FALKE of Worlingham, Suffolk, East Anglia, England
DANISH VIKING: CIMBRI from JUTLAND, FYN and OSLOFJORD
Clearly in all but a few cases it is going to be very difficult to trace ancestral details in the era prior to the adoption of surnames circa 1200 to 1300 AD. The best evidence is perhaps surname, place of residence of earliest ancestor, social status and probably the most important - genetic evidence written on the Y-chromosome. This provides the opportunity to interpret the signals from the markers on the Y - chromosome in relation to known geographical origins. It is then possible to examine data in relation to archaeological, linguistic and historical records that can support any hypothesis suggested by the DNA findings.
My paternal grandfather was born in Norwich, Norfolk, East Anglia, England. It is known via parish records, wills, and manorial records from Mundford, Norfolk and surrounds that in the mid 1500s the Faux surname evolved from Falke via the addition of an "s" sound at the end of the surname by brothers John and Thomas - after the death of their benefactor and uncle Thomas Falke, LL.B. (Cambridge), rector of said parish. All were born at Worlingham, Suffolk, East Anglia where the name had been Falke back in recorded history to the mid 1300s. This is likely the name used since surnames were adopted.
Surname, Residence and Hints as to Danish Ancestry:
The name Falk is a Germanic - Scandinavian word meaning falcon. Thus the surname means Falcon but (as noted below) the subsequent addition of an "s" for "son of" to to the end of the surname resulted in Falkes and variants including Faulkes and Faux. It is a name of some antiquity. Carved in rune script on the great stone of Rok in Ostergotland, Sweden is an inscription that has been dated to the 9th Century. It is very cryptic and reads as follows:
THAT I SAY THIRTEENTHLY WHO WERE TWENTY KINGS SAT IN SEALAND FOUR WINTERS BY FOUR NAMES SONS OF FOUR BROTHERS: FALKIS FIVE. RATHULFSONS, HREITHULFS FIVE. RUGULFSONS, HAISLAR FIVE. HARUTHSSONS, GUNMUNDS FIVE. BIRNARSONS. [probably BIRNARSONS, FALKIS FIVE]
The meaning has eluded scholars for over 150 years, but clearly in Zealand, Denmark circa 800 AD there was a king named FALKIS residing there.
The first known ancestor to step out of the mists of time is one William Falke who died at Worlingham, Suffolk in 1455 indicating that he was born likely circa 1385. He was a substantial land owner at the time (his son was buried in the Church). Worlingham is within the Danelaw, the area of England that was controlled by the Danes prior to the arrival of the Normans. Although arriving much earlier as invaders, actual Danish Viking settlement can be assigned a specific date. In 880 AD, the members of the "Great Army" were apportioned land in East Anglia by Guthrum, the Danish ruler who had made a truce with Alfred of Wessex. Hadley (2006) reported that, "Halfdan's leading followers took over such multi-vill estates and supported themselves by the income from these estates, rather than taking up the plough themselves, which may have been left two the humbler warriors and other followers, and doubtless also the pre-existing tenants of these estates' (p. 85). He further stated that the thegns took over the estates. As to East Anglia specifically, Hadley's interpretation of the "Anglo - Saxon Chronicle" with the army bringing the inhabitants there, "under the yoke of their lordship". Hadley deduced that the main estates may have kept their previous (Anglo - Saxon) names, with the Scandinavian names located on more marginal land within the estate. He singles out the -by names as examples of this process. Scandinavian (which included those from what is today Denmark, Southeast Norway and Southwest Sweden) settlers and traders continued to arrive and take up land in East Anglia to at least the time of the death of King Cnut in 1042 AD.
Worlingham is surrounded by villages with Danish names. Lowestoft is the largest city within a 10 mile radius. Other Danish names include Ashby, Barnby, Toft Monks, Kirby Cane (there being a Karby on Limfjord, Jutland, Denmark), Aldeby, Thwaite St. Mary, and Swainsthorpe. Perhaps the most informative village name, however, is Alburgh a few miles up the Waveney River from Worlingham. Aalborg is the capital city of Himmerland in Jutland, the home of the Cimbri (see later), and the site of a large Viking burial site on Limfjord. Similarly Halesworth was likely named after Hals at the eastern exit of Limfjord. Furthermore there is a series of Elmham villages (e.g., St. Margaret South Elmham) - Elmholm being a village at the western exit to Limfjord. Based on the data available from "Key to English Place Names" within the immediate surrounds of Worlingham (which itself is Old English) are 19 Scandinavian village names, 11 that are Old English, and 7 that are questionable). However, although Falke is a Danish name (Falk being a common surname in Jutland and Copenhagen Denmark to this day), and was residing in the midst of settlements with Danish names, this does not mean that the early ancestor was Danish - but the surname is certainly one piece of evidence pointing in this direction - although it could be a name given to someone of Anglo - Saxon or Norman ancestry.
There are multiple entries in the Little Domesday Book for East Anglia in relation to Worlingham, but the most salient seems to be as follows: "Beccles, burgess of; Grim, free man, Abbot Wulfric of Ely; Grim, free man, St. Edmund of Bury; Leofric, free man, Abbot Wulfric of Ely TRE; Leofric, free man, St. Edmund of Bury TRE; Robert Blund; Thetford, William de Beaufour, Bishop of; William, King William the Conqueror landholder; borders; sokemen." Grim is a Danish name; and as will be noted below, the presence of sokemen is "diagnostic" of a Scandinavian settlement. If perchance the ancestors of the Falke family had not moved since 1086, Grim would be a good candidate for an ancestor. He is a prominent landowner of parcels of land in two locations - precisely what we find with the Falke family in the 1400s. The weight of evidence suggests that the new Danish Viking overlords probably parcelled out the large estates into smalled land holdings but little is known with any degree of certainty since there appear to be strong "possibilities of variation in the Scandinavians' approach to settlement, lordship and economy in the Danelaw" (Hall, 2000, p. 148).
The earliest recorded use of the name Falke in England is one individual of this name found in the Domesday Survey for Suffolk in 1086. Here at Bradfield (there being a Bradsted near Limfjord) where there were 10 freemen with 2.5 carucates of land. "Roric holds of the Abbot 1.5 carucates of land. And Falc half a carucate." Also it was noted that "Under them 54 sokemen. And they have 12 bordars". According to Hoskins (1957), sokemen were descendants of Danish settlers (bordars and villeins being of Anglo - Saxon heritage) found only in the Danish settlements with the meaning of "superior land owning peasant" who were required to pay taxes. In relation to sokemen, Hadley (2006) noted that the presence in Lincolnshire of Anglo - Scandinavian metalwork, "has been said to correlate well with the density of Domesday sokemen, suggested to be the descendants of the 'great army' that settled in the late ninth century" (p. 121). There are 11 towns listed on the Bradfield page and none except Bradfield list sokemen. Rorick is a Danish name. For example in 850 "a Danish fleet under the command of Rorik - the brother of Harald who had settled in Frisia in the 830s". Thus both individuals in this village who held land had Danish names. Bradfield is southwest of Worlingham. Both would have been born in the time of the Danish occupation of the Danelaw (which lasted to 1042). There is no evidence that the Falc of Suffolk in 1086 and the Falke of Suffolk in 1385 were connected except by name.
Kleinman (California State University - Northridge, 2005) has explored the development of regionalism in the era after the settlement of the Danes in East Anglia. In speaking of the literary work "Lazamon's Brut", he reported that, "These complex relationships are particularly apparent when we look at the intimate connections between Scandinavian ethnicity and eastern regional identity in Lazamon's time. The legacy of Scandinavian settlement helped establish the regional character of eastern England in the form of distinct dialect features, names for people and places, legal and administrative terms, and patterns of social organization. Scandinavian - derived literary and folk traditions, such as the Legend of Haveloc the Dane, continued to flourish after the Norman Conquest, probably aided by the opportunities for cultural exchange afforded by the flourishing mercantile relationship between Scandinavia and eastern England. The region also boasted and extraordinary proportion of freemen - a phenomenon dsicussed below. Kleinman asserts that a Scandinavian identity was still apparent in 13th Century East Anglia. Quoting Hadley he noted that "the descendants of Scandinavian settlers might not be fully integrated even as late as the 1290s." Curiously at this time even respected historians such as William of Malmesbury espouse negative cultural stereotypes of the Danes. Cruelty, ferocity, and drunkeness are commonly noted.
Y Chromosome DNA:The Y chromosome is passed from father to son only, and all Y chromosomes descend from one male who lived in Africa about 80,000 years ago. Since that time, as mankind migrated to all parts of the globe, the Y chromosome has changed or mutated slightly and some of these mutations are characteristic of men residing in particular geographical regions; and it is possible to, for example, determine whether the Y chromosome arose from a Native American source or one that was European (ancient sources) by assessing the haplogroup reflected in a series of single nucleotide polymorphisms (single base pair changes of the 27 million base pairs on the Y-chromosome known as SNPs). As will be noted later, key SNPs may provide specific information about ancestors within Europe. The Faux / Falke Y - chromosome is within the most common haplogroup in Europe - R1b1c characterized by a mutation known as M269. Later we will explore how one can refine this grouping.
Generally what is measured in Y chromosome testing for genealogical purposes is a series of 12 to 67 markers, called short tandem repeats (STRs), situated along the length of the chromosome providing a haplotype for the person which should be almost identical to those who are related within a genealogical timeframe. This DNA is essentially "junk DNA" in that it serves no known purpose, but is very useful for detecting similarities and differences between males. Basically the scores at all 25 markers should be identical between a father and his biological son; and between individuals who are descended from a common ancestor in the last few hundred years (with occasionally up to three mutations in 25 markers). Most people are interested in the period since surnames were adopted - about 1200 AD. In that time frame of 800 or so years, if two individuals have the same surname but a very different patterns of scores (e.g., only 15 of 25 matches) they are not likely related through the male line. If, however, there are only four differences in the scores between two men with the same surname, it is probable that they had a common ancestor.
1) Evidence from Various Y-STR Databases: There are many databases available to assist in interpreting haplotypes. Most, unfortunately, suffer from serious flaws that make them problematic for determining ancestry pre 1200 AD (approximately when surnames were adopted) - unless one has a very rare R1b haplotype. For example there is the YHRD Database compiled by the Forensic Users Group. They have a database of over 22,000 individuals comprised of samples taken at many locations across Europe, but with unfortunately poor representation from Great Britain. Using the signature of my father's second cousin as the Faux ancestral haplotype (the reasons outlined in the Faux Surname DNA Study at www.davidkfaux.org/fauxsurnamedna.html) there are 21 exact matches. All are from Iberia (majority), Ireland and Stutgart, Germany (the largest samples in this database are from Germany). Percentage wise the largest number are from Spain, Pyrenes and Ireland. This will take on some significance as other information is tallied. The real problem is that only 9 mrkers are used and this can result in random "identical by state" matches. A database using 10 markers is the Y-Chromosome Database of Oxford Ancestors. Here there are typically matches from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, the "Deepest Known Paternal Ancestor" of the clients. There are 10 exact matches for the Faux ancestral haplotype and of these 5 are from England and two from Scotland and the rest unknown. These matches are less than informative since almost all of their clients are from these locations (or the Britain, USA etc., not e.g., Lithuania - and so is not representative of Europe). Potentially more useful is the Haplogroup Database of Family Tree DNA which includes 12 marker data collected from locations worldwide as part of a scientific study, and which includes SNP testing (single nucleotide polymorphism - unique events with markers that characterize a particular haplogroup such as R1b). Family Tree DNA has a second database available to customers (size = 150,000), combined with the former, known as the Recent Ethnic Origins database. Here England, Scotland, Ireland and Germany matches predominate largely because this database includes not only the above mentioned Haplogroup Database, but also the haplotypes of customers, including many large surname studies which skew the information toward the United Kingdom and Ireland as well as Germany. However a careful analysis of this information shows lower bias to Shetland. This is the region with the largest percentage of matches to the ancestral haplotype, including a 12/12 match. Perhaps oddly, the ratio also holds in relation to Shetland when considering the above match and the 11/12 matches - a disproportionate number of matches come from that geographic area and with Aboriginal Shetland surnames (surnames ending in "son") which would otherwise be considered to be likely Norse but there are no Norway matches at all for this haplotype. Just going on the most likely unbiased findings, the highest match frequency is to Sweden - interesting because Skane in Sweden was for centuries in the Danish orbit. The Ysearch of FTDNA (uploaded data from customers and others) as well as Ybase of DNA Heritage suffers from precisely the same problem noted above of being highly skewed - although in this case most of the entries to date are submissions by the public and neither are terribly informative for the purposes of this study. Although the Sorenson Genomics database (SMGF) with about 60,000 haplotypes shows promise, at present there are no high resolution matches to the Faux haplotype, and what emerges depends on the markers chosen such that one could get the results desired simply by selection a particular subset of the markers. Upon entering the markers which seem most characteristic of the Faux "signature" (27) and including in particular marker DYS464 which has 4 components, there were a handful of matches at 23/27. Of those with attached genealogies and a known place of origin (other than being "brick walled" in the USA) the closest were one from Switzerland (Bern) but it dead ended in a non - paternity event; and one from Norway. The latter was very interesting in that the person's earliest ancestor was from Vestfold in Southeastern Norway (just north of Jutland and at one time part of Denmark). Considering the academic research findings (noted below) this finding may be of some significance. I then queried the database using the 6 most common R1b markers from academic papers and entered the values for the Faux haplotype as well as the rare 14, 15, 17, 17 motif for marker DYS464. There were 60 exact matches. While there are double the number of German haplotypes in this database relative to Denmark, there were only 3 German matches and 4 from Denmark. The latter were all from northern Jutland (e.g., Aalborg). Although sample sizes are small here these results may be of some significance. An acaemic population genetics study by Dupuy et al. (2005) provides 1766 Norwegian haplotypes in an article entitled, "Geographical heterogeneity of Y--chromosomal lineages in Norway". The country is divided into Oslo, Bergen, South, West, Middle, North, and East. My 10 marker haplotype is found from 0 to 2 times in all regions except East where in is found in 6 samples. Even taking into account sample size, there are proportionately more of the haplothpe in the East (but none in Oslo) relative to other areas of Norway. The East takes in the Vik (Vestfold) which was, as Skane in Sweden, essentially a part of Denmark for most of its history.
Despite some tantalizing possibilities, the bottom line is that this line of inquiry holds little promise as there are no strong indications to be found that would lead in one direction or another - in the latter cases there are simply too few markers to make meaningful comparisons; and due to the age of the haplogroup the processes of convergence and divergence have served to "scramble" any meaning that otherwise might be expected. The one possible exception is the findings from the SMGF database pointing to northern Jutland or Southeast Norway..
2) R1b Haplogroup Y-SNP Signature: The Y chromosome marker known as M269 or haplogroup R1b1c of David K. Faux indicate that his paternal ancestors were perhaps among the earliest individuals to enter Europe via Anatolia in Paleolithic times (30,000 years ago) as part of the Aurignacian Culture. This dating has come under severe criticism of late, and there is a prevailing belief that R-M269 may not have entered Western Europe from Central Asia until Neolithic or even later times. It may be some time before the matter is resolved. Individuals with this haplogroup are descended from a single male, known as "the patriarch", with the defining single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) marker a single single letter nucleotide base substitution from Thymine to Cytosine at a single location along the 27 million based pairs that make up the human Y chromosome. This man's descendants spread all across Europe, with declining numbers as one goes from Ireland or Spain (where the percentages are often 90% or more of the males in the region) to the borders of the Middle East (where the numbers taper off to a few percentage points in most of the populations). This fact makes it difficult, but not impossible, to ascertain with any certainty the origin of the male ancestor say 2000 years ago.
This Y-SNP testing showed that in addition to the generic M269, and newly discovered S116 / P312 mutations, our branch of the Faux family is S28+ or U152+, categorized phylogenetically as R1b1c10, R1b1b2h, R1b1b2a1b4, R1b1b2a1a2d in a constantly shifting panorama. For the sake of clarity and brevity, the haplogroup designation will be known as R-U152, although the markers S28 and U152 (which are merely the names used by different companies for the same marker) will be used interchangeably. Further testing has revealed that the Fauxes are both L2/S139+, and L20/S144+ which are downstream of U152 and add further detail and resolution to the profile. What will be important is to determine what, if anything, can be said about being "S28 positive" meaning having a simple nucleotide letter change along with perhaps millions of others at this one location on the Y-chromosome of those with M269+ findings. In population genetics it is seldom a simple proposition being placed in a specific haplogroup. For example a common (e.g., 35 or more percent) haplogroup in Norwegians is R1a1* or M17+ (actually it is a nucleotide letter deletion). Thus in Scotland or perhaps more specifically the Shetland Islands say, if one was M17+ then this would probably indicate Norse Viking. However, it must be noted that the majority haplogroup of Poles and Russians is M17 also and even in Pakistan in many locations it is dominant. Thus the context must be taken into consideration. It is well documented that the Norse settled Shetland and parts of Scotland - but in some regions their presence was minimal to zero (e.g., the Scottish Highlands). Thus R-U152 is likely to be found in multiple locations, and, particularly due to biased sampling (e.g., over abundence of testing in those whose ancestry is traced to the British Isles), so findings must be interpreted with caution.
Considering that the Faux ancestor resided in East Anglia there are a number of candidates, the Native Britons (e.g., Iceni), the Anglo - Saxons (perhaps more likely Angle), Danish Viking, and Norman (although the latter were few in number). There were also Huguenot and Fleming migrations to East Anglia but in the time period after the first Faux - Falke had already made an appearance. So which ones can be ruled likely or unlikely, probable or improbable? This is no easy task - especially since U152 is recently discovered and there is little in the way of research findings to rely on.
3) Research Findings for S28 / U152: Using samples relating to academic research articles in population genetics, it is clear that in Friesland, whose genetic composition is used as a stand in for Anglo - Saxon, there is virtually no S28 - 1% of all the R1b. Instead about 75% of the R1b in Friesland is S21 (a north Germanic marker). In Norway S28 comprises 12% of the R1b but all comes from the Southeast part of the country. An exploration of the FTDNA Denmark Geographical Project shows that R-U152 is all concentrated in an arc on the east coast of Jutland from the Central region, including the Island of Fyn (Funen) to north of Limfjord where it is the second most common haplogroup, but well behind the numerically superior I1-M252. In the rest of Denmark, as in Friesland, U106/S21 predominates the R1b scene (about 66% of R1b in places outside Jutland)). The same study showed that in one village in Norfolk there is zero percent of the R1b that is S28+. There are, however, no towns at all with Danish names anywhere in the vicinity. The customer findings from Ethnoancestry and Family Tree DNA are informative. In Norway and Sweden the few who have been tested for the clades below M269. However all who are U152+ come from the Oslofjord area of eastern Norway and western Sweden immediately north of Jutland. The most northerly individual is from west of Lillehammer in the headwater area of Oslofjord, and is S144/L20. This region, known as the Vik or Vestfold, was part of Denmark during most of the Viking era.
Most of the S28 in England has been found in the eastern part of the country, particularly costal East Anglia. In those with a well - documented genealogy this includes, Kent County, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Lincolnshire as well as the Midlands and Yorkshire. The Scots who are U152+ are all from the eastern coast. Only one person with a native Irish surname has yet been found to be U152+. and his ancestry is from an area settled by the Norse. There is a research study which found about 20% of the men of Anglesey off the northwest coast of Wales are U152+. Anglesey (Isle of the Angles) was settled by the Angles circa 630 AD via the Anglian kingdoms of Northumberland - there is also ample evidence of Viking settlements there also. Of the three S28+ findings in Shetland, two are likely from Norway, all of the Orkney men who are U152+ have land-based or farm surnames (which are aboriginal or Norse) and strongly suggest that their ancestors came from the Oslofjord area.
Commercial testing has shown U152 in parts of Spain, eastern France, Belgium and Luxembourg, the Mosel and Upper Rhine in Germany with all of the Germans having ancestry traced to the regions below Koblenz - none from northern Germany. U152 is common in the Italian Lake District, as well as in Switzerland (which appears to be a "hotspot"). This haplogroup is also found in southern Poland, the Czech Republic, in Greece, and as far east as Ukraine (one individual from Kazakhstan). It is not particularly common anywhere but southern Germany and Switzerland (and likely eastern France but there has been little commercial testing).
Now, what does this all mean? Of course we need more data, but there may be enough to make some sound hypotheses. The distribution of S28 on the Continent is entirely consistent with the locations where the Hallstatt and La Tene Celts resided. The areas of Switzerland have probably been less affected by migration over the years since the Hallstatt and their successor La Tene peoples lived there. It would appear that S28 may have been a "classic" marker of these peoples and would serve to differentiate them from incomers from other regions of Germany such as the Alamanni from the Baltic Coast.
The Celts and the Germanics:
In order to determine the S28 who is ancestral to the Faux family it has been necessary to delve into the history of the Celts and Germanic peoples and ferret out what makes the most sense. The evidence is very much in favor for the intermediary (between the first settler in England and pre - history) as being a member of the Cimbri Nation, a Celtic people from the uppermost reaches of the Danish Jutland Penninsula. The respectable showing of S28 in Southeast Norway (but only there and nowhere else in the country) can be explained by the fact that this location is immediately above the Jutland Penninsula and there are well established trade networks involving these two areas, particularly the Limfjord region of Himmerland. Trade between these areas has continued since before recorded time until the 12th Century when the fjord was silted up and trading networks were disrupted. The lone S28 in Friesland at the base of the Jutland Penninsula can be explained in a similar way. It will be necessary to explore the history of the Cimbri people to show why they are the very best candidate for the tribal group that spawned the first Faux to emigrate to England.
We are really looking for a Celtic people living within the areas where Anglo - Saxon or Danish Vikings resided. The only group (it is nice where there is no choice) is the Cimbri. A stray migrant from Switzerland directly to East Anglia is always possible but not probable especially considering that in England S28 is always found in the East (tapering off to the west), and little to none in the south of the country.
Perhaps it is time to go back and pick up the trail of the S28 marker, the Cimbri, the antecedents, and their descendants to show how they are the most likely people to which the Faux Y-chromosome belongs.
S28 and the Celts:
After the Ice Age released its grip people emerged from the refugia in Southern France and Spain (Franco - Cantabrian), Italy, and the Lower Danube or Balkan areas which had sheltered them. For simplicity sake, and since to a degree the data to date might support the following interpretation, we will say that R-P312/S116* (the ancestor of R-U152) was residing in the Franco - Cantabrian refugium or Italy; while the distant kin (later found widely in northern Germanic areas) R-U106 or ancestor group in the Balkans. Clearly there was a movement north, perhaps by the majority, but how many remained in situ is unknown. It is likely that P312/S116 or U152/S28 may have spead not only north but also east along the Upper Danube in Germany. Various cultures can be recognized based on the archaeological assemblages, but it seems most useful to begin at a point where the S28 peoples may be tentatively identified. Clearly the Mesolithic and Neolithic brought about massive changes and perhaps folk movements from the South East which include haplogroups such as E-M78 and J-M172 and G, plus I1a (which was to become, predominant second only to R1b in what is today Germany and adjacent regions; and actually the most numerous haplogroup in the Scandinavian countries of Norway and Sweden). I1b (Old Style) may have accompanied S28 in its Balkan hideaways as I1b predominates in some of these areas. Irrespective of the twists and turns of the Neolithic, it seems that the Bronze Age offers hints at the early distributions of S28. It should be noted that there is a growing groundswell of opinion (at least amongh genetic genealogists) that the S28 mutation did not emerge until the Bronze Age so everything noted below may experience significant revision.
1) Archaeological and Historical Evidence on the Continent Including Denmark: An inspection of the map of Europe circa 3500 BC shows that the Funnelbeaker Culture (successor to the Corded Ware Culture) is confined to Northern Germany (plus Holland), Denmark and Southern Sweden. This may be the early home and cultural affiliation of S21. However there are a number of comtemporaneous cultures beginning in the Balkans and heading north to Poland and with a swath west to the Western most regions of Switzerland and Bavaria. There appears to have been a clear separation between the two. Perhaps S28 was among these groups as it has been observed in the Vincha (Balkan), Lengyel (Poland) and Adriatic to Alpine Germany to Western Switzerland territory.
The next significant archaeological culture in Central Europe is the Tumulus Culture (burials under mounds) that dominated the area circa 1600 BC to 1200 BC until the Urnfield peoples came to overwhelm the region (culturally or via immigration is unknown). It appears that the ancient ancestors of the Cimbri may have arrived in Jutland at this time, possibly to exploit the rich trade in amber. Bronze Age oak coffin burials of the Tumulus Culture dated by dendochronology as early as the mid 1300s BC and extending to as late as the mid 1100s (when Urnfield - Hallstatt traditions predominated) have been excavated from the peat in Jutland. The grave goods are decidedly Central European (for example the swords and daggers) suggesting the origin of these peoples. The 2006 edition of Acta Archaeologica is devoted entirely to these exceedingly well preserved findings which also includes partially mummified bodies and the head to toe clothing they were buried in. It is fascinating if a bit chilling to gaze upon these remains from three thousand plus years ago with the realizaton that these people are probably one's direct ancestors.
Subsequently a cultural horizon developed that became virtually pan - European. The Urnfield Culture (c. 1500 BC to 750 BC). The practice in common was to cremate the dead and place the ashes in an urn and these were buried in fields. The central most area of this widespread culture extended from a small area on the North Sea near Belgium south to the Northern Alps. A variant was the South German Urnfield Culture consisting of two elements, the Lower - Main - Swabian group and the Rhenish - Swiss group. This culture was very widespread and included Britain and Ireland. - basically all of Europe with slight regional differences in the expression of the culture. This was a very rich tradition that included artistic bronze swords and shields found across Europe. Also found are four wheeled chariots and bronze trappings - particularly in Bavaria and Switzerland as well as Denmark and Romania. There is a growing consensus that the peoples of this culture spoke a Celtic language.
The Hallstatt Culture (dated from circa 1200 BC to 500 BC, the latter being the beginning of the Iron Age) was to a degree contemporaneous with and a successor to the Urnfield Culture. There is evidence that the cultural upheaval that ushered in the Iron Age (circa 500 AD) was triggered by the movement of a powerful group from the East known as the Thraco - Cimmerians whose link to the Scythian peoples and earlier movement to Asia is beyond the scope of the present work. Suffice it to say that their rich archaeological assemblages have been found from the Balkans to Zurich in Switzerland, and then a gap until finds in Jutland. The finds have been aristocratic burial artefacts suggesting, since this geographic pattern mirrors perfectly the known distribution of S28 residences, that this group via elite dominance came to make up the chiefly class in these regions.
The name Hallstatt comes from an important site in Austria but the vibrant culture had eastern and western components. The latter included Northern Italy, Switzerland, Eastern France and Southern Germany with widespread trade networks including Greece (probably via the colony of Marssillia (Marseille). The burials are extraordinarily rich with bronze, silver and gold. On the Continent it would likely reflect Celtic heritage that would be difficult to pin down due to the large number of tribes and their constantly shifting migratory patterns.The Hallstatt Culture was succeeded by the La Tene Culture named from a location on Lake Neuchatel in Switzerland. It was prominent from 450 BC until the Roman Era in the 1st Century AD when the latter conquered the La Tene peoples. It appears that at this time a pan - Celtic tradition had developed and was known as Keltoi to the Greeks. Early expansions, according to the respected Roman historian Livy, occurred about 600 BC, ushering in succesive waves of Celts moving in all directions. Livy indicated the the first was initiated by Ambigatus, king of the Bituriges tribe residing near Bourges, France. The latter instructed his sister's son Segovesus to take excess population eastward to the Hercynian Forest (around Thuringia, Germany and the Czech Republic), and her other son Bellovesus to take others of the Bituriges and other local tribes to the south to Italy, where they apparently settled in the Lake District among the Le Pontic - Celtic speaking Golesecca culture. It is interesting that to date the SNP L20/S144 appears to be somewhat rare, but perhaps informative when matched to Livy's story. It has been found in three from the Bourges region, someone from the Italian Lake District, a Swiss and a number of southern Germans, a Norwegian and six East Anglians who are perhaps descendants of the first migration to the area around Lugidunon near the later settlements of the Thuringian Angles (southern branch of the Angles who resided on Jutland and Fyn). One of the latter individuals is the author who is L20/S144+. Ultimately (the major expansion began at the beginnning of the 4th Century BC). Soon the La Tene Celtic culture was found from Greece and Turkey in the east to Spain in the west, but not above the headwaters of the River Saale in Germany (not above Cologne) - which is what one sees in relation to U152 which is not observed in Northern Germany, but found in restricted areas of Scandinavia. The "heartland" of the Hallstatt culture appears to have been Eastern France to the Alps, from Switzerland to Bavaria and Austria. Three foci relating to centers of power or rich material culture of the La Tene include the Champagne-Marne area in France, the Hunsruck-Eifel area of the Mosel Valley in Germany, and Bohemia. It is perhaps noteworthy that among the most impressive Celtic finds come not from the "homeland" regions, but Denmark and almost all specifically in the Jutland Penninsula.
It has been noted that some of the very finest of Celtic artistry anywhere has been found in archaeological assemblages associated with the Cimbri. A description a few will suffice. The earliest item is from Hjortspring on the Island of Als off the Eastern side of Jutland. Here in a peat bog are long wooden shields of the Celtic type with spears and their wooden shafts along with a boat. This votive offering is dated to the late 3rd Century BC suggesting that the Cimbri may have been established there from at least that date (but probably from the Bronze Age). Contemporaneous is the bronze cauldron at Bra near Horsens in Eastern Jutland. This vessel has the capacity of 130 gallons. The ornamentation is spectacular; and this object has been associated with similar items from the Bohemian - Moravian Region. Closer in time (1st Century AD) is the pair of four wheeled carts and the Celtic face masks found in Western Jutland at Dejdjerg. The decoration points to a manufacture in Gaul. One of the richest La Tene finds to ever be found is the elaborately decorated Gundestrup silver cauldron - found within the area where the Cimbri resided in historic times in what is today Himmerland (the county named after the Cimbri). It is believed that it may have been manufactured in the region of Thrace or Middle Danube by a Celtic tribe known as the Scordistae. It seems to be depicting aspects of Celtic life including a blood sacrifice that was recorded as being practiced by the Cimbri.
2) The Cimbri as Candidates: This brings a clear focus on the Cimbri who were cut from a non - Germanic cloth, resided in Northern Jutland and Fyn and for a period engaged (with the Celtic Teutons and Ambrones) in a very dramatic perambulation beginning prior to 100 BC that took them as far west as Northern Portugal (leaving behind about 6000 in what is today Belgium) and South and East to the Adriatic in repeated military campaigns. They eventually ran up against Roman might and were defeated soundly and all that remained of their people were a contingent residing in Northern Jutland in the 1st Century AD. However, there is a "Cimbro" language spoken by those residing in the Italian Alps. Theories as to its presence there include the remenants of the armies of the defeated Cimbri, some of who may have migrated there from Bavaria in the 12th Century. Ptolemy in the 2nd Century AD called them the Kimbroi and placed them in the most northerly part of the Jutland Penninsula. The Danish Province of Himmerland in the eastern side between Limfjord and Mariager Fjord is believed to take its name from these peoples. It appears that this may have been part of the group to invade Kent, and the Isle of Wight, as well as the region that would become the Anglian Kingdoms in England during the Anglo - Saxon incursions of the 5th Century. The relationship of the Cimbri to later peoples such as the Jutes and Angles is unclear.
Undoubtedly though the locals remained and merged with the Danes and this area was perhaps the most active region for Danish contact with England. The exit at Limfjord gave a straight shot at the Eastern coast. There are numerous indications of the pivotal Viking - era involvement in that of the 5 main Danish fortifications, two were in Himmerland. One was Aggersborg (the largest Royal administrative center) on Limfjord which was the northern - most boundary of Himmerland, and the other Frykat on Mariager Fjord at the southern - most part of Himmerland. The largest trading center of this era (c. 700 - 1100 AD) was Sebbersund on Limfjord. Here the two regions supplying goods for trade were Norway and England. From Southern Norway (the only location in Norway where S28 has been found) soapstone and iron were traded. There are 11th Century round plaque fibulas from Southeast England. Ornamented strap buckles have similarly been linked to England where duplicates have also been found. Southern Norway, Northern Jutland and England are among the few areas outside the Central European Celtic world where S28 has been found. In the 11th Century the western exit to Limfjord sanded over and the trade with Norway and England came to a halt - and presumably the migration of people between these areas.
3) Genetics, Archaeology, Isotope Analysis, Linguistic and Historical Data and the Danes in England: In England to date two S28 have roots in Kent which may reflect Jutish ancestry from Anglo - Saxon times. Most of those who are S28+ and tested by FTDNA, s of EthnoAncestry or 23andMe trace their ancestry to the Danelaw of Eastern England and surrounding areas. The haplotypes are highlly variable. The only consistency is inconsistency (likely due to the great age of the marker).
Falke is from East Anglia, one of the three areas of concentration of the Danish Vikings. The others are the Midlands and Northern England. Unless there is some complete reversal of the observations and trends then it seems very clear that the while the majority of those who are R-U152 from England have ancestry that may be from either Anglian or Danish Viking (Jutland) sources (both groups came from roughly the same area - the former from the southern part of the Penninsula and the latter from the central and northern aspect of this region).
The place name evidence suggests a significant presence (especially since most probably settled within already named parishes), there are also many words in English that are Scandinavian (e.g., egg, sky, ill, window), and Danish - style surnames ending in "son" occur. There is little in the archaeological record, however, to differentiate Dane from Saxon (likely due to the eaarly conversion to Christianity). Dawn Hadley and Julian D. Richards are among the foremost authors to tackle this matter.
Paul Budd et al. used oxygen and strontium isotope analysis of three skulls from obvious Viking graves at Repton, Derbyshire. Indisputable evidence exists that in 873-4 AD the Danish Viking "Great Army" overwintered at Repton and left considerable evidence of their stay. For example one man was buried with a silver Hammer of Thor pendant around his neck. The evidence indicates that the two individuals buried close to each other may have originated from "northwestern-Jutland". The third individual showed "radiogenic tooth enamel strontium isotope composition" consistent with conditions in "south-eastern Sweden" and was wearing a gold finger ring that "has close parallels at Birka near present day Stockholm and at Frykat in north Jutland".
Despite a very thorough examination of the evidence relating to the Norwegian and Danish occupations of England during this time frame little of substance can be concluded other than the Scandinavians, although having an obvious impact on the naming of villages, common every day words in the language today such as egg, and a very few archaeological remains, has left an impact that is in many ways subtle or invisible. It appears that when for example Guthrum was baptized this set the stage for the men of his army to follow suit and to, for example I they wished to marry Anglo - Saxon women and achieve status in the community would also have to adopt at least the trappings of Christianity and all that entails (including burial practices). If I want to find my Danish Viking ancestors in England there will be few tanglible indicators other than economic and social status whereby the large Anglo - Saxon estates were divided into smaller units as rewards for Danish soldiers who in turn established manors likely near Christian churches and almost seamlessly integrated into the local communities in the first generation. Even the Scandinavian place names could have been a status factor whereby Anglo - Saxons with upwardly mobile aspirations adopted Scandinavian names. Even an excellent resource like "Viking Age England" by Julian D. Richards can offer little in the way of tangible links other than occasional parallels with some burial sites with those seen for example in Jutland - but the evidence is very thin on the ground.
Oddly another respected author, an archaeologist (who freely uses genetic evidence as befits the circumstances) with the same name as the above but without the middle initial D. has taken a different approach as reflected in his book, "Blood of the Vikings" which is a companion to the British Broadcasting Corporation TV series of the same name (and largely based on the work of population geneticist Dr. James F. Wilson of the University of Edinburgh). Dr. Richards, in examining the archaeological evidence, notes that about 15,000 metal objects surface every year in Norfolk alone (often via metal detectors) and that a substantial number of these are "Viking Era". He reports many more finds such as a bronze strike a light with two horses and a rider similar to finds in Russia; a 9 th Century sword (likely a votive offering) from the River Wensum in Norfolk; and a stirrup from Kilverstone, Norfolk - it being likely that the Danish introduced the East Anglians to the stirrup. Richards believes that these may have belonged to members of the "Great Army". He also compared two contemporary Viking sites close to on another at Repton (work of Biddle and Biddle) and Heath Wood - Ingleby. The former set of burials were within the confines of a Christian churchyard and the mausoleum for the Royal Mercian Anglo - Saxon dynasty. The latter were a series of 60 low mounds containing cremation burials. There were two units that composed "The Great Army". One was led by Ivar the Boneless and Halfdan and the other was led by Guthrum. Evidence strongly links the first of these to the Repton site and Richards concludes that the cremation burials relate to Guthrum's people. The army split after 874 and Halfdan and his men went to Northumbria to take up land there; and Guthrum ultimately took his men to East Anglia to settle permanently after partitioning the land. Although the matter is far from settled (Hall, 2000), what is important here is that the burials at Ingleby associated with Guthrum's unit appear to have been linked strongly to those found in northern Jutland suggesting that they originated here - within the country of the Cimbri.
The Faux Y chromosome which is R-U152/S28+, may have arrived in East Anglia with the "Great Army", among those Scandinavians who in 879 AD, at the treaty between Alfred of Wessex and Guthrum, decided to turn their swords into ploughshares. In 880 AD an unknown number of Guthrum's Earls and soldiers benefited from the parcelling out of the lands in East Anglia. However between this year and 1066 Scandinavians continued to emigrate to the areas settled earlier by their fellow countrymen. Alas the specific time and emigration point of origin of the Faux ancestor cannot be know with certainty. Today R-U152 is found in Scandinavia only in the northeast of Jutland (in what is today Denmark) and to the immediate north surrounding the Vik (Vestfold) to the headwaters of Oslofjord in what was then Denmark but now Norway. Sawyer (1997) reported that, "The Danes were particularly eager to have hegemony over Viken, the land flanking Oslo Fjord ....... If, as seems likely, the word Viking originally referred to the inhabitants of Viken, it could explain why the English, and only they, called Scandinavian pirates Vikings, for England was the natural objective for men from Viken who chose exile as raiders rather than accept Danish overlordship" (p. 8). Furthermore, at the time of the Norwegian Ottar's visit to the Court of King Arthur of Wessex, the description of "Denemearc" coincides with other versions in the same translation of Orosius' historical account. Here, there was a distinction "between 'South Danes' inhabiting Sillende [South Jutland] and Jutland, and 'North Danes' inhabiting the coastal regions of what are now south-east Norway, west Sweden, and the major Danish islands" (Lund, 1997). All these areas were Danish and ruled by Danish kings during the Viking era. At this point it would seem that the point of origin of the Falke / Faux ancestor was in Vestfold (the Oslo region), in what is today Norway. This assessment is based on the present day distribution of the L20+ mutation which is found in the headwater region of Oslofjord (and to date nowhere else in Scandinavia or surrounds). As to the time aspect, perhaps a "better fit" (than the era of the "Great Army") would be during the "second wave" of "Danes" who accompanied Svein Forkbeard or his son Cnut (1007 to 1042) when the latter ultimately became king of all England and rewarded their followers with coin and / or land.
The most profuse finds of Scandinavian artifacts (e.g., jewlery and stone carvings) from the 11th Century are those of the Urnes and Ringerike styles of Scandinavia (particularly southern Norway) which are not found in the north (e.g., the old Viking Kingdom of York), but in East Anglia and Southern England where Cnut had his power base. This follows the present distribution of haplogroup R-L20 which is almost exclusively confined to East Anglia. This process served to invigorate the Scandinavian traditions that had merged with Anglo-Saxon styles since circa 880 AD. None the less, Cnut and his followers were all baptised Christians and as such would chose to be buried likely among the local population and would be indistinguisable due to the Christian eschewing the use of any grave goods. Before leaving for Denmark in 1019, Cnut ensured that all would be well in England, "consolidating his hold there by granting lands and titles to his followers, establishing a new Anglo-Danish aristocracy" (Haywood, 1995, p. 122). Cnut made Thorkell the Tall Earl of East Anglia, and "Knut's charters show that the highter classes of English society were replaced by new men, including numerous Danes who appear as King's thegns. Much land much also have changed hands, as new owners took over the lands of dead [English] magnates" (Lund, 1997, p. 173). This may explain why only 200 years later we find that the Falke family were wealthy land owners who were well connected to the point of being buried inside the Worlingham Church (a priviledge accorded only the land owning class).
It seems evident though that a constant re-evaluation of the historical and archaeological evidence is continuing. One site of particular interest is Middle Harling in Norfolk which for example is providing evidence that rather than just a ruling elite, there was continuing contact with Scandinavia and that many of the settlers were "peasant farmers" (in other words the consensus is building that the actual numbers of Danes in the Danelaw was likely more than previously assumed; and also that the settlements appear to have consolidated during the Viking period around individual parish churches (in previous eras settlements moved around frequently). Work is continuing on the "change in tenurial / settlement patterns in the rural Danelaw" via recent efforts at Cottam in Yorkshire (Hall, 2000, p. 153). There is also a developing interest in the "archaeology of lordship" and the continuing work at Goltho in Lincolnshire where a probable aristocratic manor was established at about the time the Danes were likely to be establishing permanent dwellings after the land was assigned to the members of the "Great Army" (Hall, 2000). Based on available evidence Hall concludes that "the Scandinavian takeover in the Danelaw transformed the pre-existing pattern of land - ownership. Its effects included the breaking up of the big estates.......and the creation of an extended class of 'small landed gentry' who......had ownership rights in perpetuity" (p. 155). Perhaps one day scientists will discover the manorial estate location at Worlingham - linking the Manorial Records of the Middle Ages to a specific great hall and farm complex of the Falke family and their ancestors back to Viking times.
As a reflection of Richard's interest in genealogy and DNA he describes a Goodrum family from Fundenhall near Norwich who claim descent from Guthrum (and have found Scandinavian artifacts on their farm). Dr. Goldstein has tested Goodrums and the claim to Viking ancestry (or consistency between Goodrums) cannot be supported. In addition, Guthrum's traditional burial place is a distant location in Suffolk and no known connection to Norfolk. Furthermore near Thetford is Garboldisham named after a famous Danish Viking Garbold. Similarly, a local family named Corbould trace their ancestry to this well - known Viking - their earliest known ancestor having resided in the mid 1300s in Occold but 10 miles from Garboldisham. The results of genetic testing may shed light on this assertion but claims based on surnames from the 10th Century when surnames were not adopted until the 13th Century by in large would have to be viewed with suspicion. It is very common for an individual to have a surname of a village as their ancestor happened to reside there when surnames were adopted. Genetic testing is the most convincing source of evidence but some discussion would be needed to decide which haplogroups or haplotypes would characterize Danish Vikings versus Anglo - Saxons (a notoriously difficult task).
The author has recently found that the association of U152 with the Danelaw mirrors the distribution of the kingdoms of the Angles. It appears that the Angles completely deserted their lands in Angelin (Schleswig) as well as nearby areas including parts of the island of Fyn. There is no direct evidence that the Angles included men who were R-U152, and this will be particularly difficult since there is historical and archaeological evidence that the Angle lands in the Central and Southern parts of Jutland were almost completely abandoned by about 550 AD. Still it is supposed that many of the R-U152 males in England could be descendants of the Angles, who came from Jutland and surrounds and came to be the dominant group in eastern England to the Midlands. It will be difficult to say with any degree of certainty that an ancestor was a Dane or an Angle. Both were Scandinavian, both from the same general area, however one group (Angles) arrived a few hundred years before their distant kin the Danes arrived. Each individual will have to make their own determination as to whether Angle or Dane (or in the north, Norwegian) best fits the totality of the data. In the case of he Faux family, it is the land ownership that tilts the balance toward Danish Viking - plus the fact that the one L20+ Scandinavian is from the headwaters of the Oslofjord.
One can only speak in terms of probabilities, but based on the weight of evidence it is concluded that the Faux ancestor who settled in Worlingham, Suffolk, probably circa 1019 AD, was the descendant of a Danish Viking from Oslofjord (Denmark / Norway) who was of Cimbri (Celtic) heritage from Jutland or Fyn in Pre - Viking times. The second choice would be an earlier migrant via the "Great Army" of the Danes, and thirdly an Angle from Fyn or Jutland who arrived in East Anglia in the 5th Century; or even indirectly via a Scandinavian from Normandy (L20+ has also been found here) with William the Conqueror or slightly later. It may never be possible to be entirely certain which alternative is correct, only a balance of probabilities - and the reality is that either way the ancestral home is the same - it is just the timing of the move to England that is in question.
MORE REALISTIC CONCLUSION:
While the above represents my thinking to about 2008, a sober second assessment of the available data would be far more "conservative" and less of an attempt to use a Procrustean fit to work the data into a nice box that fit preconceived notions. It must be admitted that there is little to no clear evidence as to the origin of haplogroup R1b-L20 in England. An inspection of the most up to date distribution maps show that the source could have been Normandy, Brittany, Germany, the Low Countries, or Scandinavia. The maps which follow need to be interpreted in light of the fact that many who are R1b-L2 have not upgraded to test for the presence or absence of L20 - so we really don't know the full extent of L-20 across Europe. A general sense of the matter can be obtained by referring to the haplogroup maps of FTDNA via the website https:my.familytreedna.com/snp-map.aspx (which may be available only to customers).
The author's grandfather, when asked, said that our family were NORMAN, which does fit with the distribution a la above map, the surname origin, and the status of the family when it first appears in the Medieval records. Hence it makes good sense to tentatively ascribe our family origins as Norman (which includes Scandinavians, Franks, Gauls, Bretons) until such time as better evidence is available. One thing is certain, the above rather grandiose speculations may make for a good story, but a really bad blend of the genealogy, history, archaeology, DNA and so on. The very complicated premise and supports are too premature and violate the Law of Parsimony - adopting the simplest explanation when a number of competing hypotheses are on the table. In the view of the author, the "Norman hypothesis" stands until better supported or knocked off the pedestal. The following links provide a study of the early hypotheses which guided the author's thinking in the matter.