Post by justasking on Feb 18, 2018 17:40:22 GMT
The problem with his DNA to my mind is that the USA is originally a nation of European immigrants. Could there even be any more generic ancestral profile for a white American than that? Even Scandinavia doesn't (unfortunately) tell us too much, if we take into consideration that there were plenty of Scandinavian immigration to US already in 1800's. But Scandinavia - as opposed to German or British - is the one ancestral thread to even bother with, I think. Scandinavian surname could be possible. Or an association with some Scandinavian American community. Slight chance but still a chance.
Still, even Scandinavia seems too broad and vague. I think that his geographical heritage more likely reflects the European intermingling in America after immigration many generations ago, than point to a guy who would consider himself a "German" or a "Scandinavian". But I really don't know. Is there a way to put that information (German, British, Scandinavian) to some use?
"When modern humans first arrived in the regions now known as Great Britain and Ireland tens of thousands of years ago, these two regions were physically joined to one another. Today the people of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland descend from Celtic, Saxon, and Viking ancestors.
The British & Irish reference dataset includes people from Ireland or the United Kingdom (which includes Scotland). At this time, this dataset cannot be broken down further because the people in those regions mixed throughout history or have shared history, or we might not have had enough data to tell them apart. As we obtain more data, populations will become easier to distinguish, and we will be able to report on more populations in the Ancestry Composition report."
(https://customercare.23andme.com/hc/en-us/articles/212169298-Reference-Populations)
So it doesn't seem to be any more specific than that. With the advent of population genetics it seems that they have at some point somehow defined a "British" type statistically according to the prevalent genetic profile of modern Britain. But what if his DNA just has some aspects strong enough to fit that "British" profile, but which were actually due to the same material also branded as "German" or "Scandinavian"? I don't know if that's possible. The geneticists on this board should chime in on that one. All in all, the "British"-category is not specific enough to know what to make of it.