DNA

Another type of evidence we can look to is that of the DNA composition of the current population and see if it is similar to the DNA composition from people in modern Scandinavia.

DNA stands for deoxy-ribo-nucleic acid, a substance which everyone has and which is like a code.  We call this code the "genetic code", it makes people what they are - eye colour, hair colour, height, build etc.  The code has 2 parts - one comes from the mother and one from the father.  There are special tests now which can check this code.

Our DNA is held in chromosomes and we all have 23 pairs in our cells. Every generation the DNA in each of these chromosomes is exchanged, some coming from the mother, some coming from the father; with one exception. Boys and men have a special chromosome called the Y-chromosome (but it doesn't look like a Y!) in which most of the DNA is not exchanged - in fact it comes only from the father (and his father, and his father and so on). The DNA on a boy's or man's Y-chromosome will be very much the same as the DNA on the Y-chromosome of his ancestor back in Viking times, so by testing his Y-chromosome DNA and looking for matches elsewhere in Europe - and the World, we might be able to get an idea where his ancestor came from. Unfortunately most men have matches for their Y-chromosomes in many places, although they may occur much more frequently in some parts of Europe or the world compared to others. Rather than giving a definitive answer, the test can give us an ideas where the ancestor was most likely to have come from.

People from Norway have Y-chromosome types quite different from those from the Celtic countries such as Wales, Scotland and Ireland and there are noticeable differences between those from Germany and Denmark which are quite similar to each other.

The English people are thought to largely derive from the Anglo-Saxons who came from north Germany, neighbouring Denmark and Norway together with those Celts who decided to stay after the invaders came in, and also some Normans (who themselves were Scandinavian by descent)

By checking the Y-chromosome DNA patterns from the people who currently live in Wirral we can see how similar it is to the German and Danish, Celtic or Norwegian DNA.

The test involves a mouth swab.  A stick with a ball of cotton at the end is placed in the volunteers mouth and the inside of the cheek is rubbed.  This captures some of the DNA from the volunteer.  The swab then goes in to a tube and some special preservative liquid is used (rather like washing up liquid!)  The swabs are then taken back to the laboratory for analysis.

For reasons of consent, only volunteers over the age of 18 age can participate unless a parent or guardian signs a consent form.  

There is a difficulty though in that Merseyside saw a large influx of people from outside the area since the 1850's and the construction of the docks and then the first Mersey tunnel in the 1920's. These people came from Ireland, the Midlands and more recently from overseas.

To see if people still carry Viking DNA from the time of the settlements - 1000 to 1100 years ago, it is important that only those people who can say their families go back a long time in Wirral can take part.  
Fortunately, besides passing on his Y-chromosome DNA to his son, a man usually also passes onto his son his surname and way back in 1542, the English King Henry VIII took a complete record of all families in Wirral paying taxes. Scientists therefore had a way of selecting suitable volunteers - the man or boy had to come from an old Wirral family with a surname similar to those on the list of Henry VIII. And this is what they did.  To avoid biasing the data if men were closely related (cousin or closer) only one could take part in the survey.

It is important to stress that if a boy's or a man's Y-chromosome DNA occurs most frequently in Scandinavia this doesn't necessarily prove his Y-chromosome DNA came from Scandinavia - it may have come from other places but with lower probabilities. Similarly if a man's Y-chromosome DNA occurs more frequently somewhere else this doesn't prove his Y-chromosome DNA did not come from Scandinavia. However if lots of boys or men from old Wirral families have top matches in Scandinavia then this would suggest the Viking settlements were significant.

There are also statistical tests we can employ to see how men from old Wirral families are genetically similar to other areas in the British Isles and elsewhere in Europe. For these test duplicate surnames are avoided, again to avoid biasing the data.

Results from the survey can be found on the website
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~sczsteve/survey.htm

<< Back 'To Ask The Expert' Contents