About British (and Irish) Genealogy?

Question

It is from my knowledge that the British people are descendants of Anglo-Saxon (German, Dutch) and the Nordics (Swedish, Norwegian) who travelled across the seas and settled in Britain between 600 A.D. and 1000 A.D.

But my question is that if the Brits' ancestors were basically settlers from those parts of mainland Europe, then what about the people who actually lived in the British Isles before the migrants arrived? Did these people exist, or do they still exist today? What is their cultural identity?

Answer 1

Celtic people have come earlier from Europe, in mainly two waves. Some came from french areas (of course it was not "french" then, I just call it "french" so you know what area I mean), some by boats from the iberic peninsula (where Spain and Portugal is today). Those are called Ibero-Kelts. Both celtic groups came originally from the caucasian area (Turkey, Armenia, Georgia etc).

Before the Celts came, there have been other cultures. Especially on the northern islands, there have been various cultures, from stone age on. The Piktish were only one of them, I don't know the names of the other ones.

In earlier times, the channel has not been there, that means, Europe and the british islands have not been devided by the sea. So the people just walked over in former millenia.

I don't know when that area was cut off from the european continent, but I know about 2000 years ago (and before that) the water had been there, because the Romans (100 before C.E.) as well as the saxons (410) had to use boats to get over there. They did not walk.

The clash between the celtic and saxon people was so big and traumatic, its tales, legends and stories have survived until this day. "King Arthur" is a combined story of several heroic epics of the time (450), and it was woven all together with other legends (Parcival, Tristan and Isolde, Sir Lancelot etc), until it was written down about 800 years later. By then the military general had turned into a King.

And still today, the Irish fight against the English. They officially justify their war with religion, which is only a replacement.

The saxons eventually had turned into christians, and in the late 16th century their King had founded a new (anglican) church (because he wanted to get divorced, and the pope would not grant him that, so he just made up his own church).

The Irish were turned into catholics. Both Saxons and Celts had their own faith/religions before christianity, but it seems only very few people nowadays care about that. Today Irish feel they are catholics, while many English feel they are anglicans (protestant christians).

But the war goes back much longer than the christianisation. It really is about "the land that the Saxons stole" (a line from a forbidden song about the IRA, about 100 years old).

I am a southern saxon (Northwest German), and everytime I meet an irish person (here in the US that happens more often than in Germany), I appologize for the English who are descendants from my ancestors. I always say that I would give them back Ulster today, if I had my say. It is their land, and there is no reason at all why English stay there.

Answer 2

The Picts and Celts were there earlier the Roman invasion. The Angles and Saxons got here in even as the Romans were leaving. The waves of invaders pushed the Celts to the fringes - Scotland, Wales and Cornwall. The historic list is not sparkling; some human beings lump the Picts in with the Celts, some do not. you would possibly want to spend some hours with Wikipedia once you've an interest.

Answer 3

They were the Celtic tribes. Their descendants live on today in the Welsh, Scottish and Irish, though with a great leavening of the peoples you mentioned in your question, not to mention the Norman French from 1066 onwards. In fact, we Brits are quite a mongrel race!