Origins (2/7/2023)

Sometimes around COVID (just before the lockdowns in fact, as I got the results the day after that begun), I started to get interested in DNA tests. They had become relatively widespread, and I knew of someone who had done one and shared the results, so I was intrigued to know where I was coming from. Laws being what they are, some of the US-based company in particular were not allowed to work with France, so I had a more limited choice. In the end, I settled for ‘MyHeritage’ (based in Israël I think?), and because I wanted a ‘second opinion’, I also went for another smaller company called livingDNA (based in the UK). As you will see, certainly in the case of the latter, results evolved are their database grew and diversified. Also interestingly, you could import the file-format result of MH into the living DNA database (annoyingly I wasn’t able to work the other way around), so it would be interesting to compare the results given with the same ‘sample’ with two different companies. Ideally I’d have wanted to go via a third one, could have via someone in the UK, but it would have been complicated for several reasons. I will dive into the results shortly, but the other thing I spent a lot of time on during COVID lockdowns a couple of months later(sometimes while pretending to work….) was trying to piece together my ancestry based on whatever data I had available through family or on the web. Very interesting as you will see, and also enabling to compare what’s known with the DNA tests. Anyway, I’ll deal with these things in order (sort of, order is not my natural quality), with illustrations, before offering a few reflections on the meaning or the meaninglessness of it all.

First, a few easy facts. I was born in Algeria, of French parents, but we moved when I was barely three and a bit months old to Bordeaux (more precisely Blanquefort for a year then Le Bouscat), so I have no particular affinity with my birthplace, and also zero memory of it. In fact I have no memory of Blanquefort either, so I will always consider myself a Bordelais who got uprooted to the Paris area at the age of 8. I say ‘uprooted’, because in hindsight I think it’s what it really was, and had possibly a damaging effect on my development overall. Not that you’d see if from a school point of view, mind, so I might be talking out of my arse and there are other factors at play obviously.

Anyway, yes, so French parents, four French grandparents. Though you only have to go two generations above on my Dad’s Mum’s side to see a foreign ascendant. But more on that later.

Other stuff from my childhood, Angot is a Normand name, and while the literature offers several possible origins (German is now offered as a possibility), I was told the one from the old scandinavian Asgautr. Weirdly, I’m not sure in which book I was showed this one (I remember it was in a book, well the internet didn’t exist, did it?), but I always thought of Danish origin, and so I also supported the Danish football team from about 1984 or so (great team and great shirt then!). You’ll see later that it may be more Norwegian after all in my case, but obviously these are very distant origins anyway, so a lot of speculation given the mixes that have happened since!

Anyway here’s how the first DNA test map (from My Heritage) appeared (and they haven’t updated that since).

And I’m putting straight away the latest map from livingDNA (I’ll post the one from the MH sample reimported and the original livingDNA one a little after.

So, between myth and reality and later recouping with actual genealogy research, what can you get from there? I am definitely, mostly French and European. And the genealogy confirms a fair bit from the North of France (so yeah, the Belgium jokes may be closer to the truth than thought :-D).

The North-East Spanish (i.e. Catalan) that appears on both set of data between 10 and 15% is also not in doubt. I think from my Mum’s Mum’s side. The genealogy shows some Catalan names/locations, and of course, there a bits of Catalunya both in France (I spent most of my childhood summer holidays between there and the North of France, family houses) and Spain so a little more natural when the frontier was less administrative I guess. 35% Italian seems a bit excessive on the first set of data. Weirdly none on the second set,, but again the genealogy study showed that coming a lot of generations back (further than the Spanish bits), I did find ancestors who lived in Northern Italy (Val d’Aoste if I remember, I’d need to get back through that tree).

The small Finnish percentage is intriguing, not sure if I can make sense of it, but the Askhenazi Jews ancestry is clear and doesn’t have to go far back in fact. I did mention above my Grandmother’s grandmother being of foreign origin, and in fact, while she was born in Paris, her Dad was Polish, her Mum not sure where from, but I remember the Jewish origin being there (both sides or just one there, I’m not sure).

Now, for an interesting comparison, I put the livingDNA map as given from their first analysis (but using the same sample, so not using the MH data).

As you can see, the picture is fairly different! And there’s some stuff I can make sense of, but some not so much. One big one is the 17% of England and Wales that later turned to 2.3%. Now, livingDNA being based in the UK, it is perfectly conceivable that particularly at the start, they had far more customers from there, and therefore also from further UK&I origins than from anywhere else. Hence, the data being skewed that way is perfectly understandable. Now, I haven’t been able to trace any ancestry from those isles, but as you will see later, the data in possession in some directions is seriously lacking, and given the proximity of North of France/Belgium, it’s far from impossible that there is a connection. However, 2% seems a lot more realistic than 17. The HUGE difference is obviously the French that was completely and bafflingly absent in that first picture. Compared to that, the difference in Germanic between both is not too big. The Iberian has gone down from too much to a probably more reasonable value.

But one of the confusing things for me is the Northern Italian, that has gone from 15% to absolutely nothing, despite the MH findings and my own research.

For the last Map now, I reinjected the data from My Heritage (in file format) into the living DNA database and got the following.

And that’s probably the most confusing of the lot, unless it’s also not been updated unlike the original livingDNA. I suspect so, because we are back to No French, the values for Spanish and Italian are very very similar to the original livingDNA (meaning it’s consistent with their database and the MH and livingDNA actual samples were thankfully giving the same analysis), NW Germanic also similar, and…again a very high (but oddly more detailed) value of UK origins (you will notice no Welsh, but a tiny amount of Scot). Having checked back on the site, they DO say this had been updated (so Sept. 2021 data, but I have actually checked back with the original March 2020 data for this profile and it has NOT been updated unlike the other with the original sample).

As a small add-on, I added the ‘Viking Test’ on livingDNA just a few days ago, for curiosity before writing this page, and well it’s essentially a waste of money, but I was curious and all it says is my ‘Viking Index’ is 20% and that I am more closely associated with the ‘Vikings of Norway’. And these moved mainly to Faroe/Orkney/Shetlands/Iceland/Ireland. Confusing given all other information. Of course, take it with a pinch of salt, but there goes my Danish pride, though I’m not going to start supporting Norway, I’m afraid my ‘personal’ education makes my heart still feel closer to Denmark. Again (see the long reflection below) showing that where you truly come from does really not matter that much.

I think now I’d still be interested in finding a third source for comparison, but I think you can easily conclude that these studies are still far far from reliable. They give you some indications but a lot is completely wrong. So if you want to know the whole picture of where you come from, I am guessing genealogy studies will tell you more than these ‘scientific’ yet partly unreliable DNA tests.

As for the genealogy research, here are the two sides of my tree (roughly).

From which you can gather, that some people have done some serious research on my Mum’s side where the tree is nearly full, whereas the gaps on my Dad’s side, and in particular my Dad’s Dad’s side are absolutely huge and so I don’t know nearly half of my ‘origins’.

Anyway, that’s the current state of where I ‘come from’ based on trying to piece it together. Now, for a further reflection, you know, nationalities, nationalism, etc. All those things are very alien to me. ‘Proud to be French’. ‘Proud to be British’. But I didn’t chose. Sure, I very nearly chose to become British, and as I mentioned elsewhere, only a matter of timing by perhaps a couple of weeks made me not move when I had the intention to. Weakness or luck, I’m not sure. Nowadays I think it doesn’t matter that much. I could still ingest a lot of British culture, and I do feel like a mix. Some people see me as more Brit than French. I had problem with being French first (I kind of turned in 1984 maybe around the Euros, when I was still supporting France, but kind of torn because I was supporting Denmark too, but I sure supported France in the final), and I just remember that by 1986 I wanted France to lose (vs Brazil) because nationalism and chauvinism made me recoil in horror. Back to individualism, I guess, belonging, group/herd mentality scare me. But yeah so I found everything British attracted me, moved there for studies and adopted a lot of practice and culture from there and became a kind of die-hard England fan at sports. I remember watching the cricket World Cup on a comeback at Aston Uni. I remember the England match in Rome for the 98 WC qualifiers, lots of evenings in pubs in Paris, wearing the England shirt. But eventually that got a bit eroded too, especially when it became Arsenal vs England, and I struggled to reconcile supporting some players in an England shirt when I hate them at club level (but I didn’t have that problem for a long time so………), and a few things made me a little more down with ‘some’ aspects of Englishness. To the point I feel at some point I pretended to support France vs England, until I probably did. Or did not care anymore. You could say Arsenal chose me as much as I chose Arsenal. But I never chose France. I did chose England, but then I broadened my views, especially hanging out with non-English anglophones at times. And now……. I don’t know, but I still find the idea that you should be proud of your nationality when you didn’t chose it quite absurd. If you choose to change nationality, yeah, OK. But if not then what? And equally I am not ashamed to be French because of what other French people do, same as I wouldn’t want people to be ashamed of being British because of, say, Brexit to take one example. Sure, I do like to represent, so I’m happy to ‘give France’ a good image. But in the end, it will only ever be an image of me, what I believe in, what I believe is good/fair/sensible. Sure the culture is different and important, but I’ve always been open to new things, new ways of thinking and taking into consideration other people’s culture. Then I can adopt what I like if I so wish. Just not disrespect others. But then, these days, some people just feel offended, and that being offended is not a right but a duty. See, I’m drifting away in topics now, but this world has so much good potential, yet a lot of people feel bitterness/pettiness/vengefulness are more important. I am a human being first and most of all. I am French, it is a fact, but it is not an important thing, I didn’t chose it, it’s part of who I am, but it’s really really not a part to defend. Would I die for my country? Not sure. I’d rather die for freedom and goodness, and hope that my country and other countries have that at the heart of their values. So yeah, the EU appeals in principle (there will be abuse), just like maybe, after all, the Gaïa concept as mooted by Asimov. Paradoxically as it is hard to envisage as an individualist, but, I think he manages the paradox quite well stating that people keep their individuality but also have that commonality that rules above all. Yeah, that’s kind of an ideal to aim for. ‘Identity’ does not matter as much for me. The origins are where we are coming from (importantly, again in Asimov’s Foundation cycle at the end, it’s all about ‘The Quest for the Origins’, but that’s to understand and know to make the best decision for the furture), but what truly matters is where we are going. Humanism.

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