The Final Piece of My Genetic Make Up

Mark’s Ancestry DNA Story

DNA Never Lies

As previously blogged, DNA never lies. It can take you in some unexpected directions,  which is why I enjoy the journey so much. So much to discover about one’s origins.

When I first received my DNA ethnicity results from Ancestry, using their atDNA test,  I looked eastwards, as there were some small DNA traces (<1%) on that horizon. Something different to my expected western European mix of resident British ancestry, with Irish, Viking and Huguenot input, typical of one from the British Isles. There was a part of my genetic story that was missing and unexplained.

I had no known Indian or Middle Eastern blood in my family tree, so these traces obviously referred to some earlier origins.

Kingswood Families

Apparently, a number of families in the Kingswood area of Bristol have Gypsy origins, like many other parts of Britain, which introduces a whole new line of investigation. I have a good part of my origins in that part of the World. Some of the family-adopted surnames include common Bristol-area names such as LOVELL & JEFFERIES, to name just two. Kingswood would have been a natural place for settlement, away from the city of Bristol (Britain’s largest city at the time, due to mercantile shipping).

A 6th cousin and I share proven DNA back to a MONKS = HIGGS marriage in Stapleton, a village situated just outside of Bristol, which took place in 1773. She has known gypsy connections, and my ethnicity shows I have a connection too, possibly from a different source. These families probably intermarried for a long period, so it would only take one marriage somewhere in the area, in my line, to provide this DNA result, or from a similar group elsewhere in England.

The Roma People

The Roma or Gypsy people first settled in Britain in C15th having migrated from their original Northern India homeland. This is a different ethnic group to other travelling people incorrectly called “gypsies”, for e.g. Irish, and have been DNA-matched in studies to the Dalit people from the area now known as Rajasthan. The Roma have been naturalized in Britain over a period of more than 500 years.

Flag of the Romani people

The Gypsy in Me, The Gypsy in You

So, if your “Ancestry DNA Story” shows a similar easterly pattern, there’s almost certainly some gypsy in you too!

Mark Grace (“The Geneal Geologist”), Resident Genealogist, Ballynoe House