While in a café, Freaks, in Carcassonne, sheltering from the cold in a cosy chair, I perused from the book shelf a brill old gypsy book with super black and white photos from the 60's and 70's, 'Tsiganes et Gitanes' by Hans Silvester and Jean-Paul Clebert. So good the photos were that I was sharing them with my gypsy friend Ella May, who so delighted in them that she instantly ordered the book second-hand online. Such an olde way of life was portrayed, even through from not so far back, photos of gypsies dwelling in caves, travelling with bears and monkeys, which would dance to the beat of their tambourines, and such a beautiful photo of a young girl kissing the deity of Sara Kali at St Marie de la Mer.
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It's very heartening to hear of the fondness Queen Victoria had for the gypsies, regardless that many others of the time were not so well disposed towards them. The Queen even painted pictures of those she chanced to meet while out strolling, to whom she donated firewood, soup, clothes and blankets.
I have been researching old newspapers online, mostly the history of gypsies, in a social regard, adding to other likewise articles I have found. I have chronologically referenced some of these stories, to be seen in a fuller blog on my website, beginning in the early 1700's with the main issue having been the habitual fortune telling of the gypsy women and a wish to suppress this. For all the ethusiasm among women to know their fortunes and to have insights into love, it can be seen that along with this there was some intentional fraudulence going on. It's not that this was a reflection on the gypsies at large, but it was surely there for some elements among them. Gypsies of the New Forest appear to have had a good reputation, and Queen Victoria herself had a fondness for these peoples, but this fine picture was not to be experienced everywhere, as will be seen. 1725 - Gypsies are put into prison for the pretense of telling peoples fortunes. Six of their women and three of their men are said to have been 'pilfering about the country'. 1733 - A 'country wench', aged 18, who was journeying alone to a village, was on the way attacked by a 'travelling tinker and his whore'. They stripped her naked and took away all she had. On then tying her to a tree with a strong cord, they set their dog on her, in such a manner that he almost tore off one of her breasts. A gentleman, happening to be passing at a distance, heard the dog barking and for curiosity rode up, hby which time the couple had disappeared, although the dog was still there with his hold upon the girl. The man made the dog let go, untied the girl, wrapped her up in his great coat, and followed the dog, who soon went to his master at an alehouse in the town, where he was there seized and sent to Nottingham jail. On going back to the poor girl, the man found that she was dead. 1736 - A years imprisonment and four stands in the pillory, it is announced by parliament, will be given to all those who tell fortunes or who employ 'crafty science' to find stolen goods. This was resorted to in response to 'ignorant people being frequently deluded and defrauded'. 1739 - A false prophetess, from among the idle strollers in summer times who 'pretend to tell fortunes' and who pose to have the 'gifts of prophecy', has bewitched a gentlemans money away from him in Essex. Sitting under a hedge listening to the gypsy talking, she persuaded him to give her all the money he had in his pockets, to go to his friends house and in the orchard to dig under a certain walnut tree where he would find 15 lottery tickets, all of which would win a prize, and in each ticket would be a diamond of considerable value. Before digging he was instructed to scrape all the bark off the tree and this instruction the infatuated gentleman followed and he dug deeply, before realising he had lost out and so had his friend. Warrants were now out to apprehend the false prophetess. 1758 - Susannah Fleming is imprisoned for a year for telling fortunes and is to be pilloried every quarter of a year for one hour during market day. 1758 - Of a gang of near 20 gypsies in different parts of Norfolk, the men have been robbing houses and the women have been telling fortunes. Two of them, Lomas Smith and James Lacey, have been committed to the castle jail for burgling the house of a widow in the night time. Lomas Smith is a gypsy, a tinker by trade. James Lacey sells buckles and knives. Theyr women tell fortunes. Ten of the gypsies are in the neighbourhood of Southrepps, Bacton, Trunch and about the sea coast. One of those gypsies, who is their captain, wears a laced hat and rides a good horse. 1768 - A fortune telling woman, accused of stealing near Banff in Scotland, has been ill treated by a mob. She had been going around the country telling fortunes, only to then be suspected of stealing some clothes, for which she was taken by a mob and dragged along the streets to the shore, where they ducked her, tying her hands to a cart and hoisting her up and down into the water. This barbarous exercise they carried on for so long that she would have died at their hands, but for someone more humane than the others freeing her. She then crawled about the streets, begging for shelter from the inclement weather, until at four in the morning a woman showed her to an outhouse. She was almost frozen to death by now and she soon after expired. The principal men behind this horrid affair, being sailors, were found and now lie in prison. 1808 - Gypsies sell a pony, then pick pocket the buyer. This happened at the Marlborough fair. 1811 - An 86 year old leader of a gypsy gang has married a 22 year old. The man, Lawrence Winsor, was a celebrated fiddler and travelling brazier, his young bride being Joanna Skelton. 1811 - A farmers servant girl named Elizabeth Collier was robbed and attacked by gypsies, whom she came upon while travelling by foot. Elizabeth had been sent on a misson by her mistress to purchase a bottle of wine for a sick cottager and was on her return, it being ten in the morning, when a gypsy woman came to her and insisted on telling her her fortune. Elizabeth was endeavouring to get away when two men rushed out from a park, grabbed her and dragged her some way from the road, where they took from her a pound and some silver, a shawl and the port wine. Not content with having already robbed and ill treated her, they most inhumanely stabbed her with a penknife under her right breast. The poor girl made it back home and reported what had happened, for which the farmer, procuring the assistance of a soldier, went in pursuit and found them. One did escape, but on some gypsies being rounded up, and Elizabeth being present to identify the culprits, he was captured, he being Adam Lee. 1812 - The two gypsies, Thomas and Adam Lee, who had robbed and stabbed the servant girl Elizabeth Collier, were executed for highway robbery. They were part of the gypsy gangs that travelled Hampshire, Sussex, Surrey and Kent, and for years had been accomplices in various depredations. Thomas's wife, having been part of the robbery, was sentenced to be transported for life. A most affecting scene took place after their sentences were given, just previous to their being taken to separate cells, where on taking final leave of one another, the 'wretched criminal' Thomas, in a passionate manner, alternately embraced his wife and their little infant which she held in her arms. Thomas and Adam were taken to the scaffold with halters around their necks and their arms pinioned, the while of which Thomas Lee presented a most melancholy scene, being obliged to be carried and weeping in a most lamentable tone. Upon the scaffold, they had a few moments of prayer, then were launched off, and their bodies, after being suspended the usual time, were cut down and delivered to their relatives and several of their fraternity, who were more in number than had ever been remembered on such an occasion. 1813 - A gang of gypsies pitched their tent on waste ground in Herefordshire and an old gypsy woman from among them called at the house of a man named Gritton, saying she would tell him his fortune. She persuaded him that a large amount of gold lay concealed in his home and that he should put a large sum of money into a parcel, which she would endow with a charm, and then sew into the side pocket of his coat. The more money the parcel contained, the more considerable would be the treasure he should find, for which he put together £70 in gold, silver and bills. Nine days this was to remain in his coat, at the end of which she promised to return and that a coffer of guineas was to arise from the ground, to at once enrich her 'credulous dupe'. She never returned though and when he opened up the parcel he saw to his utter confusion that the 'witch' had turned that gold and silver into halfpence, stones and waste paper. Much of that money the man had borrowed from his neighbours and if he had been able to procure more he would have. As for the gypsy woman, she had escaped with her 'booty'. 1815 - New laws against vagrancy are affecting gypsies. By strict application of the law, magistrates are to apprehend and bring to punishment common beggars, gypsies, and other persons wondering about, who refuse or unable to give good account of themselves. 1820 - Two gypsies, Thomas Smith and William Lee, stole two horses from a field and were caught up with in Romford where they were offering the horses for sale. 1823 - Constables are fined 20 shillings if gypsies or other vagrants camp on the waste lands in their parishes , in accordance with the Vagrancy Act. 1832 - The death in a tent on a race ground has occurred of the 'King of the gypsies' alias Charles Lee, the 'monarch' of a 'murky tribe', maybe aged 74, but maybe much older. He has left about 50 children and grandchildren behind him. At his funeral, ten of his relatives attended, the rest of his family being absent at different fairs and races. A thousand spectators came to the church yard, curious to witness the funeral of 'so exalted a character'. 1833 - On entering certain countries the gypsies passed themselves off as Christians of Egypt who had been expelled from their land by the Saracens. In this article the dates are given for their arrival in Europe, in Hungary in 1417, as likewise in Bohemia, the German states and France. It was in France, as recorded by Pasquier, that they gave out the story about being Egyptians, saying they had come via Bohemia. In 1418 they arrived in Switzerland. In 1422 they came to Italy. From France they passed into Spain and Portugal. It was later, in the reign of Henry VIII that they came to England. The whole of this 'outcaste race' now amounted to five million, there being a million in Europe, 400,000 in Africa, a million and a half in India, and two million in the rest of Asia. 1836 - The gypsies have been overunning the Basque lands and turning to violent crime. Innumerable bands of gypsies there no longer confine themselves to their old system of begging, frauding the credulous, and taking hens from roosts and rabbits from hutches and occasionally sheep too, but have taken to violent robberies, sometimes even mudering, watching the farmers on their return from market, to steal from them their moneys for the sales of cattle and all else. When pursued in France they escape to Spain and vice versa. Orders have been given to arrest all the gypsies, 30 of these 'dark complexioned marauders' having already been captured. It is despaired of though that never will these vagabonds acquire fixed habits of industry, but that they will return to their evil courses once released. It has been observed that there are at least 2,000 of this wandering tribe, who have no means of subsistence but fraud, robbery and murder. Therefore, the only way to rid the country people of this scourge is to seize 'the whole of these wretches' and to 'transport them en masse beyond sea'. Such gypsies are not to be considered as Frenchmen, as they are outcastes to all society and are alien from the laws. They are altogether strangers in the land to which they are a burden. 1838 - A girl caring for children repelled gypsy burglars with a gun. Her master, of Woodford Hall, had gone to church with all the other servants, leaving her with his three children, all under the age of ten, her name being Eliza Whitmel. Two gypsy men came demanding admittance, which upon her denying them, they tried to batter in the door. Eliza told them from the first floor window to go away, and that she would rather die than let them rob the house. Disregarding her, they continued to batter the door, upon which she got her masters gun and fired it at them four times. The oldest daughter, who was nine, was supplying her with powder and shot so that she could keep reloading. The thieves, finding her to be determined, and having small wounds already from the shots, they gave up and left. 1841 - Talk of the early persecution of gypsies, their hiding in caves and holes, and their habits since then. So it begins, that shortly after their first arrival in England, which is upwards of three centuries since, a dreadful persecution was raised against them, the aim of which was their utter extermination. Being a gypsy was esteemed a crime worthy of death and the gibbets of England groaned beneath the weight of gypsy carcasses, and the miserable survivors were literally obliged to creep into the earth in order to preserve their lives. These days passed by, their persecutors became weary of pursuing them, and so they showed their heads from the holes and caves where they had hidden themselves. Venturing forth, they increased in numbers, each tribe of family choosing a particular curcuit, they fairly dividing the land among them. In England the male gypsies were all horse dealers, who sometimes would mend the tin and copper utensils of the peasantry. The gypsy women were fortune tellers. They would pitch their tents in the vicinity of a village or small town, by the roadside, under the shelter of the hedges and the trees. Their complexion is dark, but not disagreeably so. Their faces are oval, their features regular, their foreheads low, and their hands and feet small. The men are taller than the English peasantry and are far more active. They all speak the English language fluently. In their gate and demeanour they are easy and graceful, whereas the peasantry are slower, uncouth and in manner dogged and brutal. This report is gleaned from Borrows 'Gypsies of Spain'. 1842 - A remarkable circumstance is noted to have been the ceremonial expulsion of one of the gypsies of the New Forest, by the name of Lee. Between 300 and 400 gypsies, both men and women, belonging to different tribes, including the Lees, Stanleys and Coopers, assembled at Boltons Bench near Lyndhurst. The offender, a handsome looking man, in his 30's, was placed in the middle of a ring, comprised of the king of the gypsies and the patriarchs of the different tribes. A second ring was made up of the rest of the men and an exterior ring to that was made up of the women. The King, who was one of the Lees, a 'venerable old man', looking to be in his 90's, addressed the culprit for nearly an hour in a tongue that was strange to any bystanders, spoken impressively with vehement gesticulations. Only the gypsies themselves knew what was this mans crime, but it must have been very obnoxious, as the act of expulsion among them is exceedingly rare. When the king finished his speech he spoke to all present, saying in English that Jacob Lee was expelled from among them and was no longer of their fraternity and must leave the camp of the gypsies forever. The king then went and spat on him and the circles opened to allow the mans departure, they hitting him with branches as he did so. The meeting then broke up, all going their different ways, some having come to witness this from a considerable distance. The whole ceremony took place under an imposing ancient oak tree. 1848 - Sophia Locke, the daughter of a gypsy traveller, was born in a cave near Crocker Wood, and was one to always roam the land in male attire. She posed as a man, calling herself John Smith, working either as a tinker or a scissor grinder. For 14 years she even had a woman lover, with whom she travelled all over England. In 1847 it is to be seen that the two of them were picking hops in Worcestershire. They lived very happily together and would earn around a guinea a day. Upon her death, Sophia was buried as John Smith and a great many people came to witness her funeral. 1851 - Two gypsy men, David Yelding and Joseph Barton, assaulted a French man named Jacques Ponsonque who travels with his bear named Bruin. On meeting them on the Canterbury road, the gypsies began taunting the bear, playing tricks, and when Jacques tried to stop them they beat him up. 1887 - A description is given in the Thanet Advertiser of the gypsy woman, she being not always handsome in later life, but as a maiden is always attractive. Even when older though, she never loses her glowing eyes, nor is she ever feeble. As a rule they outlive their gypsy men. She has an apparently wondrous power of sorcery and divination. Her spirit is exhaustless. She has a certain personal charm and an untrained intuitive intellect, for which she may even be considered to be the brightest of women.
I settled into trying to understand more these genetic tools on Gedmatch, specifically the Eurogenes K13 and the Dodecad 3, one of my aims being to discern what is from my mothers side and what is of my fathers. Not that I really work out so much, but there are some things I do see. One marker which I have, but my mum doesn't, and which therefore is from my father, is of the Red Sea. And there I had been previously, holidaying for a month right by the Red Sea in Egypt. Both the Eurogenes and the Dodecad reveal a lot of West Asian, which is considerably higher in me than in my mother. Thus it does look to be that my huge Caucasus heritage, and quite likely the Anatolian/Armenian too, is from my father, or at least a greater portion of the Caucasus is. And isn't that a surprise, considering that mine and my mothers matriarchal DNA is from there, and yet my more recent connections to that land come through my father. Naturally western-northern European is our highest genetics, after which comes a high Mediterranean, which includes some Greek from my father and East European shores of the Black Sea from my mother. South Asian is in my mother and father, and south west Asian is only through my dad. North East Asian is from both my parents, which does get me thinking of Mongol invasions. No paleo-Pygmy African presence shows up after all on the Dodecad. There is, though, north west African from my mum (Moroccan) and north east African (Egyptian) from my dad. Among the Gedmatch tools are oracles for predicting likely origins of the four grandparents, and looking firstly at my mums, her Shetland grandparents are no doubt responsible for the Orcadian, West Scottish, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. All is not so straightforward for grandparents Mary Ann Seagrove and D'Auvergne Bane. There is a considerable amount of south west English, pinpointed to Cornwall, that I'm not sure how to account for. This could be tagged onto either of grandparent I suppose. Like I don't yet know the place Mary Ann's ancestors dwelt in as yet before they came to London. The Irish is accounted for by Mary Ann's 'Sugrue' fathers side from County Kerry, and the Spanish with considerable Basque may or may not have come through the Irish connection. The Dodecad reveals that there is French other than just the Basque, and with a name like D'Auvergne naturally I wonder if that grandfather did have some secret French connection. As far as his Norfolk Banes and Beans are concerned, this would be covered by both south east English and Dutch, the Norfolk cloth merchants (a trade to which my people were linked) being from there, and this could also account for traces of German and Austrian. Although not to forget that the Hanseatic merchants also traded with Shetland. The conclusion of my mothers oracle is a quite present Cornish, Scottish and Danish, and a French Basque which is potentially through the Irish. In my own oracle Irish is the strongest, enormously so. Although my mum's Irish would appear to have a strong Basque and Spanish influence, my dads (which is from Westmeath) would be very grass roots Irish. So for my own grandparents in this: Shetland grandfather Lyall Inkster accounts for West Scottish and Orcadian; Granny Isabelle accounts for Irish, Cornwall, French and Spanish. Then, for my other two grandparents, pop and nanny Eileen, would come so much Irish. For pop surely Welsh would show, but maybe Welsh hasn't been sampled as yet and so has been lumped in with the Irish. Unless, that is, my Welsh Harrisons and Forest of Dean Hawkins were of Irish traveller derivation. So much Irish, it being the closest of all ethnic types to me inclines me to think my nanny Eileen's mystery father to be Irish as well. Somewhere on my dads side also comes in some distant Hungarian, according to Eurogenes, so it may be that the Maxteds came from a gypsy heritage after all, but I have to drop gypsyness for now as a consideration due to a lack of proof. Interestingly, beyond the strong French Basque, the most potent influence of all the Spanish areas is Catalan. And where I live now in the south of France was once part of the Spanish Catalan territories, before being snatched away by France. My coming to this land suddenly holds a significance I'd not before been aware of. The Dodecad points not only to Cornwall and Hungary, but also to Slovenia. And Sardinia is there through my mother, as well as north Italian. As Les Batt had pointed out, this appears to point out a route taken to Spain, being via Sardinia, a route of old sea traders, such as the Phoenicians. Certainly the Phoenicians come to mind with such locations, from the Levant to the islands of the Mediterranean to Spain. The Dodecad embroiders yet again on my mothers strong Iberian secondary ancestry, along with Sardinian and Italian. Whereas my own, presumably enriched by my fathers DNA, is increasingly exotic. The Eurogenes has pointed out for me strong Caucasus and central Asian ancestry, along with Anatolian. The Dodecad finds me markers in a more European and Mediterranean context and these are richly ethnic in variety. Primarily there are Greek, Romanian and Hungarian. So would that then relate to my maybe gypsy Kent-London ancestors? But, oh, they are a right melting pot of cultures, just as one may imagine Londoners to be. And I never thought there was any Jewish ancestry in me at all, for nothing else had shown this, but the Dodecad has made of me links to them. Beyond the stronger Greek-Romanian-Hungarian there comes Slovenian, Ashkenazi Jew, Cyprus, Sephardic Jew, the Balkans, Sicily, Lebanon, Moroccan Jew, south Italy, Cornwall (lol, so exotic), and Egypt. What to say of this, well, ones ancestry is not linear, nor easily determined. In these hundreds of years so many families are joined by the marriages and affairs of the ancestors. The Dodecad grandparent predictor oracle for my mother still emphasises a French Basque probability, with Slovenian coming up too, and naturally Irish. Mine brings in, from my father then, an addition of Romanian and the Balkans. At which point I take a break. Because my friend Omani comes to visit. AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees. Absolutely, on this day, my mind was being blown by my supposed gypsy connections which more and more are revealed to be authentic, and not only that, the gypsies I am connecting with are helping me to understand more about my genetics. One fellow, Les Batt, was going out of his way to reveal the connections I have to his Romany compatriots. And not only that, for also he understands the tools which reveal specific populations and tribal groups which one is linked to. It is Les that is blowing my mind, and how lucky I am that he helps me to see what otherwise may have escaped me. Apart from the fact that I have tonnes of Viking Orcadian Scandinavian DNA and tonnes of Irish (I don't know where my Welsh pop fits into all this), I learnt that despite what MyHeritage had reported to the contrary I did have English DNA after all and it is of Cornwall (and how can I even understand how that fits in). And there is some Dutch and West German, which could be accounted for by my Norfolk ancestry, as Europeans were known to have brought the cloth trade there. This information was all so, so, and overall to be expected. What was mind blowing was other than that. Not only did Les give me lists of recent influences for the grandparents of both me and my mother, but he also presented totally exotic lists of secondary influences beyond that, and put his own time to preparing maps of the journeying of my ancestors out of India and into Central Asia - so the Genographic Project was correct about my central Asian link after all - and such a big influence he also showed me had come from the Caucasus mountains (I had been correct in focusing research here in the past too then); my ancestors had dwelt in Afghani-Pakistani border regions (no Pakistani separation back then mind you and this would have been known as part of India). One marker is to be found in Anatolia (where maybe the blending with Armenians had come in). One line travelled down through the Middle East into Egypt and across to Morocco, maybe that very gypsy journey into the south of Spain I'd recently been learning about. After Les showed to me that I had distant connections to him and other gypsies of the Romany group, he one by one presented to me more and more interesting details in relation to Gedmatch. A Utility K13 list, with its Oracle 4, shows the major imput from all four grandparents, which appears overwhelmingly Irish, with of course Orcadian, West Scottish, and the southern English (I wonder if this would tally with my Forest of Dean ancestry), as well as southern Dutch and west and north German. This was the first level of genetics I got and is of recent genetics. Totally I see that Irish is the strongest element. The next revelation Les came up with was the Oracle 4 in relation to my mothers own grandparents. This revealed, amongst all the expected Scandinavian Viking influence, which would account for Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Orcadian and nothern Dutch (although that last may still be to do with a Norfolk connection), an addition of Irish (which we've definitely known), and south-eastern English (Norfolk and London), but the real surprise in all this then came out, and it is Basque French. The French Basque is no minor element but is strongly present and is the second biggest influence beyond the Viking imput. Oh, could it be then that her grandmother Mary Ann's Greenwich mother Maria's appearance was really French Basque. Les pointed out that the Basques had not only remained in their Pyrenees enclave, but they had also made a home for themselves in Ireland, hence the black hair sometimes seen there. This presents then that Maria's Basque look, if that indeed is what it is, could have come to England via Ireland, rather than directly from France. Interestingly I read that the language of the Basques has similarity to tribal languages in the Caucasus, where my very mtDna has its origins. And Les Batt was revealing so much more to me. The Basque French is recent ancestry, beyond which there is so much more ethnic variety. I had asked Les if there was any way to know if one truly has Romany ancestry, pointing out that 11% of my DNA has been detected to be Mediterranean. Really for this one would have to detect a link to India itself, with the subsequent journeying towards Europe of these peoples. And Les found this for me, using the K13 Oracle, which specifically looks at markers shared with Asian peoples, along with usually looked at influences. For my mother, behind the primary source of Orcadian, British, Norwegian and Dutch, comes the secondary source, where are ones further back ancestors, and what shows up is not only French Basque in high proportions, but also a large amount of Iberian Spanish/Portuguese. As Les says, this even being what he had expected, this shows my mum's ancestors travelled widely in Spain. Not only have the old Irish been seen to have a link to both Spain and the Basque Pyrenees , but the gypsies had for so long dwelt in Spain, for which gypsies tend to have a big presence of Spanish DNA. There is so much of this Spanish influence in my mothers DNA, along with French, and interestingly, considering that I was drawn to spend a month exploring this island, some Sardinian. The Basque is not something in isolation then, but part of vaster exploration of the whole Iberian peninsular and beyond. And for sure this fits in with the autosomal results I was already told of by the general DNA testing companies. There's no defining, as such, as to whether this Iberian DNA is due to either Irish or gypsy influences, or both, although its pretty much accepted that genetic mixing has gone on between Irish travellers and European-Asian ones, and I think I can assume the same in my own case too. Now this is all fascinating enough, but my own K13 oracle is even more so. For beyond all my great influence of Irishness, which is of primary source, is the secondary aforementioned mass of Caucasus mountain tribes, central Afghani and Indian. This is as aspect of me, the ethnic colour of my being, whether it is through my mother or father, that not being clear as yet. It does look as if my more ethnic components aren't even through my mother, or at least they don't show up on her own oracle. And so has manifested a massive list of tribal peoples, by which an entire map of journeying across Asia can be plotted, with tribal names such as Ossetian, Balkar, Brahmi, Balochi, Kabardin, Georgian, Abhkasian, Makrani, Adygei, Afghan Tadjik, Kalash, Nogay, Chechen, Burusho, Afghan Pashtun, Kumyk, Sindhi and Tabassaran. Wow, in wishing to find ones exotic self how much more exotic can it get! Like we know Europeans came out of Africa via the Middle East. But this something totally different! An attraction I have had in my life to India, and the lands thereabout, reflects exactly where my ancestors have been. Les came up with three maps, one for the Asian journeying, one for the Iberian, and another of the total picture which includes every single discovered influence (which includes Greek, south east European, Cyprus as it looks to be (another place I'd like to go), Sicily, Egypt, the Levant and Morocco, all this being revealed by the Dodecad V3 test analysis. I am thrilled to bits with these maps. And of course by all the obscure tribes that have been listed. I looked up information on those tribal groups: Ossetia is of the Caucasus, the highest point in the landscape being Mount Kazbek and being part of the old Sillk Road. Other Caucasus groups are revealed, the Balkars, many of whom fled into Europe when the Mongols invaded, the Kabardin with their interesting belief that the soul of the ancestors watches over us, a soul which one is to perfect by honour and compassion, the Georgians, who had maintained their Christian identity even in the face of great pressure from neighbouring Moslem empires, Abkhasian whose land of the soul is on the shores of the Black Sea with its ideal mildly subtropical climate, a part of the ancient kingdom of Colchis, where is the worlds deepest cave (the Crows Cave), the Adygei Circassians, the Nogay who have been linked to the Golden Horde, who on settling in the Crimea became Crimean Tartars, still proud of their nomadic traditions which they consider to be superior to settled life, the Chechen who are fiercely independent and egalitarian, who had migrated to the mountains from the fertile crescent and are tall with all eye and hair colours, including red hair, and who are considered to be more European than Asian, with a strong connection to nature and love of freedom (their greeting 'marsha oylla' means 'enter in freedom', they are a happy and witty people, and it is they who, who with their diverse genetics, have this connection to the Basques, far more than they have to neighbouring east Europeans, the Kamyk of northern Dagestan, and the Tabassaran, also of Dagestan. And: On the edges of Afghanistan are the Brahuis, a relict people of Indian type, and the Balochi, a desert and mountain people living with the Pashtuns on the Persian plateau, though originally from the shores of the Caspian Sea (they are known to have plundered travellers in the desert and their singing and dancing women folk are known for their lullabies), the Makrani former mercenaries who to this day are found in the Gujarati princely states of Kathiawar, the Tadjik who are Persians who emigrated to central Asia, being former Zoroastrians with their fire temples, Aryans and Buddhists, the Kalash who are a unique aboriginal tribe practising animism, and whose women embroider their dresses with cowrie shells (elopements are part of the culture, even if with already married women), crows representing the ancestors (sadly this tribe has been targeted by local Muslims and militants), the Barusha who are the Hunza people, famed for living more than a hundred years, and being from north of the Himmalayas, their stunning scenic land associated in legend with the lost kingdom of Shangri La, the Afghani Pashtuns who are Pathans of unclear origin, originally being Buddhists, Hindu and Zoroastrian, worshippers of the sun and of Nana, and the Sindhi of what was West India, originally tribes of the Indus Valley Civilisation, with Mohenjo Daro being one of their larger settlements. Having looked at all that I don't see such a bold connection to southern India, as mapped by Les, although having said that, the Brahui were speakers of a Dravidian language and are thought to have come from Karnataka. I think, also, that with such nomadic travelling ancestors, one must consider that they not only would have travelled westwards but eastwards too, as along the Silk Road, forming colonies and cultural links to other groups, and in such explorations being isolated from their origins, absorbing at least partially into surrounding populations. Therefore myriad peoples are seemingly linked to, whereas the connections may rather have been later, and no one has ended up of one pure type of anything. Whatever was our African origin, this has diversified into so many exploratory tribes, chiselling such unique, differing identities, all who will re-emerge ultimately back into one vast people, like the expanding and then contracting universe. Along this multi dimensional journeying we experience such a blossoming of all that can be, while gathering a trillion personal stories, and I can't not but be fascinated. One thought that does come to me is that this mapping is not so much a road journey that one group of ancestors made. It is more like a river, into which flow not only springs, but also other complexities of rivers. It is not that every tribe was visited and a blending of peoples then enacted, all as part of the journeying of an edge of India people; but rather fewer people were met with, who already had long experiences of connecting to the various groups in their lands. As I can see, there is one big group of Afghan, old India, mountain tribal, and central Asian. And the other big group displays the huge variety of all the tribes of the Caucasus mountains. With emphasis being on the very edges of old India, it does not seem that any exodus came from what is modern India itself. Rather, since the exodus, tribes who remained have journeyed in quite the other direction, into India. Those met on travels westwards already had complex mixtures in their genealogies, again back to the symbolism of the river. Whatever may have been her complex Caucasus origins, a girl may have met others of my lineage nowhere near there, but in Anatolia or Greece, Italy or Spain, or Ireland. Also, though I do seek proof for gypsyness in my family, it has to be admitted that there still is nothing concrete. There could be other reasons why my people travelled across Asia, the Silk Road appearing to have quite some relevance; so that they may rather have been traders, missionaries, or explorers who set up distant colonies. My head has been so full on absorbed in all this, so that I have kind of reached overload with it and need to have a break and return with freshness later. AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees. ![]() When I have danced and enjoyed all eyes upon me, that is my gypsy spirit; when I have enjoyed the attentions of those men who would adore and spoil me; when I have carried my babes around, slept with them and breastfed them; when I live happily in nature, fine with chaos, not chasing work and profession, when I am singing, being arty, poetic and philosophical, all that is known as bohemian. This can annoy so many gadjo's, as those of settled conforming society are known (non-gypsies basically), this freedom I have from a need to follow rules or of being bound by structures. This is, as I now know, my gypsy spirit, and imbues a love of life which I cherish. And I am in love with my ancestors, and who can even understand that. In a world that can be so ruthless, and can break one, I am a light. I am my light, I am healer, I am radiance. And this is why some people love me so. Its just the natural way of being. This is how it is that one can be subjected to anything in life while still being free. This is attuning ones soul to love, bliss, wisdom, energies and vibrations, everywhere, and anyway, of which we are a part. Sometimes one has to be for a while on a religious journey to realise this, or even simply to take a stroll in nature. Love your life, for it is such a gift and is the greatest treasure. AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees. |
AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees. Categories
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