Genetic Survey of Wirral and West Lancashire

The survey has now been fully completed and a paper has now been published in Molecular Biology and Evolution

The Wirral and West Lancashire genealogical survey has now been completed. Following the interest created in the 2001 BBC Blood of Vikings series in which evidence for descendants of Norwegian Vikings were found in the Scottish Isles, Isle of Man and the North Lakes, a new survey was launched in 2002 looking for evidence for Norse descendants in Wirral and West Lancashire, since the place name and other evidence suggests this area was once populated by Scandinavian settlers.

The survey supported by the U.K. Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council under the prestigious Watson-Crick 50th Anniversary programme was commenced in 2002 by researchers from the Universities of Leicester – the home of Genetic Fingerprinting - and Nottingham and has now been completed. The synopsis for the project was as follows: "If Vikings invaded and settled particular regions of the British Isles, we may be able to see their legacy within the DNA of modern populations of these regions. The male-specific Y chromosome is more likely to have preserved the signal of Viking presence than other parts of our DNA. In this project we extend the BBC's 'Blood of the Vikings' study in the Wirral and SW & West Lancs region, where Viking settlement is known to have been substantial, but where modern population influx has also been great. We plan to analyse the Y chromosomes of men from these regions who also have surnames known to have been present their in mediaeval times, and thus to bypass the recent major population movements in the region that may disturb the relationships between old genes and modern geography".

The results from the project were published in February 2008 in the leading scientific journal Molecular Biology and Evolution (Oxford University Press).

It can be downloaded from here as an open access article.

A poster summarising the findings is also available .

The U.K. Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council award also provided resource for a popular booklet: we hope to produce something in due course.

BACKGROUND
The search for Viking Blood has now, at last, come to a conclusion. Following the interest created in the 2001 BBC Blood of Vikings series in which evidence for descendants of Norwegian Vikings were found in the Scottish Isles, Isle of Man and the North Lakes, a new survey was launched in 2002 looking for evidence for Norse descendants in Wirral and West Lancashire, since the place name and other evidence suggests this area was once populated by Scandinavian settlers. Despite the large increase in population of Wirral and West Lancashire since the Industrial Revolution, preliminary measurements from a survey done in conjunction with scientists at the University of Nottingham and University College London yielded some tantalising, but not definitive, signs. This clip from BBC Blood of Vikings shows volunteers at West Kirby being tested by Nottingham University students Emma Compton (now Emma Hurley) and Giles Pergl-Wilson. This second clip shows the apparently remarkable finding from the BBC series of Bill Housley from Meols. Encouraged by this it was decided to probe much deeper with a full survey penetrating beyond the Industrial Revolution, by requesting the help of volunteers from old Wirral and West Lancashire families, or volunteers whose surnames are those of places in Wirral or West Lancashire.   In this way we can link old genes with modern geography, bypassing the large population influx since Medieval times: the population of Wirral for example has increased by a factor of 60: this is almost 10 times the national average increase.

The survey was performed in 2 parts:

·  Wirral (started June 2002).

·  West Lancashire (started November 2002)

The survey team was: Professor Steve Harding and Ziff Hansen (University of Nottingham, School of Biosciences), Professor Judith Jesch (School of English), Professor Mark Jobling and Turi King (University of Leicester, Department of Genetics), Patrick Waite (Chairman, West Lancashire Heritage Association, Ormskirk) and Stephen Roberts (Carnforth, Lancashire).

For the new "high-resolution" genetic survey we focussed on male volunteers from old families in Wirral and West Lancashire: people who can either say their male line goes back before 1700 in Wirral or West Lancashire (or South West Lancashire), or those people who have surnames that were in these areas before 1700: a similar criteria - surnames before 1700 - was applied in a recent survey of the Orkney's. This criterion is critical because of the large influx of people into the area during the Industrial Revolution. For example, the population of Wirral has increased from 5000 in 1545 to 10,000 in 1801 and 350,000 today, a factor of 60: far above the national average (which is only between 6-8 times). The new survey supported by the U.K. Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council under the prestigious Watson-Crick 50th Anniversary programme was commenced in 2002 by researchers from the Universities of Leicester and Nottingham.

SYNOPSIS: OLD SURNAMES, OLD GENES AND MODERN GEOGRAPHY
The synopsis of the project is as follows: "If Vikings invaded and settled particular regions of the British Isles, we may be able to see their legacy within the DNA of modern populations of these regions. The male-specific Y chromosome is more likely to have preserved the signal of Viking presence than other parts of our DNA. In this project we extend the BBC's 'Blood of the Vikings' study in the Wirral and SW & West Lancs region, where Viking settlement is known to have been substantial, but where modern population influx has also been great. We plan to analyse the Y chromosomes of men from these regions who also have surnames known to have been present their in mediaeval times, and thus to bypass the recent major population movements in the region that may disturb the relationships between old genes and modern geography".

GENETIC SURVEY: WIRRAL
We first looked for volunteers from men who have surnames that were present in Wirral in 1545 (from subsidy rolls of all households in Wirral recorded during the reign of Henry VIII) or other medieval records. These are as follows: Adam, Allin, Alleyne, Andrew, Aspinall, Ball, Barber, Barker, Barrell, Barrow, Bailiff, Beck, Bennett, Bergs, Billing, Bird, Blackburne, Boland, Brant, Bratherton, Browne, Brunt, Burscough, Bryde, Burrows, Bushell, Caley, Carr, Carlile, Carlisle, Challoner, Charnock, Chantrell, Coley, Colley, Colton, Coke, Corf, Corfe, Corness, Cotton, Cowper, Cross, Dalby, Dane, Danold, Davey, Davy, Denham, Denson, Dobb, Doe, Done, Duke, Dunn, Edmonds, Edmunds, Ellcock, Fazackerley, Fiddler, Fidler, Foreshaw, Forshaw, Fox, Francis, Gallie, Gardener, Gardiner, Gardner, Garratt, Garrett, Gibson, Gill, Gleave, Glegg, Goodacre, Grace, Gray, Gregory, Grey, Grice, Hale, Hancock, Hand, Harding, Hare, Harper, Harrison, Harvey, Heath, Helsby, Hender, Hesketh, Hey, Heyward, Hide, Hill, Hogg, Hole, Holme, Holmes, Home, Hough, Hulme, Hulmes, Humphrey, Huntington, Hynes, Jennion, Jensen, Jeunds, Johnson, Jump, Kemp, Kirk, Kirkby, Lancelyn, Leck, Ledsham, Leighton, Lennard, Leonard, Ley, Lightfoot, Linacre, Little, Lunt, Macklin, Massie, Massey, Matthew, Mayle, Mayles, Middleton, Milner, Molyneuz, Moss, Moulding, Mutton, Nelson, Newbold, Newton, Otter, Otty, Page, Parr, Pearson, Pemberton, Pendleton, Pennington, Penketh, Penney, Philip, Phylip, Pigot, Pinnington, Plumbe, Poole, Potter, Prenton, Pye, Pyke, Radcliffe, Rathbone, Ravenscroft, Richardson, Rider, Ridley, Rimmer, Robinson, Rogerson, Russell, Rutter, Saddler, Sadler, Sampson, Scaife, Scarff, Scarffe, Scarisbrick, Sclater, Scriven, Sefton, Sharpe, Shephard, Shepherd, Sherlock, Skinner, Smalley, Smythe, Spenser, Stones, Swain, Swaine, Swarbrick, Swindley, Tarleton, Taskar, Tellett, Thomason, Thomasson, Thomson, Threadgill, Threadgold, Tottey, Totty, Tumath, Tyldesley, Wade, Wainwright, Walley, Walton, Warburton, Waring, Warington, Watmough, Watt, Whalley, Wharton, Wilkinson, Williamson, Whitby, Whitehead, Whitelaw, Whitfield, Whitmore, Whittle, Whyte, Williamson, Willoughby, Worral, Woods, Woodward, Wilcock, Wise, Wyse, Young, Yoxon.
Volunteers satisfying these criteria were obtained with the help of the local press, Wirral Grammar School and telephone directories.

GENETIC SURVEY: WEST LANCASHIRE
The survey started on November 13th (2002) to coincide with the Ormskirk Advertiser Lecture and the 1000th anniversary of the St. Brice's Day Massacre when King Ethelred ordered the slaughter of all Danes in England. You can hear Patrick Waite talk about it in a BBC Radio Lancashire broadcast on 8th March, a further broadcast on Radio Lancashire with MP Ron Rigby on 5th May, and finally a broadcast on Radio Lancashire on 14th November by Alison Brown which described some of the sampling done in Ormskirk. The survey concentrated on men who have surnames that were present in West Lancashire before 1700. This is of particular interest since West Lancashire has a wealth of Scandinavian place names: there are well over 100 names of status village or above which have clear Viking origins, and if minor names, topographical names are included the list runs into thousands.
We focussed on men with surnames appearing on the two lists below: the List A - based on West Lancashire place names - or List B - based on a list of inhabitants of Ormskirk, Scarisbrick with Hurlton, Bickerstaffe, Burscough with Marton, Westhead with Lathom and Skelmersdale who promised to contribute to the stipend of the priest of the altar of Our Lady at Ormskirk, in the year 1366. Another criterion was that as far as far a volunteer was aware, his father's line (father's father's father etc.) is from West Lancs.

List A:
Aigburth, Ainsdale, Aintree, Altcar, Argarmeols, Beacconsall, Birkdale, Burscough, Crosby, Crossens, Croxteth, Formby, Greetby, Hesketh, Kirkby, Kirkdale, Lathom, Litherland, Lunt, Ormskirk, Ravensmeols, Roby, Scarisbrick, Skelmersdale, Tarleton, Tarlscough, Toxteth and West Derby. Brinscall, Feniscowles, Holgill, Lathom, Leyland, Litherland, Lowgill, Lunt, Norbreck, Scales, Scarisbrick, Swarbrick, Thrushgill, Warbreck.

List B:
Abbey, Ainscough, Alexson?, Ashurst, Askins, Ashken, Astin, Aspinall, Aspinwall, Astmole, Aughton, Backhouse, Badger, Balshaw, Barker, Barret(t), Barrow, Barton, Baxter, Becokson, Benson?, Bere, Bear, Bickerstaff, Bird, Blanchard, Blower, Blythe, Bligh, Bold, Bold(son), Bower, Brabourn, Bre(re)ton, Bretherton, Brotherton, Broadfield, Broadhead, Bromborough, Bronley (and variants), Brookfield, Brown, Burscough, Cadick, Caddick, Carpenter, Carr, Carter, Chalonner, Challener, Challender, Challenor, Charles, Checker, Childsfather, Clerk, Cole, Coly, Cooper, Coppell, Copphull, Cowdrey, Cowdray, Cowdroy, Cross, Davy, Deepdale, Dewacre, Dickinson, Dobson, Dodgeson, Dodgson, Drake, Eggacre, Ellerbeck, Ellin, Elliott, Fleming, Fletcher, Foster(son), Fox, Fresh, Fuller, Gilson, Goodacre, Greasby, Greaves, Green, Grey, Gray, Hall, Hallknave, Halshaw, Hamilton, Hancock, Hartblood, Haskin(s), Haskings, Heath, Helmes, Henry(son), Henson, Holbrook, Holland, Holmes, Horsecarr, Hubert, Hunt, Hurlton, Huyton, Irby, Jackson, Jones, Jones(son), Kay, Kemp, Kendal, King, Kir(k)by, Lagard, Lauder, Leadbetter, Leigh/Lee/Lea, Leyland, Lone, Long, Longback, Longton, Maddoc(k), Marhall, Marriott, Marton, Maulby, Mell, Melling, Mercer, Messenger, Milner, Moorcroft, Moorhills, More/Moore, Moss, Mossbury, Mossock, Nicholson, Nickson. Oldham, Ollif, Olton/Oulton, Orell, Otty, Outhead, Overton, Owenbreck, Overbeck, Owenson, Page, Parker, Parlement, Parr, Pawson, Peacock?, Penidale/Pennydale, Penwortham, Petty, Pickhare, Pigeon, Platt, Porter, Prescott, Priestman, Pye/Pie, Rainford, Rainhill, Reader?, Rideout, Riding, Roberts/Robertson, Robinson, Salter, Scholes/Scales, Serjeant/Sargeant etc., Shakalady, Shaw, Shuster, Smallshaw, Smithson, Sowerby, Spence, Spencer, Spicer, Spink(s), Spurrier, Staynes, Steel, Stotfoldshaw, Stranger, Such/Sutch/Souch/Zouch/Chuck/Chucks, Sutton, Swan, Tarbert, Taylor, Tew, Thomas(man), Thomas/Thompson etc., Thomasson, Todd, Topping, Turner, Tyldesleigh, Vale, Walker, Wall, Walsh, Walterson, Waring, Warner, Webster, Westhead, Wild, Wildbold/Wildblood, Williams(son), Wilson, Winmarleigh, Wo(o)lfall, Woldes, Wolfall, Woodloft., Woods, Wyresdale, Yate(s).

The 1366 document, at the Lancashire Record Office, Preston, was reproduced in the Ormskirk & District Family Historian, Spring 1991 (ISBN 0 947915 28 1). The transcription to modern day names was done by Stephen Roberts.
Volunteers satisfying these criteria were obtained by the West Lancashire Heritage Association in conjunction with the Ormskirk Advertiser and Liverpool Daily Post.

GENETIC SURVEY: RESULTS FOR INDIVIDUALS
Y-chromosomes were analysed for the following microsattelite repeat sequences of DNA: DYS19, DYS388, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393.  

·  their Y-chromosome type

·  all the places in Europe where there are matches of their chromosome (based on a database known as “YSTR” of Y-chromosome types from over 13000 men)

·  which places in Europe gave the best matches of their Y-chromosome on a percentage basis.
Based on this, 30% of the men surveyed in West Lancashire and 50% of the men surveyed in Wirral had their top match in Scandinavia.
n.b. This does not necessarily mean that each of these men definitely has a Viking lineage, nor does it necessarily mean that others definitely do not have a Viking lineage.
Four examples:

TONY TOTTEY from Moreton Wirral had the following top matches:

Norway Central: 6% of men tested had his chromosome type

Norway East 6%

Norway Oslo 6%

Denmark 6%

Norway North 4%

Sweden 4%

Zeeland 4%

Budapest 3%

Freiburg 3%

Latium 3%

Hamburg 3%

Norway West 3%

Interestingly, Tony is the nephew of the late Gordon Tottey of West Kirby featured in an article in the Liverpool Daily Post in 1971 called "The last of the Wirral Vikings".

BRIAN TOTTY of Neston had the same results as Tony Tottey.

MICHAEL WELCH of Southport, West Lancashire had his top match in Gotland, Sweden where 21% of the men tested had the same Y-chromosome type:

Gotland (Sweden) 21%

Groningen 15%

Blaekinge (Sweden) 13%

Vaermland (Sweden) 12%

Bulgaria 11%

Limburg 10%

Westphalia 10%

Norway North 9%

Friesland 9%

Uppsala 9%

Well-known Wirral born author and former manager of the FARM pop group KEVIN SAMPSON, had his top match in Denmark:

Denmark 16%

Holland 15%

Friesland 14%

Groningen 13%

Zeeland 13%

Norway South 12%

… and also had a match with Ole Christensen, colleague of Ziff Hansen of the research team!

A selection of results based on presentations given in November 2003 (Ormskirk), December 2003 (Neston) and January 2004 (Formby) can be seen here.  For a description of the technology behind the Y-chromosome test, please refer to Dr. Mark Jobling's Surnames, Genes, and the History of Britain. A good illustration of the technique known as PCR (polymerase chain reaction)used to amplify a persons Y-chromosomal DNA signal can be found here.

GENETIC SURVEY: POPULATION ADMIXTURE ANALYSES
Binary (haplogroup) data has now also been analysed, the statistical tests and population admixture analyses performed. The results from the project were recently submitted for publication and the paper “Excavating past population structures by surname-based sampling: the genetic legacy of the Vikings in northwest England" has now been published in the leading scientific journal Molecular Biology and Evolution (Oxford University Press). A poster summarising the findings is now available.
The Wirral data included volunteers bearing the following surnames: Barker, Beck, Bennett, Billing, Bird, Bryde, Bushell, Colley, Corfe, Edmunds, Forshaw, Lancelyn-Green, Gill, Harding, Hesketh, Holmes, Hough, Joynson, Kemp, Kirby, Kirk, Lunt, Oxton, Raby, Rathbone, Richardson, Rimmer, Robinson, Scarisbrick, Sherlock, Skinner, Sampson, Tasker, Tillett, Tottey/Totty, Upton, Young.
The West Lancashire data included volunteers bearing the following surnames: Abram, Ackers, Aindow, Alker. Ashcroft, Balshaw, Bilsborrow, Birchall, Bradshaw, Brown, Carr, Charnock, Cobham, Colley, Cook, Cooper, Crombleholme, Cropper, Fletcher, Forshaw, Gill, Gray, Grice, Hale, Harper, Hawthornthwaite, Helsby, Hesketh, Holland, Holme, Howard, Hulme, Hurst, Huyton, Johnson, Leck, Leyland, Lunt, Martlew, Melling, Molyneux, Ormrod, Orrell, Otty, Pendleton, Penketh, Pennington, Prescott, Ravenscroft, Richardson, Rigby, Rimmer, Risley, Roby, Rosbotham, Ryding, Scaife, Scarisbrick, Sephton, Serjeant, Shepherd, Sherman, Swarbrick, Swift, Thomason, Tyrer, Urmson, Vose, Warbrick, Waterhouse, Webster, Welch, Westhead, Whitehead, Wrenwall, Wright.
To avoid bias of the data, duplicate surnames were excluded from the analyses.

If you have a specific query please email Steve Harding.

Besides the recent publications referred to above the background to this survey is described in the book VIKING MERSEY: Scandinavian Wirral, West Lancashire and Chester. Following the success a new survey of North Lancs, Cumbria and N. Yorkshire – to see how far the Norse settlers coming in from the Irish Sea penetrated – has now started, funded by the Wellcome Trust and again led by Mark Jobling. The project will also involve obtaining an improved genetic profile of old Scandinavia.

Sponsorship: This Research was supported by a Watson-Crick DNA Anniversary Award (2002-2007) from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) of the UK, and the Wellcome Trust.

SOME PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE 27TH NOV 2007 EVENT AT KNOWSLEY:

28^TH NOVEMBER: STEVE AND TORGRIM BREAK THE NEWS TO THE WIRRAL THING

Prof. Steve Harding and Prof. Torgrim Titlestad (University of Stavanger) on the Lawspeakers mound at Cross Hill, Thingwall

LINK TO SURNAMES, GENES, AND THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN

LINK TO WEST LANCASHIRE HERITAGE ASSOCIATION HOME PAGE

LINK TO WIRRAL & WEST LANCS ANNIVERSARY PAGE

LINK TO NCMH HOME PAGE

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