Border Reiver Deep Ancestry
(Modes of Interpretation)
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Oxford Ancestors Approach The Oxford Ancestors method of interpreting "deep ancestry" seems guided by the following principles: 1) Y chromosome DNA profiles, called "haplotypes", mutate too often to distinguish geographical origin among them when they belong to the same class or "haplogroup". 2) Since R1b prevails among the indigenous population of the British Isles, then any Briton who belongs to R1b is considered a descendant of that population until proven otherwise. 3) OA's customers are divided into one of several "Tribes of Britain", each of which is implicitly associated with a particular haplogroup. The bar graph below shows how OA might interpret our Border Reiver DNA profiles. The "Celtic", "Anglo-Saxon / Danish" and "Norse Viking" options are well-known among OA customers. (The interpretation of all J/J2 haplotypes as "Ancient Roman" was inspired by the anecdote of one OA customer who claimed that Bryan Sykes suggested a Roman origin for his J2 haplotype. To our knowledge, OA has no actual "Tribe of Britain" called "Ancient Roman".)
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The "North Sea Celtic" Approach Population geneticists have observed high proportions of the R1b haplogroup in all parts of the British Isles, with the highest appearing in Western Ireland and Wales. Since the Basques of Spain exhibit similarly high frequencies of R1b, scientists concur that R1b is peculiar to the aboriginal population of Western Europe. They also seem to believe not only that R1b populations have existed in Europe since the Paleolithic, but that they have largely stayed put ever since. That is, perhaps, an oversimplification. The fact that R1b is indigenous to Western Europe is not incompatible with the likelihood that distinct tribal groups with high proportions of R1b have moved from one place to another within Western Europe for thousands of years. The highest frequencies of R1b are found among isolated communities like the Basques or the Gaelic Irish not because they alone represent the Paleolithic heritage of Western Europe, but because they are isolated. They simply have not received the same infusion of "new blood" from other areas that characterizes other parts of the region.
There are substantial proportions of R1b in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France,
The Low Countries, Denmark - even in Norway and parts of Eastern Europe. Although R1b is not quite as common in these locales, it often comes very close. In fact, among the top ten highest match frequencies in YHRD for the basic R1b modal values (DYS # 19=14/389i=13/391=11/392=13/393=13), four fall in The Netherlands and one falls in Denmark. The rest fall in Ireland, Spain and England. R1b has almost certainly been present along the North Sea coast of Continental Europe since the Paleolithic as well. Since we can assume R1b was at least as common across the whole of Western Europe one or two thousand years ago as it is now, there is no way to tell how much of the R1b in, say, England is derived from the Paleolithic natives of Iberia, from the Celts of Switzerland and the Rhine Valley, or from the Saxons and Frisians of the Western Germanic coast. The only way to guess which types of R1b have a longer history in some locales than in others is to identify where those types of R1b represent a higher proportion of the total R1b in the population. A number of DNA genealogy researchers have recognized that a significantly higher ratio of R1b haplotypes with DYS390 marker values of 23 occur in Teutonic countries such as Germany, The Netherlands and Denmark than in areas such as Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Wales. One researcher, Alan Foster, has dubbed this variant "North Sea Celtic". Below is a table that attributes "North Sea Celtic" Border Reiver DNA profiles to an Anglo-Saxon rather than an indigenous "Celtic" population. 13.75 percent of the Border Reiver sample could be classified as "North Sea Celtic".
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"North Sea Celtic" Plus I1a Subclade Analysis Another researcher, Ken Nordtvedt, has analyzed the comparative frequencies of I1a and R1b haplotype variations within the European samples of YHRD (or the Y Chromosome Haplotype Reference Database). He estimated the total number of I1a and R1b haplotypes in each geographical area (e.g., Norway, France, Northern Italy), and used each total as a denominator to calculate the proportions that exhibited particular variations. Like Mr. Foster, he discovered that the highest ratios of R1b haplotypes with DYS390 marker values of 23 fell among countries with a long history of Teutonic occupation - such as Germany, Denmark, The Netherlands and so on. His study of I1a haplotypes, on the other hand, has divided I1a haplotypes into approximately five subgroups. Two, which he calls H1 and H2, exhibit their highest frequencies in parts of continental Europe with a strong Germanic past. Two others, however - H4 and H5 - are found most often in Finland and Scandinavia. These, he implies, express a Norse origin when found in a person of Western European descent. A few of the Border Reiver haplotypes have formally been assigned to, or estimated as, I1a. However, many more that were estimated only as "I" are actually "I1a", and some of these are probably Norse rather than Anglo-Saxon. The primary distinguishing marker values (at least for those markers available in our Border Reiver DNA profiles) are DYS390=23, DYS19=14 (mostly) and DYS385a,b = 14,14 or 14,15 or (possibly) 13,14. Our "deep ancestry" table below has been supplemented in accordance with Dr. Nordtvedt's thinking. About 4.3 percent of the Border Reiver haplotypes could be classified as "Ultra-Norse".
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Haplogroups K2/N/P/Q/R/R1 Counted As "Norse" Several researchers, like David Faux of the Shetland Islands Project, have suggested that some haplogroups of Central or Northern Asiatic origin should be interpreted as indicators of Norse paternal ancestry when found among individuals with roots in the British Isles. Haplogroups N and N3, which are found among Finns, Saami and other largely Uralic populations, very likely entered the British gene pool as an admixture among Norse invaders. Three other such haplogroups include K2, P, R1 (found mostly in Central Asia, R2 (which is found most often in India and Pakistan), and Q (which is found in the Shetland Isles, Iceland, Norway, and among other European populations with possible Central Asian admixtures, including some Jews and Croatians). Like R1a, which is also thought to have originated in Central Asia, these haplogroups may have been absorbed by Heruls, Rugians and Goths and other Baltic peoples during their wanderings near the Black Sea early in the first millennium. When these peoples returned to the Baltic Sea, they brought these haplogroups with them. Such haplogroups may also have been brought to Scandinavia by prehistoric Indo- European invaders like the Kurgans or even the Indo-Aryans. Finally, haplogroups such as Q, which is common among the Evenks and other Siberian tribes, may have been introduced by Norse interaction with such nations as Bjarmaland, which is now called Permia and is adjacent to Siberia. The chart below has been augmented to reflect this interpretation. About 1.1 percent of the Border Reiver sample belong to one of these haplogroups.
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Surname Analysis
Since surnames did not become common practice in Britain until after the 12th
century, two things must be true. 1) The linguistic origin of the surname reflects the time and place where the surname was acquired, not necessarily the "deep ancestry" of who acquired it. 2) Since lineages precede surnames, the two cannot be identical. Many persons of different lineages may have acquired the same surname, and many persons of the same lineage may have acquired different surnames. Examples of surnames that may not reflect a shared genetic lineage are: 1) Place Names - such as the names of towns, estates, or physical features of the landscape. 2) Patronyms - in other words, surnames based on the given name of the father. These could have been acquired by many persons whose only relationship is that their fathers had the same first name. 3) Occupational Names - such as Baker, Walker, Carpenter, Smith, and so on. These are acquired by persons whose only relationship is a shared profession. In spite of the essentially non-genetic nature of surnames, some of them are associated with old Scottish or English families with a known national origin. Just out of curiosity, we will total up the Border Reiver DNA profiles by probable surname origin. The resulting chart will provide an interesting "control" in our survey of geographical origin as determined by DNA.
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Surname Notes The patronymic names could easily have multiple origins. Therefore they were grouped separately, even though some reputedly identify specific Celtic, Anglo-Saxon or Norse families. The Anglo-Saxon word construction of these patronyms may tempt us to classify most as Anglo-Saxon, but the very strong tradition of patronymic names among both Scandinavians and Gaelic Scots suggests that many may simply be Anglicizations. Two of the occupational names are English - Turner and Chamberlain - but strong identification of Taylor, Forrester and Hunter with Scottish families dissuade us from classifying them as Anglo-Saxon. (NOTE: We have assigned the surnames to these categories on the basis of research. Unfortunately, there is often considerable disagreement about their origin. If any of these assignments appears incorrect, please contact us - but be nice, any mistakes were inadvertent.)
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Maximum Norse Ancestry We have prepared tables for each and every one of our Border Reiver haplotypes that show, not only the locales where matches were found in the Y Chromosome Haplotype Reference Database, but also the frequency of such matches in each locale. The locales are sorted in descending order of match frequency, and those that appear at the head of the table may represent the possible source of each DNA profile. Of course, many haplotypes score matches in multiple locales. There is also a danger of misidentifying matches with haplotypes that actually belong to different haplogroups, as the DNA profiles in YHRD are not formally identified by haplogroup and do not include certain STR markers - such as DYS388 - that are especially helpful for discerning the true haplogroup of a given profile. As a result, there is no surefire way to determine which of those locales - or the overall regions that contain them - represent the ultimate origin of a given haplotype. Hence, we can only speculate. We can hypothesize in one direction, and then in another, and perhaps derive a semblance of the truth from multiple perspectives. In this section, we will propose a "what if" scenario, and quantify its implications. We will supplement the haplotypes that have already been attributed on the basis of haplogroup to Norse ancestry with all apparent I and R1b haplotypes whose top three match regions include Norway or Sweden, or both. Such haplotypes include most I1a, some I1b, and a good portion of I1c, amounting to 14.2 percent of the Border Reiver sample. They also include at least a third of the total R1b. Lastly, we will include all our G and G2 entries. G and its subclades are thought, like R1a, to have originated among the Central Asiatic Indo-European peoples, and G2 (at least) is occasionally found among Scandinavians. Such haplotypes comprise 1.4 percent of the total.
This will represent a "hypothetical maximum" of Norse ancestry among the Border Reivers.
The actual percentage of Norse ancestry is unknown, but may be simulated based on two premises - all R1a in Britain is of Norse origin, and the proportion of R1a in Norway 1,200 years ago matches that in Norway today. Since approximately one third - 34 percent - of Norwegian Y-DNA haplotypes belong to R1a, we can estimate the percentage of Norse ancestry among the Border Reivers by multiplying the percent of R1a by three - 3.7 x 3 = 11.1 percent. |
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Maximum Anglo/Danish/Flemish Ancestry Three major population groups that migrated to Northern England and Southern Scotland between 500 and 1500 A.D. are the Angles, the Danes, and the Flemish. The Angles invaded Britain in the 6th century and conquered most of eastern Scotland as far north as the Firth of Forth, as well as large portions of Cumbria, Dumfries and Galloway. The name "Dumfries", as a matter of fact, is Celtic for "Hill of the Frisians". The Angles were especially numerous in what became the East Marches of England and Scotland. The English East March is composed primarily of Northumberland, while the Scottish East March includes the ancient kingdom of Berenicia, which was a co-dominion of Angles and Picts. The Danes first invaded eastern England in the 9th century, and eventually controlled a large portion of England called the Danelaw, which ranged from East Anglia to the southern part of Northumbria. The Flemish were a people of mixed Celtic and Teutonic descent who resided in Flanders. Unlike many Northern European peoples, the Flemish were able to repel the Viking invaders of the early middle ages - and in the process developed a formidable military aristocracy. Flemish nobles later established alliances with the Normans, which resulted in many nobles - like the Bruces - settling in Normandy and eventually joining the invasion of England in 1066. After the Norman invasion, Malcolm Canmore and his successors invited Norman and Flemish nobles into Scotland to modernize the infrastructure of the Scottish nobility with continental European innovations like feudalism and chivalry. Trade with Flanders was also encouraged, and eventually many Flemish merchants and weavers emigrated to Scotland to help manage the burgeoning woolens industry. Although the Angles, the Danes and the Flemish arrived in Britain under very different circumstances, they all originally came from the marshy coastline of the North Sea and were very similar peoples. It is extrremely hard to distinguish genetically among the descendants of the Angles, the Danes and the Flemish, so they must be considered together. The chart below combines the R1b DYS390=23 haplotypes and the "I" type haplogroups, which others have already attributed to a largely Anglo-Saxon or Danish (what Capelli et al. call "invader") origin, with any other Border Reiver haplotypes that count among their top three YHRD match regions * Denmark, Germany, the Rhineland, the Netherlands or Belgium.
Such haplotypes include all I - which comprises 20.5 percent of all Border Reiver haplotypes. The remaining 49.6 percent includes all R1b DYS390=23, most R1b DYS390=22, and much R1b DYS390=24, including the Western Atlantic Modal Haplotype itself, and a few R1b DYS393=12 haplotypes. This represents our "hypothetical maximum" of Anglo-Saxon, Danish and Flemish ancestry among the Border Reivers. The actual percentage of Anglian, Danish and Flemish ancestry is unknown, but may be approximated based on the following premises: 1) All R1a in Germany or Denmark is of Norse or Slavic origin, introduced after the 6th century. 2) No more than 3.1 percent of all Border Reiver results - or 28 percent of the 11.1 percent likely Norse total - are Norse "I" haplotypes. 3) 50 percent of the original Anglo-Danish stock was R1b, and 50 percent was I - hence, the total Anglo-Danish R1b must equal the total projected Anglo-Danish I. The resulting calculation would yield this: (20.4 - 3.1) x 2 = 34.6 percent. |