Question of the Week: Do you have Scandinavian roots?

Question

Do you have Scandinavian roots (i.e. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland)?

According to my latest AncestryDNA summary I have 1% in Sweden.  But I don't have the paper trail there. Yet.

How about you?

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Comments

Three words that struck dread into the hearts of young men everywhere:  compulsory military service.  How old was he (or claimed to be)?  Many young men fudged the facts while looking over their shoulders for the long arm of the military police.  You never know when the Swedish / Russian / French / German navies are going to pull into your new port.

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My father's family came from Norway.  My mother's from various parts of the German Empire.  My DNA says I am almost 60% Scandinavian.  Since some of my mother's ancestors were in northern Germany it is not surprising since they were in the region where much of the 30 Year War was fought, with heavy Swedish Danish participation.  Plus with all the incursuans into Europe during the Viking age, Scandinavian DNA is probably all over the place at some level.

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My Paternal Grandfather is Oscar Wahlstrom from Sweden and my Maternal Grandfather is Johannes Oalai Telstad from Norway, so, yes very Scandinavian.

Trying to figure out how to add Family Search to Wikitree I have tons on my tree.

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Four of my eight great-grand parents were 100 % Norwegian.

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I have a few links to Scandanavian countries. Its more ancient, medieval lines.

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My husband's grandfather was in the Swedish army, it appears.  https://www.wikitree.com/photo/jpg/Nystrom-385-5

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You need to trace your ancestors back to the original New Sweden/New Netherland settlements in Delaware. There were a lot of Finns that emigrated to settle that area, just before the Dutch took it away from the Swedes.

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I just saw this post..sorry I'm so slow...I am half Swedish and half Danish..mother was the Swede, and my father was the Danish. Their are so many ways that Christenson or Sen was spelled, and my great grandfather remarried soon after his wife died that no one was suppose to talk about him, so my research stopped. On my Swede side they changed their last name to include part of the parents name.

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My Ancestry.com DNA shows 48% Norway -

Eastern Norway

Southeastern, Central and Northern

Big surprise!!!

Answer 1

My dna shows 72% English, Welsh. 20% Irish and 7% Norway, so the Vikings must have pretty powerful genes, and they did spend a lot of time in England, because everyone says I look and am built like one.

Answer 2

My DNA results say I’m 28% Scandinavian and 7% Finnish (sometimes included with Scandinavia).  I still have relatives on farms in Gotland, an island which was once a Viking stronghold.

Answer 3

Yep, and I've always known it! DNA says I'm 20% Norwegian, with specific ties to Central and Eastern Norway, and 18% Swedish. This doesn't come as a surprise - most of my great-great-great-grandparents immigrated from Norway to Wisconsin in the mid- to late-1800s.

Norwegian names are just.... quite hard to trace back. Eventually it's just a sea of Olsens and Olsdottrs and Nilsons and Nilsdottrs and Hansens and Hansdottrs etc. If you're combing through baptism records and two babies named Helga Olsdottr are born within a week of each other, your entire search is thrown off.

Answer 4

Definitely! Ancestry gives me: 7% Sweden, 5% Germanic Europe, and 2% Denmark. 23andMe is different, they show: 29.9% French and German, and 4.9% Scandinavian. I can't research back far enough to find Sweden, Finland or any real Scandinavian ancestors. The one exception is the Flansburg family from my Mother's father's side, my great grandmother. She descends from a Dane who came from Flensburg (now in Germany). Jan Janszen van Flensburgh emigrated to Niew Amsterdam sometime before 1680 when he was married to Willemijntie Huygens De Cleijn. I believe her name is shown differently on WT. That is as far back as it goes and my cousin Darin Flansburg is writing a book about the genealogy of the family. He's been studying it for many years and has gone to Flensburg in search of records, though none have been found to date. I think it's quite likely that their ancestors started moving south (probably in the Neolithic period) carrying those Scandinavian genes with them and then intermarrying in Denmark, Germany and moving west into France. Of course that's just speculation, I would have to do a tremendous amount of research in geo-genealogy about which I know very little!

Comments

The autosomal ethnicity estimates are questionable regardless of the company they originate with. Each company establishes its own parameters to "define" what constitutes a county, region, or ethnicity. The autosomal ethnicity estimates are nothing more than marketing schemes.

Answer 5

My maternal great-grandmother's parents were from a valley in the county of Trøndelag, in Norway. I am guessing their parents or grandparents had crossed the border from Sweden (which would have been very fluid in those days). My daughter's DNA results showed one of our ancestral origins as the Swedish county of Jämtland, right across the border from Trøndelag.

Answer 6

I am 7% Norwegian according to AncestryDNA. All I can think of is that this DNA must come from the Viking incursions in England and Ireland in the Middle Ages.

Answer 7

Yes the question being where the heck does it come from lol. Ancestry DNA says that I am 21% Norway.

Now I knew that my great-granddad was Danish....but Ancestry puts Denmark in a different catagory England, Wales and North-western Europe of which I am 54% have to trace his line back and investigate more and try to find the paper trail. Maybe he was 1/2 Danish and 1/2 Norwegian he is the only Scandinavian link that I know about ....yet!

Answer 8

Not that I know of. I know for a fact I have English, Scottish, German, Polish, Dutch, and French ancestry. I can't be too sure about Scandinavian ancestry. I probably do though because I have heard stories (only 2) about Sweden and Denmark. I definitely have European ancestry, and I'm proud of it too.

Answer 9

I am 1/4 Norwegian by heritage. My paternal grandfather was 100% Norwegian, his parents both 1st generation US-born of Norwegian immigrants. I know when 3 of the 4 great-grandparents came to the US.

Grandpa was 100%, my dad is at least 50% (as his mother's family has yet to be traced across the 'pond'), making me and my siblings at least 25% Norwegian.

In a common saying - "You can always tell a Norsk. You just can't tell him much!"

Gary Christopher

Answer 10

I do.  My maternal grandmother, Linnea, came to  America from Sweden when she was two.  My maternal grandfather, Carl's parents, came from Norway.  One of these days I hope to make Sweden a vacation destination.

Answer 11

Yes, my maternal grandparents came from Kjerringøy, a small island near Bodø and Lofoten in Nordland Fylke.  I have traced their trees back as far as I can find records, about 1550.  Would like to know if it is possible to connect to Vikings.

Answer 12

Yes, and able to trace one line of Spangrudlien's back to Norway.

Answer 13

Then join the Nordic Project 

Answer 14

AncestryDNA says I'm 45% Swedish and 8% Norwegian. My maternal grandmother was a full Swede. Her grandparents were all born in Kalmar, Sweden and settled in Montgomery County Iowa during the 1870s. That explains 25% of my DNA but I'm not sure where the other 20% comes from. I still have a few of my maternal grandfather's lines to research, but I'm guessing most of my Swedish DNA comes from my English ancestors. Also not sure where the Norwegian fits it - perhaps some of my Swedish lines actually originated in Norway.  

I spent the COVID shutdown learning to navigate the Swedish Church records on Ancestry, and have been able to document several of my grandmother's lines back to the 1700s. It actually wasn't as difficult as I had anticipated, and I enjoyed learning a new genealogical skill. I don't read Swedish, but Family Search has an excellent Swedish translation page for common genealogical terms. If anybody needs help getting started with these records, let me know. I'm far from an expert, but I'm happy to share what I can.

Answer 15

According to my DNA I have 20,6% Scandinavian Origins

Are there any projects to join? Thanks

Comments

The Nordic project is an umbrella project for Scandinavia. You are welcome!

Answer 16

Most definitely. Genealogically 6 out of 8 great grandparents (75%) were either born in Norway, or their parents were.

Answer 17

My grandmother, Linnea, came to America when she was two.  My grandfather Carl's parents were from Norway.  I think it was my grandmother that got me interested in Genealogy in the first place.

Answer 18

Yes - My family is from Halland and Scania, while my DNA covers Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. So I think I have Scandinavia covered! My Wife also has DNA from Norway. Cheers! George Hammar