Most of my ancestors (at least the ones I could find) came from England or Scotland. I trace back through one to 15th Century Wales. So I should be able so say that I am English in background. But what does that mean? After all, as far as we know, what is now it island of Great Britain, was first occupied by the Picts and the Celts. The Romans invaded in the first century BC. The Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes invaded, creating the basis of Anglo-Saxon, or Old English. We know that during the 9th Century the Vikings invaded (we know this because we saw it on the History Channel) and in the 11th Century, the Normans invaded. The Normans, of course, were part Viking (North men) and French, who were a combination of the Celts and invading Germanic tribes and the invading Gauls. So, who are the English? It’s kind of like saying you have a purebred dog, when we know that dog breeds have all be bred from something else. We evaluate purebred animals on the basis of parentage, not DNA.
I have not yet gone and had DNA testing on my own ancestry, but I’m sure there are going to be surprises.
The point is that purity is not something that can be determined by looking simply at one’s parents or a birth certificate. People have mixed for ages Remember “raping and pillaging?” The “raping” part meant the spread of genetic material. Invasions left genetic markers as a legacy for the future. If you have blue eyes, green eyes, you have Neanderthal genes. What does that make you? Human. We are all related in the end. Whether you believe in Adam and Eve or in Lucy and Homo Erectus, you have to recognize that all humanity started with one group. It’s simple genetics and no belief system can overcome reality and fact.