Question regarding great-grandmother's heritage
Hello,
My great-grandmother was of Sephardic Jewish origin from the city of Aleppo in Syria. Recently, I’ve become interested in the history of this region and its background, and a question came up that you might be able to help me with as people interested in heritage: Which ethnic groups is her background closest to, genetically and historically? For example, is she more closely related to Levantines or South Europeans? and if she's closest to other Levantines, which present-day groups would she be most closely related to today? Would she be most closely related to non-Jewish Syrians? Or to Palestinians, or to Lebanese? Or maybe to a certain Levantine regional subgroup?
Her surname was "Lopez" and she spoke both Ladino and Arabic. Nevertheless I don't think her entire background was just Sephardic, I'm not sure about it but that's my feeling.
Thanks.
Posted Jun 8, 2026, 4:41 PM UTC