100% English - New Channel 4 genealogy programme

[smeghead]

In fairness to Lord Tebbit (now there's a phrase I never thought I'd write) he didn't say you had to NAME the England cricket team, just support it. He was getting at those British-born descendants of immigrants who back the teams of their forefathers rather than their new country.
  As a Welshman, I find it impossible to cheer for a team that purports to represent the whole of Britain but still, after all these years, calls itself England. So I guess I fail his test.
  Gareth

Is not the English and Wales cricket board and welsh player's do play for the team!!!

Jim

[Garethboxing]

It is indeed the England and Wales Cricket Board - but it's always abbreviated as ECB. And yes, Welshmen (and Scotsmen) do play for it - so why isn't it called Britain?
   
   Gareth

[smeghead]

Yes I Agree it should be called Britan. Perhaps we could amagamate the football teams as well  Great Britan Football Team then we can get rid of that useless manager and bring in Martin O'Neill or Alec ferguson. better still a anglo French Football Team managed by Wenger with Henry up front perhaps with Giggs alongside  what a team you could make

Jim

[goggy]

The point of the original post was that these people considered themselve,s 100% Anglo/Saxon.A mixed blood group to start with.
Ignoringn all previous to-ing and fro-ing of race,s on the Continent.A right shower of Johnny come lately's!
Regarding the Great Britain Team,let,s not forget that a British Passport isn't exactly a 100% guarantee of racial purity!!
Now,as we are' multi cultural' in our team,don't forget the Wooden Horse.There are more way,s of scoring a win than hard yakka!!
             Goggy.

[RuthieB]

It's hard to see how, if you've read your history properly, you can ever think you are 'English'. What exactly is that? Anglo-Saxon with a bit of Briton and Romano-British and Norman and Viking thrown in? Not to mention all the other possible computations.

Personally, I'd love to see how Welsh the Welsh are. I suspect, not as much as they think they are.

RuthieB (pure British and proud of it - unlesss someone tells me there's something else in there, in which case I'll be proud of that too!!)

[pjbuk007]

I shall certainly watch.  But as I understand it, these DNA tests vary in how useful they are and are all based on a statistical probabilities of who you might be related to.  The "paternity test" type use of DNA is done differently.

Some of the tests only relate back to the distant past.  Last year I read that nearly all North American ones came up with a % native american genetic makeup.  Allegedly because folk quite like to hear that.

The science is changing all the time, with breakthroughs nearly every month.

There is a techie but good article here on GENUKI:

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/bigmisc/DNA.html

[Bill749]

The term "English" derives from the Angles - before their time we were Britons: those war-like people painted in wode who lined the White Cliffs of Dover to repel the Roman invaders!

Here in Kent there is a fairly large influence from the Jutes that is probably missing elsewhere.

I never call myself European, seldom British, sometimes English - above all I'm a Man of Kent and fiercely proud of it!  I have found very little "foreign" (north/west of the Medway) blood in my family going back over 400 years, and absolutely none from outside of England!

My family name derives from a local manor which existed in the 7th century.

Regards, Bill

[smeghead]

Welsh people are properly more English due to the hoards of people that escaped the attackers and conquerers in england and went west to wales. Although I am English I regard my self as British and proud of it  Rule Britannia

Jim

[Garethboxing]

As smeghead says the people of Wales "escaped the attackers and conquerors in England and went west", how does that make them "more English"?
   
   Gareth
    (one-eighth English, one 32nd Scots, the rest Welsh)