My DNA test threw me for a loop as I was not expecting Scandinavian (on paper I have to go back 1000 years to find anyone from Denmark or Sweden), but once I uploaded to Gedmatch it made so much more sense as in the oracles I related closely with Orcadians and West England. It is the Viking invasion influence that plays in all of this,
I also have a lot of family from Germany (immigrated in the 1600's).
I was also surprised I did not have any Native American show up as I grew up my entire life being told I was part Native on my mom's side. My grandpa Freeborn (mom's dad) claimed Native and may took him to be Native from his coloring and facial features. He died in 1969 so I cannot check out his DNA. My mom died 5 years ago, and her mother 22 years ago, However, I have a maternal aunt (grandmother's sister) who is 90 years old and I got her to take a DNA test. She came back 2 percent Native American and it shows up in all of her tests on Gedmatch and in all of her oracles. Not where I expected to find this ancestry!
Based on her numbers and the "noise" factor of my DNA tests, I realize it is not "noise" but the small amount of Native I inherited that is showing up, though it was not enough to show on Ancestry, I am waiting on a 23andme test and will see if this small amount shows up on there or not,
I wasn't sure I wanted to do another test, but many said you can sometimes find varying ancestry between the two tests and it will be fun to see if all of my ancestry correlates the same on both tests (Ancestry and 23andme). I'll know in a few weeks.
On Ancestry it had a person who was listed as 'very close family' and so I wrote to them on Feb 29, 2016, though it showed they'd not been online since Oct 2015. Right after Thanksgiving this past year (2016), this person answered and said she didn't see any relation with her surnames, but then she wrote me right back and said this was not for her, but for her adopted brother born in 1978. I began to shake and cry from emotion as I knew this was the son my sister gave up for adoption at age 18! We've since met and he is now part of our large extended family! He says he was raised by awesome parents (thank you, Lord!), and I told him now we are his bonus family as his family just added by over 130 people! I was not expecting to find him- but he was looking for bio family. Unfortunately, my sister died 5 1/2 years ago and he will never get to meet her.
Another woman is 3 generations from me, and 2 generations from my dad (cousins). She was adopted in 1947, knows who her bio mom was and had her bio mom's ancestry, but we cannot find how we are related, though we know it has to be on my dad's mother's side as her bio mom was from Madison County, Ohio, just as my grandmother's family. Neither my dad or my uncles remember any family with last name of Foster, though they were only close to my grandma's maternal grandfather's side of the family,
With all the research I've done on both sides of my family (discounting some of those pesky brick walls), I have found many ancestors who served in the Civil War, War of 1812, Revolutionary War, and even at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. I always figured we came from dirt farmers on all sides, but have been very surprised at all the gentry I have found and all the royalty- going back to Charlamagne and others. I know I am in good company as I know many of you also have these gentry and royal roots.
DNA has been a fun thing to do. It has given me a window into my past I would have never known- from my fairly recent to the past. It is fun to learn about ancient people groups I'd never heard of in Europe and Eurasia. As a Christian, I know we all originally hail from Noah and his 3 sons, but how we got to where we are is all fun in the journey,
My sister is waiting to get her test results back from Ancestry, and I am hoping my brother will agree to take his DNA. My dad's was interesting, coming back 100 percent European as there were Native stories on his paternal grandmother's line also, but I do know that the Native American pool is just 131 individuals, most from the SW of USA, Mexico and S America. None of our family stories hail from the Cherokee as so many others claim, and so perhaps there is some hidden ancestry we are not aware of- but regardless, I like who I am and nothing about that will change.