Ancestry Results

[Davystayn]

You are a proper NW Euro, white American par excellence,

[Skeleton]

Were your grandparents born in the U.S.?

Yes, all of them. Two were born in North Carolina and the other two in New Hampshire, specifically southern New Hampshire

[Skeleton]

They'd have been relatively similar to the native English and Irish of the time, yes. All NW Europeans. Many of the 'Normans' that invaded England were in fact Flemish and Breton mercenaries, also I assume the Norman warrior elites of that time had a larger Norse element, they may have even been largely Scandinavian.

As for the Normans, it would be very interesting to see what genetic impact they had on the English upper class and in US Southerners. Perhaps someday they could test the English upper classes.

Looking at the Y-DNA study on Normans a few years back, it seems that the majority of the Norman population still descend from the Gallo-Roman population, who we know from the recent French study were genetically very similar to the Iron and Bronze Age British and Irish. As for the Norman aristocracy, at least the ones who replaced the Anglo-Saxon elite, in my opinion were very Germanic in ancestry. They probably descended from Danish and Norwegian Vikings who intermarried with the French elite, who at the time mostly descended from Germanic tribes who invaded France. There was likely some interbreeding with commoners like in the case of William the Conquerer, but I don’t think there would be too much. A lot of the knights and soldiers who fought with William in 1066 were a mix of Normans, Bretons, and Flemish. I will say I’m curious on why my father got such high British and Irish on 23andMe though, although that could just be because all of these populations are very close. Who knows, maybe a large part of my ancestry is actually Norse in origin. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’re ever going to be able to accurately tell how “Germanic” or “Celtic” someone is.

At the end of the day, these are just my thoughts and ramblings.

I’m currently trying to test with Living DNA, particularly because I want to see what % Irish I get because I’ve heard Living DNA are very accurate at British and Irish ancestry.

[Skeleton]

You are a proper NW Euro, white American par excellence,

Haha yeah I thought I'd be, except for some Polish and a tiny bit of Portuguese.

My grandmother gets around half Eastern European on tests, but I get very low. I'm thinking I'm receiving not a lot from her side.