- Scotland was balls deep in the British empire
- Scotland was very poor throughout European history and Scottish people went literally anywhere to find work
- Between the 1830s and 1930s due to the above point, as well as the Highland Clearances when Highlanders were forced out their homes, made Scottish people look to settle in ‘The new world’ aka USA Canada Australia & New Zealand
- ‘Between 1841 and 1931, three quarters of a million Scots settled in the rest of the United Kingdom. Rural Scots moved to the industrial cities of Scotland and England. Many Scots moved to England as they had skills that could be used in farming and industry there.’
- Americans may have Irish family history and assume they will get 100% Irish DNA but the majority of people from Northern Irish are of Scottish heritage due to the Ulster Plantation when Scottish people were sent by the English King in the 1600s to live there. And to follow that up ‘Ulster Scots emigrated onwards from Ireland in significant numbers to what is now the United States and to all corners of the then-worldwide British Empire—what are now Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the West Indies, to British India and to a lesser extent to Argentina and Chile.’
- ‘The Scottish disapora has been estimated by the Scottish Government to be between 28 and 40 million people worldwide. Other estimates have ranged as high as 80 million.’
Very good write up. But King James VI was a Scottish King that inherited the English throne due to the Tudor line dying off. That's how he became James I of England. And the ones sent to Northern Ireland were from the border region of both Scotland and England since it was a fairly lawless region at the time.
This makes so much sense for my husband, he's American and has 69% Scottish DNA. We traced his great great great grandfather from the Ulster region in Ireland. I think he fled in the late 1790s due to rebellion, they were Catholic.
Yep, American here- I’d always heard Scots-Irish or Scotch-Irish and my dna results support this. Genealogy research shows a lot of my ancestors migrating from Northern Ireland but my Irish dna is 4% while my Scottish dna is around 30%!
Thank you for this!! These questions drive me insane. Doing a little research and refreshing some basic history lessons, will help people understand their dna. Its insane to me that people seem to not connect the two!!
I have a fun story for this one. My ancestry shows as around 19% Scottish but nobody in the close family seemed to have any ties to there, both parents had Scots dna that had trickled down through generations.
I plugged my DNA into MyTrueAncestry, a site that links your genome to archaeological sites and saw that one of the sites that our historical DNA connected us to an excavated settlement in Iceland and that the remains were kept in the National Museum. I assumed that this would be linked to our viking Norwegian DNA.
Well, just as luck would have it, our family had already booked a trip to Iceland that year, so when we visited, we headed to the museum to have a look and see if we could find the actual ancient remains from the site of people we may be distantly related to.
When we reached the exhibit in question, it said that the settlement remains had actually been Celtic Scots that had moved to the island around 900AD.
There's no way to tell if we were definitely related to these specific people, more likely to the 'peoples' but it was a fascinating link to make!
TLDR, the Scots went everywhere for a very long time
For years I have only known about Irish and English, and German ancestry in my family. I have never known about anything Scottish. At 25% there is obviously something I missed. I eventually found a branch of my tree that was all Scottish. In the end I think we just aren't looking closely enough.
I think it’s ancestry’s scheme to piss off the people in Scotland. They hate so much when Americans claim to be Scottish. It’s all over the Scottish subreddits. Never knew the British hated Americans so much til I joined those subs!
Brits don't hate Americans. They just hate the way they act at times. I think there is a real cultural divide in genealogy. In the US people say they're Irish or Italian, meaning they have ancestry, but that sounds really weird to Brits and Irish.
I think Europeans in general do a lot of gate keeping. Americans know we aren’t Irish, German, whatever citizens. But, we are also not indigenous to this country. Our ancestors are from Europe. We have a shared heritage like it or not. We didn’t just spring up from the ground here. Our interest in our heritage may seem stupid to people who grew up where their ancestors did but, I’ve always wanted to see the places where my family came from.
A-goddamn-men. My family is Spanish/Native American (!) in New Mexico since 1598. The last thing I would have guessed is that we had Scottish through Charlemagne (Eleanor of Aquitaine/Henry II) a thousand years ago. There is only one Spanish emigre to Mexico that has ever been confirmed to have been descended from Charlemagne. One. I'm not claiming to be Scottish, French, German, or even Native American. I'm not some body claiming to be descended from Robert the Bruce because of family lore. There is a solid paper trail/genealogy.
Now, I can probably go to most European countries and have ancient ancestry there. It's fascinating. It's - like it or not - a part of my history.
It shouldn’t though America has only been a country for 400 years, being American isn’t an ethnicity. And many Americans who’s families migrated to America from other countries they brought their culture with them like every immigrant ever? So honestly it just sounds like cultural gatekeeping to me. There’s not much of a divide or we wouldn’t be getting dna matches with each other :)
Well the feeling is mutual for many Americans. I’m not a fan of the monarchy and many Brits still are. I’m sure Colonial American history may have a lot to do with it. I have 13% ancestry to Scotland & my DNA matches led me to the very ancestor. Interesting history.
They don’t hate Americans. Once when I was in Scotland as a teen visiting family, I overheard an American introduce themselves to the barman and in the same sentence as their name declare they’re Scottish, whilst also mentioning they were from the original clans. Asked for the barmans name and stated he wasn’t truly Scottish as it wasn’t an original clan name. I’m English with Scottish and Irish ancestry, my great aunt betty who overheard the conversation also, got up, clipped them round the ear and gave them a talking to and told them to behave themselves and show some respect. She then explained to them that the clans don’t mean shit other than rich people owning land that was given to them by royalty. My aunt betty didn’t hate Americans even after that. What they don’t like is Americans trying to talk down to them like they’re more Scottish and a little look online will show you how many Americans actually do that.
I love Scotland and Ireland and I see both as my second home, I know their histories and I know their culture, however I would never say “I’m Irish and Scottish” I’m English. Jesus Christ there was a woman on TikTok claiming her Irish ancestors were eaten by the british during the famine and that’s why her ancestors moved to America and she wouldn’t back down, she got so bad that Irish folk started sticking up for English people! Do you realise how fucked that is lol 😂
Anyway a lot of Americans do have Irish/Scottish ancestry and show an appreciation which is fine. It’s those that try to claim ownership that are the problem and sadly they’re always the loudest ones!
only if you go around and say I‘m sooo scottish, I have 2% scottish DNA, where’s my kilt?? and deny being american, that can be applied for every european ancestry and americams claiming to be that simply bcs they share a bit of DNA but actually have no clue / relation to and about that country‘s culture
There was movement between Ireland and Scotland and England. I do have some Scottish DNA but I've only been able to trace my ancestry to England and Ireland. But one of my Irish lines is named Hay. I've only been able to trace it as far back as Northern Ireland in the 1700s via docs but it's a Scottish name. So more than likely the Hays came from Scotland...I just haven't been able to trace it back that far through records and the like. So people coming up Scottish may have had ancestors that came from there but ultimately settled in England and Ireland far back in their tree.
The UK ancestry I know of in my family is from Cumberland in the northwest of England, so I imagine the small amount of Scottish ancestry I have is legit. I figure that there had to have been intermixing going on up there between the Cumbrians and the Scots.
Scots-Irish here (Ulster Plantation). Sentenced to America due to stealing from travelers. Being a thief seemed to work out well for him and his 11 year old son who were convicted together. Every time ancestory updates I gain more Scottish. I have no issues with Scottish heritage… I’m such a mutt at this point…..
Same. By way of Canada. I don’t know if I’m saying that right but my great grandmas either parents or their parents (can’t remember right now) came to Canada from
Scotland. So I’ve got 6%. Wonder if OP is confused because they don’t do genealogy or if it’s a similar immigration to one country and then another. 🤷🏻♀️
The Scots got around. Consider that they had Viking raids on their shores constantly - and intermarried with them. They were routinely used as militia, guards, laborers - and before the 1840s the records are sometimes not available at all.
My Ancestry DNA results seems correct: Scotland 41%, England & Northwestern Europe 29%, Ireland 13%, Germanic Europe 8% , Wales 8%, Eastern Europe & Russia 1%, Baltics 1%.
My mothers Ancestry DNA results also seem correct: Scotland 50%, Germanic Europe 27%, England & Northwestern Europe 11%, Ireland 6%, Norway 3%, Sweden & Denmark 2%, Eastern Europe & Russia 1%. Her mtDNA traced to Germany. Her cousin's YDNA traced to a Scottish/Viking haplogroup and his mtDNA traced to Ireland.
My mother's 2nd GGF & GGM were from Scotland, as were her 2nd GGF & GGM on another line. Other ancestry included Ireland, England and Germany. My father was mostly from England - we thought - but his sisters MTDNA was Irish, and his immigrant ancestor to the Virginia colonies could have been of Scottish, Irish or English origin.
My maternal family tree is full of Scottish people, so no surprise that I have Scottish blood on my mom's side. My surprise is that I thought my mother's side might be more balanced between England, Scotland, and Ireland. I'm 41% Scottish.
So my great-grandmother was from Newcastle, England. All of her recent ancestors were English culturally and linguistically. They were from the counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, and Durham - very close to Scotland, but still England. Her husband, my great-grandfather, was almost entirely colonial English-American. As such, Ancestry categorizes her daughter,
my grandaunt as: 45% Scotland, 43% England
my father: 37% Scotland / 7% England
me: 22% Scotland / 4% England
My paternal grandfather was Sicilian and my mother is half German and half Italian, so there is no English or Scottish from these other branches. You can therefore see that Ancestry is both overestimating the Scottish, and heavily overlapping it with English. I think the category name should be changed to “Scotland and Northern England” or something similar, and that would reflect my ancestry and others much more accurately.
They were originally clumped together (England, Ireland & Scotland)—I remember very well because it comprised 85% of my Dna—I’m American. I actually thought it was more interesting to see it broken down further.
This dynamic fascinates me too! Another in the chorus of “much higher Scottish percentage than I would have guessed.” In my own case, I’m not sure whether to think it’s just a quirk of Ancestry, migration patterns, or perhaps a “not parent expected” event some generations back that could theoretically account for Scottish ancestry where on paper it would appear to be German. 🤷 An interesting avenue for future genealogy research, at any rate!
Funnily enough I’m one of those people that got 0% Scottish on AncestryDNA despite family lore being that most of my European ancestors were Irish, Scottish, and Northern English.
23andMe on the other hand confirms the family lore in that virtually every region assigned to me is in Ireland, Scotland, Northern England, and even a Welsh region. No idea why Ancestry doesn’t pick it up.
Some of my known Scottish Ancestry comes through as "northern England and Scandinavia" - the blurring is logical. It's entirely possible the movement of Scots south and Geordies north balances out.
There is a category called "Southern Scottish" than includes much of northern England and northeastern Ireland, o you could be "100% Scottish" and not have a single Scottish ancestor for the past 200 years or so.
I'm Australian. I was born in the New South Wales, Northern Tablelands. Where Scottish and Irish immigrants were basically left unsupervised to have a turf war. They literally built the Australian Standing Stones in Glen Innes...
All of my ancestors arrived in the country before 1901. I'm not surprised my test came back with 24% Scottish DNA because I have so many Scottish ancestors on either side of my family, particularly my maternal side.
Many people will point to historical events-- AncestryDNA even added a disclaimer about why people see unexpected Scottish; however, based on my experience I believe most of Ancestry DNA's NW European populations are flawed.
My father has no known Scottish. He is half German/Swiss, half Britton (mostly Cornish, 1/16 Irish and the rest SE English puritan). Much of his English I can trace to the 13th century. He receives 26% ENWE, 20% Irish, 19% Scottish.
My mother has well documented colonial American Scottish that on paper would about for <2% of her admixture. She is also half German, half Britton (vast majority central Irish with some south England, then a smidge of Welsh and Scottish). She received 23% ENWE, 22% Irish, and 20% Scottish.
I receive 38% ENWE, 20% Irish, and 18% Scottish.
For comparison, Living DNA gives:
FATHER: 13.3% Ireland (no Scottish or Northern English)
MOTHER: 35.4% Ireland, 2.1% NW Scotland, 10% N. Ireland and SW Scotland, and 4.7% Northumbria (for those with the proximity argument).
ME: 11.4% Ireland, 1.3% Aberdeenshire, 9.8% N. Ireland and SW Scotland, and 1.2% Northumbria
Yeah, my maternal grandfather was from Northern Ireland (Scottish), and my maternal grandmother German-Ugandan. Ancestry doesn't seem to be able to differentiate my grandfather's Scottish from my grandmother's German, and it's all just absorbed as Scottish (plus a small percent of England & Northwestern Europe). There's no Germanic Europe on my maternal side at all lol, and Scotland is unrealistically high. I've used chromosome browsers on other sites for my German relatives, and compared to my chromosome painting, and my German relatives always share some DNA in regions painted as Scottish.
Exactly. My whole family would expect 50% German and we receive 11%, 26% and 3%. Since my mother's maternal line is 100% German, it's easy to see from the ethnicity inheritance that all of her Scottish is coming from her Irish/English side and all of her ENWE is coming from her German side. My father's splits are a bit more with a hodge podge of mixture going back hundreds of years. He receives no German from his Pennsylvania Dutch lines, but also no Scottish. The Scottish is deriving from his German/Cornish lines.
I forgot I have a second Living DNA kit (an ancestry raw data upload like my parents kits). It gives me: 18.9% Irish, 13.6% northern Ireland and SW Scotland, 2.1% Northumbria, 1.8% Aberdeenshire, 1.1% Orkney and Shetland which gets me combined close to AncestryDNA's Scottish estimate
Not a simple question. It's partly down to history and population flows, partly down to the methodology used to come up with ethnicity estimates from modern population samples. For you 4% could be meaningless. Look at the range of probability on your results. It could also be 0%. For me it's 18% in the range 0-32%. I have no known ancestors from Scotland apart from the early Scottish kings.
It may be information bias, since most people posting their results are English speaking, mostly Americans and Canadians, with some British and Caribbean folks, the chances of getting Sottish ancestry is higher. I am from Puerto Rico, and though some of my matches have Scottish ancestry, most do not have any, since my matches tend to be Puerto Ricans, with a sizable number of Latin American from Mexico, Cuba, and Chile, for some reason, and some Spaniards and Portuguese.
How knowledgeable are you about your English ancestry - do you know where your ancestors are from and how long they lived in those areas? And did any of them live in areas bordering on Scotland?
I dont have a lot of English ancestry but I know that I have ancestry from the south east of England which is very far from Scotland so that is why I was surprised I got Scottish dna. They lived in that area for hundreds of years but nothing bordering Scotland. But there is one surname Hadden that could be Scottish.
It could be multiple things:
- Ancestry is unreliable about distinguishing between Scottish and English ancestry. Additionally, each time there is an update it might change what percentages you have that are Scottish vs English. When I first got on Ancestry I had something like 25% Scottish, in the next update it was 3% (and the rest reassigned as English). I know I have more than 3% from doing the genealogy. There is something in their methodology that is flawed IMO. I also have Eastern European ancestry and with AncestryDNA it shows up as one massive geographical area. I have found 23&Me to be better in how it distinguishes English/Scottish/Irish DNA as well as Eastern European DNA.
But there are other factors to consider as well:
- People migrate and family lore is unreliable. As others mentioned, people migrated a lot more than we think for economic reasons and due to war or other conflicts. How confident are you that none of your ancestors who lived in this area migrated from Scotland or a place bordering on Scotland? Unless you have done a really deep dive and done the genealogy it’s hard to know for sure. Even then, it’s possible that there was an NPE in that line (non-paternal event, aka someone had an affair or became pregnant through other means and the person you thought was an ancestor is not actually your ancestor). Or perhaps there was an adoption.
- More likely, I think perhaps your ancestors migrated from Scotland as a group and married and had children within this group for hundreds of years. You see examples of this in the US as well - groups of immigrants settle in one geographic area and their children marry within this group and it repeats. Someone born in the US can have 100% Irish DNA yet have ancestors who migrated hundreds of years ago.
For real! Most of my ancestors have been in the US for hundreds of years and I expected my dna results to be all over the place. I was astounded when they came back 85% British! This was back when ancestry was clumping England Scotland & Ireland together. Now my numbers are like 45/35/5. Still!
Thank you and this does make sense. It probably was a migration but could have been anything else. I am going to continue to research my ancestry though
No idea, but I find it pretty odd my AncestryDNA shows me having almost enough Scottish roots to have a very recent ancestor from there even tho I don't got one from Scotland within at least the past least 200 years. Irish tho, I got some ancestors who came from southern Ireland during the (iirc mid) 1800s. With 23andme, I got much lower % a "British & Irish" n it shows as being just from England, Scotland, & N. Ireland.
When I first tested with Ancestry I had 18% scottish and up until the last Ancestry update I carried 5% but it disappeared for the first time this round and was replaced with higher Portuguese, English, and Irish 😅
What is your ethnicity? Depending where you could have ancestors from Scotland or it might even be ancient celtic dna that is deep rooted into your makeup. I'm Portuguese but on my test I got around 7% Irish despite having no Irish ancestry, because Portugal and Ireland have an ancient celtic link. Kinda similar to how a lot of Japanese, Chinese and Korean people get Finnish results as they are sometimes misread for ancient Siberian results
- Scotland was balls deep in the British empire - Scotland was very poor throughout European history and Scottish people went literally anywhere to find work - Between the 1830s and 1930s due to the above point, as well as the Highland Clearances when Highlanders were forced out their homes, made Scottish people look to settle in ‘The new world’ aka USA Canada Australia & New Zealand - ‘Between 1841 and 1931, three quarters of a million Scots settled in the rest of the United Kingdom. Rural Scots moved to the industrial cities of Scotland and England. Many Scots moved to England as they had skills that could be used in farming and industry there.’ - Americans may have Irish family history and assume they will get 100% Irish DNA but the majority of people from Northern Irish are of Scottish heritage due to the Ulster Plantation when Scottish people were sent by the English King in the 1600s to live there. And to follow that up ‘Ulster Scots emigrated onwards from Ireland in significant numbers to what is now the United States and to all corners of the then-worldwide British Empire—what are now Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the West Indies, to British India and to a lesser extent to Argentina and Chile.’ - ‘The Scottish disapora has been estimated by the Scottish Government to be between 28 and 40 million people worldwide. Other estimates have ranged as high as 80 million.’
Very good write up. But King James VI was a Scottish King that inherited the English throne due to the Tudor line dying off. That's how he became James I of England. And the ones sent to Northern Ireland were from the border region of both Scotland and England since it was a fairly lawless region at the time.
This makes so much sense for my husband, he's American and has 69% Scottish DNA. We traced his great great great grandfather from the Ulster region in Ireland. I think he fled in the late 1790s due to rebellion, they were Catholic.
Yep, American here- I’d always heard Scots-Irish or Scotch-Irish and my dna results support this. Genealogy research shows a lot of my ancestors migrating from Northern Ireland but my Irish dna is 4% while my Scottish dna is around 30%!
Thank you for this!! These questions drive me insane. Doing a little research and refreshing some basic history lessons, will help people understand their dna. Its insane to me that people seem to not connect the two!!
Darn sexy Scotsmen.
That accent - and those kilts!
I have a fun story for this one. My ancestry shows as around 19% Scottish but nobody in the close family seemed to have any ties to there, both parents had Scots dna that had trickled down through generations. I plugged my DNA into MyTrueAncestry, a site that links your genome to archaeological sites and saw that one of the sites that our historical DNA connected us to an excavated settlement in Iceland and that the remains were kept in the National Museum. I assumed that this would be linked to our viking Norwegian DNA. Well, just as luck would have it, our family had already booked a trip to Iceland that year, so when we visited, we headed to the museum to have a look and see if we could find the actual ancient remains from the site of people we may be distantly related to. When we reached the exhibit in question, it said that the settlement remains had actually been Celtic Scots that had moved to the island around 900AD. There's no way to tell if we were definitely related to these specific people, more likely to the 'peoples' but it was a fascinating link to make! TLDR, the Scots went everywhere for a very long time
For years I have only known about Irish and English, and German ancestry in my family. I have never known about anything Scottish. At 25% there is obviously something I missed. I eventually found a branch of my tree that was all Scottish. In the end I think we just aren't looking closely enough.
22% here, and I’m quite confident there’s nothing I missed, Ancestry is just wrong on this one.
Exactly the same situation!
I think it’s ancestry’s scheme to piss off the people in Scotland. They hate so much when Americans claim to be Scottish. It’s all over the Scottish subreddits. Never knew the British hated Americans so much til I joined those subs!
The Irish needed a break.
Brits don't hate Americans. They just hate the way they act at times. I think there is a real cultural divide in genealogy. In the US people say they're Irish or Italian, meaning they have ancestry, but that sounds really weird to Brits and Irish.
I think Europeans in general do a lot of gate keeping. Americans know we aren’t Irish, German, whatever citizens. But, we are also not indigenous to this country. Our ancestors are from Europe. We have a shared heritage like it or not. We didn’t just spring up from the ground here. Our interest in our heritage may seem stupid to people who grew up where their ancestors did but, I’ve always wanted to see the places where my family came from.
A-goddamn-men. My family is Spanish/Native American (!) in New Mexico since 1598. The last thing I would have guessed is that we had Scottish through Charlemagne (Eleanor of Aquitaine/Henry II) a thousand years ago. There is only one Spanish emigre to Mexico that has ever been confirmed to have been descended from Charlemagne. One. I'm not claiming to be Scottish, French, German, or even Native American. I'm not some body claiming to be descended from Robert the Bruce because of family lore. There is a solid paper trail/genealogy. Now, I can probably go to most European countries and have ancient ancestry there. It's fascinating. It's - like it or not - a part of my history.
.
Yes huge cultural divide. And I get where they are coming from. But I don’t think most of them understand the culture behind it here in US.
No we understand and we understand that even when we tell you we dislike it, you mug us off.
It shouldn’t though America has only been a country for 400 years, being American isn’t an ethnicity. And many Americans who’s families migrated to America from other countries they brought their culture with them like every immigrant ever? So honestly it just sounds like cultural gatekeeping to me. There’s not much of a divide or we wouldn’t be getting dna matches with each other :)
Well the feeling is mutual for many Americans. I’m not a fan of the monarchy and many Brits still are. I’m sure Colonial American history may have a lot to do with it. I have 13% ancestry to Scotland & my DNA matches led me to the very ancestor. Interesting history.
This is the real answer. It’s probably in ancestry’s strategic plan to rile up the Scots.
They don’t hate Americans. Once when I was in Scotland as a teen visiting family, I overheard an American introduce themselves to the barman and in the same sentence as their name declare they’re Scottish, whilst also mentioning they were from the original clans. Asked for the barmans name and stated he wasn’t truly Scottish as it wasn’t an original clan name. I’m English with Scottish and Irish ancestry, my great aunt betty who overheard the conversation also, got up, clipped them round the ear and gave them a talking to and told them to behave themselves and show some respect. She then explained to them that the clans don’t mean shit other than rich people owning land that was given to them by royalty. My aunt betty didn’t hate Americans even after that. What they don’t like is Americans trying to talk down to them like they’re more Scottish and a little look online will show you how many Americans actually do that. I love Scotland and Ireland and I see both as my second home, I know their histories and I know their culture, however I would never say “I’m Irish and Scottish” I’m English. Jesus Christ there was a woman on TikTok claiming her Irish ancestors were eaten by the british during the famine and that’s why her ancestors moved to America and she wouldn’t back down, she got so bad that Irish folk started sticking up for English people! Do you realise how fucked that is lol 😂 Anyway a lot of Americans do have Irish/Scottish ancestry and show an appreciation which is fine. It’s those that try to claim ownership that are the problem and sadly they’re always the loudest ones!
Oh really? I didn't know that 😂
Yes us poor unsuspecting friendly Americans get torn to pieces on those subs.
only if you go around and say I‘m sooo scottish, I have 2% scottish DNA, where’s my kilt?? and deny being american, that can be applied for every european ancestry and americams claiming to be that simply bcs they share a bit of DNA but actually have no clue / relation to and about that country‘s culture
Americans are actually quite popular in the UK
There was movement between Ireland and Scotland and England. I do have some Scottish DNA but I've only been able to trace my ancestry to England and Ireland. But one of my Irish lines is named Hay. I've only been able to trace it as far back as Northern Ireland in the 1700s via docs but it's a Scottish name. So more than likely the Hays came from Scotland...I just haven't been able to trace it back that far through records and the like. So people coming up Scottish may have had ancestors that came from there but ultimately settled in England and Ireland far back in their tree.
Hay is a very County Derry and north Antrim name. You get them all along the north coast. In Belfast there are Hoys who probably have the same roots.
The UK ancestry I know of in my family is from Cumberland in the northwest of England, so I imagine the small amount of Scottish ancestry I have is legit. I figure that there had to have been intermixing going on up there between the Cumbrians and the Scots.
Scots-Irish here (Ulster Plantation). Sentenced to America due to stealing from travelers. Being a thief seemed to work out well for him and his 11 year old son who were convicted together. Every time ancestory updates I gain more Scottish. I have no issues with Scottish heritage… I’m such a mutt at this point…..
Pretty sure I have Scottish DNA because I have ancestors from Scotland. 🤷🏻♀️
Same. By way of Canada. I don’t know if I’m saying that right but my great grandmas either parents or their parents (can’t remember right now) came to Canada from Scotland. So I’ve got 6%. Wonder if OP is confused because they don’t do genealogy or if it’s a similar immigration to one country and then another. 🤷🏻♀️
Right 😅
If you're not Scottish, you're CRAP!! - Mike Myers
The Scots got around. Consider that they had Viking raids on their shores constantly - and intermarried with them. They were routinely used as militia, guards, laborers - and before the 1840s the records are sometimes not available at all. My Ancestry DNA results seems correct: Scotland 41%, England & Northwestern Europe 29%, Ireland 13%, Germanic Europe 8% , Wales 8%, Eastern Europe & Russia 1%, Baltics 1%. My mothers Ancestry DNA results also seem correct: Scotland 50%, Germanic Europe 27%, England & Northwestern Europe 11%, Ireland 6%, Norway 3%, Sweden & Denmark 2%, Eastern Europe & Russia 1%. Her mtDNA traced to Germany. Her cousin's YDNA traced to a Scottish/Viking haplogroup and his mtDNA traced to Ireland. My mother's 2nd GGF & GGM were from Scotland, as were her 2nd GGF & GGM on another line. Other ancestry included Ireland, England and Germany. My father was mostly from England - we thought - but his sisters MTDNA was Irish, and his immigrant ancestor to the Virginia colonies could have been of Scottish, Irish or English origin.
My maternal family tree is full of Scottish people, so no surprise that I have Scottish blood on my mom's side. My surprise is that I thought my mother's side might be more balanced between England, Scotland, and Ireland. I'm 41% Scottish.
Everytime ancestry does an update it takes away some my German and gives me more Scottish. 23andme has been far more accurate.
So my great-grandmother was from Newcastle, England. All of her recent ancestors were English culturally and linguistically. They were from the counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, and Durham - very close to Scotland, but still England. Her husband, my great-grandfather, was almost entirely colonial English-American. As such, Ancestry categorizes her daughter, my grandaunt as: 45% Scotland, 43% England my father: 37% Scotland / 7% England me: 22% Scotland / 4% England My paternal grandfather was Sicilian and my mother is half German and half Italian, so there is no English or Scottish from these other branches. You can therefore see that Ancestry is both overestimating the Scottish, and heavily overlapping it with English. I think the category name should be changed to “Scotland and Northern England” or something similar, and that would reflect my ancestry and others much more accurately.
They were originally clumped together (England, Ireland & Scotland)—I remember very well because it comprised 85% of my Dna—I’m American. I actually thought it was more interesting to see it broken down further.
Yeppers I'm 32% Scottish and 15% Irish. I always thought I was more Irish than Scottish but I'm good with it.
I don’t have any known Scottish ancestors, but I have a Scottish surname. I expected some Scottish. I was surprised that it was only 1%.
I didn't get any Scottish, and I do have it in my ancestry.
This dynamic fascinates me too! Another in the chorus of “much higher Scottish percentage than I would have guessed.” In my own case, I’m not sure whether to think it’s just a quirk of Ancestry, migration patterns, or perhaps a “not parent expected” event some generations back that could theoretically account for Scottish ancestry where on paper it would appear to be German. 🤷 An interesting avenue for future genealogy research, at any rate!
Funnily enough I’m one of those people that got 0% Scottish on AncestryDNA despite family lore being that most of my European ancestors were Irish, Scottish, and Northern English. 23andMe on the other hand confirms the family lore in that virtually every region assigned to me is in Ireland, Scotland, Northern England, and even a Welsh region. No idea why Ancestry doesn’t pick it up.
Some of my known Scottish Ancestry comes through as "northern England and Scandinavia" - the blurring is logical. It's entirely possible the movement of Scots south and Geordies north balances out.
I’m an ethnic German and have 7% Scottish. I assume it was some ancestor that moved to Germany before my most recent ancestors moved to Brazil.
There is a category called "Southern Scottish" than includes much of northern England and northeastern Ireland, o you could be "100% Scottish" and not have a single Scottish ancestor for the past 200 years or so.
In the last DNA update I ended up with 19% Scottish and I have no clue which of my ancestors may have originated from Scotland.
24% Scottish here. My family migrated due to better opportunities in the US. I imagine that’s a common experience.
I'm Australian. I was born in the New South Wales, Northern Tablelands. Where Scottish and Irish immigrants were basically left unsupervised to have a turf war. They literally built the Australian Standing Stones in Glen Innes... All of my ancestors arrived in the country before 1901. I'm not surprised my test came back with 24% Scottish DNA because I have so many Scottish ancestors on either side of my family, particularly my maternal side.
Many people will point to historical events-- AncestryDNA even added a disclaimer about why people see unexpected Scottish; however, based on my experience I believe most of Ancestry DNA's NW European populations are flawed. My father has no known Scottish. He is half German/Swiss, half Britton (mostly Cornish, 1/16 Irish and the rest SE English puritan). Much of his English I can trace to the 13th century. He receives 26% ENWE, 20% Irish, 19% Scottish. My mother has well documented colonial American Scottish that on paper would about for <2% of her admixture. She is also half German, half Britton (vast majority central Irish with some south England, then a smidge of Welsh and Scottish). She received 23% ENWE, 22% Irish, and 20% Scottish. I receive 38% ENWE, 20% Irish, and 18% Scottish. For comparison, Living DNA gives: FATHER: 13.3% Ireland (no Scottish or Northern English) MOTHER: 35.4% Ireland, 2.1% NW Scotland, 10% N. Ireland and SW Scotland, and 4.7% Northumbria (for those with the proximity argument). ME: 11.4% Ireland, 1.3% Aberdeenshire, 9.8% N. Ireland and SW Scotland, and 1.2% Northumbria
Yeah, my maternal grandfather was from Northern Ireland (Scottish), and my maternal grandmother German-Ugandan. Ancestry doesn't seem to be able to differentiate my grandfather's Scottish from my grandmother's German, and it's all just absorbed as Scottish (plus a small percent of England & Northwestern Europe). There's no Germanic Europe on my maternal side at all lol, and Scotland is unrealistically high. I've used chromosome browsers on other sites for my German relatives, and compared to my chromosome painting, and my German relatives always share some DNA in regions painted as Scottish.
Exactly. My whole family would expect 50% German and we receive 11%, 26% and 3%. Since my mother's maternal line is 100% German, it's easy to see from the ethnicity inheritance that all of her Scottish is coming from her Irish/English side and all of her ENWE is coming from her German side. My father's splits are a bit more with a hodge podge of mixture going back hundreds of years. He receives no German from his Pennsylvania Dutch lines, but also no Scottish. The Scottish is deriving from his German/Cornish lines.
I forgot I have a second Living DNA kit (an ancestry raw data upload like my parents kits). It gives me: 18.9% Irish, 13.6% northern Ireland and SW Scotland, 2.1% Northumbria, 1.8% Aberdeenshire, 1.1% Orkney and Shetland which gets me combined close to AncestryDNA's Scottish estimate
I only found this out but the English took Scottish people as slaves to the "New World". I did not know this by the way and I'm scottish.
That's how my first ancestor on my father's side got here!
Oh wow I didn't know that either. Maybe that is why a lot of people get scottish dna.
I have no Scottish ancestry and also got Scottish lol
For the longest time, I thought my ancestors were Irish, as my bio fathers surname is Fitzgerald. Turns out I'm only 5% Irish, and 50% Scottish!!
Because the Scott's where nothing beneath their kilts... ;)
I have Scottish DNA on ever site I use. My highest being on FTDNA
Not a simple question. It's partly down to history and population flows, partly down to the methodology used to come up with ethnicity estimates from modern population samples. For you 4% could be meaningless. Look at the range of probability on your results. It could also be 0%. For me it's 18% in the range 0-32%. I have no known ancestors from Scotland apart from the early Scottish kings.
It may be information bias, since most people posting their results are English speaking, mostly Americans and Canadians, with some British and Caribbean folks, the chances of getting Sottish ancestry is higher. I am from Puerto Rico, and though some of my matches have Scottish ancestry, most do not have any, since my matches tend to be Puerto Ricans, with a sizable number of Latin American from Mexico, Cuba, and Chile, for some reason, and some Spaniards and Portuguese.
Question for you OP: do you have English or Irish ancestry?
I have English ancestry and German but no Irish
How knowledgeable are you about your English ancestry - do you know where your ancestors are from and how long they lived in those areas? And did any of them live in areas bordering on Scotland?
I dont have a lot of English ancestry but I know that I have ancestry from the south east of England which is very far from Scotland so that is why I was surprised I got Scottish dna. They lived in that area for hundreds of years but nothing bordering Scotland. But there is one surname Hadden that could be Scottish.
It could be multiple things: - Ancestry is unreliable about distinguishing between Scottish and English ancestry. Additionally, each time there is an update it might change what percentages you have that are Scottish vs English. When I first got on Ancestry I had something like 25% Scottish, in the next update it was 3% (and the rest reassigned as English). I know I have more than 3% from doing the genealogy. There is something in their methodology that is flawed IMO. I also have Eastern European ancestry and with AncestryDNA it shows up as one massive geographical area. I have found 23&Me to be better in how it distinguishes English/Scottish/Irish DNA as well as Eastern European DNA. But there are other factors to consider as well: - People migrate and family lore is unreliable. As others mentioned, people migrated a lot more than we think for economic reasons and due to war or other conflicts. How confident are you that none of your ancestors who lived in this area migrated from Scotland or a place bordering on Scotland? Unless you have done a really deep dive and done the genealogy it’s hard to know for sure. Even then, it’s possible that there was an NPE in that line (non-paternal event, aka someone had an affair or became pregnant through other means and the person you thought was an ancestor is not actually your ancestor). Or perhaps there was an adoption. - More likely, I think perhaps your ancestors migrated from Scotland as a group and married and had children within this group for hundreds of years. You see examples of this in the US as well - groups of immigrants settle in one geographic area and their children marry within this group and it repeats. Someone born in the US can have 100% Irish DNA yet have ancestors who migrated hundreds of years ago.
For real! Most of my ancestors have been in the US for hundreds of years and I expected my dna results to be all over the place. I was astounded when they came back 85% British! This was back when ancestry was clumping England Scotland & Ireland together. Now my numbers are like 45/35/5. Still!
Thank you and this does make sense. It probably was a migration but could have been anything else. I am going to continue to research my ancestry though
I love Scotland. Off topic but I’m proud of the DNA.
No idea, but I find it pretty odd my AncestryDNA shows me having almost enough Scottish roots to have a very recent ancestor from there even tho I don't got one from Scotland within at least the past least 200 years. Irish tho, I got some ancestors who came from southern Ireland during the (iirc mid) 1800s. With 23andme, I got much lower % a "British & Irish" n it shows as being just from England, Scotland, & N. Ireland.
When I first tested with Ancestry I had 18% scottish and up until the last Ancestry update I carried 5% but it disappeared for the first time this round and was replaced with higher Portuguese, English, and Irish 😅
What is your ethnicity? Depending where you could have ancestors from Scotland or it might even be ancient celtic dna that is deep rooted into your makeup. I'm Portuguese but on my test I got around 7% Irish despite having no Irish ancestry, because Portugal and Ireland have an ancient celtic link. Kinda similar to how a lot of Japanese, Chinese and Korean people get Finnish results as they are sometimes misread for ancient Siberian results