Wednesday 10 March 2021

That Half-Percent Finnish DNA Connection

 When I went five years ago and did that DNA test, there were several odd things that came out of the end-result.  

One of those odd features is that around half-of-one-percent of my DNA comes from Finland.  I went looking at the past 200-odd years, and there's simply not any real path to explain this.

Between the 1890s and before WW I.....around 200k Finns bought passage into America.  

Where'd they go primarily?  Well....it leads to three US communities: Calumet, Michigan; Gloucester, Massachusetts; and Montgomery, Alabama.

After the war....roughly another 30k made it to the US before the front 'door' was closed off.

But I did the math analysis, and the chief problem here....the number would be way more than half-a-percent, if this came out of the 1890s to 1914 era.  

So I had to looking for something that occurred from the mid-1700s to mid-1800s.  Results?  Nothing. 

Finns, at least before the 1890s....weren't exactly known for being worldly travelers.  They tended to stay locally, farm, and were at the bottom of wealth establishment.  Finns moving into England or Germany?  Not in the 1700s or 1800s.  

Oddly enough, there is almost the same amount of Jewish Ashkenazi DNA as well.  The odds that the Ashkenazi connection and the Finn connection are one and the same?  It's possible.  But where the family connection enters the US?  Unknown. 

The connection back to Montgomery, Alabama?  That's probably the situation...going back to 1890 itself.  But it's mostly a deadend story.  

1 comment:

LargeMarge said...

Based on my experience with many dozens of court cases, the 'science' of DNA testing seems immature at best.
In my experience, any decent attorney can manipulate DNA 'test' 'results' to indicate pretty much anything.

Prior to any life-changing decisions, I think I would wait until the 'science' matures.
Why?
We simply lack the data for DNA 'science' to be conclusive.

PS:
Congratulations on your membership in The Tribe aka The Chosen... although I continue to question the 'science' as I continue to doubt the 'scientists' promoting such an inconclusive scheme.