"Mixed marriage" may be an unduly polite term.  Somehow typically Jewish DNA appears in "Christian" families.  Geni has each generation of the Pence family, with a line going back to  a prominent Rabbi Weil in Southwestern Germany. Assuming in this case that the genealogy is sound (occasionally true), the surnames allow a guess that a Jewish woman  was the mother of a Gentile child late in 16th century Switzerland.  "Common law partnership" or something else?  So Geni says I am a 17th cousin--a bit remote.  In my paternal line the DNA suggests an early abandonment of the Jewish faith by some fellow in the Rhineland in the 17th century. I have run into a smattering of such situations.  Is there any write-up as to unusual frequency in that area at that time of religious turmoil--or are my conclusions entirely unsound? Howard Sachs (directed to message 642893--Roger Lustig)