Let me tell you how I got amazed by my ancestors and did a lot of researching about that and what I have found. I will try to resume the best I can.
My daughter Jaqueline did a DNA test and when she got the results she got emotional and happy because , big surprise she got Nordic gens. Then... I was surprised and I said that it should be from her father family. We knew that her father family origins were Spanish and Portuguese but we never heard about Scandinavian members of the family.
You know, my history and connexions with Nordic people and their lands. You know I was living there and you know I am an Icelandic citizen since 2011, do you ? But you know that my citizenship did not came for blood, but because my art and relationship with Icelandic people.
My daughter said that I should make a DNA test because who knows the gens came from me. I said : No, no from me . I don't believe it.
AFRICA - My mother side
I knew my mother origins : Africa (she is a black woman, a Brazilian born and as all black people from Brazil , we know her ancestors came as slaves from Africa. We did not know from where in Africa, because the slaves had no documents and at their time they all got, in Brazil, the surname SILVA, what makes still more difficult to know about their Countries origins in Africa. I did my DNA test and now I know the origins are : NIGERIA and KENYA. I am 29 % Nigerian and 19.8 % Kenyan . I am glad to know it. I would never know without the DNA test. Them those are my highest heritages from my mother side.
I also got some smaller percentages from Central Africa 1.5 % that is close from Nigeria.
North Africa 4.7%( Egypt , as oldest origins - my father side)
EUROPE - My father side
Iberic - Portugal , Spain - 19.9 %
Italy - 1.1% smallest percentage from the father side
Nordic - 23.1 %
Yes, for my surprise ; through my DNA test we found out that Jaqueline , my daughter, got her Nordic gens by me ! Wow, I was so amazed by those news but also because the percentage of my Nordic gens were so high. Can you imagine I have 23.1% of North European gens (18.6 Scandinavian and 4.5% (Germanic +East Europe) Unbelievable !
So I started with my researches , I got crazy on it. And I found my Nordic origins , not before lots of working and lots of talking with the cousins that I discovered through my test too and I focused on the cousins that had also Scandinavian gens.
The first cousin I got talk , was from the TAITSON family in Brazil. They are descendants of Clara Barbosa TAIT that was born Clara Barbosa da Silva and she got married in Brazil with the English Ferdinand TAIT. They gave origin to the Taitson family in Brazil. Both families TAITSON and THAYTSON descend of this couple. Then... in the beginning I thought my line was coming from Clara but after talking with my cousin I found out Clara was my Auntie-grandmother and I discovered little later that my direct ancestor was her brother Antonio da Silva Barbosa. So.. the TAITSON and TAHYTSON are my cousins but I don't have the English blood of Ferdinand Tait but I have the blood of his wife Clara ad her brother Antonio and my Nordic gens came from Antonio da Silva Barbosa and their Nordic gens came from Clara da Silva Barbosa. Got to love to know about this couple and their descendants. They are still a huge family in Brazil.
After that , I got talk with a cousin from USA that all family has Scandinavian gens and she explained to me that the family was living in Azores for more than 400 years and the Vikings were there and so she said my gens came from there but is almost impossible to find the Viking ancestor, she said. Then I found out that Azores and Madeira Islands in Portugal had a lot of Vikings descendants and there are lots of studies about those Wiking gens from those areas . It was totally* new for me. My Nordic gens came from Portugal ? I had to find how it happened.
https://studgen.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-vikings-at-azores.html
Then , I did not stop and I got to know my Portuguese ancestor Jeronimo de Ornellas Menezes e Vasconcelos , a Portuguese man born in Madeira Island that came to Brazil and brought the Nordic gens to my father family side. Jeronimo was a pioneer, he was the founder of the Porto Alegre city in the South of Brazil. And I did not know I had family from this part of Brazil.
To be sure I was descendent of Jeronimo, I did a test compares with a recent discovered cousin and yes, BINGO ! We got matched! So... Jeronimo is really my ancestor !
This mentioned cousin had a very well done work with the genealogy of the family and it helped me a lot to find out many other things. Here you have a blog by him
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/De_Ornellas_de_Menezes-1
When I finally arrived to my 7th grandfather Jeronimo, of course I was glad and proud of him as my ancestor but I did not want to stop until to find the Viking ancestor if it would be possible. I got the line of Jeronimo and I arrived until 1500, 1500!!! It was the year that Brazil have been discovered by Portugal. I arrived there in 1500 and my ancestors where in Madeira Island at that time, the Ruas family. But I did not find the Viking on this line.
One day I was reading and reading and I found a blog where a guy said: all Kings from Portugal came from the MONIZ. Then I said to myself : I had MONIZ in the Jeronimo family. Then I got my notes and yes, the Jeronimo's mother was a MONIZ, Antonia MONIZ , but I have not take her line before because I took the Jeronimo's father line and arrived to surnames RUA and RUAS that were also my ancestors. So.. with this tip, I started searching the Antonia Moniz line as she was also my direct ancestor. And then … Bingo ! I found the Viking in the end of the line.
I will not post all my tree here of course because it has different lines. But , since I was looking for my Viking ancestor you can take a look on the line that arrives on him.
Please, see the line here, the red names are the Viking descendants :
Jussanam da Silva
daughter of
Paulo da Silva + Helena da Silva
Son of
Antonio Ferreira Monteiro da Silva + Lugduvina ( Ludovina)6 da Silva
daughter of
Thiago Mariano da Silva + Clementina Gomes da Silva
THIAGO son of Bazilio Mariano da Silva and CLEMENTINA daughter of Lidovina Gomes Correa
BAZILIO son of Mariano Barboza da Silva and LIDOVINA daughter of Lidwina Gomes
MARIANO son of Jose Barboza da Silva and / LIDWINA daughter of Florinda da Silva9996
JOSE son of Antonio da Silva Barbosa and FLORINDA daughter of Juliana Maria de Jesus
ANTONIO son of Antonio da Silva Barbosa and JULIANA daughter of Maria Leme Barbosa da Silva
Antonio son of Joao da Silva Barbosa and MARIA daughter of Jerônimo de Ornellas Menezes e Vasconcelos
JOAO son of Jerônimo de Ornellas Menezes e Vasconcelos
Jerônimo de Ornellas Menezes e Vasconcelos + Lucrecia Leme Ornellas Menezes e Vasconcelos
son of
Antonia MONIZ (Pestana de Veloso) + Joao Manoel Pestana de Veloso
daughter of
Isabel Moniz de Menezes + Manuel Homem da Costa
daughter of
Jeronimo de Ornellas de Abreu , Neto + Bernarda de Ornellas de Abreu
son of
Luzia / Elvira de Ornelas + Antonio Garcia de Gamboa
daughter of
Jeronimo de Ornelas de Abreu Catarina de Barros da Cunha
son of
Diogo de Barros + Francisca Henriques
Son of
Pedro Goncalves da Camara Filho (da Clara) + Isabel de Barros
Son of
Pedro Goncalves da Camara + Catarina de Ornelas de Saavedra
Son of
Mecia Henriques de Noronha + Joao Goncalves da Camara
daughter of
Dom Joao Henriques de Noronha ( de Norena ) + Beatriz NN, señora de Mirabel
son of
Alfonso Henriques + Isabella de Norena
son of
King Henri II (Castille) + Elvira Iniguez
son of
King Alfonso XI + Leonor Guzman
son of
King Ferdinand IV (Castille, Leon et Galicia) + Constanza Portugal
son of
King Sancho IV “ The Brave” + Maria de Molina
son of
King Alfonso X “The Wise” + Violante de Aragao
son of
King Ferdinand II (Leon et Galicia) + Urraca
son of
Urraca - Queen of Leon, Castille et Galicia) + Fernan Perez Ponce de Leon
son of
Constance de Bourgogne + Alfonso VI Duke
daughter of
Robert I - “The Old” + Ermengarde of Anjou
son of
King Robert II - “The Pious” + Rozala of Italy , Bertha of Burgundy, Constance of Arles
son of
Adelaide (Adela) de Aquitaine + Hugh Capet
daughter of
Gerlaug or Gerloc Hrolfsdottir + William Towhead
daughter of
Hrólfr Rögnvaldsson / Duke Rolf / Rollo / Rollon / Hrolf - “The ganger” - 846 a 932 - My direct Ancestor