lenina’s Scottish Ancestry

Image via Wikipedia

I found out the other day that my wee nephew’s birthday was this Sunday passed (25th January) which is the same as Burns’ birthday (the Scottish National Poet). The funny thing is that my nephew is also a redhead – this gene ‘jumped’ a generation (my dad is a ginger or ‘strawberry blonde’).

My BF told me that ginger hair was an indication of potential Scottish ancestry which I quickly googled today. While it’s true that world-wide the greatest percentage of redheads lives in Scotland (13% of all the population), the ‘ginger gene’ is generally considered to be Celtic, not Scottish. And even the Celts didn’t come out of nowhere – some say it originally came from the Scandinavian Hugh hair.

Either way, my dad’s dad is from Prussia (Preussen), which to me is far more  historically interesting. Even my surname is much more common in the East. Plenty of people carrying my surname apparently live in Berlin. If the ‘ginger gene’ did come from my granddad, it may have been through some Scandinavian connection (Scandinavians immigrating to Prussia hundreds of years ago).

So I don’t think I have anything Scottish in my genes – more likely a tiny amount of Viking ancestry, which would make more sense (even my body shape and height etc. is quite Nordic).

Related articles by Zemanta

• Does gingerism remains the last acceptable prejudice