Genetic study reveals 30% of white British DNA has German ancestry

In the Guardian, I recently found a very interesting article about a genetic long-term study showing that 30% of all white Britons have German ancestors. Studies over a period of more than 20 years reveal the strong influence of the Angles and Saxons (Anglo-Saxons) on the colonization of the island. French and Danish DNA has been increasingly detected in earlier stages of colonization.

From the 5th century the Anglo-Saxons, settled together with strains of the Jutes, Frisians and Lower Franconia in Britain. From an ethnic point of view, our British neighbors are therefore the result of several waves of immigration of Germanic tribes who mixed with the Celtic-Roman native population and were supplemented with the beginning of the 11th century by immigration from Scandinavia. Francophone Normans completing the ethnic diversity and so the English, British nation evolved in the Middle Ages.

Next to the German share of DNA the population of South and Central England today shares French (40%), Danish (11%) and Belgium (9%) DNA of which the French share is not due to the Norman invasion of 1066 but by a wave of migration at the end of the last ice age nearly 10,000 years ago from a region that today is widely called 'Doggerland' (here a very interesting article in the National Geographic about Doggerland), namely the then dry part of the North Sea.

The Romans, Vikings and Normans may have ruled the islands for hundreds of years but from a genetic point of view they have left only small traces. The study shows that it was the Germans, the Angles, Saxons and Frisians, who largely rebuilt by their influence, today's original British DNA.

This as well explains the origin of the English language as an originally Germanic language and the close relationship to the Frisian and Low German languages. The word 'English' most probably derives from the name of one of the Germanic tribes conquering the island, the Angles. The influence of both the West and North Germanic languages as well as classic Latin and French have helped that English today has an exceptionally rich vocabulary.

That reminded me of a college research paper I had to submit a while ago which was about the relevance of DNA testing in modern genealogical research. The following will only show the executive summary as the complete paper would be to extensive …

Family History research or Genealogy (from Greek genea: race, generation, family and logia: study, science) is the study of families and their lineages by tracing a person’s ancestors (Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation, 2014a). The traditional way to do this is tracing – generation by generation - your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and so on. Primary sources for this are church books, census data, old documents, oral interviews etc. Everything that contains details about someone’s ancestor by going back from generation to generation is of interest. Genealogy is helpful in providing knowledge about pedigrees and kinships of family members. Once the information is acquired, it may be displayed in the form of a tree which is a kind of family tree or it is also written in the form of narratives. Every researcher will, at one point hit a brick wall where no further information might be available to him to study. Over the centuries wars destroyed primary sources and documents were lost forever. In early history written documentation was rare as most people could not read or write.

At this point a researcher might consider the help of genetic methods to connect with other researchers that might have information which is inaccessible for him. In the last 15 years DNA tests opened ways to trace ancestors genetically by analysing a person’s mitochondrial DNA to trace their maternal line and their Y-DNA to trace their paternal lineage which is `typically interpreted within the context of a surname study` (Kennett, 2013). ‘A patrilineal surname is inherited in the same way as the non-recombining region of the Y chromosome and there should, therefore, be a correlation between the two’ (King & Jobling, 2009).

`Molecular Genealogy (also called "Genetic Genealogy") is the application of DNA to traditional genealogical research` (Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation, 2014b). In that sense two researcher researching the same surname and assuming an ancestral relation might be able to interconnect their research gained traditionally by comparing their DNA and in case of a match much more effectively increase the size of their own pedigree by incorporating the other researcher’s pedigree.

This research report is designed to show how DNA testing can be used and whether is it relevant or not. The research report also highlights some companies that support and promote DNA testing to show how these tests could be used in genealogical researches. This research undertakes a scientific approach for research which makes use of quantitative analysis. A randomly sampled group of 100 participants would be used to obtain data from which then would be analysed. However, this research has some limitations which are partially but greatly based on ethical concerns of the people. The ethical concerns of people are discussed in the later sections of this research report. After analysis of the literature, it was found that DNA testing is relevant and can very well be considered a complementation to the traditional method of genealogical researches where genealogical researchers face difficulties in acquiring greater knowledge about a subject.

Devlin, H., 2015. Genetic study reveals 30% of white British DNA has German ancestry. [Online] 

Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/mar/18/genetic-study-30-percent-white-british-dna-german-ancestry