Kilt Go Braugh? A cultural/historical question

[gilmore]

If there is one thing that I have learned from my studies of history it is that none of us, whether American, English, Scottish, Irish or other more recent national origin, are truly purebreds in the sense of all predecessors being from one stock. One doesn't have to go back too far in history of any countries or regions to see how many different cultures have entered into our heritage.

Not always true. It depends on what part of the world you are in. Genetic genealogy shows that a surprising (to us peripetatic Americans) numbers of Welsh, Scots, Irish and English, and other Europeans live pretty much where their ancestors did. Do a search for a Welsh or Scots surname here: http://www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk/default.aspx You will see that in 1881, they were pretty much where they had always been.

Going back beyond the 1600s things REALLY begin to get interesting. Most of our histories do well to even be traced back before the 400s...still not that long ago in terms of history. However, even before that there were cultural migrations that would really surprise us. Peoples from throughout what is now "Britain" as well as most of Europe and even other parts of the world spread their genes, cultures and traditions well before recorded history.

No one of European descent (except Georgian nobility) can trace his ancestry with any reliability at all further than Charlemagne's immediate ancestors in the 700's. The records just are not there, LDS assertions notwithstanding.

There was relatively little genetic dispersal until European expansion started about 500 years ago. See maps of distribution of DNA here http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/~mcdonald/Wo...groupsMaps.pdf

In 1500, and even today, despite the Anglo-Saxon, Viking and Norman invasions, the majority of English (yes, English, not only British) DNA comes from the Celts. The former contributed much less to the British gene pool than had been previously thought.

One thing that I might add is the considerable role of the Normans (French) both in terms of the French families that we now recognize as Scottish as well as the substantial role of feudalism as a system that greatly influenced most aspects of land ownership, entitlement, political affiliation and so much more that later shaped Scottish and English history.

Feudalism came to Lowland Scotland with the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. The few Norman families who went there came much later. Most say that although feudalism made some inroads into the Highlands, it never replaced the clan system there, the latter having been destroyed after the 1745 rebellion.