The following came to me from another list. It was originally published in Eastmans Online Genealogy Newsletter and I am reposting it to this list for everyone's interest. There is a link to the original publication, from which Eastman took his story, at the bottom of the message. I am surprised that Eastman published this story; it comes from a source which is on a par with supermarket tabloids and so obviously appears to be a scam. Aside from the dubious claim of being able to identify Pickish DNA (no one has actually been identified as a Pict for at least a millennium) and the outrageously high test fee, anyone at all familiar with Scottish history would know that Scottishness has far more to do with heritage than genetics. Many of the leading families of Scotland (Comyn/Bruce/Stewart) originated in Normandy; others, (MacDonald/MacDougall) have Norse antecedents and no one questions their Scottishness. It is no surprise to find that most of Orkney had Norse ancestry, since it and the Hebrides were part of the kingdom of Norway for centuries and heavily settled from there. The Scots themselves came from Ireland c. 500-600 and when the various territories that became the kingdom of Scotland finally coalesced into one polity it included not only Picts and Scots but the Britons of Strathclyde (which included Cambria) and the Angles of Lothian (ruled at times by Northumbria). After than, in the half century between 1100 and 1600, there were the numerous foreign soldieries (Danish, Norse, French, English, Spanish, Irish, Welsh even German and Lowlander) who were part of the various armies that fought in Scotland and, as soldiers will, left samples of their DNA behind. Unfortunately there will probably be a number of people who will pay this excessive amount for an extremely dubious report. It's too bad that Eastman ran this story and gave it, however tenuous, a touch of legitimacy. David Rorer > /The following article is from Eastmans Online Genealogy Newsletter > and is copyright 2006 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here > with the permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is > available at / http://www.eogn.com <http://www.eogn.com/>/./ > * > > - So You Think You're Scots? > > * > > Help is at hand for the millions of people around the world who claim > to be Scottish. A new test will be able to prove if that's just > wishful thinking or if someone really has a Caledonian connection. A > leading scientist has developed a "Scottishness" test that searches > people's DNA to trace their origins. > > Geneticist Dr. Jim Wilson is offering the £130 ($245 US) diagnosis, > which determines how Scottish people are. He has identified a genetic > pattern which can determine whether a person is descended from > Scotland's ancient inhabitants, the Picts, and can test people for > traces of their genes. Dr. Wilson says he wants to target Americans > eager to seek out their Scottish ancestry. > > You can read more about this story at http://tinyurl.com/m499n
It is a bit unfortunate that DNA testing has taken this slant, but it is in line with what we've seen by another British Genealogy DNA expert, Brian Sykes. Perhaps this sales approach appeals to the British psyche. Dr. Wilson is a Professor at the University of Edinburgh and is well established in the field of DNA. He is President of Ethnoancestry, which is a reputable lab located outside Edinburgh, Scotland. Ethnoancestry has performed SNP tests for Haplogroup identification for many of the people doing Genetic Genealogy. The same markers tested in the Pictish test are offered by the other DNA test labs, this is just a marketing ploy. A story about this was also run by the TImes Online, UK. No specifics on what constitutes a Pictish Haplotype. Ref: http://www.ethnoancestry.com/ John Carr On Aug 26, 2006, at 4:33 PM, David Rorer wrote: > Aside from the dubious claim of being able to identify Pickish DNA (no > one has > actually been identified as a Pict for at least a millennium) and the > outrageously high test fee, anyone at all familiar with Scottish > history would > know that Scottishness has far more to do with heritage than genetics. > > David Rorer >> >> Geneticist Dr. Jim Wilson is offering the £130 ($245 US) diagnosis, >> which determines how Scottish people are. He has identified a genetic >> pattern which can determine whether a person is descended from >> Scotland's ancient inhabitants, the Picts, and can test people for >> traces of their genes. Dr. Wilson says he wants to target Americans >> eager to seek out their Scottish ancestry. >> >> You can read more about this story at http://tinyurl.com/m499n >