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After my Father's first ydna test results came back and stated that we were of Haplogroup I, and that that meant we probably descended from the Scandinavian Vikings, I wanted to know more about this. How on earth could they tell we descended from Vikings? So, the research work was on.
I read everything I could find, but most of what I was reading made absolutely No sense to me as it was all written for geneticists, not the average Joe or Josephine!
I eventually found my way to Dr. Ken Nordtvedt's website and found a multitude of information, some which I still did not understand but at least I could get a little more knowledge from it.
I emailed him and he graciously took the time to write me back to tell me after reviewing my Dad's dna results that we were of Haplogroup I1a and that if we wanted to pursue that a bit farther and find out if we descended from the Norse Vikings rather than the Anglo-Saxon's that we would need to find a ydna testing facility that checked marker DYS462 as it was his findings that this was the definitive marker (along with the combination of the rest of the markers) that said whether you were Norse or Anglo-Saxon.
So I immediately ordered another test kit for Dad to take which checked for 43 markers including the DYS462 and others that would be helpful. These results came back surprisingly Fast (Less than 4 weeks from the time I ordered the test to receiving the results including the mail time etc. I was So impressed), anyway, when his results came back, I again sent the numbers to Dr. Ken N. and he replied back that was Dad's dna showed that we were of Norse ancestry and were now in haplogroup subclade I1a-N.
We were most excited by this news. Howevever we still had more questions than we had answers for so again I started researching what all of this meant.
Dr. Ken's website gives a good bit of info regarding Haplogroup I and all of the tell-tale signs and numbers (markers) that add up to being either Norse or Anglo-Saxon.
Dad was 13 at DYS462 by the way and has all the other noted Norse markers as well Except for one slight shift which prevented us from being termed Ultra-Norse and that was due to the following marker results.
DYS464a,b,c,d for Ultra-Norse was 12,14,15,16.
Dad was 14,14,15,16, but other than that we were spot on in most of the so called "signature markers for being termed Norse" via this Haplogroup.
Okay, so now that I had all of that established, it gave me a starting place to begin searching for where I thought my father's ancestors had come from all along and that was the Northern most parts of Scotland and specifically the Orkney Islands.
The Shetland Island Surnames Project has had many participants over the years and have had several of the I1a haplogroup to show up even though it is noted that this particular haplogroup is at very low levels there.
On their website they talk about how I1a is scant in Ireland and Wales but at fairly high levels in Norway, Germany, Holland and Denmark which they note is the presumed home of the Anglo-Saxons and Danish Vikings.
At the apparent time of the writing of this bit on their website they stated that it would be difficult to tell whether the DNA signature reflected Anglo-Saxon Danish Viking or Norse Viking heritage.
Well, my Father's 2nd ydna test proved we were of Norse Viking heritage and anyone else whose haplogroup is showing up as I1a might want to consider being tested for marker DYS462 as well. The world of ydna is changing constantly and I'm sure keeping with up with it all is a daunting task in itself. Keeping websites updated with the current info must be an overwhelming task and one that I personally would not want to tackle, so that is why I am here posting this info now as it relates to what we found out about our own family line and how it might possibly help someone else better determine their own Haplogroup I heritage.
Apparently someone named "Wilson" did some work on the I1a folks as well and is noted as -Wilson et al, state that in Orkney and probably Shetland as well, I1a is "diagnostic Viking invaders".
In regards to those of the subclade I1c it is mentioned that they show up at very low levels in the Orkney/Shetland and Northern Scotland area but are found at up to 20% in men in Southern and Eastern Scotland.
Also I've personally observed that some of the I1c men have very heavy German links as well.
It goes on to say that most of the Shetland Islanders who descend from Scots on their male side, that these families came from Aberdeen, Fife and Caithness, where they felt it was probable that there were very few males in those areas of haplogroup I. However it is my feeling that more dna testing will reveal better results. Perhaps dna testing done from digs and excavation sites in those areas as well will reveal some interesting things too.
It is noted in Julian Richards fantastic book Blood of the Vikings that the Norwegians were in the Orkney and Shetland Isles at the same time the Picts were. This book even goes so far as to say that from excavation sites and other evidences, that the Norwegians and Picts lived in harmony with one another and that contrary to other opinions from the past that the Norse killed off all of the Picts when they came to Orkney, this may not be the case after all.
My own name is found on the Orkney Isles and that very family claims to have descended from the Norse Jarls (Earls) who came to Orkney during the Viking invasions.
Portraits from a genealogy done on this family have some slight facial resemblences to the male members of my own family as well. This may seem preposterous but I think genetically there might be some slight possibility there.
Found in the partial dna matches we have to those Other Surnames, about 75% of them are also found within this family's genealogy in Orkney. These are not mainstream names but are names that are found in this area and many of them are Scandinavian and others are Scottish. One of the tell tale signs are names ending in "son" or "sen". Pedersen, Jonsson, Olsen, Sorensen, Larsen etc are all Scandinavian in origin.
Also from the Reports we received from the first testing facility it tells us that we specifically share partial dna to 5 men on the Shetland Islands and 15 men in Iceland. I thought this was a pretty good sign that might be showing where our Norse ancestors traveled. Since the ancient Norse history from Snorri Sturluson tells us of these adventures in the Heimskringla or the History of the Kings of Norway and also there is great info of the Norse in the Icelandic Saga's as well as the Orkneyinga Saga's.
Also that Eric the Red's family had to leave Norway, they settled on Iceland and Eric traveled from Iceland to what is now Greenland. Dad also has 2 partial matches to men in Greenland who I doubt are descendants from Eric, but you never know, they Might be somehow.
With all of the historical evidence available to show that the Norse were indeed Heavily in Orkney and Shetland, it surprised me that there are still statements that their dna is showing up so very little there.
Perhaps most of the Norwegians went back to Scandinavia then?
My father's DNA is noted as being Norse and yet we match to No one so far. We have two ~appearing~ matches to men of our same surname at the 25 marker level but when you get into the "3rd panel" (the 37 marker end of the numbers), they are off. I've already posted about that here though so will not go through it all again.
We are Still Waiting for the results of a 12 marker upgrade from one of the 25 marker matches who only did a 25 marker test intially. The first round of results showed Nothing, they couldn't even make heads or tails of results so it has gone back into the circuit for yet another 4 to 5 weeks of waiting for Hopefully some legible results and ultimately a solid match, unlike my other situation to someone of my same surname who was 6 off in the 3rd panel but matched 24/25 in the 2nd panel (the 25 marker section).
The agony in my own situation is the waiting. So far we do not match to any of the "English" men of our surname of which there are Many. That only leaves the Scots and the Irish and they just aren't testing. I have tried to rally my Scottish and Irish kinsmen to Please take the simple ydna test, but so far no takers.
Hopefully in the future they will come round and want to see if they have kin folks across the pond as I suspect they do and that I am one of them whose family came to America during the Ulster-Scot immigration period to New England.
So for now this is our Norse Viking story. It appears my ancestors journey took them from who knows where in the Very Beginning, but they settled in Norway, went to the Northern most parts of Scotland and the Orkney and Shetland Islands, then to Iceland and possibly back to Scotland where I suspect some of my ancestors were in the Ayrshire area of Western Scotland nearest Ireland, then to Northern Ireland where my family name is found spelled in the Scottish form in the earliest records but more commonly in the English form in the later records, and then to America and as is the case with my family...to New England sometime in the 1700's.
This is quite lengthy so I will end it now, but hopefully this might help others to see that if you are of Haplogroup I, you might be able to better pin point where your ancestors came from too by further ydna testing and if you suspect you are of Norse ancestry, that DYS462 marker must be tested and hopefully yours will show the number "13" too.
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