Westreich Surname: Y-DNA Haplogroup
Published genetics research or a documented case study links the surname Westreich to a specific Y-DNA paternal-line haplogroup.
J-M172 (FTDNA-predicted; SNP-confirmation not yet reported at time of publication)
Clade J2
Also spelled: (no alternate spellings documented in source)
37-marker STR testing of four documented Westreich descendants, plus one Taffel-surname genetic match, all sharing predicted haplogroup J-M172, traced a common paternal ancestor to the Galician rabbinical Westreich line founded by either Rabbi Israel Hillel Westreich (b. c.1720) or his brother Yosef Yoska Westreich (b. c.1750). Illustrates a rabbinical founder effect for an Ashkenazi surname that only became hereditary after Austria's 1805 Galician surname mandate.
Source: Westreich AH. "Using a Y-DNA Surname Project to Dig Deeper into Your Genealogy: A Case Study." Journal of Genetic Genealogy 9:1-14, 2017 (originally published Vol. 8, No. 1, 2016).
How to read this. A surname match means some people with that surname, in a specific study or family record, were found to share a haplogroup, most likely due to a shared patrilineal ancestor generations back. It is not proof that you personally carry that haplogroup: surnames change through adoption, remarriage, non-paternity events, and independent origin of the same name in different families. For your own confirmed haplogroup, test your DNA with our HaploAI Y-DNA/mtDNA predictor.
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