My FamilyTree DNA Project Website Title- Background

Background

Because the Scandinavian countries generally used patronymics when naming their children, and because it was commonplace for Scandinavian immigrants to use their farm name in the Old Country as a surname when immigrating to the US, tracing our Scandinavian ancestry presents additional obstacles in addition to the usual genealogical difficulties we all encounter at one time or another.

The above situation can cause descendants of unrelated immigrants to believe they may be related in view of identical "assumed" surnames often taken from names of farms which are often duplicated and yet may be far removed one from the other.

Anyone deeply involved with Norwegian immigration to the US and Canada is aware of the many "Aasland" families who arrived in the mid-western states during the 1800's.

Consequently, the use of Y-DNA may, hopefully, assist in identifying the relatedness or non-relatedness of the several Aasland/Ausland/Asland families who immigrated to the US during the 1800s.