I have now been “processed”, and I have the results.
Although my father’s line is from Germany, for some reason I never really resonated as a descendant from the Fatherland. We had come to the United States long before the Nazi disaster, so it wasn’t a political feeling. I just assumed that I took after my mother’s Norwegian side.
Then I found a photograph of my great grandfather, bearing my name, and it was eerie. I looked exactly like him!! So maybe the German genes were stronger after all. I still didn’t feel very Teutonic.
Well, the DNA is in front of me and an impressive 62% cloud of blue is hovering over an area on the map where my ancestors trod.
Two things appeared remarkable, I wasn’t related to Thomas Jefferson. I hear everyone is related to him. And the other thing is that I’m 62% Scandinavian. I’m not sure how that works out. I would have thought a 50-50 situation.
Apparently even my German side is Norwegian.
The Norse, German, and English accounts for 85% of my DNA. Add a little Irish, Spanish, and Italian and I’m fairly complete. Oh yeah, maybe some Polish.
It looks to me that the areas where Vikings sailed to capture slaves could explain all that. I had sort of expected the usual “mutt” pattern, with a bunch of 17% here and 15% there. Nope,
Oh yeah, it did suggest that I’m less than 1% Arab. Who knew?