A total of 3.5 million Ashkenazi Jews are descended from just four “founding mothers” who lived in Europe at least 1,000 years ago, according to a study by Israeli geneticists. The four women were part of a small group which founded the Ashkenazi community, established in Europe after migration from the Middle East, and was ultimately descended from Jews who migrated to Italy in the first and second centuries AD. The discovery that the women are the ancestors of some 40 per cent of all eight million Ashkenazi, or European Jews, has been made possible by analysing the michrondrial DNA [mtDNA] component of the human genome. MtDNA is only transmitted through the female line. The researchers found that the mtDNA common to the Ashkenazi group of women is virtually unknown among non-Jews but is also found in a minority of non-European, or Sephardic Jews, which the study team says is “evidence of shared maternal ancestry of Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi Jews”. The study showed that it was common to the group during what the team say was “a major overall expansion in Europe during the last millennium”. The Ashkenazi population has frequently been studied by human geneticists […]