Too Much Knowledge Disruptive To My Stereotypes

[unaspenser]

Ron, I know how you feel! I went to live in Scotland as an American SURE I had no Scottish heritage, my family is mostly Danish and English. I was determined not to be one of those idiots who comes over, says "this is my land and I'm Scottish," and gets herself killed. Anyway, come to find out with a little digging in my family tree that I had great-grandparents from Scotland after all! Whoops! I always chalked the red hair, pale skin, and freckles up to my Danish roots, but I guess there's a mix.

My family can trace its heritage back to the Roman Empire though, and when you get back that far we're from everywhere, not that it matters... *shrugs*

[piperdbh]

As I'm sure most of you will agree, whether they came from Europe or Africa or Asia or anywhere else, most of us come from a long line of people.

[beloitpiper]

Ron, I was in the same boat. I learned that the Gordons were Norman, and I was shocked. Then I got a DNA test which certified me Celtic. So even though the chief was from Normandy doesn't mean everybody in the septs were also.

[macwilkin]

Ron, I was in the same boat. I learned that the Gordons were Norman, and I was shocked. Then I got a DNA test which certified me Celtic. So even though the chief was from Normandy doesn't mean everybody in the septs were also.

Ever hear of that place next door to Normandy called Brittany?

T.

[Dirk Skene]

......So, with increasing knowledge I've gone from believing my family is Scottish to now believing we're French-Scandanavian....

More tartans to buy now....

You better hold up on the research or you're gonna go broke

[Sammac]

My dad used to say he was a quarterhorse, Scots, French, Irish and English.

[cessna152towser]

If we can get back far enough we are probably all mutts. All four of my grandparents were born in Scotland but one of them was born into an Irish family who had arrived in Scotland the year before he was born. The paternal line of the Irish family was said to go back to a supporter of Prince William, who had been given ground in Lurgan after the Williamite campaign in 1690, on which he had built a cottage which remained in the family for almost three hundred years. With a surname like Mewhort the assumption had always been that he had been a Dutch follower of William of Orange. My wife has McWhirter ancestry from Ayrshire, Scotland and my own researches into that name suggest there were McWhirts or McWhirters who sailed from Girvan in Ayrshire to Northern Ireland about 1650, where they changed their name to Mawhirt, Mewhort or Mewhorter to blend in with the natives. So perhaps I am more Scottish than I thought!

[muirkirkca]

I saw in a newspaper article that nethanderals are purported to be fair skinned with reddish hair and may have interbred with homo-sapiens. If you have a strongly slopping forehead with heavy brow ridges then there may be an ancestral connection.

[GDub]

My Dad's family were Icelanders (by way of Denmark 500 years earlier). He was actually born there, but they moved to Canada when he was two. That end I've got covered. My Mom's Da was Irish--his parents were the real deal. My Mom's Mom was some percent of English decent, though she was a mutt compared to the rest. So I claim Viking/Irish as my blood line--ie, I'm my own master and slave --because the Vikings took the Irish as slaves.

[jrmiller]

Look, the test is really very simple.....

If you like kilts and are willing to wear one and walk around in it, there must be significant Scottish genes in there somewhere! Why worry, who else would do such a thing?