Mid-morning. Carol is reading the paper
after a later breakfast, you are readying to dig up information on the
Beauchamps to feed into the tree later; once this is updated what you have left
if the Hubbell’s in England which has controversies. Some do not feel there is
enough of a link to support the same Hubbell family in the Hubbell book. You
are ready to give up being related to Duncan I of Scotland because in your mind
there is nothing better than to have an English ancestor with possibly of
having met Chaucer.
0942
hours. I am not so concerned with this as my DNA through Bryan Sykes’ Oxford
Ancestry confirms male ancestors in Scotland five thousand years ago. That’s
close enough for me to feel an imaginary ‘genetic closeness’ to Merlyn and Stonehenge
and the like, enough that I feel I can write about it in a fiction in any case
(even though I was born and raised in the United States).
** **
Bryan Sykes (born 9 September 1947) is a Professor of Human Genetics at the
University of Oxford and a Fellow of Wolfson College.
Sykes published the first
report on retrieving DNA from ancient bone (Nature,
1989). Sykes has been involved in a number of high-profile cases dealing with
ancient DNA, including those of Otzi the Iceman and Cheddar Man, and others
concerning people claiming to be members of the Romanovs, the Russian royal
family. His work also suggested a Florida accountant by the name of Tom
Robinson was a direct descendant of Genghis Khan, a claim that was subsequently
disputed.
Sykes is best known outside
the community of geneticists for his bestselling books on the investigation of
human history and prehistory through studies of mitochondrial DNA. He is also
the founder of Oxford Ancestors, a genealogical DNA testing firm.
Blood of the Isles
In his 2006 book Blood
of the Isles (published in the United States and Canada as Saxons,
Vikings and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland), Sykes
examines British genetic "clans". He presents evidence from mitochondrial
DNA, inherited by both sexes from their mothers, and the Y chromosome,
inherited by men from their fathers, for the following points:
•
The genetic
makeup of Britain and Ireland is overwhelmingly what it has been since the
Neolithic period and to a very considerable extent since the Mesolithic period,
especially in the female line, i.e. those people, who in time would become
identified as British Celts (culturally speaking), but who (genetically
speaking) should more properly be called Cro-Magnon. In continental Europe,
this same Cro-Magnon genetic legacy gave rise to the Basques. But
"Basque" and "Celt" are cultural designations, not genetic
ones.
•
The
contribution of the Celts of Central Europe of to the genetic makeup of Britain
and Ireland was minimal; most of the genetic contribution to the British Isles
of those we think of as Celtic, came from western continental Europe, I.E. the
Atlantic seaboard.
•
The Picts were
not a separate people: the genetic makeup of the formerly Pictish areas of Scotland
shows no significant differences from the general profile of the rest of
Britain. The two "Pictland" regions are Tayside and Grampian.
•
The
Anglo-Saxons are supposed, by some, to have made a substantial contribution to
the genetic makeup of England, but in Sykes's opinion it was under 20 percent
of the total, even in Southern England.
•
The Vikings
(Danes and Norwegians) also made a substantial contribution, which is
concentrated in central, northern and eastern England - the territories of the
ancient Danelaw. There is a very heavy Viking contribution in the Orkney and
Shetland Islands, in the vicinity of 40 percent. Women as well as men
contributed substantially in all these areas, showing that the Vikings engaged
in large-scale settlement.
•
The Norman contribution
was extremely small, on the order of 2 percent.
•
There are only
sparse traces of the Roman occupation, almost all in Southern England.
•
In spite of all
these later contributions, the genetic makeup of the British Isles remains
overwhelmingly what it was in the Neolithic: a mixture of the first Mesolithic
inhabitants with Neolithic settlers who came by sea from Iberia and ultimately
from the eastern Mediterranean.
•
There is a
difference between the genetic histories of men and women in Britain and Ireland.
The matrilineages show a mixture of original Mesolithic inhabitants and later
Neolithic arrivals from Iberia, whereas the patrilineages are much more
strongly correlated with Iberia. This suggests (though Sykes does not emphasize
this point) replacement of much of the original male population by new arrivals
with a more powerful social organization.
•
There is
evidence for a "Genghis Khan effect", whereby some male lineages in
ancient times were much more successful than others in leaving large numbers of
descendants; e.g. Niall of the Nine Hostages in 4th and 5th century Ireland and
Somerled in 12th century Scotland.
Some quotations from the
book follow. (Note that Sykes uses the terms “Celts” and “Picts” to designate
the pre-Roman inhabitants of the Isles who spoke Celtic and does not mean the
people known as Celts in central Europe.)
The presence of large numbers of
Jasmine’s Oceanic clan … says to me that there was a very large-scale movement
along the Atlantic seaboard north from Iberia, beginning as far back as the
early Neolithic and perhaps even before that. The mere presence of Oceanic
Jasmines indicates that this was most definitely a family based settlement
rather that the sort of male-led invasions of later millennia.
The Celts of Ireland and
the Western Isles are not, as far as I can see from the genetic evidence,
related to the Celts who spread south and east to Italy, Greece and Turkey from
the heartlands of Hallstadt and La Tene...during the first millennium BC…The
genetic evidence shows that a large proportion of Irish Celts, on both the male
and female side, did arrive from Iberia at or about the same time as farming
reached the Isles. (…)
The connection to Spain is
also there in the myth of Brutus. This too may be the faint echo of the same
origin myth as the Milesian Irish and the connection to Iberia is almost as
strong in the British regions as it is in Ireland. (…)
They [the Picts] are from the
same mixture of Iberian and European Mesolithic ancestry that forms the
Pictish/Celtic substructure of the Isles. Here again, the strongest signal
is a Celtic one, in the form of the clan of Oisin, which dominates the scene
all over the Isles. The predominance in every part of the Isles of the Atlantis
chromosome (the most frequent in the Oisin clan), with its strong affinities to
Iberia, along with other matches and the evidence from the maternal side
convinces me that it is from this direction that we must look for the origin of
Oisin and the great majority of our Y-chromosomes…I can find no evidence at all
of a large-scale arrival from the heartland of the Celts of central Europe
amongst the paternic genetic ancestry of the Isles.
From Wikipedia - Bryan Sykes
** **
This line of thinking of yours, that you may
not have sufficient authenticity genetically to write even a fiction on Merlyn
hovers on your doubting nature coupled with being both honest and polite. This
is a combination of character traits that plague your notes and Merlyn books. –
Amorella
1024
hours. I realize this Amorella. You can drop the point much more succinctly than I.
Thank you. I don’t know that I can do much about my character traits other than to
accept them. I have no trouble accepting these traits as you see
them. Sometimes I just move on, as I will, to the major editing of the original
book two.
1325
hours. We are about to head out for lunch. Holding off on buying fuel until
tomorrow, as it is $3.99 for regular. I found and copied material on many a
previous Beauchamp through ‘the peerage’. Enough already. I’ll put it in later.
When we return I’m ready to work on GMG.Two.
From my perspective you are a detective,
that’s how you see it; and it is fun to dig stuff up, so to speak. Besides, it
is a tip of the old black beret to Great Aunt Floy, that’s what is important
here. You promised you would continue the work she began and you are living up
to that promise. Enjoy lunch wherever you decide to go. Later, dude. - Amorella
You
had an excellent and quiet lunch at Smashburgers and are now at the VOA Park
behind the Miami Universe. Carol is reading the article on the Honda Accord
Hybrid in the July Consumer’s Report that arrived today instead of her book.
Let’s go to Running Through and make a working copy.
1539
hours. This took awhile. I began a new folder ‘GMG.BK.TWO.WKG’ then cleaned up
the original document using a newer format and switching from the Time 12 font
to Arial 14. Next I’ll set the twelve chapters separately for separate work
following the same format as in GMG.One.
Sounds like an established plan, boy.
Excitement, huh. – Amorella
Yes, I
am getting pumped. Hopefully, this will be easier as I have more experience in
the set up and execution.
You have stopped at Kroger’s on Tylersville
for a few essentials before heading home. You also have the folders and
documents for the Intro, One, Two and Three. – Amorella
1606
hours. I have my work cut out for me; I forgot how much I have to cut out and
redraft for each chapter, plus I have to add a ‘The Dead’ segment for each. I
like the plan though. I’ll finish up the chapters so when I begin with One and
can move right on through them one step at a time.
We are going to set this up a bit
differently. We won’t move to the next chapter until you have a secure draft of
the first chapter and so on. This way, when these twelve are completed we can
work on the final draft at that point. I will help your initial editing and you
now have a better idea how this book is going to go as it will follow the
dynamics and format of the first book to the letter. Each time you complete a
chapter we take a break for a day so you can work on the genealogy for Aunt
Floy. – Amorella
1735
hours. I have completed the folder in separate chapters for work on GMG.Two,
plus I placed a copy of this folder in Cloud Page for safekeeping. Turns out there are 14 chapters not 12. I forgot all about the other two. Feeling
good, pumped. I am ready to begin.
You
had water and a quarter bag of baby carrots with lite veggie dip for supper
while you watched NBC News and a two week old “Believe” and an old “This Old
House” on the Jersey Shore. Now you have the working document of Dead.2.1 ready
to go and the file systems to place it in when ready. Also, earlier, before
supper, you received an automatic note from Ancestry with a list of all your
people who have ‘hints’ available sent in the order they are in your Family
software. This was a pleasant surprise and while you were on a break you copied
a few hints and are going down the list one by one also noting where there are
photographs, records to copy later. – Amorella
2112
hours. I like to be organized. I am more than delighted on how Ancestry works
so far. What a help. Aunt Floy could not believe [contemplate] what ancestry
research we are able to do in today’s world. I can hardly believe [accept]] it
myself.
You know better, boy. ‘Believe’ as a word is
way overused and is taken out of context, much of the time. What would be a
better word in the above paragraph’s context? – Amorella
2125
hours. You are right. I used ‘believe’ out of habit and laziness. We used to
teach Kim about such matters as she was growing up. Now I forget to practice
them.
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