For example, I’m like 0.01% Senegalese or something, but I wasn’t raised by Senegalese people or by the culture, nor do I consider the percentage to be significant enough, so I would not consider myself to be Senegalese.

My dad says our ancestry test used to say he was ~48-50% Norwegian, but now my ancestry says it is around 3-4%. However, another test I paid for with my raw data detected Swedish ancestry around 22%. We were raised more with Norwegian stuff and Norwegian learning videos, though, so I consider myself and my dad Norwegian-American for sure, no matter what it says on the ancestry test because 1) IDK how true, but I heard ancestry tests can be bullshit and just estimate from regions. 2) Culture and identity is more than just a number percentage on a test. 🇳🇴🇳🇴🇳🇴

Hilsen fra en norskamerikaner!

  • leavenotrace@feddit.nu
    1·
    3 hours ago

    I was hoping for better answers than the ones you got! Here’s my take as a Swedish/American dual citizen.

    Swedes and Norwegians are genetically so similar that genetic tests can’t make any meaningful distinction between them. They’ve interbred for thousands of years, since long before Norway and Sweden emerged as distinct kingdoms. Whether your ancestry is more Swedish or Norwegian doesn’t really matter since the two are very closely related genetically, culturally and even linguistically (Swedish and Norwegian languages are highly mutually intelligible). While there’s no way to know for sure without a well researched family tree, you’re almost certainly a mix of the two.

    Unless you’ve researched and know this not to be the case, it’s even possible that your ancestors were from a part of Sweden that was historically Norwegian and that’s why Norwegian culture was passed down to you. For example, Jämtland was ceded to Sweden in 1645 and even today Norwegian culture has a strong presence there.

    Lucky for you, there’s WAY more Norwegian culture in the US than there is Swedish culture. Unless you’re prepared to do some serious genealogical research to arrive at a conclusive answer, I’d say don’t worry about whether you’re technically more Norwegian or Swedish – just keep enjoying the Norwegian culture you’ve known your whole life.