Notes on DNA. 16 March 2026, 27 Adar 5786.
English DNA.
Extracts from:
Where Did 3 Million Britons Go? DNA Reveals Truth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAstXSeOIZI
In 410 AD, Roman (Celitc) Britain had
approximately 3 million inhabitans.
In 2022, the Max Plank Institute for
Evolutionary Anthropology published the
largest genetic study of medieval
Britain ever conducted. They analyzed
278 ancient genomes from England, plus
hundreds more from across Europe. The
study appeared in the journal Nature.
Lead geneticist Dr. Joshua Gretzinger
and his team expected to find pure
Germanic ancestry in these Anglo-Saxon
skeletons. They didn't. Many individuals
buried with Anglo-Saxon grave goods
carried 30 to 50% local British DNA.
They were descendants of mixed marriages. By the
year 550 AD the study revealed that
around 75% of the population in Eastern
and Southern England had continental
North European ancestry, similar to
modern Dutch and Danish populations.
In 2016, the Welcome Sanger Institute published a
groundbreaking study comparing ancient
Anglo-Saxon genomes with modern DNA from
over 10,000 Europeans. Dr. Stefan
Shiffles, the lead author, used a
revolutionary method called Rare Coal,
which analyzes rare genetic variants to
detect subtle ancestry differences.
Here's what they found. Modern people in
East England derive on average 38% of
their ancestry from Anglo-Saxon
migrations. Not 80%, not 90%, just 38%.
Modern Welsh and Scottish populations?.
Well, they carry 30% Anglo-Saxon
ancestry even though they maintain
British language and identity.
Yorkshire.
Yorkshire has the highest proportion, 41.17%
Anglo-Saxon DNA, compared to a national
English average of just 36.94%.
But here's the twist that shocked
geneticists. Present-day English people
derive only 40% of their DNA from these
historic continental Anglo-Saxon
ancestors.
Another 20 to 40% of the modern English
genetic profile comes from people genetically similar to Iron Age
populations in France and Belgium. This
French Belgian ancestry likely arrived
through multiple waves: Frankish
migrations in the Anglo-Saxon period and
later through the Norman conquest of
England.
So Modern English people are a three-way
genetic blend, British, Germanic, and
French.
According to the 2015 study published in Nature by
Professor Steven Leslie and colleagues
from Oxford University, modern Welsh
populations show 60 to 80% ancient
British ancestry. Cornwall shows similar
retention of British DNA.
In contrast modern English populations in
the east show only 30 to 40% British
ancestry.
Professor Peter Donnelly from
the University of Oxford stated people
from Wales are genetically relatively
distinct and they most closely resemble
the ancient inhabitants of Britain.
Anglo-Saxons controlled the most fertile
farmland in eastern England, the regions
that became wealthy. British elites who
wanted power married into Anglo-Saxon
families. But marriage meant more than
just a political alliance. It meant your
children needed Anglo-Saxon names to
inherit land. It meant speaking Old
English became the language of
opportunity, the language of trade, the
language of the future.
At Apple Cemetery in
West Sussex, archaeologists found
evidence of social segregation. People
with immigrant ancestry were buried on
one side. People with local British
ancestry were buried on the other side.
Not every community in Anglo-Saxon England
followed the same path. The 2022 Nature
study revealed dramatic regional
differences.