POBI British Isles

[Graham]

WHAT MAKES THE BRITISH?
http://d3gjvvs65ernan.cloudfront.net/OT-TT-2013.pdf
http://www.megalithia.com/callanish/060501_callanish_img_2397.jpg

What makes us British? Do the English, Welsh, Irish and Scots have much in common at all? And how different are we from our European neighbours?

PoBI evidence points firmly to a large influx of Anglo-Saxon DNA but also the presence in modern descendants of a substantial amount of an ‘ancient British’ DNA which most closely matches the DNA of modern inhabitants of France and Ireland.

This led the researchers to conclude that there had been an intermingling between the existing Romano-British population and the newcomer AngloSaxons, rather than a full-scale population wipe-out.

“Broadly speaking, people look very similar to each other at the DNA level from one end of the UK to the other, so the differences we found were subtle but nonetheless real,” says Donnelly.

“However, we were struck by how clear the patterns of regional differences were, by how people had stayed in their geographic regions. Clearly, in some areas there had been quite a bit of isolation and relatively little intermarriage over the years.”

When the data was first split, into two groups, it was the inhabitants of Orkney who were most different from the rest of the British Isles.

Wales broke away, then Cornwall and Devon; the Welsh borders separated from Wales, and Northern Ireland formed a group with north western Scotland; Northern England also split away.

By the final analysis, there were 17 cluster groups with north and south Wales showing two very separate clusters.

There were also two distinct groups in the Orkney Islands.

But by far the biggest homogeneous region was a large swathe of southern and central England.

The researchers then compared their PoBI results with DNA data from 7,000 people in Europe to try to trace the ancestry of the British DNA

To be continued...( I'll need to sort it & show map)

[Graham]

http://imageshack.us/a/img266/7149/c5z.png

It was clear that the Orkney islanders had Norwegian ancestors, while the red central and southern English cluster had the largest Belgian, Danish and German contribution

The Cornish and Welsh had more similarity with the modern French, while people in Northern Ireland and Western Scotland have substantial common Irish ancestry

Researchers agree that the DNA evidence fits the known colonisation patterns of early settlers to the British Isles after the Ice Age between 9,600 and 8,000 BC. The first settlers made their way across to the warming tundra that was then the British Isles from North-West Europe via the land bridge that still attached the UK to the area that is now the Low Countries.

Others came by boat from the Atlantic coast of France to the western side of England and Wales and Ireland. This is clearly reflected in the similarities to French and probably Belgian DNA in southern and central England, and the increased level of western French DNA in Cornwall and Wales. So our ancient British DNA has deep roots on the continent – and particularly in France.

For the large section of the population living in the red section of southern and central England, their DNA contained substantial contributions from both the ancient British and the Anglo-Saxons.

It is this that has led the researchers to conclude that although the RomanoBritish people were certainly overwhelmed by a large influx of Anglo-Saxons, they were not annihilated by them, but married and mixed with the newcomers.

Equally it’s clear from the PoBI results that both the Roman and Norman invasions left relatively little genetic trace in Britain, being restricted to a relatively small number of elite rulers.


Meanwhile, back in the archaeology department, there are plans to compare the modern PoBI findings with ancient DNA samples from skeletal remains in Anglo-Saxon graveyards. “I believe that this will back up our interpretations… but if it doesn’t, well, that’s how progress is made,” says Robinson

And there’s also much more work to be done in understanding the DNA make-up of European populations and to extend the PoBI research to southern Ireland. One thing’s for sure, however: and that’s that after the conclusions of this project are finally published, many areas of academic research will never be the same again.

[Graham]

I'll try to explain the Southern Scots & Northern English connection, in that bubble reaching over to Northern Ireland.

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Obviously like before Red represents the more settled English lowlanders. With better fertile land.

Scots borders, Northumbria & Cumbria. Were Historically poorer, with constant war & tribal/dived in places. North England being a buffer defense zone between England & Scotland. You could say the borders, was it's own country.

During the 17th century many of these people moved over to Northern Ireland, when the borders culture was destroyed. This was because of the unification of Scotland & England, with both realms now under a single monarch..

This group would later become known as the Scots-Irish to Americans.

Border Marches & Reivers
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Marches_map.JPG

First conceived in a treaty between Henry III of England and Alexander III of Scotland in 1249 as an attempt to control the Anglo-Scottish border by providing a buffer zone.

On both sides of the Anglo-Scottish border there were the West March, the Middle March and the East March. These regions nearly mirrored each other but there was some overlap between the Scottish and English regions.

In the late 13th century Edward I of England appointed the first Lord Warden of the Marches, who were tasked with overseeing these regions and keeping their monarch's domain secure; when it was in their interests they would encourage cross-border raiding, or even full-scale war.

For centuries the Marches on either side of the boundary were areas of mixed allegiances, where families or clans switched which nation or side they supported as suited their family interests at that time, and lawlessness abounded.

Before the two kingdoms were united under the personal union of Scotland and England under James VI of Scotland (James I of England), the border clans would switch allegiance between the Scottish and English thrones depending on what was most favourable for the members of the clan.

[Graham]

North East Scotland, looks like a connection to the Pictish. perhaps shielded by the Cairngorms & is an interetsing wee group. they need to test locals from Perthshire & Northern Stirlingshire areas imo. Would help to understand this more.

Pictish stone distribution..

http://www.mathstat.strath.ac.uk/outreach/pictish/DatesWeb_pics/image004.gif

Dalriada 580-600AD

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Dalriada.jpg

[Black Wolf]

I have a feeling that many of my Irish ancestors were of Border Marches and Reiver descent. The majority of my mother's ancestors came from Ireland before they came to North America but pretty much all of them as far as I know were Protestant by religion. I have only come across a few surnames that look to be of native Irish origin. Many names look to be of Border Marches or Reiver descent such as Montgomery, Wilson, Wright and Jackson.

[Smaug]

Interesting, so the Picts really reached to the Hebrides.

[riverman]

Interesting, so the Picts really reached to the Hebrides.


I assumed so..
Well, it's interesting because the areas with the red on that map, the (german Danish etc.), the first names of some people in my family from those areas are really german, idk if its coincidence or not.

[Smaug]

I assumed so..
Well, it's interesting because the areas with the red on that map, the (german Danish etc.), the first names of some people in my family from those areas are really german, idk if its coincidence or not.

I don't think they are really German, but they are certainly Germanic. I have an ancestor from Aberdeen, NE Scotland and his surname was of Anglo-Saxon origin.

[Graham]

Interesting, so the Picts really reached to the Hebrides.

Some say there could have been Gaelic pre- Dalriada even. But mainly old Pictland.

Map showing the distribution of Pit- place names in Scotland, once thought to indicate Pictish settlement.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Pit-placenames1.jpg

Iron age Broch distribution
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Map-brochs.png

[Graham]

Cruithne's seven sons.
http://www.ross-ter.com/Favourites/Origins/Picts/pictmap.gif

Cruithne
Ruled all Pictland. 'Cruithne' is Gaelic for Pict.

Cait
Cait is the senior kingdom. Cait himself rules Caithness, Sutherland, the West Highlands, and the Northern and Western Isles. The name means 'Cat People'.

Fidach
Fidach rules Moray, Nairn and Ross. The name means 'Woodsman'.

Ce
Ce rules Banff, Buchan and parts of Aberdeenshire. The name Ce may survive in the town of Keith.

Fotlaig
Fotlaig rules Athol and Gowrie. Fotla is also goddess of Ireland.


Circinn
Circinn rules Angus and the Mearns. The name means 'crest headed'. There was also Crus (son of Cirech) who was a warrior of the Picts. A battle was fought on the plain of Circinn against the Scots.

Fortriu
Fortriu rules Strathearn and Menteith. The name may mean 'people of the slow winding river'.

Fib
Fib rules Fife and Kinross. In the Book of Deer the people of Fife are called the 'cu-sidhe' or fairy hounds. The Pictish name of Vepogenus is formed from Vepo (pronounced 'wepo'), which is also known as 'uip' and 'uib', or 'fib' in Gaelic, and is still used today as Fife.