Researchers at Sheba Medical Center in Israel have found a genetic link between a group of Indian families in Colorado and a Jewish ancestor who once lived in Spain, the Haaretz newspaper reports.

According to the researchers, the 16 Indian families possess the same genetic marker found in Jewish people who lived in Spain prior to their ouster from that country in 1492. The Jewish ancestor immigrated to the Americas sometime afterward.

"Researchers say this offers incontrovertible genetic proof that some of the Jews expelled from Spain who reached the New World intermarried with local Indians whose descendants later migrated to the United States," Haaretz reported.

The Indian families migrated from Mexico to Colorado about 200 years ago. The Jewish genetic marker dates back 600 years so researchers say the intermixing occurred prior to their arrival to the U.S.

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Israeli researchers: Group of Colorado Indians have genetic Jewish roots (Haaretz 5/30)