Comments by "John Brereton" (@johnbrereton5229) on "English DNA: What is the Genetic History of England?" video.

Thanks for a very interesting video which shows that our roots are deep here in England. In fact, right back to the end of the ice age.
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@DorchesterMom Yes perhaps, but it's only a vociferous minority that do, the vast majority all get on fine. That's because In reality here on the British isles, we are all related to one another in one way or another.
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@Jezza-m5k Latest research suggests their were earlier germanic speakers here in Britain even before the Roman invasion. Julius Caesar first landed in 55bc chasing the fleeing Belgea from Gaul who he found were well established in southern Britain. It has been suggested that both the Belgae and the Iceni from what is now Essex spoke a Germanic tongue too. Also the dna results were the work of the renowned Oxford University and the Max Plank institute, so I think we can trust what they claim. Though, no doubt this will continue to be a controversial topic for some time to come as people have firm views that are not easy to change.
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@Jezza-m5k Yes true, however those later English are also descended from the original Celts, as the video revealed the English are 10% to 40% Anglo Saxon. Therefore that means they are majority Celtic, with 90% to 60% of the previous populations DNA. That previous population includes the pre Celtic Hunter Gatherers who lived here at the end of the ice age, 10,000 years ago. It might also include Neanderthal DNA who we know lived here around 400,000 years ago. We know we do have Neanderthal DNA, but whether we inherited from those here or further afield is not known, but its an intriguing thought.
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Yes that's true Malcolm, in fact I've recently been reading some papers that say when Julius Caesar first invaded he was chasing the Belgae people from Gaul who had escaped to Britain where they had well established kin across southern England. The Belgae, though a Celtic tribe also apparently spoke a Germanic tongue. Also another paper suggests that the famous Iceni people (Boudicaa) also spoke germanic. So it seems a proto English language is far older here than was first thought and would help to explain why we changed to speaking English after the Roman's left so easily.
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@DorchesterMom As the English are the largest nation on these islands they often get blamed for any disasters . However, the reality is not always what the precieved wisdom claims it to be and the two events you mentioned are prime examples of this.
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I thought he made that quite clear from the start, but he can't keep changing the name he is calling the region, it would be confusing.
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@GuerillaTVChannel The Angles and the Saxons were descended from the Northern Germanic peoples, not from what is now Germany. However, both the Germanic peoples and the Celts (Britons) were both descended from Indo Europeans.
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That's very interesting, how does one go about loading your DNA onto that site ?
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@jimjones-bk2is Well this video is about the origins of the English here on this island and they carry the DNA from the Hunter Gatherers who lived here 10,000 years ago. Therefore that's a good starting point. However it's very difficult to look back much further than the ice age as no one was living here much before then and we are talking about a very long time period.
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@jimjones-bk2is The video is about English DNA, anyone who came later has a different story and different DNA. Unless of course they married into an English family, then they would have a connection to the same roots.
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@jimjones-bk2is England as a country was founded in 972 so is older than France, Spain and Germany so it's not that recent. Previously the land was uninhabitable due to the ice age and so wasn't permanently settled until after the ice receeded 10,000 years ago. However the dna of these early settlers is still carried by the modern day English, so they are the earliest ancestors of the English.
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@jimjones-bk2is 1066 was not the start of the English, that was the Norman invasion. The English had been here for far longer than that.
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@GuerillaTVChannel He has done it to make it easier to understand what he is talking about. Also 'ancient England' wouldn't be ancient Germany, as you suggest, England is arguable older than Germany.
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@Jezza-m5k Yes exactly, in fact many graves with germanic grave goods were assumed to contain Anglosaxons. However, the discovery of DNA opened a window into the past and showed that they actually contained Celtic people. It's like assuming you are American if you were found in your grave clutching a coke tin and wearing Levi Jean's.
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@Æthelwulf-y9h What's not ?
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@Æthelwulf-y9h I deny nothing, you are misguided.
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@careytitan9097 Yes, but these were made by pre modern humans as are the 500,000 year old remains of homo heidelbergensis found in Boxgrove Sussex. However, 350,000 years ago Neanderthals also lived here and remains in Ebbsfleet Kent have been dated to around 250,000 years ago and we do carry their DNA, so perhaps we could claim to descent from them. Nevertheless, the 10,000 year old dna of modern homo sapien hunter Gatherers like Cheddar man is definitel still carried by us, and as we are the same species that's where our origins are traced.
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@careytitan9097 The footprints in Norfolk were made by homo Heidelbergensis, not Homo sapiens our ancestors.
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@jimjones-bk2is The Norman's had quite an impact, however our language law system and culture, let alone our DNA are far more English than Norman. The Norman's left very little dna.
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@jimjones-bk2is No not at all ! Our Law system is English Common Law, our Language is Germanic with some Norman French influence but the Norman's like the Roman's were just a governing elite who left very little DNA. In fact an Englishmans DNA is more Celtic than either Norman or Anglosaxon.
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@jimjones-bk2is The Magna Carta was just to enshrine our ancient rights and it was based on King Alfred the Greats previous Doombok and King Innes early book of Dooms, both written in English. Also the Irish are not English, it's in the name !
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@jimjones-bk2is You sound like a professional Pedant.
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