I believe it has nothing to do with having any (original) Ashkenazi Jews settling in the area. I believe that Ashkenazi dna evolved similarly in percentages and types (long settlement in central and Eastern Europe and intermixing with groups arriving directly from the Middle east proper) to that of Sicily without one having to be the other. Any direct 'Jewish' Inputs in both Sicilian and Maltese population would be possible but very minimal and more probable from a Sephardic source. Both mixtures through the millennia produced similar results.
I get that, and it makes good sense, but does that mean all these various GEDMatch tests struggle to differentiate between Sephardic and Ashkenazi?
Why do my results keep popping overwhelmingly as Ashkenazi?
This Dodecade test:
[TABLE="class: cms_table"]
[TR]
[TD="align: center"]
#[/TD]
[TD]
Population (source)[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]
Distance[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: center"]1[/TD]
[TD]Ashkenazi (Dodecad)[/TD]
[TD="width: 50, align: right"]4.18[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 40, align: center"]2[/TD]
[TD="width: 220"]Ashkenazy_Jews (Behar)[/TD]
[TD="width: 50, align: right"]4.76[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 40, align: center"]3[/TD]
[TD="width: 220"]Morocco_Jews (Behar)[/TD]
[TD="width: 50, align: right"]8.54[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 40, align: center"]4[/TD]
[TD="width: 220"]S_Italian_Sicilian (Dodecad)[/TD]
[TD="width: 50, align: right"]10.48[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 40, align: center"]5[/TD]
[TD="width: 220"]C_Italian (Dodecad)[/TD]
[TD="width: 50, align: right"]12.04[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
And then this Harappa test (from another thread):
[TABLE="class: cms_table"]
[TR]
[TD="align: center"]
#[/TD]
[TD]
Population (source)[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]
Distance[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: center"]1[/TD]
[TD]ashkenazy-jew (behar)[/TD]
[TD="width: 50, align: right"]5.34[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 40, align: center"]2[/TD]
[TD="width: 220"]ashkenazi (harappa)[/TD]
[TD="width: 50, align: right"]6.68[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 40, align: center"]3[/TD]
[TD="width: 220"]sephardic-jew (behar)[/TD]
[TD="width: 50, align: right"]9.31[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 40, align: center"]4[/TD]
[TD="width: 220"]morocco-jew (behar)[/TD]
[TD="width: 50, align: right"]12.1[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 40, align: center"]5[/TD]
[TD="width: 220"]turk-aydin (hodoglugil)[/TD]
[TD="width: 50, align: right"]12.89
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
why do these results keep popping up for me?
Also, even more generally, we know Sicilians, Maltese and Ashkenazi plot very closely together (Sicilians closer to Ashkenazi than Greeks) - map on that same Harappa thread.
Is it just a matter of saying these GEDMatch tests are inaccurate? That they cannot differentiate between Ashkenazi and Sephardic?