NNorway

I took a DNA test recently and it claims I’m 41.8% Scandinavian. Is there a way to see if this is real or total bull?

  • August 4, 2024



As the title says.

Before I begin: No, I’m not an American yank. I’m a British and Irish dual citizen with the legal paperwork to prove it. I already have an EU passport and potentially gaining a third citizenship isn’t a major goal of mine.

Late last year, my grandmother passed away. I was going through her legal paperwork with family and discovered that she never had her father listed on her birth certificate. Because of this, I decided to take a DNA test to see if anything came up. Lo and behold, yes it did! 41.8% Scandinavian. I’ve asked family about this and they’re as surprised as me. One particular member of my family has flatline denied everything it’s claiming and refuses to answer my questions or take a DNA test themselves.

Reddit, is there an official way in Norway to take an ancestral DNA test to potentially discover more about my ancestry?

Thanks!

by _SquareSphere

22 comments

  2. I guess you need to see if the DNA test will find any relatives?

    I think around 10% Scandinavian is normal for British/Irish people, due not only to the Vikings, but a lot of contact with sailors, fishermen, etc.

  3. Uk and Scandinavia are basically the same stock back a couple of hundredyears ago due to the Vikings. This won’t tell you much, I’m afraid.

  4. Goal or not, you arent eligible for any of the scandie citizenships 🤷‍♂️

  5. lol, the Sweden sub didn’t tell you what you wanted to hear so you deleted your post and moved on to Norway? 😂

  6. A lot do Viking dna in northeast England and Scotland. And from Scotland could work way to Ireland as well.

  7. You should acquire and taste Brunost to verify if you have Norwegian roots, preferably together with strawjerry jam

  8. No, there are no DNA registers that you can use. The only ones I know of are medical databases, where you will not get any information, and criminal registers, where you will not get any information.

    So, you are shit out of luck.

  9. Not so surprising. Vikings did visit your country. But it doesn’t have to go that far back either. It could be your great grandparents. We are fairly close to you.

  10. You could search the church records.. there might be some information there. Do some genealogy.

  11. Lots of folks from Ireland, Scotland, and northern and Eastern England have Scandinavian blood because of the Vikings, the Jutes, and more recently, trade routes.

    I know folks with no known recent Scandinavian ancestry who’ve had 75% Scandinavian on DNA tests.

  12. Quoting you here: “The top countries that came up on my DNA results are: USA, UK, Australia, Ireland and Canada. A small number of EU countries have come up too.”

    Not sure what you are doing. If you are doing this all just to get passports then jesus christ

  13. Those tests compares your data to other people who had similar data. But there’s a big difference whether every single Scandinavian took it and you have that data to compare to, or if it’s 30 Scandinavians who took it. So they’re not accurate but they do give indications.

  14. Want be surprised if you descend from one of the Norwegian sailors that settled in UK after Second World War.Long story but sadly their effort in the merchant fleet was not recognised in Norway after the war, and lot of them settled abroad. Start asking around if any one of your relatives visited or lived in one of the majors port after WW2…..More background if you google krigsseiler

  17. >Before I begin: No, I’m not an American yank. 

    LMAO. Feel bad now, about making fun of people seeking their ethnic identity? 

    First thing, I think you should check your DNA relatives. They will probably have the most clues for you and what happened.

    Eg if you have close cousins in Scandinavia, then maybe you were adopted, or were a result of a sperm donor. Or switched at birth (depending on how old you are)

    Your great grandfather being potentially from another country, does not account for 41% DNA. That would account for around 12%

    My dad is from Ireland and my mom is Canadian of Irish descent, I’m 100% British and Irish. So I highly doubt that 41% Scandi, is just part of what 23andme detects as “British and Irish” I think it’s a more recent ancestor

  18. Adam Rutherford has a chapter on this in A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived

  20. I know that ‘My heritage” will do DNA match with others in their system. So if you suddenly have some distant cousins in Sweden or Norway via DNA match, you might be on to something.

  22. It’s total bull.

    Scandinavian people are made up of whatever that’s been washed up on our shores the last millennia: Kelts, English, Dutch, German, Danish, Poles and even French and Spanish people. We’re also heavily influenced by migration from the east: Sami people and Finns.

    There might be genetic markers on the current Scandinavian population, but my guess is that there’s very little that distinguish us from the rest of Northen/Western Europe

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