I'm a Russian but i need to know where I'm from... please answer, read the details?

Question

I'm a Ukrainian born Russian, my last name is Yakovlev, if anyone knows about it please let me know. Also, i would like to know what percentage of me could be Scandanavian/Viking. I know that Russia and the Vikings shared cultures, traded, and the first king of Russia was a Viking, I would really like to know what the chances of me having Viking blood are. All answers welcome, esp. those that support the Vikings/Russians being very close theory. thx! :)

Answer 1

Very, very slim. You might want to elaborate on where abouts in Russia/Ukraine you were born, since obviously there weren't presence of Swedes (yes, the Vikings journeying east-wards were mostly Swedes) in all of Russia.

I'm Norwegian, so I can probably trace my blood line straight back to the Vikings. We own. I also highly doubt that you will find records that far back, since the earliest recordings we have here in Norway are church books from probably the 1600s. But good luck to you.

Answer 2

One way to prove or, at least, obtain an indication of your distant origin, is to have your Y-DNA tested, the process is very easy, and the results are very accurate, you can read about what you can learn from a test at

http://familytreedna.org

Their European branch is at

http://europe.familytreedna.com/

Answer 3

Вероятно, у вас еврейского происхождения. Ваша фамилия звучит евреями. Я еврейский, и я знаю многих евреев с таким именем.

Answer 4

I think the only way you will find out about the Viking blood would be a DNA test, unless you can trace your ancestors back that far..

Answer 5

It is up to you to choose what it is that you want to learn.  Origin of your surname is pretty generic.. I think it is fairly clear that the name comes from Russia.  My personal view is that where any name comes from is completely separate from a person's own history.

As for the odds of you having Viking/Scandinavian blood.. your obvious way is to research your ancestry. I mean, if you find your great grandmother was born in Sweden, that is pretty clear, don't you think? You can also do dna testing, if you are willing to pay for it.  No one here has any means to define what YOUR odds are.

I am speaking as a genealogist.. the point of using records is to use valid records to prove an ancestry. Just as a technicality.. theories, by their very nature, are unreliable. They are based on speculation instead of research using facts. Nothing wrong with investigating various theories or schools of thought... you simply need to be able to use them for what they are.  There is a HUGE difference between what you know, based on research or what you believe.

Answer 6

http://www.surnamedb.com/surname.aspx?na...

Surname: Yakovlev

This most interesting surname derives from the ancient Hebrew given name "Yaakov" meaning "following-after". In the bible Jacob was the name of the twin brother of Esau, who took advantage of the latter's hunger and impetuousness to persuade him to part with his birthright "for a mess of potage". The surnames James and Jack share the same origins and development. Perhaps surprisingly Jacob in all its over two hundred spellings from Jacob, Iacobo, Kubera, and Kabos, to Giacopino, Jankel, Yakobovitz, and Jessen, was not originally a Jewish surname. Like most Hebrew and biblical names, it enjoyed a great burst of popularity in the 12th century. This was during the time of the great Crusades to free the Holy Land from the Sarcens. All were unsuccessful, but the returning soldiers and pilgrims made it a fashion to call their children by names associated with the early days of the Christian church. The earliest examples of surname recordings are usually to be found in England, the first country to adopt both hereditary surnames, and to register them. Here William Jacob was recorded in the Hundred Rolls of Cambridgeshire in 1273, whilst in 1361 Hans Jacob is recorded in the charters of Wernsbach, Germany. The first recorded spelling of the family name anywhere in the world is believed to be that of Agnes Jacobes, in the register of the abbey of Ramsey, Huntingdon, in the year 1244. Over the centuries surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/varangia...

The Scandinavian Advance Eastwards

     Russia itself was not subject to the swords of the Scandinavians except for scattered raids until ca. 850 AD The first evidence of this movement eastwards into Russia is provided by the biography of Bishop Anskar of Hamburg written by his successor, Rimbert, who tells of how the Swedish king Olaf of Uppsala sent an army to to punish rebellious Kurlanders and opportunistic Danes at Apulia in Lithuania. Shortly thereafter, as recorded in the Russian Primary Chronicle, a Scandinavian tribe called Rus appears, and by 859 had begun taxing the Slavs and Finns.

     The usual pattern of Scandinavian advance was begun with armed traders, who having once detected a lucrative source of goods, established fortified centers with permanent warbands in residence to hold their gains. As these outposts prospered, settlement occurred around these garrisons, creating towns and trading cities.

     Silver was the main lure which brought Scandinavian traders into Russia. The Islamic world provided the silver from mines in Tashkent and Afghanistan. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Scandinavia had no source of gold or silver readily available, except that which they obtained via plunder of from the Islamic trade.

Trade through Russia was difficult in part because of hostile Slavic tribes, including the Krivichi (near Smolensk), the Dreovichi and Drevljane (west of the Dneiper), the Radimichi (east of the Dneiper), the Pechinegs, Poljani and Magyars (on the lower Dneiper), and the Khazars (east of the Slavs).

Bands of Scandinavians who travelled eastwards joined formally as companies, swearing oaths of mutual assistance, defense, and support. The term for such an oath in Old Norse is "var", and these eastern adventurers became known as "Varangians"

.Who were the Rus?

     According to the Russian Primary Chronicle (ca. 1040-1118 AD), the Rus were a group of "Varangians," possibly of Swedish origin, who had a leader named Rurik. Rus appears to be derived from the Finnish word for Sweden, "Rotsi"

, later "Ruotsi", which in turn comes from Old Swedish "rother", a word associated with rowing or ships, so that "rothskarlar" meant "rowers" or "seamen."

(The above is just part of the longer article at http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/varangia... .  It basically goes along with your theory. Besides, if the Vikings could make it to North America, they surely could get into Russia.)

www.familysearch.org--The earliest listing I found with your surname is:

Mikhail Vasilevich YAKOVLEV -

Gender: M Birth/Christening: 1516 Of Moskva, Moskva, Russia, Ussr (aka Moscow, Russia)