Tuesday, November 28, 2017

African-Scottish?

While looking through Scottish ancestries, which I share on both the paternal and maternal sides of my family, I have tried to discover where those ancestors came from, and I'm finding them very mixed. For example, the one documented mercenary I have, no first name given, but his surname was Saunders, presumably hired himself out and left Scotland at or near the time when Mary, Queen of Scots, began her reign, and all the troubles the Scottish people suffered with her. He went to work for the kingdom of Denmark, which was striving to hold on to its northern possessions, now part of Sweden.

Grandpa Saunders learned enough Danish to later serve as a district judge in Buskerud County, Norway, years after he finished his enlistment, and settled down with his Norwegian wife. Many Norwegians with the surname Sanderson continue his legacy. What was his ancestry, was he part Danish?

I've not been able to find anything about his origins, other than what I have listed above. So he probably had some viking ancestry, mingled with the Celtic, Roman, Saxon, and African ancestries of many others. Is it any wonder so much strife exists all throughout Scottish history?

Scotland pursued the somewhat French-favoring Auld Alliance. Mary, Queen of Scots, was half-French, and a descendant of the Guise family, her mother being descended from the Medicis, some who had African ancestors. There is some wonder about the Berber origins of some Scots. That's not so surprising, when you consider some of the Moorish caliphs who ruled what is now Portugal and Spain converted Berber tribesmen in North Africa to Islam, and marched with them to the Iberian penninsula.

The descendants of these Berbers became the police force for the Caliphs, for at least four hundred years, and intermarried with the local people. When the caliphs were pushed out of Spain and Portugal, their posterity would continue to mingle, eventually working for and with royalty, and coming under the power of France.

Mary brought people with her from France, as other Scottish kings would have, due to trade and diplomatic ties, who would be more likely to have African ancestors. The Romans posted African contingents on the northern border between Roman-dominated Britain, and the Picts.

All these differences in ancestries eventually played into Scotland's favor, being able to unite under one king, generation after generation, to fight the English. It was these mixed Scottish and Irish-Americans, who helped the fledgling United States finally defeat the British, the world's biggest superpower of the times of the American Revolution.

If the Scots had gone down in history without the African, Roman, Saxon, French, or descendants of many other nationalities, would they have been as successful? I don't think so. What do you think?

Sunday, November 19, 2017

Understanding Your and My Origins

You and I are fairly closely related. But how?

One trait may be intelligence. My own very, very mixed family is fairly bright. Some of my family members have tested IQs of over 140, and that doesn't seem to be the exception, as far as I can tell.

When I worked the phones for Ancestry.com, I met African-Americans of African and Scottish ancestry. It became very obvious to me they were more intelligent than I, and probably many of my own family. This does not make them better and me worse. Did this kind of trait come genetically from their Scottish lines, or their African ancestries? I suggest they received and capitalized on their intelligence and other associated talents from both sides of their family. In other words, they were a credit to their respective families, and to the human race.

Therefore, why so much furor over ethnicity and race? Does race really matter?

When I read blogs like the following, I begin to wonder:  http://www.africaresource.com/rasta/sesostris-the-great-the-egyptian-hercules/black-germansblack-dutch-african-genes-in-germania/.

In Germany, Hitler historically profiled Jews, Slavs, Gypsies, and others as races that should be enslaved and exterminated. The tragedy of this, is that most Germans are a mixture of Celtic, Slavic, African, and Trojan haplogroups. 

Some samples of this mixture are Prince Karl Theodor and Ludwig II of Bavaria, see picture. Notice Karl's hair that is graying, and yet it is curly to the point of looking African. His relative also has very dark, curly hair See the forehead, brows, and countenance.



The Trojan (Haplogroup I) haplogroups, originally from the Middle East, and Eastern Mediterranean, are most closely related to the more Semitic haplogroup J. It's an interesting fact that only thirteen percent of those claiming Jewish descent are descended from ancestors with haplogroup J. Most professed Jews are closely related to those of us with African, Celtic, Slavic, and other ancestries. Add to this five percent of the population also has African roots, and you see the sad truth that Hitler motivated a very mixed-race German people to destroy its neighbors and closest relatives by plundering and slaughtering them with the excuse that they were in some ways inferior.

What's even more interesting is how widespread African Ancestry is in Europe. Eupedia.com's map of people with haplogroup E1b1b shows widespread distributions up into Scandinavia. In Germany, it shows up five to ten percent of the time.

Other than family culture, and how well or not well you, I, and others treat their immediate and extended families, what does it matter? If Central Europeans, Scots, Dutch, many Slavic countries, and anyone and nearly everyone living near the Mediterranean Sea has African roots, why would anyone want to designate one group of people as less than another?

Going into the history of this kind of discrimination, I found the following: https://www.thoughtco.com/racial-profiling-in-the-united-states-721534.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/keith-rushing/dissecting-racial-profiling_b_2740246.html.

So favoring one group of immigrants over others, and over native populations has been in effect since the 1700s in the US and Canada, and before. It also has been an integral part of European history, up to the present times. See https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/explainers/ethnic-profiling-what-it-and-why-it-must-end.

So why does racial profiling continue in our society? If I fill out a job application, if I apply for state-based health insurance, if I register for anything having to do with the government, why is information requested asking for my racial background? Who is being empowered by this unecessary knowledge?

The final tragedy is that Hitler himself may have had both African and Jewish ancestors.

References:
https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007457

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/early_times/romans.htm

http://evoandproud.blogspot.com/2010/07/african-community-in-roman-britain.html

http://www.africaresource.com/rasta/sesostris-the-great-the-egyptian-hercules/muurs-of-ancient-germania-the-black-nobility-of-europe/

http://www.beforebc.de/all_europe/02-16-800-00-08.html

http://afroeurope.blogspot.com/2010/08/history-of-black-people-in-europe.html.

https://haplogroupi2b1ismine.wordpress.com/the-germani-germanic-peoples-origins-and-history/.

http://polishgenes.blogspot.com/2014/01/poles-more-indigenous-to-europe-than.html.

http://www.africaresource.com/rasta/sesostris-the-great-the-egyptian-hercules/haplogroup-j-and-the-jewish-cohen-modal-haplotype-ishaq-al-sulaimani/comment-page-1/.

https://www.eupedia.com/europe/Haplogroup_E1b1b_Y-DNA.shtml

http://www.history.com/news/study-suggests-adolf-hitler-had-jewish-and-african-ancestors.

http://blackdutch1.webs.com/.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_II_of_Bavaria.