Vikings: more than warriors

When I discovered last fall that I had 24% Scandinavian DNA, I was thrilled. As I've said here, I'm a Celtic Viking. Among the other sites I uploaded my DNA raw data to is a relatively new kid on the block, DNA.Land. Their database is small but growing. Each company has different analysis techniques, which I don't dwell on (science makes my head hurt), aside from noting that DNA.Land reports that I have 3% Sardinian DNA. Oh my. But DNA.Land's map of my DNA origins differed a little from AncestryDNA's. It shows that some of my Scandinavian DNA comes from what is today Iceland. 

My DNA.Land ancestor map

Which brings me to the topic of today's post. In last weekend's Toronto Star is an interview with Anders Winroth, author of a 2014 book, The Age of the Vikings. 

The headline grabbed me: Discovering the softer side of Vikings. It turns out the Icelandic spoken today isn't far off from Ancient Norse. And for their time, they were actually less violent than, for instance, Charlemagne, Winroth says. He asserts that, "There is a need for us to see the Norsemen in their historical context, not just as warriors but as cultural influencers."

Read the interview here. Vikings. My ancestors.

The never ending story continues...

It's all down to DNA

Last September, I went with AncestryDNA to test my DNA. This test is an autosomal test, which takes DNA from both your paternal and maternal lines. To find out more about autosomal DNA, read this, which explains much better than I could. Moving on, I was thrilled with my results.

In short, I'm a Celtic Viking (55 per cent Ireland, 24 per cent Scandinavian DNA). When first launched, AncestryDNA grouped all of Ireland and the UK DNA under Great Britain. But my test was done against AncestryDNA 2.0, which breaks things out a bit more. As Ancestry's testing is further refined, existing test results will be updated against any new parameters, for example breaking out Scotland, Wales and England separately.

Aside from being a Celtic Viking, my results were still interesting, Only six per cent Great Britain. What? My mother considered herself pure Scot. But you learn that Celts went back and forth between Ireland and modern-day Great Britain a thousand or more years ago. And 11 per cent Europe West, which might have been a surprise to me say about ten years ago, but now having researched my direct ancestry clear back to William the Conqueror (yes, really), it's all...but of course.

And using DNA in my genealogy research is also helping me to connect with distant cousins, not to mention a previously unknown of second cousin. It also confirms relationships. DNA testing has confirmed that I'm indeed related to people found through Ancestry who have become friends.

I've uploaded my AncestryDNA raw data results to other DNA sites. It's both fascinating and fun to compare the results from each. Posting to other sites also helps to discover yet more new distant family.

If you haven't had a DNA test done yet, just do it. It's so much fun. The never ending story continues.....