10 Amazing Places My DNA Links Me To

I think it must have been one year ago now when I purchased my first DNA testing kit from 23andMe. I had no other reason for doing this except out of curiosity: my grandparents come from all around the UK, and I really wondered where we all came from in the first place. Now that I know, I am really excited to travel! The first two amazing places are going to be ones that I knew my connection to before I took the DNA test.

1. Banff, Scotland. My maternal grandmother is from Banff in Scotland (not to be confused with the frozen mountainous Banff of Canada). Banff is a quaint little sea-side town in North-East Scotland, above Aberdeen. I have visited once in my life - it's a long drive from me but I would love to go back when I can. This would also allow me to have the Scottish road trip I've always dreamed of!

Duff House, Banffshire, by Jyll & Tom Skinner on Flickr

2. Mousehole, Cornwall, England. On the opposite side of the spectrum, my paternal grandfather has links to another quaint town - pronounced "Mow-zoll". I have driven past Mousehole once, but couldn't stop to see it. It's one of my dreams to finally stand in the village here, visit a pub, and if there is extra time... go on a country walk. To stand in the church where my ancestors got married would just be incredible.

As of October 2019 these were my top results:
72.6% British, with the most heritage in Greater London and Lancashire.
14.7% French, with the most heritage in:

3. Brittany, France.
4. The Auvergne Rhône Alpes region, France. Including 5. Lyon and 6. Saint-Étienne. 

Surprisingly, I have never visited France despite its close location to England, and it has been my intention to use my first time there on (of course) Disneyland Paris. However, know that I know that at some point I had quite a few ancestors here, I will strongly consider swapping my Disney tourist trip to see the cities. I am wholly unfamiliar with this part of the world so if anyone has any recommendations at all as to what I can discover here... please don't hesitate to let me know in the comments.

Chateau de la Bretesche, Brittany, France by Zoltán Vörös on Flickr

The cherry on top of the cake was that I am 7. Scandinavian. This is something I expected due to the fact that Banff is a fishing village that could easily have had links with the North. I am very excited to go ahead and visit some Scandinavian cities (unfortunately 23andMe could not draw down on which country I am from as the percentage is quite low at 2.5%). However, I am looking forward to visiting 8. Stockholm, Sweden - where I will quite literally be living my best life in the ABBA Museum and finding all the best rock gigs the country has to offer. Normandie, my favourite band, are Swedish, so maybe this calls for seeing them play in their own country! I would also love to see the Northern Lights either in my native Scotland or Reykjavik, Norway.

Stockholm by Pedro Szekely on Flickr

Perhaps the biggest surprise was my 0.2% North African trace DNA. It's not big enough to be tracked down of course, but is likely to mean I have a small amount of lineage from 9. Morocco or 10. Algeria (or surrounding countries!). I have seen tonnes of bloggers travelling to this part of the world recently, so it may inspire me!

If you do decide to do some DNA testing of your own, I would recommend waiting until a special occasion like mother's day or father's day until the prices drop. Have you any exciting ancestry that has influenced your travels?