5,000 year old DNA reveals the surprising origins of the Irish

Irish Central ^ | March 31, 2017 | Sandie Angulo Chen

[2ndDivisionVet]

With a vial of saliva and a little cutting-edge science, AncestryDNA can tell you if you’ve got any Irish heritage in your genes. And with a lot of cutting-edge science, researchers in December 2015 published a study telling the world where that Irish heritage first originated.

By studying the 5,000-year-old remains of a female farmer buried near Belfast, Ireland, and the remains of three men buried 3,000 and 4,000 years ago on Rathlin Island in County Antrim, archaeologists and geneticists now say they now know where the modern Irish people originally came from.

The remains of the Stone Age female farmer show that she resembled modern people from Spain and Sardinia, suggesting she had roots there. But her ancestors ultimately originated from the Fertile Crescent, the once-lush region of the Middle East where humans first practiced agriculture. Those migrants brought cattle, cereals, and ceramics, along with black hair and brown eyes.

The remains of the Bronze Age male farmers show a different group of migrants entering Ireland one to two thousand years later. Those farmers came from the Pontic steppe of southern Russia. They brought metalworking culture, the genetic disposition for blue eyes, and the gene for a blood disorder so often found in Ireland that it’s known as the Celtic disease: haemochromatosis.

Using a technique called whole-genome analysis, scientists at Trinity College Dublin studied the DNA from all four bodies to establish a history of ancestral migration and settlement.

“There was a great wave of genome change that swept into [Bronze Age] Europe from above the Black Sea … we now know it washed all the way to the shores of its most westerly island,” geneticist and lead researcher Dan Bradley told the BBC.

The research shows that cultural changes in the ancient British Isles, such as the introduction of agriculture and metalworking, likely arrived because of large-scale migrations rather than the adoption of new ways by indigenous people.

DNA research isn’t just for looking back thousands of years. With AncestryDNA, you can discover whether your grandparents or great-grandparents really did hail from Ireland or any one of 26 distinct ethnic populations. AncestryDNA can also be an invaluable tool in genealogical research by matching up your DNA with relatives you might never have known and by identifying common forebears you may never have heard of.

From there, the 16 billion historical records on Ancestry can help you search forwards or backward in time to fill in your family tree — wherever that tree first took root.

[Az Joe]

Ok, thx. I did some internet research just now briefly and there seems to be some documented historical backup for it.

[SunkenCiv]

Hey, they had a great sense of style. :^) Thanks Bodleian_Girl.

The Scots were entirely Irish, but entered a Caledonia (which is now Scotland) already populated by the original Blue Devils (Picts). It's not surprising that in the intervening 13 centuries there would be some variance. The Scandinavian DNA many western European ancestry folks in America find in their tests comes from, not surprisingly, the Vikings, who entered Caledonia before the Scots did, and were already swarming all over Ireland, Shetlands, Orkneys, etc quite early. I'd not be surprised to learn that the Vikings helped crush the seagoing trade between the British Isles and the eastern Roman Empire, known to have gone on in the "Dark Ages", between the Roman exit from Britain (let's call it Rexit) and the Anglo-Saxon takeover of the British interior. The Vikings also carved out Northumbria, and forcibly settled a big chunk of that Anglish territory in the very same interior.

[Monkey Face]

Thanks again, SC!

My personal ancestry told me all this back in 1980, when it was first given to me. My brother had a DNA test through 23andme.com, in August of this year, and found he was almost completely of Irish descent, meaning the rest of the nationalities were factored in from their respective Eurasian countries.

It also meant that he was my full brother, and not half-Portugese as he had thought all his life. I did the happy dance because I “knew” it all along. ;o]

[SunkenCiv]

:^)

[minnesota_bound]

#100 If your mom drinks some more whiskey could be 80 proof Irish and 10% Iberian : )

[lonevoice]

Somebody really needs to do their DNA test. :-)

[Pride in the USA]

So cool indeed.

[dp0622]

Lol

[gleeaikin]

I have heard that the “black Irish” were Spanish refugees from the sinkings of the Spanish Armada ships. Perhaps some were killed when they landed in Ireland, but I am sure many others were rescued and hidden if that was needed. After all Ireland was a catholic country, not Protestant like England. Henry VIII was unkind to Catholics when he created the Church of England (Anglican), then his daughter “Bloody Mary” was cruel to Protestants since as Catherine of Aragon’s daughter she was devout catholic. While not as bloody minded as her late sister, Queen Elizabeth was known to have killed a few catholics including her Scottish cousin, Mary Queen of Scots. So, no, I don’t think a lot of the shipwrecked Spaniards were killed in Ireland, even if the Queens officers were seeking them as the catholic Irish would have been eager to thumb their noses at the Protestant authorities. Imagine the excitement for a simple Irish girl to have a brave foreign catholic deposited into her home. How many marriages might have resulted.

[wardaddy]

True

Scots are Irish origin mostly

Scotti tribes displaced Picts and were subsequently colonized mostly within a days walk of the coastline by Norway Vikings

Unlike further south which was more Danes

[wardaddy]

You have proof to contradict it

I’d like to see it

[gleeaikin]

Which is why the eastern marshland/fens of England are also known as the “Danelaw.”

[Az Joe]

Yes, a lot of them were killed right on the beach. Read up on it.

[madison10]

It is trustworthy and on sale right now: $59 compared to the usual $99.

Just do not tell Louis Gate, Jr., as he will find all your slave owning ancestors OR he will find your slave owning master who is probably your relative anyway.

[wardaddy]

Yes

Not for Alfie they would have all east of the Welsh marches

[chesley]

I thought that wss Bushmill’s :)

[morphing libertarian]

Where did the Irish come from? Barney’s Pub after midnight closing.

[sneakers]

I just ordered the Ancestry DNA kit for my father-in-law for Christmas. Can’t wait for the results!

[lil'bit]

I’m not sure how large the database is but I have matches there that have not tested at ancestry and ancestry won’t allow anyone else to upload data. The tools are more refined and you can see which chromosomes you match on and compare specific people and oh it’s extremely useful! Ethnicity is touched at more on ancestry.

[exDemMom]

Interesting.

I have a challenge in that I have a name of a great-grandfather, but the only evidence of a man by that name is a 1930s census. There is no other record of that man. He was supposedly born around 1880 in Missouri, but I can find no such record. At one point, I got the bright idea that I could check my grandfather’s birth certificate and maybe find there the name of his father. Nope. My grandfather’s birth certificate was filed by his mother in California when he was in his 20s (and he was born in TX). I suspect that whoever my great-grandfather was, he was using a false name.

I hope that by comparing DNA results and finding relatives who have no common name, I may be able to deduce who my great-grandfather really was.