British Isles ancestry - Scandinavian matches

[hurworth]

Thanks Rena.  I've seen the map in various forms (mostly the one with various coloured shapes). 

So, it appears a few people, but not many, are getting matches with people currently residing in Scandinavia.

[Skoosh]

The Angles, Saxons & Jutes weren't that much different from the  Danes who later over-ran much of England  & the Normans also so you might expect Scandinavian origins to be pretty ubiquitous!

Skoosh.

[hurworth]

Thanks Skoosh.  I'd expect most people with British Isles ancestry to have some Scandinavian ancestors from before records began, so my query isn't about whether people are getting Scandinavian as part of their admixture.  I expect it is not uncommon in the British Isles.

I'm interested in whether others are getting DNA matches with "cousins" who are Scandinavian and wondering whether this might suggest a more recent connection than Erik in a longship 1000 years ago.

[Skoosh]

@ Hurworth, I've had the YDNA done but no sign of Scandahooligans! 

Skoosh.

[Rosinish]

it could also be from where the sailor ancestors and their sailor relatives went (for work) and maybe left a little bit of DNA behind.

   And if confronted.....'Did Not Associate' 

Annie

[Kimbrey]

There is an article from the Daily Mail of 27th Dec which gives figures of 1 in every 33 men having the Viking gene in recent BritishDNA Y tests

If you google"The Viking Gene" you can read it - my anti-virus is stopping me pasteing the URL although it allowed me to read it

Kim

[Zacktyr]

Hi,

My mother and I have tested (FTDNA).  My mother is 95% European broken down as 63% British, 21% Scandinavian, 9% Western and Central European, and 2% Eastern European.  The remainder is related to our German fellow through whose family we have acquired a 5% Ashkenazi Jewish heritage.  So, even that small 5% would be placed in Eastern Europe and/or Russia.  My biological father being 100% Scottish with his maternal grandmother hailing from the Shetland Islands, all of my 'ethnic' percentages are even higher in British and Scandinavian and the Jewish has reduced to 2%.

My mother's mother was from Kent and her father was from Devon and his family came from Devon, Somerset and Cornwall. 

Many of our Kent ancestral names are Scandinavian in origin:  Coppen, Dodd, Hall, Harmon, Lent, Nutt, multiple Smith lines on all of my ancestries, and Walker.  All of these surnames occur within the first 5 generations!  On my father's side the most notable of the Scandinavian names are Duff and Gunn, both occurring within the first 3 generations!

With surnames such as these, yes, I absolutely have quite a proportion of matches in Gedmatch with individuals from Scandinavia.  Unfortunately, based on the small number of shared centimorgans with those matches, I suspect that the connection will occur beyond the 8th cousin level.  Certainly, none of those matches and I have been able to match on documentary evidence.

[hdw]

Hi,
Many of our Kent ancestral names are Scandinavian in origin:  Coppen, Dodd, Hall, Harmon, Lent, Nutt, multiple Smith lines on all of my ancestries, and Walker.  All of these surnames occur within the first 5 generations!  On my father's side the most notable of the Scandinavian names are Duff and Gunn, both occurring within the first 3 generations!

Nothing Scandinavian about Duff, it's from the Scottish Gaelic "dubh", meaning 'black'. Related to Irish Duffy. My middle name is Duff - my father and I were both called after a relative by marriage from St. Andrews who was a professional golfer. His Duffs belonged to the fisher community in St. Andrews.
And the MacDuffs were the 'thanes' of Fife. There's still a MacDuff's castle.
Harry

[Zacktyr]

Nothing Scandinavian about Duff, it's from the Scottish Gaelic "dubh", meaning 'black'. Related to Irish Duffy.

Yes, insofar as the Clan histories are concerned.

However, I would refer you to:

https://ia800203.us.archive.org/4/items/cu31924029805771/cu31924029805771.pdf

Barber, Henry, M.D. (Clerk). British Family Names:  Their Origin and Meaning, with lists of Scandinavian, Frisian, Anglo-Saxon and Norman Names. (London:  Elliot Stock, 1894.)

The author has stated his sources, which included "Buchanan's Scottish Surnames".

From the Introduction the author states:  "The chief object has been to avoid anything like guess-work or fancy interpretation, and to seek for a definition among such sources as seemed likely to supply it, so that, when a word could not be referred to any reasonable origin, it was put on the shelf until time, experience, and discovery should verify it.

My Duff ancestors were entrenched in Edinburgh back to the early 1600s where they were found as armourers, gunsmiths, and cutlers.  So, whether they were descended from or sought shelter under the auspices of the Duff clan I do not know.  Nor are there any documentary sources available that could prove this point for me.  So, while I find the Clan book writings interesting, I have to question the origin of the surname prior to even the commencement of the history of the clans. 

One very rarely is able to determine whether an ancestor bearing a Clan surname was an actual biological descendant of that Clan Chieftain or whether that ancestor had simply sought shelter from the clan and took the chieftain's surname.

Were my Duffs Picts or of Viking descent?  No one can answer this.  My DNA, however, certainly points to quite an involved descent from Scandinavian individuals and the author above-noted has apparently found sufficient evidence during his research to associate the surname Duff with that of Scandinavian origin.  So, for now, I will hang my hat in the Scandinavian origins corner.