Monday, June 7

My Ethnic Heritage (approximately).


Note: 'Other' almost certainly contains Polish, Irish, and possibly some French. I'm doing research to try to create a more accurate chart than this, but it's a first shot at it anyway.

8 comments:

An Gabhar Ban said...

Look ma! An American!! ;)

billybytedoc said...

More English, no Spanish.

No American Indians snuck in there as far as I know.

Don't really know much.

Sara said...

Blimey Justin, it's all different around here. I thought I'd just walked into a hospital! :)

Metamatician said...

Hehe. That clinical looking eh?

An Gabhar Ban said...

Only without a nifty logo at the top. I like the stark purity myself.

Unknown said...

I think mine would be all the one colour, unless you went back further and discovered Celtic/Anglo/Norse heritage. My paternal grandparents were from Yorkshire, my maternal grandfather from the NW of England and my maternal grandmother from SE England, so there may be a mixture there.

Anyway, now we can clearly see what you're made up of, a post on how each of these have influenced you would be interesting.

Metamatician said...

Hmm, I'm not sure it really works that way, but it's an interesting idea. And since we all come from Africa, Raelha, at some point your ancestors must have come from somewhere besides Britain. Normans came from France, Anglo-Saxons before them came from around Denmark mostly via central Europe, and the Vikings came from Norway mostly. The Romans came from Rome or its provinces and then left, but probably sired lots of children illegitimately.

The only people around before all of them were Celts, Bretons, and Picts, maybe some other small tribes. But go back far enough and they'd have migrated there from the mainland as well - if for no other reason than Britain was covered in ice 12,000 year ago and further back.

It just gets so far back beyond the record-keeping that you wouldn't know. Yorkshire used to be Jorvik, the Viking center of the Danelaw, of course, so you may be part Norse. Probably the usual blend of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, Norman, Celt...who knows what else. Even Britain's church and tax records, though extensive, only go back so far (I think the Domesday book is about the oldest), so you'd have to get your DNA tested to really know. And I'll bet you (or anyone) a hundred dollars that they would find at least ONE surprise in what their DNA tells them, if not more!

I saw a show where a white Briton whose ancestors as far back as he knew had been born within the same few counties got his DNA tested in a mass survey, only to find out he had a y-chromosome which could only have come from West Africa! Therefore a manservant or guest or someone from Africa in the past had gotten a bit friendly with the ladies, or else someone in his family had gone to NW Africa for some nookie in the Dark Ages, which is about when the mutation worked out to have originated (the science is more complex, so I'm simplifying). Turns out that's when the Crusades were... and though most went down Italy to Messina then by boat to Acre, or else took the eastern route through Turkey, some dallied in Morocco or the Berber country to trade before heading east to fight.

Likewise is the same show a Black man who had come to the UK from the West Indies during the days of slavery discovered much to his surprised than about 3/4 of his DNA was northern European, which generally means white! He was a middle-dark shade of black, and suspected that he'd had some white people in the woodpile since most people descended from slaves do, but never suspected that, genetically speaking, he's only 1/4 African and actually more European, despite outward appearances.

Seems you never know what's hiding in your DNA!

Hans said...

One pen pal I talked to said English people are a combination of Irish, French, Spanish, Nordic, etc...there are no pure nationalities unless like Meta said you go back far enough and we all come from the same place...But as far as I know in my recent ancestry info: I'm 50% German, and guessing a little but probably 40% English, 10 % Polish/Bohemian gypsy! My maternal Grandma, Allie Probasco (Probaski) said one of her parents was a gypsy. I now have a tin penny whistle (toy type), a nice German harmonica, and a handmade ukelele from Hawaii (just because I love Hawaii). I still need a floor drum to make a nice bass sound , and now a tambourine. When I have more room I'd love to have a nice collection of percussion instruments since I'm not about to re-learn reading music except maybe for the ukelele. Sorry different subject...but it would make a good topic "musical instruments" - find out which ones people play or would like to play or just like hearing. Even ancient musical instruments like the one Bardou uses - the nyckelharpa and an 11 string arch guitar -http://www.elevenstrings.com/bardou.htm

Check these guys out - I saw them play in Arles, France and they're amazing.

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