.

vi] William Midgley of Michigan concludes from an ancestry DNA test that by his patrilineal ancestry and the I1 haplotype migration marker associated with the Y-chromosome, that most if not all Midgley males have the same marker. I1 'seems to be associated with Germanic migrations, which isn't surprising at all given the Anglo-Saxon history of England in general and the Danelaw history and Yorkshire-Scandinavia connection in particular.' See: Eupedia.

Map modified from Genographic Project Key:  a = "Adam"  b = 'Giant leap forward'  c = Saharan Gateway   d = Mesopotamian modern language distribution           e =  Jarmo, Iraq   f = Fertile Crescent  g = domestication of animals  h = Katul Hyuk, Turkey           i =Proto Indo Europeans  j = Franchthi Cave, Greece  k = Jericho  l = Natufian Culture  m = Saharan rock art           n = Modern language distribution [Indo-European].

Another genetic marker, M343 [see map below] appeared, about 35,000 years ago in Europe. People with this marker were directly descended from Cro-Magnon people who became the continents first modern humans, their tall lithe predecessors were previously found in the steppes of Asia as M173. In the limestone areas of France they lived as hunter-gatherers, troglodytes who have left us the amazing cave art of Lascoux.

                                                                                              .

Subset  M343 makes up the major lineage of Western Europe, reaching up to 90% in parts of Spain and Ireland and 70% in Southern England. They were more successful than the somewhat contemporary Neanderthals who did not have such a sophisticated technology. During the last Ice-Age Cro-Magnon moved to warmer areas like Spain, Italy and the Balkans, as ice retreated they moved west and north. Many sub lineages in this subset are not well defined but the coordinators of the Genographic Project  hope that further detail will become apparent as testing continues.
As the Ice sheets left Britain from about 12,000 b.p., M343 and the first M172 haplogroups colonised the land but became isolated when the Dogger Bank land bridge was breached by rising sea levels about 8500 years ago forming the English Channel. Before the land bridge was breached individuals such as the hunter-gather, 'Cheddar Man' [10,000 b. p.] or his recent predecessors, moved into what is now Britain, perhaps following migrating herds of wild cattle. Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum suggests that the natural selection of lighter skin in the Neolithic farmers differentiated them from the darker skin pigmentation of Cheddar Man because the Neolithic peoples, unlike the hunter-gathers, did not have a diet high in vitamin D. Dark skinned people residing in higher latitudes today often require vitamin D supplements to maintain bone strength.

map from Genographic Project Haplogroups: A   M91   Ancient Africans  B   M60   Ancient Africans  C   M130   Eden in the East   D   M174   Ancient Asians E   M40   Old Africa E3a   M2   Bantu farmers  E3b   M35   Abyssinia  G   M201   Caucasus mountains H   M69   Ancient Dravidians  I   M170   Gravettian culture  J   12f2   Arabia  J2   M172   Fertile Crescent Farmers L   M20   Ancient Indians  N3   M46   Uralic languages  O     M175   Rice agriculture  O3   M122   Rice agriculture Q   P36    Native Americans  R1a   M17   Kurgan culture  R1b   M269    Aurignacian culture

                                                                                                                               
British genetics have been relatively stable for the last 12,000 years.

From recent studies of human DNA, oxygen isotope ratios in teeth and blood groups evidence has been growing that a few thousand Ice Age hunters are believed to have been the predecessors of about 80% of  the genetic characteristics of most Caucasian Britons.¹ The effects of later migrants such as Romans, Saxons, Vikings and Normans seems to have had little effect upon the genetic makeup of these original nomadic hunter-gatherers and their descendants over the last 12,000 years.

It is hypothesised that these hunter gatherers [descendants of Cro-Magnon on the continent] followed the wild horse and buffalo herds into Britain as the ice sheets receded towards the end of the last [Wurm] glaciation. As the ice sheets melted, sea levels rose, isolating these nomads in what is now Britain. There are distinct genetic markers differentiating hunter gatherers on the continent from those of Britain. One marker in Britain is the red hair phenotype. This characteristic had been first recorded by the Roman Tacitus about 2000 years ago. "Recent studies have shown that there is more red hair in Scotland and Wales than anywhere else in the world. It's a mutation that probably occurred between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago."¹

^{What does it mean to be genetically British?}

In 2006 Stephen Oppenheimer in his book Origins of the British, published the percentages of pre-neolithic hunter-gatherer DNA found in modern populations:

Movement of pre-neolithic genetics into what are now the British Isles.

As Brian Sykes of Oxford Ancestors has indicated in his book Blood of the Isles, to be genetically British requires a percentage of Iberian genetics as indicated from the map above which  portrays the present day British Isles connected to Europe by a land bridge. This land bridge was present until the glaciers of the last ice advance retreated sufficiently, permitting this land bridge to be breached to form La Manche or the English Channel. As we might expect, the further west we go in the British Isles, the greater the pre-neolithic DNA is present, suggesting that subsequent waves of migration from Europe had a greater influence in the east. Professor Barry Cunliffe, when referring to the Iron Age 'Celts' proposed as a result of these genetic findings that there was no great influx of Iron Age people from Europe into Hibernia, but that it was more likely to be a migration of cultural art.

Farming techniques were brought into Britain  about 1000 years before Stonehenge was built, food resources were becoming more reliable and the population was growing, an estimate has been made that about 30 million hours would have been needed to build Stonehenge. What is suggested is that cultural changes were adopted rather than a widespread genetic change, invaders had little effect other than adding 20% of the genetic make-up and passing on their cultural values. This is a little like people today who want the 'latest' gadget or toy. New ways of weaving, making pottery, carving, building structures etc. were all 'new toys' to be experimented with, driven by the innate human desire for change.
Simon James an archaeologist at the University of Leicester demonstrates this case for the so called 'Celts'. These people lived in Gaul [today's France], but there is no historical source from the invading Romans that they existed in Britain. Probably the Iron Age peoples such as the Brigantes in what is now northern England used a similar language but there is no evidence that they were so called 'Celts'. David Miles of Oxford points out that the term 'Celt' began to come into common usage in Britain in the 1700-1800's when Scotland, Ireland and Wales began to rediscover their national identities and began calling themselves 'Celts'. Mapping of the British peoples genetic makeup is continuing in order to refine and identify relationships and migration patterns.

If there is one thing we can learn from these genetic studies it is that as humans we are all variations of the same species. We have spread around the World and are now reuniting. So please people of the world settle down and enjoy your short stay on this planet, there are more similarities than there are differences and it is those differences which make this imperfect world an infinitely more interesting place - imagine if the whole world was filled with globalised fast food outlets, life would be intolerable, Vive la difference!

Harvesting scene outside the walls of Jericho about 9000 b.p. Inside we can see the watch -tower or  Migdal. The men are using antler or wooden sickles with flint blades for reaping the wheat [Einkorn]. Women are on their way to assist  in the harvesting. The goats are semi-domesticated, the field is irrigated by a ditch from a spring.2

Tony of Halifax in his quest to find connexions with the biblical lands and West Yorkshire suggests that there is a link between Halifax and St. John the Baptist.

                                                              The paschal lamb and the head of St. John the baptist on a gate to Piece Hall, Halifax

He hypothesises that medieval knights, either the Knights Templars or the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem brought the head of St. John, perhaps called Baphomet by the Templars, to Halifax. To support this he states that the name Halifax means 'holy face', [But see other evidence that it is not] the parish church is dedicated to St. John the Baptist [feast day : 24th June, Midsummer Day] and St. John's head is part of Halifax town's coat of arms. Of course there is absolutely no historical evidence for this medieval claim. Such an assertion was probably made by the monks of Lewes Priory to increase their influence in the district following a grant of land here by the Warennes of Lewes of Sussex. 
Whittaker has pointed out that the origin of Halifax's name has been 'variously given', the name Halyfax appearing in 1116, but the origin of the name is still well open to debate. Whittaker stated that "the town of Halifax cannot boast of great antiquity; its name is not found in Domesday Book, nor is it mentioned in any ancient record, before a grant of its Church was made by Earl Warrein to the Priory of Lewes, in Sussex". Whitaker suggested that the name was half Saxon [Anglian] and half Norman and that "formerly, in the deep valley where the church now stands, was a Hermitage, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, the imagined sanctity of which attracted a great concourse of persons in every direction.  There were four roads by which the Pilgrims entered, and hence the name Halifax, or Holyways, for fax in Norman French, is an old plural noun, denoting highway........"
The prefix hali may be derived from words meaning either holy, or a personal name, and the element fax or gefeaxe may be derived from words meaning a division of land, or coarse grass land or highways.

Camden provides us with a legend that the town was originally known as Horton and The Chapel in the Grove and changed its name to Halig-fax or Halifax as it grew. Others have perhaps mistakenly identified the site as Feslei of the Domesday Book. Camden identified fax as meaning hair, which related to the story of Aelred and the virgin.
William White in 1837 recorded four ways, by which the town of Halifax could be entered, they each pointed towards the parish church as their common centre; "these were the roads by which the pilgrims approached the object of their devotion, and hence the name Halifax, or Holy Ways; for fax, in Norman French, is an old plural noun, denoting highways" [we find this name ending also in Kippax].
If, as the folklore implies, St. John the Baptist's face was buried under the Halifax Church it would have become an international place of pilgrimage, which it never did. If it were a face, then it was more likely to be a carved representation or painting. John the Baptist's severed head is generally believed to have been buried in Damascus, Syria.  For some reason he became the Wool Weavers patron saint perhaps identified with the paschal lamb which also appears on the Halifax coat of arms. The "Tower of Dyers" may have a special significance to the wool producing areas of the eastern Pennines. The question might remain, did the medieval knights of the crusades return with new stock with which to cross breed with their English stock?
As Tony admits, the Outremer links to Yorkshire may be fanciful but perhaps with some grain of truth, which we have yet to unearth.


One of the great finds of  Jericho was the discovery of a Neolithic stone tower or Migdal dating from 8000-7000 B.C.E, about 9000 -1000 b.p. From its position within the walls the structure indicates that it was a watchtower to forewarn  the residents of animal or brigand attack upon the crops. The eight metre diameter tower is today still eight metres tall, it was connected to the inside of a four metre thick wall all suggesting a high degree of social organisation. From its location, archaeologists have determined that this tower makes Jericho the oldest city in the world by about 3000 years.
Some like the author of The Woman with the Alabaster Jar, Margaret Starbird, have equated the 'Twin Towers' tragedy in New York to a Magdala, citadel or fortress housing people from many nations of the world. Towers seem to have had great meaning throughout history and continue to do so today in the towering skyscrapers of large cities.

Peter Midgley of the Haworth branch  finds the Migdal hypothesis speculative and would point more to the influence of the Methodist movement in Yorkshire for some of the biblical place-names being identified therein.

Peter points out that in Denmark the family name 'Mygdal', which means 'midge-valley' of Germanic origin would seem the most reasonable. He has found no equivalent in Swedish or Norwegian, though Peter's search was not very thorough. Peter continues, " if there is a route through Norman French (into which Scandinavian
names might have been translated), then here is another trail to follow. If 'ley' is taken to mean a clearing or, more accurately, an area of woodland cleared for agriculture, then this is called in Old French a sart (this appearing as an element in a number of place-names in France and Belgium); add 'mus' (musca) and we get 'mussart' or perhaps 'Musard', the name of three individuals on the list of those who landed with William the Conqueror and another possible chapter for the Grande Connection Française."
T.M.- Personally I remain sceptical of the Migdal origin for our surname but I thought it was worth airing if only for discussion. Certainly when we get back this far then it can become very speculative.The genetic test I had taken would give an origin in the Middle East about 10,000 years bp, this is well before there was such a nation as Israel [Solomon's temple ~ 3000 bp], more like proto-Summerians, Semmites or Hittites. However as more genetic detail is gathered I am sure new hypotheses will evolve re the wandering gene.

Sources:
1. Miles, David. The Tribes of Britain.
2. Cole, Sonia. The Neolithic Revolution. British Museum  [Natural History], London. 1965.
3. Campbell, Bernard G. Humankind Emerging. University of California. Little, Brown & Co. 1979.
4. Hawkes, Jaquetta. History of Mankind Vol 1. George Allen & Unwin. London.1963.
5. As provided by the University of California calculated at 3rd Jan. 2005.
6. Young, Robert. Young's Analytical Concordance to the  Bible. Macdonald Publishing Co. p. 627.