This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It will not be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk/6293333.stm

The article has changed 7 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Yorkshire link to African roots Yorkshire clan linked to Africa
(about 2 hours later)
White men with a rare surname from the east of Yorkshire may have black African roots, research has suggested. People of African origin have lived in Britain for centuries, according to genetic evidence.
University of Leicester scientists found men carrying a Y chromosome previously seen only among people of West African origin. A Leicester University study found that seven men with a rare Yorkshire surname carry a genetic signature previously found only in people of African origin.
The connection has been traced back to a man living in the area in the 1780s but could be linked to migration patterns dating back to the Romans. The men seem to have shared a common ancestor in the 18th Century, but the African DNA lineage they carry may have reached Britain centuries earlier.
The scientists said they are ethically bound to withhold the men's surname. Details of the study appear in the European Journal of Human Genetics.
Researchers, exploring the association between surnames and the Y chromosome, spotted the Y chromosome in the man by accident, who was knew nothing of the ancestry. The scientists declined to disclose the men's surname in order to protect their anonymity.
A further 18 males with the same surname then formed the basis of their study published in the European Journal of Human Genetics. The discovery came out of genetic work looking at the relationship between the male, or Y, chromosome and surnames.
As you can imagine, we were pretty amazed to find this result in someone unaware of having any African roots Prof Mark Jobbing The Y chromosome is a package of genetic material normally found only in males.
All but one were from the UK and had paternal parents and grandparents also born in Britain. It is passed down from father to son, more or less unchanged, just like a surname.
Eight were found to be united by a common ancestor. Rare lineage
The scientists said it was unclear whether their ancestor was a first generation African immigrant, a European man with an African Y chromosome, or someone whose links went further back. But over time, the Y chromosome accumulates small changes in its DNA sequence, allowing scientists to study the relationships between different male lineages.
"As you can imagine, we were pretty amazed to find this result in someone unaware of having any African roots," said Professor Mark Jobbing, from the Department of Genetics at the University of Leicester, who led the research. Y chromosomes can be classified into different groups (called haplogroups) which, to some extent, reflect a person's geographical ancestry.
"The Y chromosome is passed down from father to son, so this suggested that Mr X must have had African ancestry somewhere down the line. Certain haplogroups might be very common in, for example, East Asia and very rare in Europe.
"Our study suggests that this must have happened some time ago." By chance, the researchers discovered a white man with a rare Yorkshire surname carrying a Y chromosome haplogroup that had previously been found only in West African men. And even there, it is relatively uncommon.
Africans were first recorded in the north of England 1,800 years ago as Roman soldiers defending Hadrian's Wall. "We found that he was in haplogroup A1, which is highly West African-specific," said Turi King, a co-author on the study at the University of Leicester.
But the majority of the one million people who define themselves as "black or black British". trace their origins to immigration from the Caribbean or Africa from the middle of the 20th century. "It is incredibly rare, there are only 25 other people known worldwide and they are all African."
Family tree
The individual had no knowledge of any African heritage in his family.
Sharing a surname also significantly raised the likelihood of sharing the same type of Y chromosome, with the link getting stronger as the surname gets rarer.
So the researchers started recruiting people with the same last name, which starts with "R" and originates in Yorkshire.
Of 18 people they tested, seven carried the rare African haplogroup.
Turi King and Leicester colleague Mark Jobling then commissioned a genealogist to fit the men into a family tree to see how they were related and find clues about where exactly their unusual Y haplogroup came from.
"He could only get them into two trees, one which dates back to 1788 and the other to 1789. He couldn't go back any further. So it's likely they join up in the early 18th Century," said Turi King.
Prior to the 20th Century, there have been various routes by which people of African ancestry might have reached Britain. For example, the Romans recruited from Africa and elsewhere for the garrison that guarded Hadrian's Wall.
Different routes
Another major route was through the slave trade.
"Some of the Africans who arrived in Britain through the slave trade rose quite high up in society, and we know they married with the rest of the population," said Ms King.
"It could be either of these two routes," she said. Even if the two family trees link up in the 18th Century, haplogroup A1 could have reached Britain long before that.
"But my guess is that, because many slaves came from West Africa, it could have been through that route," Ms King told BBC News.
She added that the study showed that Britain has always been composed of a mosaic of different people.
Professor Jobling echoed this view: "This study shows that what it means to be British is complicated and always has been," he said.
"Human migration history is clearly very complex, particularly for an island nation such as ours, and this study further debunks the idea that there are simple and distinct populations or 'races'."
Turi King said she had since found another African Y chromosome haplogroup in a different British lineage.
There are other precedents for the finding. When scientists analysed the DNA of the USA's third president Thomas Jefferson, they found that his Y chromosome belonged to a haplogroup known as K2.
Jefferson's father claimed Welsh ancestry. But his Y-haplogroup is vanishingly rare in Europe and has not yet been reported in Britain.
In fact, genetic studies show that Thomas Jefferson's K2 haplogroup ultimately came from north-east Africa or the Middle East, the areas where it is most commonly found today.