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A friend of mine is having difficulty obtaining documents confirming the jewishness of their maternal line and thus they cannot confirm they are jewish.

Mitochondrial DNA is only passed down the maternal line, so I'm lead to think this test might be an alternative to documents.

This means that if the mitochondrial DNA can be identified as having come uniquely from a Jewish woman, then every woman in that maternal line from then on can be defined as Jewish (from mother to daughter).

sabbahillel
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YoYo
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    for background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_studies_on_Jews#Mt-DNA_of_Ashkenazi_Jews – הנער הזה Oct 21 '17 at 23:53
  • Related: https://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/9938/ https://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/35492/. – DonielF Oct 22 '17 at 00:44
  • @DonielF That question involves DNA in general. This involvess mitochondrial DNA which is solely in the female line. However, the answer is the same. It is not good enough evidence. – sabbahillel Oct 22 '17 at 01:58
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    "No! No, no. When I took your father's name I took everything that came with it, including DNA!" – Loewian Oct 22 '17 at 03:11
  • @sabbahillel Why should the type of DNA make a difference? Barring such an explanation being included in the OP, I don’t see how it isn’t a dupe. – DonielF Oct 22 '17 at 04:39
  • May Hashem help and guide your friend that they should find the proper documentation to prove their Jewish identity. In any case, although many people shrivel away from the prospect, geirus l'chumrah is not a bad option for people who cannot prove their mother is/was Jewish. – ezra Oct 22 '17 at 06:49
  • @DonielF The statement is that mitochondrial DNA is strictly in the maternal line, while regular DNA includes that from the paternal line. Thus, a regular DNA test cannot bring evidence that a person is descended in the complete maternal line from a Jewish original mother. Mitochondrial DNA shows evidence that people come from an original mother in the female line. As shown by Loewian though this only shows that a group of people have a common female ancestor, not that she was Jewish. – sabbahillel Oct 22 '17 at 12:37

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Mitochondrial DNA could only, at best, identify a common maternal ancestor, not whether that ancestor was Jewish. (Even assuming all the original direct maternal lines of Israel were known to have distinct mitochondrial DNA from their non-Jewish relatives, no one today has a record demonstrating that their ancestresses do not include any converts who would have the same mitochondrial DNA as their non-Jewish relatives and there is no record of the DNA of the ancestors of Israel.)

Loewian
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  • You can give the example of Ruth and Orpah (if they were sisters). Thus David Hamelech and Golyas would have shared mitochondrial DNA from the common female ancestor (who was not Jewish). – sabbahillel Oct 22 '17 at 12:39