Mine was also 99+% NW European, mostly German/Scandinavian/Dutch and French, but it also included a significant percentage of English and a trace of Irish that I did not really know about, although when I checked, I was able to trace ancestry back to several parts of England. The problem was that my English ancestors immigrated here in the early 1600s to Rhode Island, and no one really kept much track of them. I already knew about my Germanic ancestors, and I knew I was part French, although I've not traced that back to France - only to South Carolina.

My Prussian GGGF left Prussia around 1840, shortly after his parents had died, because he inherited a large amount of land in Prussia, but his sister inherited all of the farm equipment, and so he had decided to rent out the land and not work. However, when he married my GGGM (who was Swiss-Italian, but lived in Bavaria), her family would not agree to the marriage unless my GGGF agreed to work or have a job. Therefore, he decided to sell the land and emigrate to South Africa, but then he changed his mind because he had heard that a lot of Germans were moving to Texas, and he decided to go there instead. After landing in Galveston, he bought 3000 acres in Harris County (which is now Houston) but did not stay there long, due to the heat, humidity, and swamps, and so he sold that land and re-invested in central Texas, where he started a huge plantation. According to my paternal grandmother, he bought slaves, freed them, and then paid them a wage to work for him, as Germans did not believe in slavery. He probably did not pay them very much, however. I have copies of documents and letters in German handwriting that discuss details of the land transactions. These reveal that he had not sold all of the land in Prussia before he left, and he was negotiating sales while he was still in Galveston. These gave me some insights into his character. I'm not sure when (if ever) he learned English, and I know that my GGF also spoke German. My German maternal grandmother was born in Alsace, and she did not learn English until she was seven.

Europe is a much nicer place now than it was in the 19th and 20th Centuries, I think. I'm not sure why my English ancestors left London in the 1600s, but I don't think it was because of religion. They also owned land, and one of them started out with 100 acres in Providence right after leaving London.

I think a lot of Americans are primarily NW European, especially older people in the Midwest and people who identify as Anglo or Germanic. There seems to be less mixing than I expected.

I really loved your comment Lars

"Europe is a much nicer place now than it was in the 19th and 20th Centuries,".

I had done a DNA swab thing years ago but am thinking I may be curious enough to try it again.

Either there is a mistake in my 23 and Me results, or I just don't understand how genetics work, and perhaps someone could explain this to me. My mother's mother and all her family was from France. They came to Canada in the 1700's but we can trace them all to a small village in France, back to the 1500's. My mother's father was from Ireland. So my mother was half French, half Irish, making me one quarter French, one quarter Irish and half English, from my Dad's side.

Two of my kids have done 23 and Me. My DD's results show she inherited a small percentage of French genes. But my DS inherited more than me. How can that be? DH is 100% Chinese, as are his parents, his grandparents etc. DH was the first of his family to move from China, as a young adult. Records show no other relative lived outside of China, or married a non Chinese spouse. (They are all still there, except DH.) So how did our DS get a higher percentage of French genes than me, if I'm the only one who could have passed any along to him?

salonva I do not know which company you did your swab with but if you remember or wrote it down try signing back in to your account. You will probably need to pay for another subscription. I did regular Ancestry in the 90s and when I did the swab which did come with a trial period all I had to do was sign back on. At the time they did not allow me to have a second account but things may have changed as I am aware of people managing other family members accounts.

amicus no one inherits the same amount of DNA that the rest of the family has. Most sites explain this very well.

You have to ask what is China made up of? Many different ethnic groups so a family may be from China and not be Chinese but a member of another ethnic group like Han or even Korean since the border is so close. I have a problem with writing Oriental rather than Asian because two of my best friends in college had been born in Asia but were white.

My test on Ancestry came out pretty much as expected - on my mother's side, English and Scottish. What is surprising is that the Scottish percentage keeps rising - now 37% - the first patrilineal ancestor reportedly came from Preston in Lancashire (supposedly as an indentured servant) which isn't all that close to Scotland. But, considering the area of southeastern KY where the family ended up, there must have been a fair number of Scots marrying in along the way.

Laws and the tradition of primogeniture were one reason for younger sons to emigrate. Other options were the clergy or the army. (I see that England only ended this law -- in the absence of a will -- in 1925. )

I've seen some wonderful films showing abject the poverty in the Old World as a huge motive for emigration. People were starving. I remember one movie about Swedes -- "The Immigrants" may be the title. Another film opened in total darkness. Daybreak revealed the interior of a hut in Sicily, where a family had sold *everything*, even their candles, to finance fares to America.

Amicus, also, it is a sad truth that the estimates from any of these companies are really "guesstimates" and really can't be relied upon greatly.

The DNA matching does seem to have considerable accuracy. I do wonder why it seems that every descendent of my mother's family is checking their DNA !

Lily316, we are both descended from the Pennsylvania Settlers. Lots of German in my background as well.

My grandfather’s parents both came from Sweden, so I assumed I was 25% Swedish. My 23andMe results used to be about half that, but their results have changed over time. I just logged in and now I’m 49% Swedish.

A good starting point is Emma Lazarus' poem

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

I believe a large majority of us are offspring of the cited "wretched refuse" whether specific ancestral stories are known or not. Whether Irish from the years of famine and then later to join growing communities, Italians (especially from the south and Sicily) similarly wanting to escape poverty and starvation, some fleeing wars, conscription, or just general impoverished conditions (as with Germans and Scandinavians), others fleeing discrimination, danger and maltreatment (including Huguenots early on and other religious minorities including Jews and others later), that's the who and why those of us of European origin are here.

With names like Christian Wenger and Johannes Gerhardt, no surprise they came from Germany. It was only recently we found out about the Switzerland connection. People say the reason many Germans who immigrated back then came to the southern right quadrant of PA because it resembles the country they left behind.

It'll take a while to peruse the material but a few weird things are...you are 75% likely to have dimples. I do. You are 80% likely to have light brown or dark hazel eyes and I do.

maifleur, I understand that no one inherits the same percentage of specific DNA as other family members. So it didn't surprise me that my DD and DS inherited different percentages of French genes. But I don't understand how my son could have a higher percentage than me, since I'm the one who gave him his French DNA. DH has no European genetics at all. So it still puzzles me, lol.

Read what the various sites mention about this to help you understand.

They base their conclusions on small sections of DNA.

Actually French wise , they were heavily invested in Asia, Remember that VietNam used to belong to the French before Americans took over so the idea that a Chinese person is exclusively Asian might not be true. We are in the infancy of interpretation of our genetic material. I expect we will see some refining of what we have.