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People moved around much more than we think. Canterbury Tales is an interesting depiction of a pilgrimage but people were going to Santiago de Campostella in Spain from all over Europe. There were other pilgrimages to Rome or elsewhere. Marco Polo and his family were travelling merchants going from Venice up toward Crimea and eventually to China. They didn't go alone. Caravans were crossing North Africa. The Silk Road moved people and goods from China to Europe. None of this was warfare...a whole other mechanism for moving people (and DNA) around.
Doing a family tree is enlightening. You start to see how much mixing went on over the last 4 generations alone and it can be startling.
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
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Originally Posted by JONOV
I always wonder why this is so intriguing to people.
People get around today and they got around back then. Europeans made war on each other in one form or another for centuries, marching armies to and fro across the continent. You think the soldiers were chaste? You think the local girls were immune from falling for a handsome occupier?
People traded as well. Why would it hard to imagine a sailor frequenting a house of ill repute somewhere far away? Or again, taking a wife in a foreign land? Or, setting up shop far away for one reason or another.
Oh, the woman didn't need to fall for a handsome occupier. The Romans were especially adept and this inserting themselves into a population. It's a form of occupation and warfare.
You're probably Scandinavian from some migration in the past.
Except each test I've taken says something different, for example 23andMe says 2% Scandinavian. If you took the 23andMe test it might come up with zero Iberian. So I wouldn't get too excited about it.
The usual first reaction people have when they take their first test and see something unexpected is to try to explain how that "exotic DNA" got into their family tree. But for those of us who have seen lots of different results and conflicting results for the same individuals tested at different companies there is only one conclusion: these tests do not always accurately differentiate between different European populations. This is a very new science and as such there is a very large margin for error.
Except each test I've taken says something different, for example 23andMe says 2% Scandinavian. If you took the 23andMe test it might come up with zero Iberian. So I wouldn't get too excited about it.
The usual first reaction people have when they take their first test and see something unexpected is to try to explain how that "exotic DNA" got into their family tree. But for those of us who have seen lots of different results and conflicting results for the same individuals tested at different companies there is only one conclusion: these tests do not always accurately differentiate between different European populations. This is a very new science and as such there is a very large margin for error.
I think ancestry dna was accurate in regards to my German and English dna. I don't know where the Iberian came from though, but that something to be researched more on my mother's side.
My Ancestry DNA results show that I'm 10% Iberian. (We have no known ancestors from the peninsula.) They also show me as being 29% Scandinavian and 29% Irish/Scott/Welsh. Knew about the latter, but the Scandinavian was a surprise.
My Ancestry DNA results show that I'm 10% Iberian. (We have no known ancestors from the peninsula.) They also show me as being 29% Scandinavian and 29% Irish/Scott/Welsh. Knew about the latter, but the Scandinavian was a surprise.
Now? I just tell people that I'm a Druid Viking.
Volosong, do you have any Native American? I have Iberian as well, and AncestryDNA now shows my Iberian is via Mexico (where my Native American is also from {West-Central Mexico}).
My wife came up as pretty darn Scandinavian as well, and she has no known ancestors from there. We thought she was German this whole time.
My maternal grandmother is Swedish, and I only show 1% Scandinavian. Same grandmother shows as a Extremely High family match for me.
Until the Moors invaded from North Africa they were the dominant culture in Spain. Here is an article from Wikipedia documenting their moves: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visigoths. I would think that if they had enough people to set up a Visigothic kingdom for three hundred years that the influx could be characterized as large enough to dominate the locals.
If you have information to the contrary, please let me know. I like to know that my facts are reliable.
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