British Isles ancestry - Scandinavian matches

[hurworth]

One kit I manage is getting several Scandinavian matches estimated at 4th cousins or greater.  One gtgtgt-grandparent was Swiss or perhaps French.  The rest are English, Scottish or Irish.

A great-aunt had an unusual middle name, and when asked about it she said her grandmother was Danish and it came from there.  I now know that her two grandmothers were Scottish and English and there is nothing in their trees to suggest ancestry outside the British Isles.
It's quite possible this is just a story.

I can only think of one branch that have could have Scandinavian links, or maybe links to Orkney. The parents of her Scottish gt-grandfather are unknown, but it's possible his father was a sailor because they lived on the coast and several members of the family were sailors.

Are many of you getting FamilyFinder matches that actually reside in places like Norway or Sweden who appear to only have Scandinavian ancestry?









 

[ke]

Are many of you getting FamilyFinder matches that actually reside in places like Norway or Sweden who appear to only have Scandinavian ancestry?

Hello Hurworth,

I'm from East Anglia (Danelaw) and I have a good number of Scandinavian matches on Family Finder, so far I have matched people from Norway, Sweden and even Finland. Family Finder says it is a tool for locating recent genealogical matches but I have noticed it picks up on ancient ancestry. Thus far I have only found a few people on there who have recent genealogical links to myself.

Although it's not supposed to, it is really useful for refining your ancestry further, especially given that 'My Origins' doesn't break it down beyond regions and sometimes the match tells you what town they are from to drill it down further.

I've found it a cool unintended feature 

[hurworth]

Thanks ke.  That's helpful to know.

I have to keep reminding myself that with sailors in the family the matches may not just be connected via where your ancestors were from, but 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.

[medpat]

There are no true British people - after the last ice age, when Britain started to be habitable, people from Europe walked into Britain across the land bridge that is now the North Sea. Your more recent links will be British. The movement of sailors and immigrants as you say can bring in links that you can find or perhaps they are secrets that will stay so.   The more ancient links found in your DNA will throw up connections from many countries.

I am reading The British Genetic Journey by Alistair Moffatt. You can get similar books from your local library to read about the migration from Europe to Britain to establish a British population.

 

[ke]

There are no true British people - after the last ice age, when Britain started to be habitable, people from Europe walked into Britain across the land bridge that is now the North Sea.

Depends on your idea of indigenous really, if you're going to go down that road we are all African and Genealogy is pointless. 

[hurworth]

I am reading The British Genetic Journey by Alistair Moffatt. You can get similar books from your local library to read about the migration from Europe to Britain to establish a British population.

I've read Stephen Oppenheimer's book, which is ready for an update, so I understand that the Brits are mongrels.

What I am trying to do is get an idea of is whether it is common to get these Scandinavian matches on FamilyFinder.  FF's match criteria are reasonably strict and with some kits known relatives have not matched on FF whereas Gedmatch estimated 5-6 generations.  If it is common to get these matches then I'll put it down to shared DNA from many many generations ago or else IBS.

[hdw]

I haven't got Family Finder matches resident in Scandinavia but I do have Norwegian and Norwegian-American matches on the FTDNA mtDNA Full Sequence test. My haplogroup is J1c2 and that is quite prevalent in Scandinavia and the Baltics.

My DNA is apparently 63% British Isles, 32% Western & Central Europe, and 5% Finland & Northern Siberia. I love that last bit!

Harry

[mcleeds]

I got Scandinavian too.

I do have some ancestors from the North Yorkshire Dales, where there was a heavy Viking (chiefly Danish) influence, still seen today in place-names etc.

Also, I have heritage in the Scottish Highlands, where some Norwegian Vikings also settled.

I also have found surnames in my family linage which show Scandinavian influence, such as Tordoff, Ustenson, Brigg and Askwith.

That's about all I can think of as for any Scandinavian heritage.

[Rena]

You might find this map of the earliest settlers helpful :-

http://www.city-data.com/forum/united-kingdom/2323563-new-dna-map-britain.html