How far back would 3% Norwegian be?

[melba_schmelba]

Wouldn't 3% be 1/32? That would be your great great great grandparents.

Not if it is a cumulation of smaller amounts from many more distant ancestors. Scandinavian DNA in the ethnicity estimates is often identifiable in areas which were settled by Viking raiders.

I have studied many people's results and ancestry to try and make sense of the Sweden/Norway results and it does seem it is delivering some real insight into people from areas of high Viking settlement having a significant % of genes which are more similar to people in Norway or Sweden than, say, to northern Germany, Friesland etc. People with a lot of Yorkshire-Lincolnshire-Norfolk ancestry may have around 10% in total, people from Orkneys very high, up to 30%.

[hdw]

Family Tree DNA give me 33% "Scandinavian", MyHeritage make it 19.3% but add in bits of Finnish and Baltic which are also "northern".
FTDNA give me 11% Iberian and 3% Jewish diaspora, MyHeritage makes it 6.8% Iberian, 2.1% Italian and tiny amounts of West Africa and Nigeria.

And having traced every branch of my family on both sides back to at least the 1700s, sometimes further back, they are all Scottish or north Northumbrian near the Scottish border or Ulster Presbyterian with Scottish surnames.

One thing that puzzles me is, we are told that you don't inherit DNA from all the ancestors in your family-tree, so for example I may have proven 3 x great-grandparents from the 18th century none of whose DNA has come down to me. So how come I have all that exotic DNA showing up in a test which must go back for hundreds or maybe thousands of years?

Harry

[Craclyn]

FTDNA have not updated their ethnicity estimates for many years and they show very high Scandinavian. They have me at 25% as compared with 2-3% elsewhere. MyHeritage have a major update to their ethnicity estimates scheduled for this year.

[Mike in Cumbria]

So how come I have all that exotic DNA showing up in a test which must go back for hundreds or maybe thousands of years?

Harry

Because it's not "exotic DNA" it's part of the normal DNA make-up of the population that lives in those areas.

[DCochran96]

I have 4% norwegian and my last name is cochran but idk who i am related to.

[Cell]

MyHeritage have a major update to their ethnicity estimates scheduled for this year.

I think they're currently  working their  way through  them now, as I  am currently getting  this  below message with my child's  DNA  :

"The ethnicity results for this kit are currently being generated. Please check back here tomorrow to see the updated results."

 My own isn't  showing  the message, and my ethnicity hasn't changed .Perhaps they're  working their way through them in batches . Anyway, it  looks as if my child's  is currently in the process of   being updated.
 
I wonder what they'll  have me as when they update it .  My ethnicity on Myheritage is absolutely comical .  According to them  I am almost 50% Scandinavian, 47% to be exact  and  15% Iberian, and  my child has 0  of these ethnicities  , go figure lol. How could I possibly not pass any  at all ( not even 1%) of that  whopping amount in me onto my child lol.

Ancestry's ethnicity  is pretty  much near to correct with both mine and my child's,  they give  a break down  for me, of half Irish and Scottish  , my mum and all her ancestors  are from  Ireland, with many of them who came to Ireland from  Scotland a few hundred years back.
And the other half  me  from my Welsh  father is  majority  Welsh with a little English 7% and 2% Denmark - don't  know where the Denmark is coming in, and probably wont ever know as too far back to trace,  that's if  it is even correct)

I can't  wait  to see what MyHeritage has in store for me with their updated version, I wonder if I'll  lose  all my  lovely Scandinavian and Iberian, or perhaps they'll   go the whole hog  and make me 100%   Scandinavian and Iberian lol ( as I am currently sitting on 62 % Scandinavian and Iberian combined with them . I do not have any ancestors from those regions at all , well not in the past few hundreds of years for 100% sure  ,and  100% DNA proven ) .

None of my full  1st cousins ( I have maternal and a paternal 1st cousin on my heritage ) ,or any other  of my cousin's  have this lovely Scandinavian and Iberian in their  ethnicities , goodness what they  have done  to mine lol . I think Myheritage's computer was  drunk as a skunk when it came to interpreting my ethnicity  
 I can't wait for their update, hopefully it will  amuse me some more .
Kind regards




 

[LizzieL]

After reading this thread, I had a look with what Ancestry have come up with for my ethnicity on their latest update. For the Central Southern England, it  has helpfully broken the communities down to:
Dorset to Greater London
Dorset, Hampshire & Surrounding Area
Oxfordshire & West Berkshire Area
Northeastern South West England & Northwestern South East England

Counties I understand, but how is Northeastern South West England & Northwestern South East England different to the other three regions

[KGarrad]

DNA Ethnicity ESTIMATES are about as accurate as Astrology!
Not to be relied on

[LizzieL]

DNA Ethnicity ESTIMATES are about as accurate as Astrology!
Not to be relied on

I would agree with very tiny percentages being unreliable. But when you find you have close to 50% of a completely unexpected ethnicity - your supposed father's line being from NE England / S Scotland and your supposed mother being from Central Southern England (these two areas made up the other near 50% almost equally), you begin to believe there is something to it. Especially when your only "sibling" is a sister 19 years older than yourself.
Not me, but a near relative, our shared matches confirmed his "mother"'s (actually grandmother's) family.