Shetlanders with "dark hair and swarthy skin"?!

[sallyyorks]

Interesting stuff but I'm not sure I believe it, let me explain why

A spaniard breeding with a native scot and hundreds of years later his features are still around? Even when a black african mixes with a white, in just a few generations the "blackness" is almost completely gone. They might have a little puffy hair but in general the later generations just look white. Now, in my case, my family has had the swarthy look for hundreds of years. I think this implies that BOTH sets parents carry the DNA. I think it's that good old fashioned Britannia DNA (my theory) Before the celts, before the saxons etc and for this reason the swarthy look has never been "bred out".

I agree with your general point about most peoples ancestors being Celtic or pre Celtic to the British Isles/Ireland.

There seems to be a fashion, and this is especially true in the USA, to make any Irish/Scots ancestors somehow ethnically different to the English. This is why there are so many myths floating around with regard to 'Basque', ' the Spanish Armarda' and even 'Egyptian' ancestry. None of it actually proven to be true. The Irish and Scots are not much different ethnically to the rest of the North Western European population.
The need to make their ancestors different to the English is probably more tied up with political ideas about identity, rather than based in fact. During the 18th and 19th centuries there was a tendency to exaggerate and romanticise 'Celt' and 'Anglo-Saxon' heritage and history. Before that time it was hardly mentioned in history books, novels and literature at all.

Terms like 'Anglo Saxon' and 'Celt' refer to  time periods and language, they are not so much about an actual separate ethnic people. If someone was buried in a 'Celt' or 'Anglo- Saxon' type grave, it does not necessarily follow that they were of that, supposed, 'ethnic' group.

[Skoosh]

The Scots & Irish are indeed ethnically different to the English whatever their DNA. Most of the men in Ulster have a common ancestor (Niall of the Nine Hostages) whose DNA spread to Scotland (the clue is in the name) around the year 500 (I'm one myself!) Bringing Gaelic with them.

I suspect that any attempts to make a case for a shared ethnicity with the English are part of a Brexit plot that we're all in this together. Which we aint! 

Skoosh.

Ethnicity=having a common national or cultural tradition!  not to be confused with genetic commonality!

[sallyyorks]

I think Adam is correct. He had Kerry roots 

Not according to this?
https://www.geni.com/people/Gregory-Peck/308562816060006485

And the surname Peck, as with the tree above, seems to have it's origins in East Anglia.
http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org/

The Scots & Irish are indeed ethnically different to the English whatever their DNA.

In what way?

Most of the men in Ulster have a common ancestor (Niall of the Nine Hostages) whose DNA spread to Scotland (the clue is in the name) around the year 500 (I'm one myself!) Bringing Gaelic with them.

Was 'Niall of the Nine Hostages' a real person though or was he a mythical character, much like 'King Arthur' was in Britain.

[Skoosh]

Niall was the real deal, try Google. What way are the Swedes ethnically different from the Danes? ethnicity is what makes nations, nations, the fact that Scotland had an enforced union with England since 1707 does not mean that we have a shared ethnicity, we don't. The English have a somewhat confused ethnicity, they confuse English with British which is not quite the same thing. What is British? something on a passport!

Skoosh.

[sallyyorks]

Niall was the real deal, try Google.

I have and, like King Arthur, there doesn't seem to be much proof that he actually existed as a real person.

What way are the Swedes ethnically different from the Danes? ethnicity is what makes nations, nations,

The USA is a 'nation, and had people from all over the world who settled there

the fact that Scotland had an enforced union with England since 1707 does not mean that we have a shared ethnicity, we don't. 

'enforced' ?

The English have a somewhat confused ethnicity, they confuse English with British which is not quite the same thing. What is British? something on a passport!   

We really don't. It is more the case that people from outside Britain and Ireland confuse the two, but not here in England

[Chris Anderson]

Chris, I read somewhere though that the genes which result in the classic features of various races can" lie dormant" for want of a better  description, and can appear in later generations.
If true , can you imagine the puzzlement of people in earlier times who would not understand
why a baby seemed to be of a different race. Especially if they had no knowledge of there being a different race in an earlier generation. Try explaining that,what stigma would attach to it when people were so prejudiced. How sad.
As usual I am willing to be corrected.Viktoria.

I think what you are describing is rare. Someone taking DNA from a random ancestor or inheriting a bygone genetic disease... It's one in a million. 

I am talking about how generation after generation the swarthy look has survived. My profile picture of my great great grandad.... I look exactly like him. 

The only explanation is that British women carry the DNA also.

For example, white people don't have Afro-hair genetics, so Afro hair would be quite easily "bred out" in just a few generations.

That's my thinking on it, I could be wrong 

[Viktoria]

I am sure I read somewhere that the genes which make up specific racial features can" lie dormant"
for want of a better expression--when the distinctive features had become  less and almost gone completely, ,only to appear in much later generations.
 Imagine the consternation if that did happen, especially if it had not been known of the inter-racial liason many years before,and especially when people were so prejudiced.
We know plantation owners had "liasons " with female slaves but seldom is it the other way round,
Southern belle having a liason with a male slave.
But there may be  a few recorded instances I imagine.
Someone please correct me if I am wrong.On all points.
I hate the word slave , one human being cannot be owned by another, but some people--even today-- thought and think they could and can.
Sorry that`s off topic  but I have no wish to upset or insult anyone.Viktoria.

[Viktoria]

Sorry folks, my first post disappeared into the ether----It posted itself seemingly   
My brief stab at brevity did not last long did it!
Hence the longer version.Viktoria.

[HughC]

Thank you Malcolm: the most interesting thing to come out of this discussion (though I suspect you mean yDNA).

And of course Moses was Egyptian: it's not a Hebrew name, but why he led the Hebrew slaves in a mass escape is not explained.  Or is it?  One theory of why Pharaoh's daughter found him in the bulrushes is that he was her brother and she'd hidden him there for safety.  Sorry: that's another story.