francis Drake (whose family coat of arms bore a six-pointed star until it was air-brushed out by later historians) to Stephen Parmenius (a Jew from Turkish-held Hungary) and Captain John Smith, the principal players in England's colonization efforts are revealed to be far different from the white Anglo-Saxon Christian buccaneers American schoolchildren are taught about.
"England's reliance on Iberian Jews to promote its interests abroad goes back as far as the Tudors," according to Star, Crescent and Cross. "Henry VIII used Spanish Jewish lawyers to justify his divorce from Catherine of Aragon. One of them, an Italian banker tapped for his shrewdness and knowledge of international law, was the ancestor of Oliver Cromwell, Protector of the Commonwealth."
The book presents a series of colonial documents, contemporary firsthand accounts, records, portraits, family genealogies and ethnic DNA test results which fundamentally challenge the national storyline depicting America’s first settlers as white, British and Christian. The authors postulate that many of the initial colonists were of Sephardic Jewish and Muslim Moorish ancestry, usually arriving as crypto-Jews or crypto-Muslims.
Names Ordinary and Illustrious
The footnotes in the study document origins and meanings of over 5,000 surnames previously assumed to be sturdy English ones of ancient bearing. The authors' research casts a sidelight on celebrated Jewish Americans who can trace back to colonial forebears. These range from the Massachusetts Kennedys to the Byrds of Virginia, from actors Johnny Depp and Adrien Brody to actresses Roseanne Barr and Gwyneth Paltrow, from writers Louise Glück and Neil Simon to politicians Barbara Boxer and Bernie Sanders and jurists Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan.
"We hope that the remarkable stories of the men, women and families in Star, Crescent and Cross will serve as a reminder of America’s early diversity and stimulus for rewriting some of the inaccurate and injudicious portions in the country's history," said Yates.
Among the famous colonial figures discussed (and usually illustrated with a portrait) are William Byrd II, Patrick Henry, William Bradford, William Penn, George Mason, George Washington, Richard Lee II, Thomas Paine, Paul Revere, Peter Stuyvesant, Luis Gomez, Jacob Troxell, Anthony Ashley Cooper Lord Shaftesbury, Tench Tilghman, Christopher Gist, John Skeen, Sir Philip Sidney, Walter Raleigh, Humphrey Gilbert, Virginia Dare, Don Luis de Carvajal, Daniel Boone, William Cooper, the Salem Witches, Christopher Gist, Lord Saye and Sele, and various Lowells, Cabots, Lodges, Livingstones, Delanceys and Roosevelts.
Chapter 2, "Sephardim in the New World" is a survey of Crypto-Jews in North America, especially the Caribbean and Atlantic Islands. It includes autosomal DNA data proving the Melungeons are probably descended from Jews mixed with American Indians, Africans and Gypsies/Romani, as recently reported in this blog.
There are chapters and name-lists devoted to each of the original colonies. The book will contain over 50 illustrations.
English navigators and explorers included many West Country gentlemen. Most were from intermarried Crypto-Jewish families. New York Public Library.
Comments
stw commented on 29-Nov-2010 07:38 PM
It seems that from other research, such as, "Y-chromosome Lineages from Portugal, Madeira and Acores Record Elements of Sephardim and Berber Ancestry", amongst others. Sephardim and Muslim Moors are fairly indistinguishable, since Islam came late to the game, and converted most of the Israelites (pre-Ashkenazi European Jewry). This fact, together with the protection of the Jews in Muslim lands from Christian forced conversion, means that DNA research will most likely produce false positives for Jewish origins. This means that the Sephardim and Azore shared DNA predates Islam and rabbinic Judaism to Berber and Israelite origins. The same could be said for the study of etymological studies. If ancient Hebrew is basically Moabite Canaanite, a vulgar dialect of ancient Arabic (Jewish enclopedia), then etym. tracing of surnames could easily map into Arabic surnames, especially with remooval of semetic vowel marks, which are medeival in origin. A simple example is Elohim and Allah, both spelled the same in consonant spelling without marks, ALH, Aliph Lam Ha. Moreover, it is well understood that a large majority of Spanish conquistadors were Crypto Muslims , fleeing the oppression of newly Catholic Spain. This was not the case for Jews who had the opportunity to live in some parts of Europe, and who possessed valued commercial skills in the Islamic Caliphate, which would not likely be easily transferred into the required skills of Colonial Conquistador, an undesirable profession at best. However, the Netherlands contained a large number of Jews who fled Spain, as did Ireland (the so called Black Irish though more likely crypto Muslim mercenary sailors).
Finally the small number of practising Jews in western Europe at the time of the North American invasions, and the neutral status of Judaism, or other non trinitarian sects such as the Quakers, makes it more likely that the cryptos were cryto Muslims with Israelite or Berber origins, rather than the descendants of the Islamic commercial class, the Sephardim. Nor is it likely that the eastern european, Balkan , Ashkenazi (see, The Ashkenazic Jews: A Slavo-Turkic People in Search of a Jewish Identity, Paul Wexler) made their way through Germany to Holland to the new world ( a much later historicall migration). All of this requires some condieration in this research book, even if one might sell more books by making the Kennedys and founding Fathers all Jews.
Anonymous commented on 09-Dec-2010 09:17 PM
Very good points!
Do You Have Gypsy Matches?
Customs and Beliefs of the Roma and Sinti
Some of our customers have been surprised to get Gypsy/Romani population matches in their results for the DNA Fingerprint Test. Typically, these are combined with Middle Eastern and Indian matches due to the Gypsies' historical migrations. Other customers were not surprised at all and called to tell us about the fortuneteller great-grandmother or mysterious ancestor who traveled with the circus. Gypsy heritage is not unheard of among Melungeons. So for those who think they may have Roma/Sinti or Romechal (the term used in the British Isles), we have compiled the following list of customs and beliefs taken from an excellent authority.
Strict monotheism similar to Jews
Keeping the seventh day holy
Lighting candles on the evening of Parashat (Friday)
Blasphemy a sin, as is cursing an elder
Beng (Satan) the enemy of God and of the Roma people
The Evil One called bivuzhó (impure) and bilashó
Code of Law
No social classes, only a division into Roma and Gadje (non-Roma)
A court of justice called Kris (Judiciary Council), composed of clan representatives as judges
Both men and women serving on Kris
Issues between Roma to be judged only by the Kris, not by Gadje
All Roma equal before the eyes of the Kris
Belief in blood revenge and compensatory payment for clan of victim
Banishment from territory of victim’s clan for wrong doing
Forfeiture of protection if banished offender reenters
Roma not even to acknowledge or greet one who is banished
Accursed or banished called mahrimé (impure)
Roma not to ask interest for loans to other Roma, only from Gadje
Sexuality, Marriage and Childbirth
Nudity is taboo, allowed only with a husband and wife
Showing naked legs before an elder disrespectful
Homosexuality an abomination
Not allowed to wear clothes of the opposite sex, even as a joke or disguise
Virginity before marriage essential
Tokens of virginity shown to the assembly after wedding
Prostitution strongly condemned
Incest taboo, defined in the same way as Mosaic law (including step-siblings and in-laws)
Permissible to marry your cousin
Members of the Kris must be married
Lack of a spouse makes a man or woman incomplete
Groom’s family pays dowry to the bride’s family
Dowry for a widow amounts to half that for a virgin
A man dishonoring a woman should pay the dowry to her family anyway
Runaway couples considered legitimately married
Marriage endogamic, even within the same clan
Clan recognized by a common ancestor within a few generations
Divorce admitted: husband sends wife out or she leaves
Remarriage expected after divorce
Levirate law practiced (Deut. 25:5-6)
Childbirth impure, must take place outside the home
Mother giving birth isolated with baby for seven days strictly, followed by 33 days of less strict isolation (cf. Lev. 12:2, 4-5)
New mother cannot show herself in public or attend religious services
Both sexes marrying very young (child marriage)
Funeral and Mourning Rituals
Dead to be buried intact (autopsy or cremation sacrilegious)
Close relatives of the dead impure for seven days
Not to touch a dead body
Family and relatives of deceased forbidden to bathe, comb their hair, cut their nails for three days
On third day after a death, relative must wash thoroughly, and then not again until seventh day
All food in house where a person died is thrown away as defiled
On third day after a death, the house is purified (“the ashes of the burning of the sin”) and a virgin sprinkles running water
The same ceremony repeated on the seventh day after a death, with food brought to the mourners from another dwelling place
Mourners stay at home
Sitting on low stools
Covering mirrors
Not using oils or perfumes or cosmetics
Not wearing new clothes
Not listening to loud music
Not taking photographs or watching television
Not painting, cooking, and cannot greet people
Day mourning extended after seventh day remembrance ceremony until thirtieth day
Another remembrance ceremony on thirtieth day, closing the strict mourning period
Beliefs in Afterlife
Death is final, no reincarnation or return
Soul goes to Paradise or Hell
Purity and Impurity
Concept of marimé (similar to kashrut)
Lower body and things associated with it impure
Sleeping regarded as an impure state
Not to greet anyone upon waking until washed
Disrespectful to greet anyone in an impure state
Dogs and cats impure
Horses, donkeys or riding animal impure
Carnivorous animals impure
Avoidance of horseflesh
Shoes, pants, hose, skirts, trousers, etc. impure
The camp pure
Restrooms built outside the home
Clothes for the lower body and menstruating women washed separately
Dishes washed in a different place from clothes
Other Practices
Custom of mangel, asking for favors from Gadje
Painting doorposts of dwelling with animal blood to protect against angel of death
Invoking the Prophet Elijah, particularly when seeing lightening or hearing thunder
Firstborn son considered a special blessing to the family
Wearing of whiskers
Left hand related to the public domain (Gadje), impure
Separate dishes and cups for Gadje
Only eating ritually slaughtered animals
Slander considered very a very serious offense, worth taking to Kris
Lack of belief in divination (contrary to general view of Gypsies)
Practice of Tarot cards and crystal balls for Gadje only
Having a Gypsy name besides a civil name
Names that are Hebrew, Greek, Russian, Spanish, Hungarian, Persian, never Indian or Hindu
Beef a favorite food
Interest in bullfighting
Middle Eastern music and dance with zithers, etc. (Flamenco in Spain)
Fingernails and toenails filed with an emery board, not a clipper
Going to a church called Filadelfia (Brotherhood)
Claiming to be Egyptian in origin
Making pilgrimages to the burial places of your ancestors
Source: Abraham Sándor, “Comparison of Romany Law with Israelite Law and Indo-Aryan Traditions”
Comments
Anonymous commented on 18-Sep-2010 01:39 PM
Thank YOU, Shari, for this long comment. Actually, it was your emails that inspired me to research the true history of the Gypsies. Great idea about a Gypsy Forum on DNA Communities. I have a Gypsy modal DNA profile I can post. Would you consider being a co-moderator with Kim de Beus?
Shari commented on 19-Sep-2010 05:06 PM
Thanks so much for, “Do You Have Gypsy Matches?” It’s fascinating reading. My U.S. Gypsy-Roma great-grandparents were quite religious, I believe Baptist. Mom’s grandparents were “Genetic Gypsies,” not cultural Gypsies. My guess is that they were either “Silent Gypsies,” covering up their ethnicity, or they didn’t know about it. (They emigrated to the U.S. in the 1880s and later owned farms.)
In the Shetland Islands mainland these ancestors’ occupations were the typical fishing and farming. Their family naming patterns were traditionally Scottish. Most likely, early on, their ancestors adopted typical Scottish names and ways of life, passing these on to their descendants. In Scotland, Gypsies were persecuted, imprisoned, banished to other lands and even put to death if they didn’t conform.
Some or most of Mom’s maternal grandparents’ earlier Gypsy-Roma ancestors migrated from Aberdeen, Scotland to the Shetland mainland. Mother’s test also revealed DNA matches with people in Glasgow, Scotland - assuming Gypsy-Roma. Besides DNA, there are other clues that they were Gypsy-Roma. One clue is that one of our ancestor’s surnames - FEA - is a common Gypsy surname - http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/fealty.
During Internet searches I’ve found historical as well as current information about Gypsy-Roma. There are websites originating in England and Scotland as well as many sites reviewing ancient Gypsy history (some timelines) of migration from India to most European countries.
As I understand it, almost all researchers (such as Iovita in “Reconstructing the Origins and Migrations of Diasporic Populations: The Case of the European Gypsies,” the source cited by you, Don, in Mom’s DNA report) have concluded that Gypsy-Roma originated in India; and before that, Southeast Asia is mentioned. Only one site by Abraham Sandor (your source for your Gypsy blog entry) makes the argument that Gypsy-Roma did not originate in India, but instead in Mesopotamia, later migrating to India before beginning their European migrations - http://www.imninalu.net/Roma_map.htm. .
The records of early Gypsies in England and Scotland seem mostly to recount arrests, trials, banishment and being put to death - drowning and otherwise. In Europe a popular punishment was cutting off ears! Most early treatment described in European history is appalling. Estimates of up to 500,000 Gypsy-Roma individuals were killed by the Nazis in World War II.
There are few Internet accounts of Gypsy-Roma in the U.S. One website presents basic genealogical information - some Gypsy surnames and YDNA test descriptions for male descendants of known Gypsy-Roma persons banished (1600s-1700s) to the U.S. Southwest, South America and other lands (Peter Wilson Coldham books).
“Famous Gypsies” websites can be found on the Internet. Alternatively, there are vitriolic (sometimes downright racist) posts and sites about Gypsy-Roma. One is a U.S. police website giving an overview of Gypsy “criminals.” There are criminals in all ethnic groups who need to be caught and punished appropriately.
There is such a disconnect for me here. My mother’s grandparents and great aunt and great uncle raised lovely families and we descendants are very nice people! I’m certain that’s true of the overwhelming majority of Gypsy-Roma as well as “Genetic Gypsy-Roma.” No matter the ethnic group, people only wish to raise decent, happy children who grow up to be responsible, caring adults in our society.
With (mostly) dark skin and hair, colorful dress, “different” behaviors (including that of “traveling”) and with no country of their own, the Gypsies were forced to find safe “home places,” not easy to do in lands already occupied. The Gypsy-Roma were persecuted for centuries.
Today Gypsies live all over the world, still often enduring various forms of persecution. I believe these people have survived as well as can be expected under extreme circumstances. Some resigned themselves to or have been forced to take on the life styles of their resident neighbors to stop the persecution. Now some of us are discovering for the first time that we have various amounts of “Gypsy-Roma” DNA.
Gypsies could certainly use more positive “press,” so I’d like to make a request to be considered. Would DNA Consultants be willing to include a fifth posting category - “Gypsy-Roma” - along with Europe, Melungeons, Native American and World? Gypsy-Roma deserve more positive representation and something like this would certainly help.
I’m proud of my Gypsy great-grandparents. They sacrificed and worked hard to establish homes in the U.S., ensuring easier lives for their descendants.
I enjoyed “Do You Have Gypsy Matches” and am very pleased with Mom’s DNA Fingerprint Plus test. It will definitely enrich Mom’s family history (that I’m in the process of writing)! Thanks to DNA Consultants for a great service.
Shari
Shari Van Enkevort commented on 20-Sep-2010 09:45 AM
Looking forward to seeing the Gypsy modal DNA profile on the new Gypsy Forum at DNA Communities.
Shari Van Enkevort commented on 22-Sep-2010 02:13 PM
Don, thanks for the invitation to become a co-moderator with Kim, you and others on the new Roma (Gypsy) Forum that is now up and running in the DNA Consultants Communities site. This will be an important positive source for those of us who wish to exchange information and increase our knowledge about Roma (Gypsies) - DNA and history.
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Comments
According to my mother’s Fingerprint Plus DNA test, both of her parents had Jewish I and Jewish III DNA. One parent had Tatar/Khazar DNA (Jewish IV). India was Mom’s Top World Match. Mom’s mother was genetically Roma-Gypsy. To date there is no genealogical
evidence that Mom’s father was either Roma-Gypsy or Jewish. I’m wondering if the combination of Jewish I and Jewish III along with Indian (from India) ancestry is the typical DNA pattern found for persons of Gypsy-Roma ancestry. Perhaps Jewish I and III could
also indicate only Jewish ancestry, a possibility for Mom’s father’s ancestry. Another possibility would be that her father had unconfirmed Gypsy-Roma ancestry. One or the other parent having Jewish IV DNA may provide a clue. I enjoyed reading GYPSY MIGRATIONS.
I’ve also found the following Internet article to be interesting. Dr. Hancock suggests that Romani had “military” beginnings on the basis of his linguistic and historical research: “An examination of the earliest words in the Romani language suggests a number
of things: firstly that there is little in the original, ‘first layer’ Indian vocabulary that reflects a nomadic or itinerant population, but rather it points to a settled one; and secondly that while there are not many original words for e.g. artisan or agricultural
skills, there are quite a few military terms... ” From: ON ROMANI ORIGINS AND IDENTITY, Ian Hancock The Romani Archives and Documentation Center The University of Texas at Austin http://www.radoc.net/radoc.php?doc=art_b_history_origins&lang=ry&articles=true
"Gypsy DNA can sometimes be conflated or confused with Jewish DNA because both populations originated in the Middle East" I would disagree with this opinion that the Romany originated in the Middle East when we clearly originated in South Asia. India,
Sri Lanka, Nepal, parts of Pakistan. I am of the English Romanichal vista "clan" and the Romanichal vista Y DNA results clearly show a high average of our male population carrying Y Haplo Group H1a, more importantly I am the researcher who discovered the relationship
between marker 425 = 0, null to the Romany H1a male lineages. To date, of all the Romany H1a male lineages identified so far, of all those tested to the 67 marker level, 100% were found carrying this same null value marker mutation in common regardless our
surnames, and regardless which Romany vista "clan" we hail from. Romany of England, Scotland, Hungary, Bulgaria have found Y Haplo H1a with the 425 = 0 marker mutation, which clearly links the Romanichal vista to the Roma vista's of Europe. mt Haplo Group
M5a1 which is also being claimed as South Asian in origin has also recently been discovered amongst the English Romanichal. I am the Admin. of the Y Haplo Group H and Romany DNA projects with FTDNA. To date not a single Asian Y Haplo H1a male has been found
carrying the 425 = 0 marker mutation, this mutation so far is only found among the European Romany male population. And as far as I am concerned, H1a with the 425 = 0 marker mutation = Romany origins. Donald Locke
my name is steven and i have found out that my real farther was Roma/Gypsy . my my mom was jewish from morroco. there are a group of people in eastern turkey called kerds and the name sindh is a common surname with them. i bealeve they travled to india
backtraped to turkey and then went to germany/auatria and this group beacame the sinti rom of the rinelands. that however is the sinti the other rom im not sure.