Ancestry.com is offering DNA testing. Actually, they've offered several versions over the last few years. One was the Y chromosome test, meaning only men could have it done and it only followed all the paternal lines of your families. I can see where that could be very helpful, or harmful. Let's say two brothers did the Y chromosome test and learn they don't have the same father. Oops. That will show up pretty quickly and it will make family reunions a little touchy for a bit.
There was also the mtDNA test. This is for your mitochondria. Yes, you have some, too. We all do. It's pretty amazing. We inherit it from our mothers. Who inherited it from their mother. And so on back to Eve. Sons have mitochondria, too, but it came from their mother. They do not pass their mitochondria on to their children. This is the one thing that we women get to claim as something we get from our mothers. It's a great way to do a very specific DNA test on your maternal line. However, it doesn't tell you that great, great, great, great, great, great grandma really was your mother. It's more general. This is where this line of mitochondria originated and where it migrated to.
Currently the DNA test of flavor is the autosomal DNA test. A lot of people have gotten their results back and they are stunned. Shocked. The big shocker is how many have over 50% Scandinavian in them. They've traced their ancestors to England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland and maybe one line from Denmark or none of their lines are from a Scandinavian country. There must be a mistake. My ancestors did NOT come from there.
Honestly, in genealogy we're really lucky if we get five hundred to a thousand years back with documentation supporting our claims. In genealogy we also assume that the child belongs to the husband and wife who are married to each other. In real life we know there are fathers raising children who don't have a drop of their DNA in them. We're assuming our ancestors were faithful to each other. Yes, we really do get to live a rose tinted glass world when doing genealogy.
Once we bring in DNA testing we learn so much more. We learn some of our genetic makeup. We can only hope it coincides with the information found on all those birth records. Some will. Some won't. That's real life.
What people are learning with this new DNA testing is not where our ancestors came from, but where the ancestors of our ancestors came from. Why are there so many with such a high rate of Scandinavian in them?
World history is a wonderful thing. First a fair share of the Scandinavian population immigrated to other areas of what we call Europe and the UK in search of a better life. Pretty much like our ancestors. Second, we don't have all those stories of the Vikings because they stayed home and told tales. They went out and invaded lands. Especially the lands with a coast line. After invading an area, it's reasonable to assume they didn't leave a lot of the local population. More than likely those they left were used for breeding purposes and it wasn't the males they kept around.
These DNA tests go back thousands of years. The world population today is very different than it was when Christopher Columbus made a wrong turn and didn't find a short cut to India. It was even different a thousand years ago. As it was different two thousand years ago. If we're looking at something that goes back genetically ten or more thousands of years ago, naturally we'll be surprised.
Even what we consider an aboriginal population to an area came from migratory ancestors. Ever since Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden man and woman has been migrating. Some migrated so many thousands of years ago that they are now considered aboriginal to that area.
None of these DNA tests are going to prove to you that you are a direct descendant of Cleopatra.
Perhaps none of the ancestors that you've found came from a Scandinavian country. But when it's all said and done, I'll bet the ancestors of your ancestors did come from there.
Just as my mother and father neither one were ever in New York state, if we had a DNA test that went back 300-400 years it would show that a high percentage of their ancestors came from there.
Instead of saying the results are wrong, why not do a little research and learn when that ethnic group migrated to the area of the world where your ancestors came from. When did the Vikings go to what we call the UK today? Google is our friend. Let's use it and see what the hints from the DNA tests can tell us about the ancestors of our ancestors.
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