General Chat

But did the families 'come' from Scotland, or come back from Scotland?

My Cornish GG grandparents, and many others, left Cornwall when tin mines started closing and moved to Barrow in Furness. My GG grandparents came back to Cornwall before my g grandad was born.
However, some never came back - like parents of the man who could be my dad's dad. He was born in Barrow, but coincidentally moved down to Devon/Cornwall when he was in the Navy. I studied his genealogy - he was 100% Cornish, but a 'Barrow' man.

Here's a twist - Doncaster is actually a part of Scotland!

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20211019-the-scottish-town-stranded-in-england

The Yorkshire families had Scottish names, but I've gone back 5 generations and can't say for sure that they came from there.

(I was born in Barrow, was up there on Monday scouring the cemetery for ancestors. Found some too).

It is very difficult to compare one company's results against another. My Heritage makes my second region Iberian, yet Ancestry has only just given me a vague trace of Basque. But if I add my English & NOrth west European results together I get close to the Ancestry figure.

More interestingly Livingdna makes me wholly English and Irish. There is no northen England, Scotland or Northern Irish. Very different to the other two companies. They claim to go back 10 generations.

It all goes back to what data they all have.

Perhaps this free course may help with understanding DNA , it started Monday 14th November.

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/genetic-genealogy-researching-your-family-tree-using-dna

Again I recommend the Lost Cousins dna masterclass. I,m on my iPad so you need to google for it.

Obviously Lost Cousins would like you to join but it can be read for free. Try that one before undertaking any courses. It is an excellent source and easy to understand.

Updated: I've switched machines. This Lost cousins newsletter seems to have the latest masterclass:
https://www.lostcousins.com/newsletters2/latemar22news.htm#Masterclass

Once you've understood that then this article on ethncicity results is very good :
https://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/tutorials/dna/what-do-dna-test-results-mean/

I don’t know how far back then German ancestry goes as it’s difficult to find records online

I do know my grandad was born in 1881 in Hamburg and his parents names and where and when they married and approx when the they came to the U.K. between births of. two children

So that side may well go back many centuries as both parents were definitely German

Just because your grandparents were born in Germany and their parents were married in Germany does not mean that their dna ethnicity is German.

Nationality is a political concept, borders are moveable and people move around. In the 18th century much of Europe was under the control of a German empire,( the second Reich), following the unification of German states.
I’ve forgotten most of what I learnt at school, but I think several modern countries were included.

You can upload your DNA data to MyTrueAncestry to get a comparison with DNA obtained from ancient sites. You get one free go. You can pay for a subscription to get further detailed analysis.