Admixture proportions

Many DNA-genealogists like to find out what admixture proportions they get when running their autosomal DNA results in these different tools that are available from GedMatch.com and other.

One of the more popular tools at the moment are the Eurogens K36 Admixture Proportions.

I have also used this tool on both my fathers- and mothers DNA results and came up with the following admixture results;

My Father;
North_Sea        24.08%
Fennoscandian        19.14%
North_Atlantic        12.47%
Eastern_Euro        11.49%
French             6.85%
East_Central_Euro     6.60%
Iberian             6.29%
Italian             5.34%
Central_Euro         5.10%
North_Caucasian         1.40%
Basque             0.56%
Volga-Ural         0.35% 
West_Med         0.25%
Oceanian         0.09%

My Mother;
Fennoscandian        23.85%
North_Sea        19.11%
North_Atlantic        11.40%
Eastern_Euro         9.76%
East_Central_Euro     7.60%
Central_Euro         6.91%
Iberian             5.47%
French             5.02%
East_Balkan         4.68%
Basque             3.65%
Volga-Ural         1.28%
West_Med         1.26%

As you can see its rather similar in most parts. My mother have some more eastern ancestry.

I am a bit curious about the French and Italian parts in my fathers results (and Oceanian?), but as with most of these deep ancestral results, its hard or impossible to find anything about it in the available sources.

I also did the Hunter/Gatherer vs. Farmer test also from Eurogene and got the following results;

Father:
Baltic Hunter Gatherer        66.48%
Mediterranean Farmer        25.16%
Anatolian Farmer         5.92%
Oceanian Hunter Gatherer     1.05%
North Eurasian Hunter Gatherer     0.89%
Bantu Farmer             0.28%
South American Hunter Gatherer     0.22%

Mother:
Baltic Hunter Gatherer        67.10%
Mediterranean Farmer        26.03%
Anatolian Farmer         3.09%
North Eurasian Hunter Gatherer     2.29%
Middle Eastern Herder         0.52%
South Asian Hunter Gatherer     0.50%
South American Hunter Gatherer     0.30%
Pygmy Hunter Gatherer         0.16%

As these results indicate 3/4 of my ancient ancestors where hunters/gatherers and 1/4 farmers.

Swedish surname statistics 2012

I get a lot of questions from people in USA with the surname Lindberg. They usually want to know how we are related since they have Swedish ancestry and share the surname Lindberg.

I have to explain that Lindberg is one of the most common surnames in Sweden, and that is not because we are a large family, the majority of all Lindberg´s are not even remotely related to each other.

In December 31 2012, there were 27350 people with the surname Lindberg living in Sweden. Thats ranking it number 17 on the most common surname list for 2012.

The top outstanding 3 surnames in Sweden (2012) was;

Andersson with 251621 individuals
Johansson with 251495 individuals
Karlsson with 223151 individuals

Followed by;
Nilsson, Eriksson, Larsson, Olsson, Persson, Svensson and Gustafsson, rounding up the top 10.

I have earlier explained why we have this kind of surnames and how the became so widely used. But probably this will eventually change as it becomes more usual and popular to change common surnames into unique newly created surnames, or to reuse an old surname from your ancestors.

If anyone are interested in statistics for Sweden and also names and surnames, please check out the SCB website (in English).

The "red-haired sailor"...

My fathers maternal grandfather have always been "unknown" for us. The church-records don´t give any clues and since my grandmother was born in 1908, there are no one still alive to ask about it, that may have had any knowledge.

A rather vague story in our family said that the unknown father could have been a "red-haired sailor".
(Actually it was said he should have been a "captain" on a boat...)

My grandmother was extremely red-haired but neither her mother or any of her half-siblings were, so maybe it could be the truth about him being red-haired?
My grandmother gave birth to 10 children and almost everyone of them are more or less red-haired!. Also many of her grandchildren are red-haired in some degree, even myself and my son have a trace of it...

In Sweden there are of course red-haired people, but they are not common, perhaps 1-2 % of the population is said to be red-haired, some experts say it can be even less.

According to Wiki, red-hair are most frequent in Ireland and Scotland.

So its now very interesting that many of my fathers autosomal DNA-matches indicates he have an 25 % Irish or Scottish ancestry. Since all known parts of my fathers ancestry is all from Sweden, it sure make it very possible that my grandmothers unknown father was indeed Irish or Scottish (and most probably very red-haired..).

Today most of these matches are quite distant, but sooner or later a closer match will show up and make things more interesting.

2013 the year of DNA

Sweden's closest neighbors; Norway and Finland, both are a couple of years ahead when it comes to the use of DNA for genealogy.
But, 2012 was a rather good year also for Sweden and if we will follow the same pattern that they have done, we will have a huge increase in genealogical DNA testing in 2013.

I have seen estimates that indicates that over 10000 Swedes will order a genealogical DNA test in 2013 and probably 25000 more in 2014.

I hope this will be true! We need more Swedes to join the genealogical evolution and match up with our other neighbors and of course USA.

As the only listed genetic consultant here in Sweden, I will surely do my very best to spread the word and let people know all the benefits with genealogical DNA-testing.

One of my goals for 2013 will be to hold some free seminars about genetic genealogy here in my hometown Trosa. Our population here in Trosa is about 11000 and my goal is that I will influence at least 100 persons here to take a genealogical DNA-test during 2013.

Swedish roots

Swedish rune-stones often contains genealogical info

During many years I have assisted lots of people to find and trace their Swedish roots. Most of this genealogical research have been traditional, using church-records and other written sources.
Today I am also using DNA as a useful and interesting tool. The possibilities with using DNA in genealogy are many and will probably become even more useful in the near future.

When it comes to Swedish roots and traditional research, it is often possible to go back in time about 350 years and then there are no more reliable sources to use. You may be "lucky" and find parts of your ancestry to be from a "famous" or noble family, letting you get some generations even further back in time, but that is rare and becomes very speculative in most cases.

The autosomal DNA-tests like FamilyFinder, is intended to use for close genealogy, about 5 generations or so. But we are many that have discovered that when it comes to Swedish roots, it is not unusual to find DNA matches that are way further back in time.
One explanation for this could be that Sweden is a small country and that we always have had a rather small population. "We are all related more or less with each other"...

Many people with Swedish roots, notice when looking at their ancestry some generations back, we find that some individual ancestors can be found several times and in several positions in the family tree.
It is estimated that in year 1650, Sweden had a total population less than 1 000 000 people.
So the last 350 years our population have grown to almost 9 500 000 and most of us will find some sort of genealogical connection with each other if we go back 7-10 generations.

This means that the foundation or base for our DNA is somewhat limited and that some parts of it have been able to survive recombination and "wash out" for much longer time than it would in more diverted populations.

This will probably make it possible for us to find out more about our ancestry as the database grows with more DNA-profiles every day. And maybe give us an chance to map parts of our Swedish ancestry perhaps 500 year or more back in time.

If you have Swedish roots and have taken a genealogical DNA-test, please consider to participate in the Sweden DNA project http://www.familytreedna.com/public/Sweden/

Allt för Sverige

A couple of days ago the second season of the very popular TV-show titled "Allt för Sverige" started.
The reality-show is called "The great Swedish Adventure" in USA and its about 10 Americans with Swedish heritage that are coming to Sweden and together experience Swedish history and culture along with having to compete for the chance to meet some of their living Swedish relatives and get to know more about their Swedish ancestry.

The show is not showed outside Sweden and that is a pity, since many Americans would probably appreciate the show. Perhaps it will be aired over there someday?

If you want to apply to participate in the show, there are some information about it here;
http://www.greatswedishadventure.com/

This seasons participants as seen on SVT website; http://www.svt.se/allt-for-sverige/

Allt för Sverige - season 2

 The show is very popular here in Sweden, even if some think that the competitive part of the show is unfair since every week one of the participants have to leave and go back home in USA. But they do get their ancestral info even if they loose.
I think the show is both interesting and fun to watch and its very exciting to follow their adventure in Sweden.


I have helped many Americans with Swedish ancestry to find out about their Swedish roots and I do recognize the emotional part that is seen on the show also on many of my clients.

Swedish DNA?

At this moment Family Tree DNA are doing an survey regarding ancestral origin of their Family Finder customers.
This is an attempt to expand and get more relevant information in to the Population Finder (admixture) results.

Today most Swedes that have taken the Family Finder autosomal DNA-test will have the result in Population Finder that they are "Orcadians", and perhaps some small amount of French ancestry that can be traced back to possible Walloonian heritage that some Swedes do have.

So the goal is to find a more suitable population then Orcadian to define a typical Swede. But are there any special Swedish population? Maybe it will be more natural to call it Scandinavian or Nordic or Vikings or something? I dont know, but it will be very interesting to follow what this process will end up in and what our new definition will be named.
Swedes and Norwegian people are pretty much the same will be my guess, and that perhaps also the Danes will get very close. The Finnish population is probably more related to eastern populations, but Sweden and Finland have been connected for a very long time, so this could be influenced of course.

Above is a view from my fathers ( a typical Swede) Population Finder result in FTDNA.
100 % Orcadian and many people have felt this not to be very informative.
Hopefully the detailed information now soon will be more relevant and detailed.