Exploring My 23andMe Historical DNA Matches

 

I thought it might be a fun exercise to look at my Historical Matches at 23andMe.  Historical DNA matches compare your genetic data with DNA recovered from ancient human remains or historical individuals discovered at archaeological sites.  I sorted my historical matches by amount of matches from each group and it looks like I match with more samples from the Viking Age era than any of the others.  

I pulled the match info into a table including all categories but only the top two of the Viking Age era

I gave this information along with the descriptive blurbs included for each of the matches to Gemini and asked it to give me a brief summary.  

Gemini's Summary:
Your historical DNA matches span roughly 3,000 years of human history (from ~1400 BCE to 1700 CE) across a broad geographic range, including Western Europe, Central Eurasia, Scandinavia, and South Asia.

Highest Shared DNA: Your strongest genetic connections among these profiles are to Viking Age Merchant VK479 (0.14% DNA / 9.86 cM across 2 segments) and Viking Age Individual VK368 (0.13% DNA / 9.11 cM across 2 segments). Because you share multiple segments and higher centiMorgan values with them, these represent your most relatively recent shared ancestry among the listed group.

Geographic Spread: While the majority of your matches are centered in Medieval Europe and Scandinavia (e.g., Belgium, Denmark, Hungary, Faroe Islands), you also share ancient genetic links with distant Eurasian populations from Kazakhstan (Late Bronze Age) and Pakistan (Swat Valley).

Relationship Context: All listed matches are classified as "Very distantly related." Rather than direct linear descent, these matches indicate that you and these historical individuals inherited small, preserved segments of DNA from common ancestors who lived hundreds or thousands of years ago.

I think that is a far assessment.  All of my ancestors(paternal & maternal) were living in the American Colonies by the time of the Revolutionary War.

My current ancestry composition at 23andMe as of their last update-- September 09, 2025.

My 23&me Ancestry Composition Update

 Today I checked out my updated Ancestry Composition at 23&me.  No real surprises.  I have loads of Colonial American ancestry on both sides of my family.  Still, it's entertaining to see what locations my ancestors may have lived.

Comparing my DNA Ethnicity Chromosome Paintings at FTDNA, 23&me, and AncestryDNA

 

Ancestry Composition Chromosome Painting at 23andMe for my DNA Test

FamilyTreeDNA's Chromosome Painter for my test

Which was an Upload of my AncestryDNA taken in 2014

Chromosome Painted Ethnicity of my AncestryDNA test

Summary:  There isn't much which stands out in my DNA painting but I can see a few things.  Ancestry and 23andMe seem to agree that I have DNA most resembling folks from Finland at the tips of Chromosome 1 & 2.  Those are the Paternal Tips for both 1 & 2. My Mom has no Finland ethnicity showing at her Ancestry test so that did help me to assign the parent portions. FTDNA and 23andMe also seem to agree on a small snippet of African DNA on Chromosome 6 and since it's not showing up that way on Mom's test there it should be paternal.  

By consulting my DNA Match Painted Chromosomes at DNAPainter I can see that the Chrom 1 & 2 segments are from my paternal grandfather's King / Manire ancestry so that connection would be somewhere back along those.  The paternal Chrom 6 for me is almost all from my paternal grandmother and this looks to be in a section which would be either Morrow / Sutton or Frizzell / Manley.  I believe this is the same portion that FTDNA at one time was identifying as Sephardic Jewish Ethnicity.

I looked at my Mom's Ancestry DNA Chromosome Painted Ethnicity.  Hers is a lot more colorful than mine.  Where she has Norway, Denmark & Sweden, and Wales Ethnicity the ethnicity pretty much covers the entire chromosome side.  I've not been able to figure out which side of hers is which parent yet.  I hope that I can eventually.  

23&me--My Ancestry Timeline

I think the long generations in my family may have thrown this off a bit.  

My parents were born between 1930 and 1940.   

My Grandparents were born 1888-1899.  

My Gr Grandparents 1853-1875  

My 2nd Gr Grandparents 1808-1820

My 3rd Gr Grandparents. 1772-1800(There are 2 in my patrilineal line I have not yet identified)

I have not identified any North African ancestry though multiple companies have shown some trace amounts and ancestry similar to Sephardic Jewish.  

Their white paper on the process is available here

Notes that show in "mouse over" bubble for each of these:

You most likely had a parent, or grandparent who was 100% British & Irish. This person was likely born between 1910 and 1940.

You most likely had a third-great-grandparent, fourth-great-grandparent, fifth-great-grandparent, or sixth-great-grandparent who was 100% Finnish. This person was likely born between 1730 and 1820.

You most likely had a third-great-grandparent, fourth-great-grandparent, fifth-great-grandparent, sixth-great-grandparent, or seventh-great- (or greater) grandparent who was 100% Scandinavian. This person was likely born between 1700 and 1820.

You most likely had a fourth-great-grandparent, fifth-great-grandparent, sixth-great-grandparent, or seventh-great- (or greater) grandparent who was 100% North African. This person was likely born between 1700 and 1790.