Posted on 03/19/2015 8:39:02 AM PDT by ek_hornbeck
A DNA study of Britons has shown that genetically there is not a unique Celtic group of people in the UK.
According to the data, those of Celtic ancestry in Scotland and Cornwall are more similar to the English than they are to other Celtic groups.
The study also describes distinct genetic differences across the UK, which reflect regional identities.
And it shows that the invading Anglo Saxons did not wipe out the Britons of 1,500 years ago, but mixed with them.
Published in the Journal Nature, the findings emerge from a detailed DNA analysis of 2,000 mostly middle-aged Caucasian people living across the UK.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
We are Irish. My mother was as blonde as any Scandinavian. She herself thinks she was a product of the Viking Rapes.
My father when he was young had the blackest of jet-black hair. Probably a member of the fabled “Black Irish” said to be descended from Spanish sailors who became stranded there.
When you’re an island the DNA comes in and out more or less like the seagulls.
The entire population of Europe was basically replaced since the fall of Rome. Today’s Greek population, for example, have little genetic connection to those of Aristotle’s contemporaries. People who go around blaming Europeans for colonialism don’t realize that they are not exclusive “victims”.
Interesting
Exactly. Every place was colonized by somebody else, and everyone had ancestors who were at some point brutalized, raped, or enslaved by someone else's. The difference is that most of us have the sense not to try and use this fact as a get out of jail card.
The original "Celts" who colonized Britain and Ireland probably had dark hair and eyes, i.e. looking more like Central Europeans than like Norsemen.
It would have been interesting if they had extended the study to the south of Ireland. One would suspect that to the extent a Gaelic strain of DNA could be identified, it would be more evident there. As the other posts have pointed out, various peoples swept into and over all these places and merged with each other etc... over the many centuries, which is consistent with the study’s findings.
My ancestor, Bartholomew Weathersbee, came to America from Britain in 1616. A couple of my relatives have had DNA tests that indicated Norse origins, meaning, I guess, that my family is more Norman than Anglo-Saxon. I guess there is a good chance I had an ancestor fight in the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
Most of today’s “Greeks” are probably closer to modern Turks than Alexander & Aristotle’s DNA.
Almost every nation in Europe has Germanic/Nordic bloodlines because of the Barbarian hordes that destroyed Rome. Even though my mom’s family is Spanish/Basque, the blonde hair and blue eyes that runs deep in our family probably suggests Visigothic blood at some point way down in history.
Celts and Saxons are actually some of the first migrants into early Europe. They also brought a lot of technology, such as it was. Farming, metal working, etc. Also being somewhat larger than Europeans at the time, they were a thing to be feared. Hitler’s vaunted “Aryan race” was not actually a race, showing that he was either stupid or a liar or both. They were connected by a common language, nothing more, from somewhere farther east.
The difference is that for the mix I think you're talking about, one does not have to do a DNA analysis to discover the tell-tale factor.
(just sayin')
Spanish Armada survivors' descendents most likely...............
Assyrians.......................
This is another article to English DNA possibly the same study. There is a lot of DNA information on the internet so you don't have to be a “scientist” to research your ancestry. DNA tests are less than $100 also.
The closest to such as thing (i.e. meaningful both genetically and linguistically) are the Indo-European peoples, which are basically all non-Semitic Caucasians. By this standard, Celts, Slavs, as well as Iranians and northern Indians are just as "Aryan" as the Germanic tribes.
Even in ancient times, the Ionian (e.g. Athens) and Dorian (e.g. Spartan) Greeks looked quite different on average, supposedly the former were swarthier than the latter. More Phoenician blood perhaps?
I thought that the Irish are genetically related to the Spanish. There were obviously waves of tribes pushing west into Europe, with the people at the fringe (Ireland and Spain) most likely to be genetically similar to the earliest groups.
By way of that, you probably know that Iran gets its name from around World War II as “land of the Aryans”, to show their solidarity with Hitler. Just a side note.
I believe it. Phoenicians spread out as far as Southern & Western Spain and throughout Northern Africa. The Carthaginians considered themselves “Phoenician”. Alexander and most Macedonians were described as blonde. I’ve always wondered if the Greeks penetrating so far into Asia caused a DNA shift?
In Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and most Middle Eastern nations blue/green eyes are not that uncommon.
I didn’t know where the name Iran came from. I knew it used to be called Persia but didn’t know where Iran came from.
I also don’t know why Peking became Beijing, or why Bombay became Mumbai, or why Siam became Thailand.
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