As I said, Iryana, Judaism is a feature of Jewish ethnic identity, but not its determinator. Persons who want to paint us strictly as a religious group tend to push the religious component while sidestepping the more complex ethnic component (complex for non-Jews, that is). How were these relationships tracked prior to DNA testing? We simply assumed that we were related as this was the belief transmitted by our oral tradition. It's wonderful to have that tradition affirmed by science.   Gilad55