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

I have swedish ancestry, andersson became kare(circle over the a), which was anglicized to corey.  Also johansson, which became johnson.  Names are ofen hard to trace as people changed surnames at will-----cousins became savenhed(circle over the a), for example.  One great uncle who came to the same state, iowa, as the corey ancestor took another surname.  One has to know people, or have iron clas paper trail, to trace swedish ancestory much betond early 1800s.

Answer 2

Yes . My latest updated dna from ancestry shows 4% Norway. I have traced  a line on my mother’s side back to Timon Siddum. Her great grandfather spelled it Steadham.

Answer 3

Yes I do3%Scandinavia 57%great Britain 38% Scotland and Ireland and whales  and 1% Germanic and1% france

Answer 4

Yes, my mother's family came from Sweden & Norway. I have some old pics of my family. My grandparents and all spoke Swedish and lived in New Sweden, ME. Visited 2 aunts and cousins last year. American surname is Johnson.

Answer 5

Yes... my Great great Grandparents are from Norway

Answer 6

I had my DNA test done by MyHeritage and I am 22.7% Scandinavian, apparently. I haven't found any kind of paper trail but my mother was from the North East of England and my father was Swiss. It's anyone's guess which side it's from, or maybe both? I don't appear Scandinavian in any way, dark curly hair (before it went grey), not particularly tall and nobody in my immediate family does either. Very strange...

Answer 7

Yes, half Swedish. My mother's parents were born in Sweden. They were first cousins, but knew (according to family lore) from the ages of seven that they would eventually marry. My grandmother emigrated first to the US, while my grandfather completed his blacksmith's apprenticeship. Grandma worked at a variety of jobs. Although trained as a nurse, she found work in New York sewing linings into coffins in order to pay for train fare to Rockford, IL where there was a large Swedish community and where other members of their families had previously emigrated.

In Rockford, she worked as a domestic, both for families (she preferred families with children who would teach her English) and for a relative who ran a boarding house. Eventually she had saved enough money to pay my grandfather's fare (as seen on the manifest). Soon after my grandfather's arrival, they married. My mother is full Swedish ancestry. This is confirmed by various DNA tests.

Answer 8

According to My Ancestry I have  50 % Scandinavian ancestry  mainly from Denmark, I have census data from Denmark and from the U.S Both of my paternal grandparents were from Denmark ( Nels Neilsen and Marie Jensen) Their name was changed by immigration to Nelson. My father was Robert Nelson and his DNA was confirmed by FTDNA.

Answer 9

Yes, my paternal grandparents were born in Norway.  And some of my Irish & Scotish ancestors were of Viking origins.  I'm 1/3 scandinavian according to my DNA.

Answer 10

Two great-grandfathers from Denmark:
Laust Nielsen (Americanized to Lewis Nelson) and Martin Simonson (that's again the American version).  Martin is said to be from Bornholm, but I can't seem to find anything on him.

I have however made good headway in regards to Laust.  The Danish online archives have been a great aid!

Answer 11

I'm a western European mutt, and nothing has changed that evaluation. What has change is the presentation of those values. 

I went from 35% Scandinavian to: Norway 6%, Sweden 3%, and Germanic Europe, Ireland, Scotland get a poultry 5% and 2%. The remaining amount goes to England, Wales & Northwestern. No surprise there! 

My mother’s results also had large changes. Firstly, I am lucky to have both my parent’s DNA samples as they are in their 80’s! Mom has an increased percentage like mine with a heavier weight on Ireland & Scotland. My dad’s results surprised me with a much heavier weighting in England, Wales & Northwestern Europe. He had a sharp decrease in Germanic Europe and Ireland, Scotland.

I still have very little European genealogy done as my paternal and maternal families decided to come here as late as the mid 1700's, with most coming over long before that. This keeps me busy in this country. However, with both sides of my family tested on autosomal, Y and MT DNA, these results are just what I expected no matter how many reference samples are added in the future. Yep, we're pretty boring. That's why I prefer working on other people's trees. 

PS to WIKITree - I love your site!

Answer 12

I show 36% scandanivan and u5b1

Answer 13

Yes, 2% Swedish. I think a marauding Viking is responsible.

Answer 14

Yes, I am 70% Scandivavian, Norwegian. My g-grandfather, John Johannesburg Nedrebo Olson is from Rennesöy Norway and my other g-grandfather Nels Basteson Hovde Borvit is from Osteroy, Bergen, Hordaland, Norway and my g-Grandmother, Bertha Johanna Jamie from Vaksdal, Hordaland, Norway. I have been able to follow John Olson’s line all the way back to Sigri Gundersen 1674-1720

Answer 15

Yes, I;m a New Zealander, my great grandfather was from Lysekil in Sweden where it seems most men were named Johannes Marcus Olsen. As an amateur so far away I am a little perplexed with how to start following the trail

Answer 16

Yes. I have tested with Ancestry.com, Living DNA and Family tree DNA (YDNA and mtDNA only). I uploaded my raw data to a few different sites using principally my data from Ancestry.com. Ancestry.com recently refined my DNA results to 5% Swedish from 4% Scandinavian. Other admixtures put me between 4% to 15% Scandinavian.

My documented family tree is exclusively within the boundaries of the UK, with the exception one established pedigree of Thomas Dudley (3rd Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony) (through his daughter I am descended). His ancestry includes members of royalty, its court and several Jarls of Norway.

As far as my YDNA is concerned,  the migratory path includes Northern Denmark, Southern Norway and Southern Sweden. Since I am the only one of my line my YDNA genetic age estimated as recent as 2500 years before present.

Answer 17

yes I am half Norwegian.

Answer 18

Yes, my Ancestry profile shows I have quite a bit of Scandinavian, though my family trees show it is all ancient (1200's and before). However, I have one so many times grandmother with the name Janson, which probably explains the .3% Finnish I got from 23andme.

I have almost all Northern European roots and so my Viking (Scandinavian) numbers could be from people who live in Scotland, England. Ireland whose ancestors were Vikings, Also German and French ancestors.

I definitely have very rich Scandinavian and Viking roots in my ancient past.

Answer 19

Two of my Grandfathers came from Norway and one of my Grandmothers also came from Norway. My other grandmothers family came from  Ipswich and Sussex England. I am the second generation born in America in my fathers ancestry line.

Answer 20

According to MyHeritage I got 10,4% Scandinavian, but according to 23andMe I only got 1,4% Scandinavian in me + 10,1% Broadly Nothernwestern European, but that is so diffuse I don't know what to do with it...

But on the bright side, that is at least 1,4% more than I had imagined...