Friday, June 29, 2012

Scotland: Ian Kinnaird, 72, has a genetic marker inherited from his mother that traces his ancestry to an African lineage that has not been found before in Western Europe

Apparently he is the descendant of African slaves, even though he looks white. His genetic lineage - which he inherited from his mother - appears in Africa, in Senegal, but has never been seen in north-west Europe. It is likely to have reached Britain through the arrival of slaves in Liverpool. On his father's side, his ancestry appears to be Scandinavian and he carries a genetic marker which is found in a quarter of Norwegian men. Research suggests that 32% of British men are descended from the Pretani - the original Britons - while more than 12% have Germanic ancestry, 11% are hunter gatherers and more than 7% are Ancient Irish.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It takes one maternal ancestor in the right genealogical position to confer that mitochondrial haplotype, so it is not at all surprising that the gentleman "looks white." He could be more than 99% European by ancestry and still possess that haplogroup if the admixture event occurred hundreds or thousands of years ago.