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I got my ethnicity results back today. I have only 3 ethnicities. Most of it Scandinavian - 67%.
I find this strange because all the names in my mother's side of the family, I have researched and they are all Irish and English surnames. However, my mother's family is all very light blond hair with blue eyes.
It is possible my ancestors Anglicized their names and did Scandinavian people do that very often when they came to America?
I also have a lot of Iberian heritage and there are NO French, Spanish or Italian names in my family heritage.
I got my ethnicity results back today. I have only 3 ethnicities. Most of it Scandinavian - 67%.
I find this strange because all the names in my mother's side of the family, I have researched and they are all Irish and English surnames. However, my mother's family is all very light blond hair with blue eyes.
It is possible my ancestors Anglicized their names and did Scandinavian people do that very often when they came to America?
I also have a lot of Iberian heritage and there are NO French, Spanish or Italian names in my family heritage.
My grandfather changed his name when he came here from Norway.It was just a matter of a couple of letters.........
Also, most Scandinavian immigrants came to the USA in the 19th century and their descendants live in Minnesota. My mother's side of the family came to the USA in the 1600s, have English and Irish surnames, and lived in the deep south. There is one German surname, my mother's maiden name, but that's not a Scandinavian name. So this doesn't make sense. I almost wonder if they got my results mixed up with someone else's.
I also have NO Italian, Spanish or French surnames in my family tree. But I am 28% Iberian.
Last edited by tassity22; 02-15-2017 at 07:08 PM..
Same issues here, but let me remind everyone Scandinavian is the same thing as Baltic or North Atlantic. In some DNA companies such as Ancestry.Com, we are "scandinavians" in FTDNA we are "North Atlantic" and in Gedmatch (Eurogenes) we are Baltics. Generally Northern Europeans are any of the above.
If you have Northern European blood, you are scandinavian, baltic or north atlantic.
Same issues here, but let me remind everyone Scandinavian is the same thing as Baltic or North Atlantic. In some DNA companies such as Ancestry.Com, we are "scandinavians" in FTDNA we are "North Atlantic" and in Gedmatch (Eurogenes) we are Baltics. Generally Northern Europeans are any of the above.
If you have Northern European blood, you are scandinavian, baltic or north atlantic.
They showed a map and circled the region they considered "Scandinavian". It was Norway, Sweden and Denmark (but did not include Finland).
The Vikings spent a lot of time invading the British Islands, as well as other parts of the European mainland. That Scandinavian DNA runs through my family, too, although the majority of the surnames are British.
The Vikings spent a lot of time invading the British Islands, as well as other parts of the European mainland. That Scandinavian DNA runs through my family, too, although the majority of the surnames are British.
Do you know how much Scandinavian DNA that you have?
If my family is any example, yes, the names were Anglicized. I'm Swedish and the original form of my last name is nearly unpronounceable for anyone but someone who is fluent in Swedish. When my grandfather came over, they changed the spelling and pronunciation to a name which appears similar to the original but has a totally different meaning.
One of my cousins has been working on the family tree and hit a brick wall due to the spelling change. Those of us who knew what was going set her back on track.
Sometimes the immigration officials at Ellis Island simply changed/anglicized a name without consulting the family, either because they didn't grasp the spelling of the family name, or because there was a communication glitch between them and the non-English-speaking immigrant. I know a family whose ancestors arrived here in the late 19th century, and were assigned the name of the European city they departed from, because they didn't understand what they were being asked by the immigration officials.
But back in the day there was of course also a desire among Scandinavian (and other) immigrants to the US to blend in. Nielsen became Nelson, Jørgensen (pronounced Yernsn in Danish) became Jorgensen, and so forth. But names like Hansen and Larsen/Larsson and Olsen/Olsson would just blend in and become mainstream. It's amazing how often one encounters old Scandinavian family names in the Northwest--it's certainly not just Minnesota. I also have a Scandihoovian background , but my family name is reasonably pronounceable in English.
Our family is mostly Scandinavian and our original Americans came in the 1800s and settled with a bunch of other Scandinavians, mostly in Illinois. However the names are almost entirely easy for anglos: Jensen, Richardson, Jenson, Jogenson, Peterson, Petersen, Anderson, Andersen . . .
The "-sons" are generally Swedish or Norwegian, while the "-sens" are generally Danish.
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, but my family name is reasonably pronounceable in English.
