After waiting almost three months to receive the results of my DNA test, I am finally in possession of the “facts” as I know them. It has been quite the experience. After sending in my first test, I was contacted and had to do a second test! It took me far too long to get the first spit sample, let alone do it all over again! But Ancestry expedited the second test, and I’m here to tell you that I was surprised at the results.
To recap my earlier blogpost (February 2019), I have two close family members who have taken their DNA tests, my brother and daughter. I was most interested in the amounts of Swedish or Scandinavian in their DNA. After looking at both of their results, I noticed that my daughter had a slightly higher amount of Swedish DNA than my brother. While I know that siblings won’t necessarily have the same amounts of DNA in certain areas, I was surprised that my daughter’s Swedish DNA would be higher. How was that possible if she only had one parent with Scandinavian heritage? What I wasn’t totally prepared for were the results of my husband’s DNA.
Based on his paper genealogy, I had expected that he would be highly British Isles and Western Europe. No surprises there; he DNA was 91% from England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland! What did surprise us was that he also had 9% Scandinavian! Really? Where did that come from? Needless to say, there is some work to be done on his line to discover just where that DNA is hiding.
What was my surprise? I was prepared to find that at least 75% of my DNA would be from England and Northwestern Europe. That percentage was high, 65%, rather than the expected 75%. I was not prepared to see that my other 35% consisted of 16% Sweden and 19% Norway! Norway? Where did that come from? For almost three hundred years my Swedish ancestors were from Sweden, pretty much in the same regions. Obviously, either those people are not correct in my tree or places of birth are incorrect. Of course, I would have to look for errors in my paper family tree in a region that changes the last names every generation!
Where does this leave me? While I was expecting a substantial amount of Swedish DNA, the Norwegian DNA has thrown me. I have often wondered why I actually would rather live in a cold climate, looking forward to winter because of the cold and snow. I don’t ski so that isn’t the reason why I would rather live in Sandy, Utah than in Saint George, Utah! Would the high
Scandinavian DNA account for this? While I never knew my great grandparents who were Swedish immigrants, I have always felt a great kinship with them.
I think that my next move will be to download the raw DNA info from Ancestry and then upload it to MyHeritage for another opinion on my results. I have a hard time believing that a strong Norwegian DNA is in my results and nothing in my brother’s. If my Norwegian DNA is this high, wouldn’t my daughter at least have some? But she shows nothing in her results. –Liz Kennington
So your “British” husband turns out to be part Scandie. Makes sense to me. Those old Vikings not only invaded England, they also stayed there and built comunities. Any town in England with a name that ends with -by or- bye is an old Viking area. In the Danish language, the word “by” translates to “town.” Ah Ha, They also intermarried with the locals!