Scandinavian shock!

[Bev]

DNA Test on My Heritage has come back as 47% Scandinavian, this has come as a bit of a shock as all of my extensive research so far is rooted firmly in Somerset, on all branches.
Where do i start trying to find the scandinavian connection?

Am new to the DNA thing so dont fully understand the reliability, but my latest match is a second cousins daughter with 53.5cM segment, i have messaged her so hopefully she will reply and answers some questions (unless shes as shocked a s me to find a relly in somerset)

Any help pointing me in the direction to go from here would be gratefully accepted

thanks

Bev

[ptdrifter]

My result on My Heritage also states Scandinavian,but at 59% and as far as I have traced, I have no direct Scandinavian at all!
The site appears to have high values for Scandinavian ancestry for most users. It must  be the bias in their population groups.

[Gadget]

My Heritage is notoriously bad for ethnicity estimates - They've got mine totally wrong.

[Biggles50]

Totally ignore it.

According to them I am 34% Scandinavian.

On Ancestry I am 6%.

The most important thing to understand about DNA Ethnicity results is that they are an ESTIMATE which is based upon the sample pool that each DNA testing company uses.

You will find that over time your Ethnicity Estimate will probably change very dramatically, ours certainly has, so much so one would think that my Wife and I are different people when we look at what our Ethnicity Estimate was 7 years ago.

I can understand why people buy a DNA test from My Heritage (its low cost) but really buying one from Ancestry gives access to 3x if not more DNA tested people compared to those who have tested with My Heritage.  Ancestry DNA test results can then be downloaded and uploaded to My Heritage and to other comparison website whereas My Heritage DNA results cannot be uploaded to Ancestry.

[phil57]

Don't rely on ethnicity results. They are intended to show inherited ethnicity for at least 500 to several thousand years ago - well before most of us will find any paper records of our ancestors. They also indicate that segments of your DNA appear to match population segments that are currently found in the testing company's Scandinavian reference population. You need to check what region that covers for My Heritage. Each company creates their own regions and reference populations, and the area covered by Scandinavia as used by My Heritage will probably differ in some respects from that used by Ancestry or Living DNA etc.

If there is any accuracy in it, it does not necessarily infer that your Ancestors came from Scandinavia, but that they originated from the same group of people who migrated from Africa towards North Western Europe, and that the majority of them can now be found in that region. Some may well have branched off before reaching Scandinavia and arrived in Blighty by a different route, which could include your ancestors.

If by chance you find you match to a reference population that you believe you can explain, you also need to ask whether that is a correct allocation by the testing company, or whether you believe it because it fits with your existing expectations (expectation bias).

You are far better concentrating on your matches to DNA relatives and exploring their connections to you. Ethnicity allocations can have some uses if comparing them between matches when trying to establish relationships and the family line that you might be related on, but beyond that they are hypotheses constructed from a range of probabilities. Drill down into your 47% probability result for instance, and you will find that it could actually vary widely - in some cases from a range that includes zero. In other words, there may be  some ethnicities for which you are given allocations, which could in fact have no connection to you at all!

[Rena]

At one time England had French Kings.  Part of present day France is "Normandy" , made famous in WWII for the Normandy Landings..

The name derives from ancient times when Norsemen/men from the North (Scandinavian Vikings) were asked to protect a duke on mainland Europe and that person gave the Viking band a piece of land we now know as Normandy in France.

[phil57]

I have various allocations of Scandinavian ethnicity with different testing companies. My surname is also believed to have originated in Normandy, specifically around Caen according to various sources. It may be an explanation, but with little if any hope for most of us of ever finding records in our direct ancestral lines that reach back far enough to corroborate or disprove that, it is never going to be any more than a hypothesis in my case. I am stuck at a Gx5 grandfather who lived in Purfleet at the time he fathered most of his children, and who was probably born on the Isle of Sheppey around 1737; but no way to definitively prove they were the same person and no way to explore beyond that with any certainty.

[Rena]

I've got one of my lines back to France but haven't bothered following them across the english Channel.

After reading this thread I thought I'd see what the French have to offer by way of initial free searches and I now think that I might dabble my toes over there.

English and French Serfs and Villeins  =  unpaid farming peasants and the next tier up)

With the exception of a few isolated cases, serfdom had ceased to exist in France by the 15th century. In Early Modern France, French nobles nevertheless maintained a great number of seigneurial privileges over the free peasants that worked lands under their control. Serfdom was formally abolished in France in 1789.


Generally, villeins held their status not by birth but by the land they held, and it was also possible for them to gain manumission from their lords. The villeinage system largely died out in England in 1500, with some forms of villeinage being in use in France until 1789.

FamilySearch , which offers free browsable and searchable digital records of France and of Wallonia Belgium. Today, France's Department Digital Archives & Belgium's parish & civil archives, FamilySearch.org, FranceGenweb and Gallica Digital Library are all available online for free.

[Jebber]

Don’t expect to get many matches in France arena, DNA testing in France is illegal, it’s only allowed for medical reasons and paternity.