Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Even after living in the States for a while I will never understand the obsession of new world people with their ethnicity. Does it matter if your family came from England, France or Germany decades or even centuries ago? Not really. Unless you still have ties to that country. Which most people don't.
My mom has first cousins in the United Kingdom, and my grandmother (RIP) was born there, I'd say I have pretty direct and close ties. Not to mention, I still speak their language, well more or less.
Location: Near Tours, France about 47°10'N 0°25'E
2,825 posts, read 5,261,618 times
Reputation: 1957
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mhundred
How do define a native brit though? aren't most british of anglo-saxon and norman heritage i.e. german and french?
I believe the "true native" brits would be of mostly celtic stock.
The celts were not the "original" population ("stock" as some people say) of the British isles. What we call celts in Britain were celtized people (orignal Celts were from central Europe, not at all from the British isles), descending mainly from the pre-celtic civilisations. The modern populations of the so-called celtic nations of the British isles have recieved since the celtic times as much Scandinavian genes than the English. The British have almost no "Celtic ethnic stock"...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mhundred
How do define a native brit though? aren't most british of anglo-saxon and norman heritage i.e. german and french?
Normans were just a small ruling minority in Britain, there never was real move of population from Normandy to England. And by the way the Normans were not of "french" heritage (concept of frenchness as an ethnical identity didn't existed at that time, and Norman settlers were mostly of Scandinavian ancestry rather than being rooted in the pre-existing native population of northern France.
In modern french population, the people of Normandy are not especially representative of the average genetic characteristics of the french people, especially because of their greater amont of nordic geneflow.
Then the British have almost not french genetic heritage.
Last edited by french user; 11-05-2012 at 02:56 AM..
In my opinion, if you took a random Irish person, a random English person and a random Norwegian you probably would not be able to guess which is which, because they all look so close on average.
In my opinion, if you took a random Irish person, a random English person and a random Norwegian you probably would not be able to guess which is which, because they all look so close on average.
Someone once told me that, "You can't always tell one Greek man from one Norwegian, but you can always tell 10 Greek men from 10 Norwegians.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
