Editor’s Note: Guest author Nick Rowland explores the Ancient Connections feature at FamilyTreeDNA and explains how knowing history helps in understanding your DNA ethnicity results.
Many of us will have taken an Autosomal DNA test to help with tracing our ancestry, these are the tests that Ancestry, MyHeritage, 23andMe, FTDNA, and some others offer. The Autosomal test analyses your total DNA mix passed to you by all your direct ancestors and is not specific to any family line. The way the amount of DNA passes to you is a little random, you may inherit a little more from your father and vice versa from your mother. The testing companies compare this to other samples in their database to establish an ethnicity estimate as well as create a list of other testers who share elements of your passed-down DNA. For example, my ethnicity from Ancestry.com shows 55% England & Northwest Europe (mostly Suffolk and other East Anglian), 31% Sweden and Denmark, 7% Scotland, 2% Wales and 2% Ireland.
This breakdown can sometimes lead to incorrect conclusions, I have my tree back to the 16th century for both my parents and there is no ancestor from Scandinavia nor Scotland or the other regions. Apart from one branch from Wiltshire all my ancestors back to the start of Parish records were born in East Anglia largely North Essex, East Suffolk, and South Norfolk. The Scandinavian result could have sent me on a wild goose chase looking in Sweden and Denmark if I had not already known who my ancestors were.
Knowing British history is pretty much essential to understanding what was behind the analysis. The East Anglian result fitted my research but why the Scandinavian result? Now for a bit of ancient English history, between the end of the Roman era and the 1066 Norman invasion the British Isles were settled by people from North West Europe, notably Northwest Germany/Netherlands/Denmark (Angles, Saxons, and Jutes) and just as famously by Viking invaders from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. In my case in particular East Anglia was settled by all of them and for about 100 years from 870 was ruled by the Vikings known as Danelaw, which consisted of most of eastern England from Northumberland down to Essex.
Ancestry has compared my DNA to their samples and found elements of my DNA match people with Scandinavian ancestry, probably still living there. Based on the above history, it is not a great surprise that most East Anglians will likely have some Scandinavian or Germanic ancient ancestry. The Scottish and Irish results also likely point to the Viking invasions as they both have a Viking History. The tiny Welsh result might be what remains in my DNA from the Celts who lived in Britain before the Roman invasion.
As you can see from my example, do not assume your ethnicity results are a pointer to your more recent ancestry because of the huge mix of DNA in the British Isles.
If you are male, the FamilyTreeDNA (FTDNA) Big Y-700 test can assist in sorting out your Paternal line (Maternal MtDNA ancestry to a more detailed level is apparently in the pipeline). When your test results are fully completed have a look at your “Discover Reports” and home in on your Ancient Connections. These are test results from ancient bones found in Archaeological excavations and each one has been provided with an explanation of where the burial was found, the dating of the bones, and the time frame of when you share a common ancestor.
The screenshot below is an example from my Y-700 test and shows several ancient relatives, all haplogroup R1a. The one I chose to show is the chap I have mentioned in my articles for Rowlandgenealogy.com DNA group M[1] who was found in Greenland and originated from Iceland. I have looked at each of those ancestors and they are all associated with the Vikings, mostly from Norway. For another example, the one shown as Oxford16 was excavated near Oxford, England from a mass burial of Vikings who were killed by Saxons in the 1002CE St. Brice’s day massacre.
From those ancient results, I can safely assume my father’s ancestors came to England (probably from Norway) in one of the Viking invasions and eventually settled (or fathered a male child) in North Essex, England.
As a result, I can trace my ancestry pretty much from the beginning of humans to around 1000CE, together with my tree back to about 1500 I only (only!!!) have a 500-year gap to fill and I will have the complete story of my paternal line. Of course, this is a very hard period to research involving hours spent in county record offices looking at old manorial and court documents in the hope that an ancestor was mentioned. It might even give a clue as to why a Scandinavian chap chose Rowland as a surname.
I do not know if this has any bearing on my ancestry.com ethnicity. A little maybe, but my whole DNA mix on both sides of my family will likely have Scandinavians somewhere in their ancient past.
As a complete contrast to my R1a Y results, a friend of mine wanted to know what his ancient past was, he also knows his tree back to 16c/17c and it is solidly English from Sussex and Kent, he lives in Sussex even now so his family have not moved very far for hundreds of years. I talked him into doing a Y-700 test but he has not taken an autosomal yet.
Included below is his Ancient Connections result (I have his permission but blocked out his name for privacy), and it is totally different from my own. He is in haplogroup R1b and his paternal background delves even deeper into British Isles history.
He has no Scandinavian links which indicates he does not have any Saxon or Viking heritage; all his ancestors so far were in Britain during the Bronze age (circa 2000BCE to 700BCE). It looks very likely his ancestor(s) arrived around 2500BC, which is quite significant. Around 2500BC the Bell Beaker people (named after the shape of the pots they made) migrated from Europe to the British Isles and it is believed eventually replaced the previous Neolithic population. The Neolithic people are best known for the monuments they built, notably Stonehenge and Avebury Circle both in the south of England.
These Bronze Age migrants spread throughout the British Isles including Ireland and Scotland, becoming known as the Celts who were the Iron Age population invaded by the Romans. All his ancient ancestors were Iron Age or Bronze Age burials, indicating his paternal ancestor was one of the earliest settlers in Britain and has been here for some 4500 years. His line appears to have crossed the English Channel to Kent or Sussex and remained there for thousands of years. As you can see, one of his ancient relatives was found in an excavation at Roedean Crescent in Brighton Sussex which is only a few miles from where he lives now in Eastbourne, Sussex. It seems some of their ancient skills may have passed down the line as he used to be a Flint Knapper before he retired last year, the Bronze Age people still used flint tools.
As you see, basic but not heavily detailed knowledge of history is required to understand your DNA results fully if you think you have a British Isles ancestry. The complex origins of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales need to be understood before you jump to conclusions about your Ethnicity results and do an FTDNA Big Y-700 if you are able, as this will help even more.