DNA testing France

[manukarik]

oldfashionedgirl

What do you know of your Huguenot ancestors? Where did they settle? Many worked in Spitalfields in London or elsewhere where there was weaving. I see the Saltire Cross against your name. Does that mean your family is predominantly Scottish? If so, according to The Huguenot Society:

"Scotland: Although some Huguenots went to Scotland, especially to Edinburgh, only one settlement is known to have left detailed evidence of its short existence: Picardie Village in Edinburgh. For that see:  J. Mason, ‘The Weavers of Picardy’, The Book of the Old Edinburgh Club 25 (1945), pp.1-33 A. Springall, ‘A Huguenot Community in Scotland: the Weavers of Picardy’, Proceedings of the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 27 (1998), pp. 97-109

[melba_schmelba]

I just received the results of my mother’s DNA test which she wanted for a Christmas gift.

Considering I/we have no tree on Ancestry I was intrigued by the results which mirrored what I have discovered over the years.

There were only two surprises which were 14% Germanic Europe ?

But mostly was the lack of any connection to France as I have good evidence that we have a Huguenot line.

Having done a little searching it appears that the French government doesn’t allow DNA testing for ‘recreational’ purposes.

Is this correct and have others experienced the same
.

To address the Germanic Europe part, this was something that happened in the most recent Ancestry update, many Brits suddenly got significant percentages of Germanic, which whilst perhaps equally as valid as the Sweden/Denmark/Norway %s as indicative of ancient Viking ancestry, the Germanic presumably pointing to ancient Anglo-Saxon etc. connections, it was decided that if for historical reasons only it probably isn't the best idea to tell Brits they are German ! Perhaps it brings up the possibility that we should have two versions of our ethnicity estimates, one for an ancient ancestry breakdown i.e. Vikings, Anglo-Saxons, Romans, Ancient Britons, Picts etc. and one for a more modern i.e. pertaining to modern states or ethnic groups. That might be more possible (and accurate) as more and more ancient genomes are sequenced from ancient human remains. 23andme now allows comparison to ancient DNA, and I think is one of the few main sites to have this. MyHeritage once speculated of a facility to match to more recent celebrities.

[oldfashionedgirl]

Thank you all for the Huguenot suggestions.
Maybe I should have been clearer.

My mother’s cousin had done some work re the Huguenot line many years ago, probably 60s or 70s.

They were silkweavers and had settled in Spitalfields, London. He apparently had samples of silk that had been handed down.

I took the research a bit further several years ago with help from a very knowledgeable Rootschatter who traced the line to the outskirts of Paris.

Re my mothers DNA test I meant I was a bit disappointed that due to the lack of testing in France (which I didn’t realise when we submitted the sample) the research that had been done was not confirmed by DNA as the other areas were or her ancestry.

Yes I was born, grew up and live in Scotland but my folks are from down south.


Thanks for all the replies.

[melba_schmelba]

Thank you all for the Huguenot suggestions.
Maybe I should have been clearer.

My mother’s cousin had done some work re the Huguenot line many years ago, probably 60s or 70s.

They were silkweavers and had settled in Spitalfields, London. He apparently had samples of silk that had been handed down.

I took the research a bit further several years ago with help from a very knowledgeable Rootschatter who traced the line to the outskirts of Paris.

Re my mothers DNA test I meant I was a bit disappointed that due to the lack of testing in France (which I didn’t realise when we submitted the sample) the research that had been done was not confirmed by DNA as the other areas were or her ancestry.

Yes I was born, grew up and live in Scotland but my folks are from down south.


Thanks for all the replies.

What you may find though, is connections for your mother to other descendants of that Huguenot line. That could well point to her having 'Huguenot' genes ! I know my own mother has many Quebecois matches, but shows no French on the Ancestry % which is clearly not logical! But she does have more recent French ancestry than Huguenot though so probably a bit more likely to register. When would you say your mother's last 'pure blooded' Huguenot ancestor was born in number of generations back? Huguenots continued to intermarry for several hundred years after the first wave arrived in the late 1500s, up to the 1800s in some cases. It might be worth searching her matches for clusters of people born in Quebec or France. I know French people do also match French Americans but they are a bit more difficult to specify by state, you could try Louisiana, although you find them in other states too.

[oldfashionedgirl]

That’s very interesting M-S, I hadn’t thought of it from that angle, thanks very much.

[melba_schmelba]

That’s very interesting M-S, I hadn’t thought of it from that angle, thanks very much.

In fact I realised on one of my mother's Huguenot lines, which remained intermarried within the Huguenot community until the early 1800s, she has many shared matches and common ancestor links on this line. So essentially all those relatives on that line to which my mother connects on the DNA, I can say with some certainty it is French Huguenot DNA that they share !

[Top-of-the-hill]

  I like the idea in reply10 that we could have an ancient DNA breakdown.
 Melba also says that the Germanic Europe is recent, but it appears in my 2022 list, though it is now considerably more. I have also lost my 3% Wales, which I don't think should ever have been there.
   Confession - I understand very little about all this and treat it mainly as a bit of mildly interesting fun!

[coombs]

My most recent ancestor of full Huguenot heritage was born 1765, and is my 6xgreat grandmother. She was born in London to a mother of full Huguenot heritage and a father who was one of the last to come to the UK in 1752. Her ancestry is from Moncoutant in western Poitou, and Luneray in north Normandy. Both areas of France that are quite a way from one another. Some ancient DNA maps surmise that Poitou has a lot of Roman DNA there.