I'm English who were my ancestors?

Question:I search for info but i keep getting the same old family tree rubbish online. I am not interested in that, what i am intersted in more the dna, race, history.
Was it saxons, normans, vikings?, is that the same descent?
I live in England, i'm white, light brown hair, blue eyes, and from what i can gather my family is English dating back into 1700's at least.
I would like to know further, but not actual family more the liinkage to others countries.
I mentioned my ethnicity because someone mentioned that all helps.
i have been told that blue eyed people come from the black sea. a common ancestor.
I have also been told because of my light hair, which when growing a beard goes redish, that that is a ancestor of saxon or viking.
I am not sure what is true. I gather that most engliish descend from nordic germanic tribes.
Is there anyone that can answer any of this and point me in the direrction of good sites about european migration patterns and body traits associated. if that makes sense

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I search for info but i keep getting the same old family tree rubbish online. I am not interested in that, what i am intersted in more the dna, race, history.
Was it saxons, normans, vikings?, is that the same descent?
I live in England, i'm white, light brown hair, blue eyes, and from what i can gather my family is English dating back into 1700's at least.
I would like to know further, but not actual family more the liinkage to others countries.
I mentioned my ethnicity because someone mentioned that all helps.
i have been told that blue eyed people come from the black sea. a common ancestor.
I have also been told because of my light hair, which when growing a beard goes redish, that that is a ancestor of saxon or viking.
I am not sure what is true. I gather that most engliish descend from nordic germanic tribes.
Is there anyone that can answer any of this and point me in the direrction of good sites about european migration patterns and body traits associated. if that makes sense

The English (like just about every nation on earth) are a mongrel race, and if you go back sufficient generations you'll almost certianly find a confused mixture in your ancestry.

Britain (or what is now called Britain) was probably first settled about 30,000 years ago, before it was an island. Then the English Channel formed and those here got cut off. Little is known about these people, but they did leave monuments behind them, notably Stonehenge (which is NOT Celtic whatever some people say).

Around 1200BC the Celts arrived. They'd spread across Europe from somewhere around the lower Danube (they were known to the Greeks as Keltoi), and largely displaced the original Britons. There were, of course, sub-groups in the Celtic mass; one of the most important of which were the Belgae who, at the time of the Roman invasion, occupied most of Southern England, as well as those lands which would go on to become NE France and, indeed, Belgium.

The Romans hung around for about 350 years, adding their own little contribution. This was accentuated by the fact that, particularly towards the end of their occupation, Rome would recruit legionnaries from wherever they could get them; so "Romans" from Italy, Syria, Africa and other far-flung places served (and did other things) in Britain.

The legions left in about AD410, though many Romano-British stayed on (King Arthur, to the extent that he existed at all, was a Romano-British chieftain), only to be swamped by waves of Germanic invaders - Angles, Saxons and Jutes.

Next wave - Vikings from Norway and Denmark, who settled thickly in the ninth and tenth century.

Then came the Normans (who were Vikings who'd settled an France and mixed with the French - who in turn were part Gaul, part Roman, part Vandal, part Visigoth, part Hun, part Allemand.......) who added their own DNA to the mix.

Not that things have been that stable for the last thousand years, either.

Complicated, isn't it?

Germans Danes Norwegians and Romans

There's a good book called 'Blood of the Vikings' which well explains where we (English) come from.

I'm haitian.

Origins of Britons

Oisin

Descended from Iberian fishermen who migrated to Britain between 4,000 and 5,000BC and now considered the UK's indigenous inhabitants.

Wodan

Second most common clan arrived from Denmark during Viking invasions in the 9th century.

Sigurd

Descended from Viking invaders who settled in the British Isles from AD 793. One of the most common clans in the Shetland Isles, and areas of north and west Scotland.

Eshu

The wave of Oisin immigration was joined by the Eshu clan, which has roots in Africa. Eshu descendants are primarily found in coastal areas.

Re

A second wave of arrivals which came from the Middle East. The Re were farmers who spread westwards across Europe.

Roman

Although the Romans ruled from AD 43 until 410, they left a tiny genetic footprint. For the first 200 years occupying forces were forbidden from marrying locally.

The best way to find out is to do your genealogy. Start with yourself and work back from there. Go to your local library and you will get all the help you need. You might find it boring at first, but as you progress it really will become more interesting. A great number of English families go back to the continent.

If you really, really want to know, you can have your DNA analysed and get an answer. There are British universities that have run such DNA profiling in order to build up a picture of the Britons/Anglo-Saxons/Vikings genocide/living in harmony debate.

I believe there is a blood test which will give you the result you are looking for, Look up genealogy on a web site. I am blond, blue eyed like my father and know my paternal grandmother was from Holland. My mother and brother are both very dark skinned with brown eyes. My mother is Irish. My mother and I have a skin type that tans very easily and my father and brother burn in the sun. So it is all a bit of a mix.

What you're saying makes perfect sense. You need to search out a "Meet The Ancestors" special on the BBC which answered all of your questions. It was on TV about 18 months ago and it centred on a DNA mapping project that tested thousands of people across Britain to ascertain their ancestral origins. As well as DNA, it mapped family historical geography and facial features and summarised the whole lot on a map of Britain. (I remember the results but I won't give them to you as it'll only spoil the enjoyment of the documentary for you!)

It was very, very interesting and you may be a little surprised by the results. I'm sure it'll be on TV soon again so look out for it. I haven't got time to Google it (as I need to go to bed!) but I'm sure you'll find it if you look. It was definately a "Meet The Ancestors" special though so search it out.

Now there is a question. Depends on where your family came from as to who raped and pilaged there. For we English are a real hybrid race. Not like the scots or the welsh. We are true bastards in many senses of the word.

Short Answer: The English are a mixture of various ethnic groups including the original Celts that inhabited the British Isles along with the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, and Normans to which can be added a liberal assortment of Welsh, Irish, Scots, and French Huguenots. Descendants of every country in the Commonwealth who have come to settle in England continue to add to the mixture. Like the United States, England is a melting pot. Whether they intermarry with each other (and just how much) is another story altogether.

If you can find out exactly where in England your ancestors came from, you can better determine their exact ancestry.