DNA can change everything

[sailortats]

The website below was sent to me earlier today. I assume it is authentic but I have not heard of this site before. I have been told that even though I am of Scottish descent that my last name "Payton" originated in the Viking settlement of Normandy. So I am rather inclined to believe what this article states.

http://www.deadlinenews.co.uk/2015/0...ing-not-irish/

Moderators: if this belongs somewhere else please change to the appropriate spot.

[davidlpope]

I think the thing to remember is that the population of Scotland, like most countries, is dynamic, rather than static. Genetic genealogy shows that there were several people-groups who formed modern Scots: Celts, Irish, Anglo-Saxons, Scandinavians, Normans, Flemings, Huguenots, etc. One can be descended from Scots who are descended from one of these constituent groups...

[McElmurry]

I follow progress in the R1b-M222 forum. There are a lot of family traditions being rewritten by DNA testing. Most people eventually get over the loss of an old story and latch on to the possibilities of unravelling a new mystery.

[Dughlas mor]

I`m sure that news comes as quite a shock to a lot of people, but a Norse heritage is a very proud one as well. It may be too late to discover the actual history of the MacNeills, but it might be worth someone trying.

[DyerStraits]

I`m sure that news comes as quite a shock to a lot of people, but a Norse heritage is a very proud one as well. It may be too late to discover the actual history of the MacNeills, but it might be worth someone trying.

My girlfriend is, among other things, a bit Scottish, a bit Norman, a bit Anglo-Saxon, and her matrilineal grandmother was 100% Norwegian. I've told her repeatedly, Barkeep, that's a hell of a cocktail-- I'll have another. And when I can't find any more SAABs, I'll start driving Volvos.

As for myself, I recently received my own geneological DNA analysis from Ancestry.com, which confirms my long-held assumption that I'm the Biggest Mongrel Who Ever Lived (among other things, I am, according to their lab, 1% Jewish, which of course changes everything--knowing that makes me so proud I could cry). It did little however to definitively answer any of my burning Celto-Gaelic-British lineage questions. They say I am 2% Irish and 2% "Great Britain", which basically does and does not tell me what I already know, and does not specifically answer my long smoldering question about my maternal great-great grand-daddy Alford Dyer: was he Irish, was he Scottish, was he English, was he Cornish, or was he Welsh? The Saga Continues....

[neloon]

I think it has long been recognised that most of the far west and north clans are Norse rather than Celtic. The MacLeods are the sons of Ljot (the ugly one), the MacQueens are the sons of Sven, the MacKays, MacDonalds, Sutherlands, MacKenzies have similarly Norse names. The fact that many of these names are also found in Ireland is no surprise since the Vikings didn't stop at what is now Scotland. Then we have the Frasers, Grants and Bruces who were Anglo-Norman, the Chisholms who were Anglo-Saxon and so it goes on.
Alan

[Pleater]

Great Britain is - you might have noticed, sea girt - so have boat will travel - Vikings viked around, and sometimes got themselves into a whole lot of trouble and sometimes they went over to a farm to trade for chickens and one of them suddenly found himself feeling hot under the collar under the gaze of one of the lasses.

Then later there was the herring fishery - the fishermen travelled around the coast to find the fish and follow them around during the season, landing them at the most convenient port, where they had left the women who travelled with them to gut and pack the fish into barrels.

People were mobile - china clay was transported from Cornwall anti clockwise around the coast and up rivers and canals to the Potteries, for instance, but loads of things were moved around by water.

Then someone invented the safety bicycle which opened up a whole new set of possibilities, and women were included.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[neloon]

sailortats,
The surname "Paton" (pronounced "payton") is not uncommon in Scotland though it is said to have originated in Shropshire, England.
Alan

[KentuckyCeltophile]

Thanks sailortats,

Being born in the US, one has to unravel the web of knots in our genealogy. Being Scot, German, Dutch, English, and possibly some Irish one gets used to the notion of having not just one story to tell, but a novel of different stories.

Can someone help me with at quote from the article? One man said he “got over being a Celt, but nevertheless a Gael”. Kindly, what is the difference between the two? I always thought they were synonymous.
Thanks again,
KC

[neloon]

Can someone help me with at quote from the article? One man said he “got over being a Celt, but nevertheless a Gael”. Kindly, what is the difference between the two? I always thought they were synonymous.
KC

He appears to be just muddled but they are not synonymous.
The Welsh, Cornish, Bretons, Galicians are p-Celts, as were the Pictish/Cumbric peoples.
The Irish, Manx and Scottish q-Celts (i.e. Gaelic speakers) are Gaels.
Of course, many Europaeans would have a good deal of Celtic DNA but would not consider themselves to be Celts.
Alan