Ghost of a flea

The Flea may be more Welsh than suspected

The Flea's English and Welsh ancestry tilts heavily toward the English despite relatives up and down the border. A new study reported by Nature suggests my English ancestry is less Anglo-Saxon, that is to say less English, than is generally suspected:

Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Danes, Vikings and Normans invaded Britain repeatedly between 50 BC and AD 1050. Many historians ascribe much of the British ancestry to the Anglo-Saxons because their written legacy overshadows that of the Celts.

But the Y chromosomes of the regions tell a different story. "The Celts weren't pushed to the fringes of Scotland and Wales; a lot of them remained in England and central Ireland," says study team member David Goldstein, of University College London. This is surprising: the Anglo-Saxons reputedly colonized southern England heavily.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at June 25, 2003 11:26 AM