Joseph, That is so interesting about the DNA Project. I have talked with Mr. Greenspan (via e-mail), president of the Family Tree DNA project, several times. He is very nice. He says to e-mail him any time. He is a professor at the University of Arizona. I had seen a story about a Hispanic priest in Albuquerque who now wears both a cross and a Star of David, since the DNA project showed not only that he was of Jewish heritage, but of the highest order, the Cohanim, direct descendants of Moses and his brother Aaron. Mr. Greenspan said that he started the project for Jews to find out what Jewish groups they belong to (where in the hierarchy they fit). The highest is the Cohanim [priest], then there is the Levite [temple servant], everybody else is Ysraelite. I have heard many stories that many of our early 15th century Spanish ancestors in Mexico were Sephardic Jews and Moors. We are not related too much to the people that live in Spain now. So Joseph, you are not really descended from an African slave, but maybe from someone with Moorish or Arab blood. The Moors were the powers in Spain only until shortly before the ancestors of the current Spaniards had kicked them and the Jews and Arabs out. A Spanish friend from the Basque country told me she was proud not to be "hija de moro ni de indio". (She can't help it- the Basques are very proud). I knew that my father's surname OLAGUE is Basque, because he told me so. They were fair, with blue eyes. People in Mexico have told us that all Olagues descend from one Miguel Olague who together with his brothers went with the conquistador Don Juan de Onate to New Mexico in 1598. They returned to Zacatecas shortly. My maternal ancestors, the MARQUEZ, did stay and colonize New Mexico. They were all Espanol until my great-great grandfather's time. Somehow a Piro Indian got in the family, thus he was dark, and on my mother's side the females look Indian (go figure). In Gary Felix' website I read this: "It is widely believed that a large percentage of the earliest settlers of Mexico may have origins in the Middle East and were a result of the expulsion of non-Christians out of Spain, just befoe the conquest of Mexico" I believe this, since when we first saw pictures of Saddam Hussein, we yelled out "He looks just like Uncle Jess [my father's first cousin Jesus, whose mother looked very Moorish or Arab]! The project has Garzas [Garcias] with family lines in Northern Mexico [Jalisco?]. My husband was told in Mexico that he looked like a typical Norteno---quite tall and fair--a Tapatio--- and his Garcia-Cervantes line is from Encarnacion de Diaz in Jalisco. Gotta go---thunderstorm above--don't want to fry this computer. Emilie Garcia Port Orchard, WA
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