Foreigners living in Suffolk in the 15th century

[Rena]

I have (or had  ) black hair, and I tan very easily.
I have traced both my father's and mother's lines back to the mid 1500s, with no sign of anything but English blood!

I have been told I have a "Celtic" look?! 

Ah, but what is "English"?  Jutes? Angles? Saxons? Normans? Vikings? etc., or maybe Centurian army genes from other European tribes who marched into England as Legionairs with the two visits by the Roman army? Or maybe Heinz 57? 

[Viktoria]

When I went to live in Belgium I was often asked if  I was Irish.
Reason being very clear pale skin.
My hair was. Very dark but not black, eyes very dark too .
My Dad’s colouring.
Background, Manchester, Shropshire and Lincolnshire.

But as Rena says, English? We are truly a mixture, but aren’t we interesting!

[Rena]

When I went to live in Belgium I was often asked if  I was Irish.
Reason being very clear pale skin.
My hair was. Very dark but not black, eyes very dark too .
My Dad’s colouring.
Background, Manchester, Shropshire and Lincolnshire.

But as Rena says, English? We are truly a mixture, but aren’t we interesting!

My 5'7" tall mother had pale skin, fine dark hair and cornflower blue eyes.  From my early childhood each morning she'd stand in front of the mirror making ready to go out shopping and couldn't stop chuntering because the front of her hair wouldn't do what she wanted it to.   lol.

My OH (descended from an 1841 Patrick with a Cork surname born in "I" ) black hair and blue eyes with golden flecks (obviously had his Irish roots father's brown eye genes and his mother's blue eye genes)

[Viktoria]

That special Irish look of  black hair and  startling blue eyes used to be  called “Black Irish”.
When you think the typical look is red hair and  green or blue eyes.
But then Spanish galleons from The Armada did go adrift  and landed in places as far as Tobermory Bay ,tradition would have us believe. So the coast of Ireland could also have been a landing place.
I have been listening to The Dubliners ,with Luke Kelly, I love listening to them.
Viktoria.

[KGarrad]

Legend also has it that some Armada survivors landed on the Isle of Man!
Hence Spanish Head.
A common Manx boys name is Juan - but pronounced Joo-Ann

[Rena]

That special Irish look of  black hair and  startling blue eyes used to be  called “Black Irish”.
When you think the typical look is red hair and  green or blue eyes.
But then Spanish galleons from The Armada did go adrift  and landed in places as far as Tobermory Bay ,tradition would have us believe. So the coast of Ireland could also have been a landing place.
I have been listening to The Dubliners ,with Luke Kelly, I love listening to them.
Viktoria.

Three of us were researching the Shirras family up in Aberdeen.  Two of them who lived in Scotland had a family story that an ancestor was a Spaniard from the Spanish Armada.  I asked my brother-in-law if he had a similar family story. No - the only story he had of that family was that they were tinsmiths and his grandmother had disobeyed her family and followed a marine officer down south.   Bit of a romantic story with her because as she was returning home (sailor had been lost at sea) she had to change trains and met OH's Welsh/Irish grandfather who was also waiting to catch a connecting train northward after visiting relatives in Wales.

[Viktoria]

All my Family History research has not revealed any Irish connections.
Yet I have such an empathy with Ireland , it fascinates me.
Why I do not know.
Strange.
Viktoria.