Too Much Knowledge Disruptive To My Stereotypes

[Ancienne Alliance]

And the Normans were originally Vikings ("Northmen = Norman").

Todd

The Normans are French today .
I'm not really sure they identified themselves as such 900 years ago... even though they were living on a territory we now call France.

Best,


Robert

[macwilkin]

The Normans are French today .
I'm not really sure they identified themselves as such 900 years ago... even though they were living on a territory we now call France.

Best,


Robert

Robert, I never said they were not French. However, the do have Scandinavian heritage, as any historian/scholar will tell you.

Ron was discussing his possible Scandinavian heritage, as well as some French blood. I was simply pointing out the irony that the Normans also had Viking in them, thereby recognising them as part of France.

Todd

[Ancienne Alliance]

Robert, I never said they were not French. However, the do have Scandinavian heritage, as any historian/scholar will tell you.

Ron was discussing his possible Scandinavian heritage, as well as some French blood. I was simply pointing out the irony that the Normans also had Viking in them, thereby recognising them as part of France.

Todd

Oups ! My English really isn't up to standard !
For I ment to say exactly what you are saying .

Perhaps I should have said : "The Normans have only been recently considered French (hence my bold "today")

Thanks for being patient with me .

Best,
Robert

[Pleater]

You are lucky if you can trace your family right back to Adam - I come from a long line of spinsters, as far as I can tell.

My genealogy has more holes in it than a pair of lace curtains.

I supose I could get a DNA analysis done, out of curiosity, but I have a stronger sense of place than of people and 'home' will always be South Yorkshire because that is where I grew up.

I have bought Morrison tartan - 'Morris on' was a recording of morris tunes and I happen to be a drummer for a morris side. I also bought Armstong, as there is possibly some dwarfish blood.....

I have to consider a strong Scottish connection as, despite a normally calm and genial nature, the sound of bagpipes increases my pulse rate and I feel the urge to - find something - and do things at it.

Anne the Pleater

[sathor]

I can't. Wish I could. Funny thing that, though. If ancestry.com is accurate, which sort of a dna test, I am happy enough with it. It takes me to Adam's brother. Well, I think his father was also an Adam, but the famous one is not my line.

You are lucky if you can trace your family right back to Adam - I come from a long line of spinsters, as far as I can tell.

[Carolina Kiltman]

Let's face it. The idea of "purity of race" was proposed IMHO as an excuse to subjugate others not of that obvious strain. Two recent examples were Hitler's Aryan Ubermensche(sp) and the Jim Crow Laws that grew up in the former Confederate States after the Civil War. 1/16 made you of African Descent.

That being said, where there are any reachable land masses, the populations will migrate and will mix. Originally distances were the determining factor, but now it ought be obvious that if we were all dogs, we would be a single breed (I'll go for the Retrievers)

Obviously we are all one species, as when the races interbreed, viable, fertile offspring result. (I was given this as one of the tests of genetics, long before we were able to read DNA)

I must also admit, tracing one's family is a lot of fun! Did one of my many times great grandfathers ever get into a fist fight as a kid with Stephen Decateur? fun speculation.

[Phil]

I doubt if anyone could claim a pure-blooded succession as the whole history of the human race has been founded upon migration and conquest and subsequent colonisation and America is just one of the most recent examples of that (along with Australia and Africa). Scotland itself has experienced similar events with the Picts being usurped by the Scots (from Ireland) at the same time as the Norsemen (Vikings) followed by the Normans (yet more Vikings). Recent migrations have been less intrusive, perhaps because the climate is inimical to people from the Caribbean, Asia and Africa but anyone claiming to be a pure-blooded Scot is probably deluding themselves. Scots over the past few hundred years have settled and inter-married in all parts of the world and brought their own particular values and ideas with them. It was Scots who valued and fostered education for all above all else, who decried the class system so beloved of the English ("The man's a man for a that") and these are sentiments ingrained into the Scottish psyche. If you too espouse these values then who is to say you don't have Scottish blood somewhere in your veins.

[sathor]

You didn't mention the Romans. Bloody Roman. They made it to Brittan, and you know some freaked out early Brits (I forget what 'tribe' they would have been) probably fled north, and intermarried, and I'm sure some Romans left some, um, souvenirs, when they left. And those Romans really liked to mix things up....

I doubt if anyone could claim a pure-blooded succession as the whole history of the human race has been founded upon migration and conquest and subsequent colonisation and America is just one of the most recent examples of that (along with Australia and Africa). Scotland itself has experienced similar events with the Picts being usurped by the Scots (from Ireland) at the same time as the Norsemen (Vikings) followed by the Normans (yet more Vikings). Recent migrations have been less intrusive, perhaps because the climate is inimical to people from the Caribbean, Asia and Africa but anyone claiming to be a pure-blooded Scot is probably deluding themselves. Scots over the past few hundred years have settled and inter-married in all parts of the world and brought their own particular values and ideas with them. It was Scots who valued and fostered education for all above all else, who decried the class system so beloved of the English ("The man's a man for a that") and these are sentiments ingrained into the Scottish psyche. If you too espouse these values then who is to say you don't have Scottish blood somewhere in your veins.

[Tony]

You didn't mention the Romans. Bloody Roman. They made it to Brittan, and you know some freaked out early Brits (I forget what 'tribe' they would have been) probably fled north, and intermarried, and I'm sure some Romans left some, um, souvenirs, when they left. And those Romans really liked to mix things up....

What did the Romans ever do for us?

[Phil]

You didn't mention the Romans. Bloody Roman. They made it to Brittan, and you know some freaked out early Brits (I forget what 'tribe' they would have been) probably fled north, and intermarried, and I'm sure some Romans left some, um, souvenirs, when they left. And those Romans really liked to mix things up....

Although the Romans made forays into Scotland they never actually conquered or governed the place, preferring to build walls (Hadrian's & Antonine) to keep the natives out, at that time the Picts. The Scots didn't arrive until much later (see the Dalriada post). In fact, unlike England with William the Conqueror, no foreign power ever conquered and ruled Scotland, which only lost its ruler when he went south to take over England's crown. Also the majority of Roman soldiers employed on these outposts of empire would have been recruited fairly locally, Gaul or those early Brits you mentioned. In those days nearly every hill fort in England was a separate "kingdom" - a much different place to nowadays.