Armenian roots?

[helios4]

I am afraid I haven't got any written or DNA evidence for my claim due to coming from a very war torn region where records were often destroyed and haven't been kept very accurately. Basically, I come from a very monoethnic region of north-west Bosnia. The question Iam trying to solve is why is one side of my family (my mother's paternal side) very physically and culturally different from their neighbours. Linguistically, religiously and by name they are completely identical to their neighbours and their family name is Tunjic a very typical, Croatian family name. Now this is where the puzzle starts. Farming was the norm in that region for ages and we were the only non-farming, family who had been tailors and cloth merchants for generations and very known for their skills in the milieu. Physically, they look quite Indian and have often been mistaken for Roma even by the Gestapo. Also, in the former Ottoman Empire Slavic population was not encouraged to take trade jobs and the only prominent merchants were Armenians or Venetians. The family's other characteristics include: an adeptness with small scale money matters (grandpa fixed everyone's tax returns as well as trousers), quick auditory learning pioneering spirit (grandpa's sisters were the first women in the village to go to schooland their "strange" customs included snake charming, throwing gold ducats over the couple or the dancing bride at the wedding playing the oud, all the women of the family fasting on the day of someone parting on a long journey and having a special bath at the end of menstruation as well as complete body coverage during it, not hugging or kissing with men who are not relatives lighting a candle every 40 days for a year after someone had died, wearing black for a year turning in a weird direction while praying and using strange words like jan as a term of endearment and yar for friend.
Can you help me?

[dot.hawkes]

Is it possible that maybe in the 19th century your Armenian ancestor married into an Armenian Jewish family who perhaps migrated from Ukraine or similar and future generations inherited the business and traditions of that family? I would have thought their was an oral family history known to your family at some point, but certainly it is a possibility

[helios4]

Hehe! Lol! Thank you for your help but it looks like you misunderstood my question. The question asks if I have Armenian roots I wasn't stating that I do. Plus, I think it is highely unlikely about any of my anscestors intemarrying with a Sephardi family due to the fact that they come from the Bosnian-Croatian border with no Jewish population, they are devout Catholics (one granpa's sister became a nun, another cousin a priest, grandpa was always a church man) and has no connections to Ukraine in thier oral family history. Btw the reason why I think they may have Armeni roots is because I observed many traditions written above to be done by Armenians and because yar means darling in Armenian (song Sari Siroon Yar) and that was what they used as an endearment term.

[dot.hawkes]

could you be a little more specific in your question please? When i used the term 'Armenian ancestor' I think I was using it hyperthetically, perhaps suggesting a scenario? What do you think is the reason for the difference in your family?

[helios4]

Well, that is the problem. I don't have a clue what the reason for the diffference of the family so I ASSUMED it is due to having non-Slavic anscestry (which I base on the fact that the family had a completely different phisionomy and customs). And the only reason why I presume they are Armeni is because I observed some of those traditions with Armenians. But I supposse withouth the DNA nothing can be known so I guess we can close thhis thread unless someone else deducts something from what I 've written.