OK,
maybe the Princess part is a stretch. And she may not be able to swing a battle
axe or a Carolingian Sword quite as well any more, but her genes show she comes
from solid Viking Stock.
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| Linda and Wayne (Vikings?) |
We
had our DNA tested through 23andMe a few years ago partly to
find out where we came from. A few cousins popped up, of course, which was part
of the object for testing, but also trying to learn more about how our ancestors
may have first arrived in Britain.
Linda
is of very fair complexion and does not take the heat well. Both may have been
common among the people from the northern reaches of ancient Europe.
The
genetic history of our families is a subject I have become interested in. I am
not just looking for cousins who might share a percentage point or two of DNA, but
who were the earliest family members identifiable before there were records of
any kind. I commented on one aspect of my DNA in my last blog post here, The
Bell Beaker Culture & Me! Apparently, a major segment of my Y-DNA, the R1b-M269
marker, can be traced back to the Black Sea region about 10,000 years ago as
part of the Bell Beaker peoples. They arrived in southern Britain about 2,000
years ago.
The
Vikings, as a separate culture, of course, do not go back 10,000 years. But
their origins include a wave of people carrying the R1b haplogroup chromosomes
that spread into western Scandinavia, about the same time that it appeared in
Britain, but as a different subgroup.
Studies
of Viking voyages – of both exploration and conquest – show that groups of
Scandinavians raided Britain frequently over hundreds of years. Two groups were
active, the early Danes, who showed up in in England and early Norwegians who explored
the northern regions, including the Orkneys, Shetlands, Faroes, Western Isles,
Ireland and Iceland. The northern peninsula comprising Caithness and
Sutherland.
 |
Map
showing regions subject o Viking raids between 780 and 814 AD (downloaded form The
Map Archive)
Linda’s
paternal and maternal lines go through Northern Scotland and the Shetlands,
both regions where Vikings landed and set up colonies. The MacKay Clan was
centred in Sutherland. MacKay was the surname of Linda’s father. Her mother’s
family – the Coopers – originated in the Shetland Islands. Both are areas where
Norwegian Vikings settled.
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Clan
map of northern Scotland (copied form Collins Scotland of Old Clans Map)
Linda’s
DNA contains 4.2% Scandinavian content, which is a significant amount. Almost
all the rest is British and Irish (87.1%) which would include contributions
from the other Scottish ancestors from the mainland.
We
are working to get more information from our own and siblings’ DNA reports to
see whether anything more detailed can be obtained as to ancestral origins.
Perhaps
Linda could be descended from a Viking princess!
