Atypical Finns (and Italians)
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2008/08/18/306-the-genetic-map-of-europe/
I would have thought the Hungarians were more isolated than the Italians. Appears not from that map.
I'm not surprised by what it says about the Irish.
It was a prime target for pillagers, and the genetic make up must have been completely mixed up.
*Tourm's words bring back fond memories of the good old days*
Saxons, Norse and Danes, oh my!
Every port of any size on the Irish coastline was established by Norse raiders.
It would have been interesting to include the Baltic and Slavic cultures. The overlap with the Swedes (as well as Germans) should have been considerable.
Well....The map does go a long way toward explaining why Finns are so strange.
Those crazy Finns! Isolation, genetic idiosyncrasies.
Interesting to see the UK range is off to the left: there's some population there that's as distinct as the Italians. But if they took their sample in London, there could easily be ancestry from anywhere in the world.
I'm not surprised by what it says about the Irish.
It was a prime target for pillagers, and the genetic make up must have been completely mixed up.
The British Isles had the first post-glacial population of Britons, with added Romans, Angles, Saxons, Danes, Norwegians, French (Normans), Dutch, German, French (Huguenots) etc etc etc.
I seem to recall participating in some form of study at university, which told me that although the majority of my ancestry is from Ireland and the west coast of Scotland, genetically I am mostly Norwegian. Nice to know, if not terribly important.
For the record, culturally at least Norway and Scotland retained close ties well into the middle ages. (And the Earl of the Orkneys was a Norwegian, or occasionally a Swede, for most of the medieval period IIRC.)
I seem to recall participating in some form of study at university, which told me that although the majority of my ancestry is from Ireland and the west coast of Scotland, genetically I am mostly Norwegian. Nice to know, if not terribly important.
Were your ancestors from the east or west of Ireland? Mine were from the east, which was frequently invaded by the Norse, so a lot of Irish on that side have Norse ancestry.
They are from both the east and west side of Ulster, and I know that some of them were from Argyll in Scotland originally, with others who came over with the Norman influx (which means they could either have been French, or Norse).
Are your Irish family from the south or the north?