18,000 Years Ago (above)
12,000 Year Ago (above)
8,000 Year Ago (above)
Posted on 09/28/2007 7:42:35 AM PDT by blam
Myths of British ancestry
October 2006
Stephen Oppenheimer
Everything you know about British and Irish ancestry is wrong. Our ancestors were Basques, not Celts. The Celts were not wiped out by the Anglo-Saxons, in fact neither had much impact on the genetic stock of these islands
The fact that the British and the Irish both live on islands gives them a misleading sense of security about their unique historical identities. But do we really know who we are, where we come from and what defines the nature of our genetic and cultural heritage? Who are and were the Scots, the Welsh, the Irish and the English? And did the English really crush a glorious Celtic heritage?
Everyone has heard of Celts, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. And most of us are familiar with the idea that the English are descended from Anglo-Saxons, who invaded eastern England after the Romans left, while most of the people in the rest of the British Isles derive from indigenous Celtic ancestors with a sprinkling of Viking blood around the fringes.
Yet there is no agreement among historians or archaeologists on the meaning of the words "Celtic" or "Anglo-Saxon." What is more, new evidence from genetic analysis (see note below) indicates that the Anglo-Saxons and Celts, to the extent that they can be defined genetically, were both small immigrant minorities. Neither group had much more impact on the British Isles gene pool than the Vikings, the Normans or, indeed, immigrants of the past 50 years.
The genetic evidence shows that three quarters of our ancestors came to this corner of Europe as hunter-gatherers, between 15,000 and 7,500 years ago, after the melting of the ice caps but before the land broke away from the mainland and divided into islands.
(Excerpt) Read more at prospect-magazine.co.uk ...
Many times, rumor of “Black Irish” blood is code for interracial marriage, especially Indian/Caucasian marriage. I have rumors of Black Dutch in my family and it’s the same thing. I actually may have found an ancestor about the time of the American Revolution who was Indian. It’s still unconfirmed, but does indicate that those “rumors” may have been correct.
Yup. I'm going to post 'revisited' this afternoon, lol.
Ping!
For a supposed "hate site" there is something every day, which provokes discussion in the best way. One can never learn too much.
bookmark for later.
"My favourite piece of linguistic trivia is evidence of Norman pidgin surviving today in English words for live domestic animals and French ones for dead meat. Presumably, the Norman lord would ask his steward to arrange roasts of boeuf, porc and poulet, and the latter would round up cows, swine and hens from the Saxon serfs. A thousand years later, we now have beef, pork and poultry as meat on the butcher's tray and the Saxon animals still alive in the fields."
My mother, a Southern farm girl, would often say (when I was a child), 'I'm going to get a poulet for dinner tonight.' (That usually meant fried chicken for dinner)
read later.
The aristocracy spoke Norman-French up until Henry V, a different language than the general population. Henry V was the first Norman ruler who's primary language was English. Keep in mind, the "French" who took control of England were of mostly Germanic stock & the French they spoke was adopted by them after they gained control of a good chunk of "France".
It is rare to find the raw guttural, monosyllabic, Germanic words in modern English.
Monosyllabic? When is the last time you've read Beowulf in Old English?
He who rules get to set the what language is spoken.
You'd think, but it didn't actually work that way.
So the Celts and the Ango-Saxons are like the Normans: Invasion forces large enough to take over those who already inhabited the land. Maybe the Brits are set-ups for the Muslim invasion.
GENEALOGY n. The tracing of descent from ancestors; alternatively, a particular account of such tracing for a specific individual or family. In the English-speaking world, all those who take up this pursuit announce sooner or later that they can trace their descent back to Edward III. This should surprise no one with a rudimentary knowledge of mathematics; there are probably one or two well-bred basset hounds who could also trace their descent back to Edward III. What is really surprising is that Edward III seems to be regarded as some kind of ultimate antecedent beyond whom the genealogist does not venture, even though anyone descended from Edward III is also descended from his father Edward II, and so on. The author can guess only that the prudery of the late Victorian age (when genealogy became a family pastime) chose to draw a veil before the memory of Edward II in view of the sybaritic Plantagenet’s bisexual reputation and appalling death (see impalement).— Peter Bowler, The Superior Person’s Book of Words.
The Scandinavians also gave us our pronouns: they, them, their, she. Also a few common words: call, get, hit, husband, knife, law, leg, odd, same, skin, take, want, wrong.
English is classified as a Germanic language because of its grammatical structure. Its closest relative is Frisian, still spoken in the eastern part of the Netherlands. French had a great influence on English, but mostly in contributing a lot of words to English. However, French did not for the most part alter the grammar of English.
For example, like all Germanic languages English has modal verbs: will, would, shall, should, may, might, can, could, ought. French doesn't have these modal verbs, though it expresses the same ideas with its verb system derived from Latin. Also English has a progressive tense: I am going, I was going. French doesn't have a progressive tense. Also, English usually places the adjective before the noun. Except for a few common adjectives, French usually places the adjective after the noun. And look what I just did with the adverb "usually". I put it before the verb. French wouldn't do that. And there are a lot of other reasons for classifying English as a Germanic language and not a Romance language like French.
Yes, English borrowed thousands of words from French during the Norman occupation of England. But now the current is flowing in the other direction. This is why you find the words "le parking" and "le jogging" and "le big" and many others from English in French today.
DNA tests. This ought to be fun. Our friend, Graham, is English. He lives in Buckinghamshire. His family on both sides were Bucks farmers as far back as anyone can remember.
We're Hispanic?
As this is a thread about British Ancestry, I feel I should post the following link regarding Hereditary Hemochromatosis:
http://www.americanhs.org/
Anyone of Northern European heritage should take a look at the site and discuss with you family doctor. HH can be found thru simple (fairly inexpensive) blood screens. It can also be found thru genetic testing. As it heavily affects my family (Irish) I thought I would share the info.
The ironic thing about it is that after recently getting just a little bit of info from my birth father, just a few names, I was able to trace his family back to 1300 Nuremberg, where the family was quite prominent, learned and wealthy. Quite a contrast to the despair of knowing next to nothing for the first 38 yrs of my life!
Language tells who won wars and who dominated culture. DNA tells who survived.
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