An old Yorkshire name reveals roots in Africa

[Aptrgangr]

An old Yorkshire name reveals roots in Africa

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
White men with an unusual Yorkshire surname have black African roots, according to a study that shows Britain's multiracial society dates back hundreds of years earlier than most people realise.
It underlines how the concept of race has no scientific meaning by revealing that a white "Caucasian" man in Leicester has a significant African genetic ancestry, along with a lot of other men with the same rare surname.
The research is the first genetic evidence of Africans having lived in Britain for much longer than thought, though those bearing the name are unaware of a link that has now been traced back to the Leeds area more than two centuries ago.
The docking of the ship Empire Windrush in 1948 is often regarded as the start of Britain's multiracial society. However, Britain has been home to people of African origin for centuries: they were first recorded in northern England 1,800 years ago as Roman soldiers defending Hadrian's Wall. Vikings may have brought captured north Africans to Britain in the ninth century. And, from the 1550s, there was the influence of the Atlantic slave trade: Britain is estimated to have had a black population of about 10,000 by the end of the 18th century.
But studies of British genetic diversity had previously found no apparent African trace. Then Turi King, a PhD student of Prof Mark Jobling at the University of Leicester, did a project in which she tracked the Y chromosome – the type that is only carried by men – and linked the chromosome types with surnames, also typically passed from father to son.
Her survey of 421 men funded by the Wellcome Trust revealed one from Leicester who had a globally rare Y chromosome type – called hgA1 – described previously in only a few West Africans, she and Prof Jobling report today in the European Journal of Human Genetics.
Mr X, as the man is referred to in the study, is described as a white, middle-aged "quiet character" and knew of no African family connection. "He thought it was fascinating," said Prof Jobling.
The team studied the Y chromosomes of 18 other men sharing Mr X's rare surname, which Prof Jobling has withheld those who have it should feel he was divulging personal information.
All but one were from the UK, with paternal parents and grandparents also born in Britain. Six, including a man in the US whose ancestors had migrated from England in 1894, were found to have the African hgA1 chromosome.
Conventional genealogical research was used to link them to two family trees, both dating back to the 1780s in Yorkshire. These families owe their Y chromosome to an African man living in England before the mid-18th century.
There are certainly records of Africans in the north of England. On Sept 29 1687, for example, a "Moor" listed as 'John Moore – blacke' was given the freedom of York.
But he is probably unconnected with Mr X, said Prof Jobling. He added that the originator of Mr X's chromosome was not necessarily a first-generation African immigrant. It could go back as far as the Roman occupation.
African chromosome links have since been found to other British surnames.
"This study shows that what it means to be British is complicated and always has been," says Prof Jobling. "Human migration history is clearly very complex, particularly for an island nation such as ours, and this study further debunks the idea that there are simple and distinct populations or 'races'."
Prof Jobling believes that the research may also have implications for DNA profiling in criminal investigations. "Forensic scientists use DNA analysis to predict a person's ethnic origins, for example from hair or blood samples found at a crime scene. Whilst they are very likely to predict the correct ethnicity by using wider analysis of DNA other than the Y chromosome, finding this remarkable African chromosome would certainly have them scratching their heads for a while."

Telegraph | News | An old Yorkshire name reveals roots in Africa

[Menydh]

Well.. they will feel more at home today than 5 generations ago

Shame that they don't give away the name.

[Carnyx]

Leroy?

[Susi]

Originally Posted by Carnyx

Leroy?

JENNNNNNNNNNNNNKINS!

</random>

It really should tell the actual name... :\

[Kernunnos]

It is incredible what politics force science to do.

To make people accept a multiracial society they find a black drop in an ocean of white, btw spending precious reasearch money that could be employed otherwise, then it all goes to the benefit of the immigrationist parties propaganda machine.

Obviously fact like the occasional arrival of a negro man may have occurrend in any european society, for example in the XVI century the italian courts would employ black african slaves as human curiosities, there are visual records of this.

Nobody has researched their fate, but it is reasonable to think that some left their genetic mark in our society.

After the discovery of the New World and the increase of african contacts white societis took great care into avoiding misgenaton, think of the Elizabeth Browning personal story.

A great portrait of the way the whites would see the blacks than is given in Shakespeare's tempest with the character of Caliban, a brutish negro refusing the civilizating educaton liberally bestowed upon him by Prosper, whom he repays by tryng to rape his daughter.

Caliban is made a slave of Prosper only after he refuses education and tries ot rape Prosper's daughter in order to populate the island with little calibans.

In short, the justification of colonialism and race separation stood in the savage nature of the blacks themselves, who acted without restraint and showed no interest for the wisdom of the white man.

How far we are from the disgraceful myth of the good savage by Rousseau, a myth that is still today the cornerstone of thirld-worldism and immigrationism.

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Breha

How far we are from the disgraceful myth of the good savage by Rousseau, a myth that is still today the cornerstone of thirld-worldism and immigrationism.

Ah, the myth of the noble savage..

I've seen it used to excuse Nordicism. Quite bizarre if you asked me.

[Kernunnos]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

Ah, the myth of the noble savage..

I've seen it used to excuse Nordicism. Quite bizarre if you asked me.

As bizzarre as Russeau himself, a drifter who managed to pass for an intellectual.


It is not a case if it is the cornerstone of egalitarianism, along the myth of a noble mankind corrupted by evil.


Whence is this evil coming, if not from mankind itself?

If people become evil because of the evilness of others, such evilness is not born out of the sky, but out of human hearth.

So man is no noble savage corrupted by some evil coming from an unspecified source: the source of evil is in every man, even the most well treated one.

[Carnyx]

Originally Posted by Susi

JENNNNNNNNNNNNNKINS!

Is it common?

It really should tell the actual name... :\

Worried?

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

Originally Posted by Breha

It is not a case if it is the cornerstone of egalitarianism, along the myth of a noble mankind corrupted by evil.


Whence is this evil coming, if not from mankind itself?

If people become evil because of the evilness of others, such evilness is not born out of the sky, but out of human hearth.

So man is no noble savage corrupted by some evil coming from an unspecified source: the source of evil is in every man, even the most well treated one.

Every man harbours evil and good in himself. He can choose. There is no noble savage. The "savage" can be good or evil. The same can be said of a civilized man too.

[Llywarch Hen]

Originally Posted by Susi

JENNNNNNNNNNNNNKINS!

It's of Flemish origin, very common in the far southwestern parts of Wales, where Flemings were settled by the Normans. A diminuitive of Jan [as might Yankee be, indeed]
See here; Surname Profiler

It really should tell the actual name... :\
Worried?

The article said it was a pretty rare name...

[Sergius]

Susi is refering to Leeroy Jenkins.

[Susi]

Originally Posted by Carnyx

Is it common?

No, it's a joke from World of Warcraft, this guy shouts this into his microphone and fails utterly. His name was "Leeroy Jenkins". ...

Worried?

Not at all because my last name is easy to see where it comes from.

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

Some typical Yorkshirians: