One of the questions I receive again and again is if rh negative blood is to be considered Celtic, Jewish, Viking etc.
If only it were that easy to label heritage.
The truth is going back, way back in time is needed to truly be able to pinpoint a heritage.
What exactly does it mean to be “Celtic”?
“Haplogroup R1b is being associated with being Celtic, but it cannot be true, because R1b exists in every country.”
This is a quote I have recently read. And I cannot believe what I have read.
Think about this for one minute:
As an example I am going to use Bavaria in southern Germany.
Often mistaken as a “typical German outfit”, the traditional Trachten are actually a Celtic tradition.
The word Bavaria is Bayern in German or Boiern as it sounds with the Bavarian accent.
The word Bayern is “Boiern” germanized as it derives from the word Boii which is the name of a Celtic tribe which settled in the Alps to be protected by altitude.
As the original Bavarians were a Celtic tribe, today’s residents’ genepool contains around 30 percent of the Celtic R1b marker meaning that while the genepool of the neighbors came in, so did the Celtic marker get spread around the region from Celtic individuals mixing with their neighbors, so of course with Europe not being an isolated island like Crete, the marker spread all over Europe.
This marker is today the highest in Basque Country, Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Catalonia.
As we all know, Basque Country is the highest for rh negative blood in Europe.
Ireland has varying reports, but in Northern Ireland out of over 10,000 people examined, 27.33% were rh negative.
The same source highlights a study of more than 60,000 individuals in Wales and their rh negative frequency is around 17.01%. Lower than that of Northern Ireland, but let’s keep in mind that northwest Ireland has the highest frequency of R1b, the Celtic marker with more than 98% in some regions.
Scotland has also frequencies as high as 30% or more in some parts rh negatives wise and Catalans are more or less 25% rh negative.
Is there any way to deny a connection between R1b, the Celtic marker and rh negative blood?
While Western Europe is dominated by the downstream subclades of R1b1b – especially R1b1b2 (R-M269) – the Fulɓe and Chadic-speaking peoples of Africa are dominated by the primary branch now known as R1b1a (R-V88). The third primary branch, R1b1c (R-M335), is rare and found mostly in Western Asia.
Remember this?:
The highest percentage (of rh negatives) is found among some of the tribes still living in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco (40%). The next highest are the Basques, reported in different publications as having 25 and 32%, depending on location. The people of northwest Ireland, the Highland Scots and the western islanders of Norway all have between 16 and 25%, while the Lapps of Norway and Finland have between 5 and 7%. In addition, Cavalli-Sforza reports two small isolated populations of the same tribe, one in Chad and another in Senegal, each with about 25%. On his map, he shows an Rh-negative population in Chad, still living near the formerly enormous Chad lake. Only part of this lake still exists on the spot where the boundaries of Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon meet. These people may originally have been the sailors on Chad lake. Could it be that this is the original location of the Rh-negative population that then moved to Morocco and Algiers to become the Berbers? Or would it be the other way around?
Society likes to label. Don’t fall into a box. And don’t push anybody in one either.
So let’s use another example:
70 percent of the genepool of those considered “Jewish” is not identical with that of the ancient Hebrew tribes.
Yet you are either considered jewish or not jewish.
What we are talking about is not manmade boxes, but genetics.
And with genetics you respect the flow whereever it may go.
While being a label, “Celtic” is based on a heritage dating back to a genetic family. And while members of that family married outside of the family, those distant family members are still related and their relation needs to be validated just as the fact that some family members are also part of other families as well.
The connection between Celtic people and the rh negative blood factor is undeniable.
But so is the connection between the ancient Hebrews and rh negative blood.
And then there are the Berbers whose heritage needs to be further explored.
Finding the common denominators is not that simple.
And that link is what I will leave you with. Because the research continues. It is far from done. And the more I know, the more I know i don’t. But if anybody reading this has additional information, feel free to bring it.
The comment box is open. Feel free to share what you have found out.
Rh Negative Frequencies United Kingdom
Rh Negative Frequencies in Scotland
Rh Negative Frequencies Catalonia
Added: Let’s also look at the element of red hair (Thank you, Karen for your comment).
Once again, here is the R1b map and right below the map displaying frequencies of red hair:
See also the video where I am breaking things down with the focus on the common ancestry part between today’s Celts and the other groups of people worldwide who are above average in terms of percentage of rh negatives amongst them:
English
Afrikaans
Albanian
Amharic
Arabic
Armenian
Azerbaijani
Basque
Belarusian
Bengali
Bosnian
Bulgarian
Catalan
Cebuano
Chichewa
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
Corsican
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Esperanto
Estonian
Filipino
Finnish
French
Frisian
Galician
Georgian
German
Greek
Gujarati
Haitian Creole
Hausa
Hawaiian
Hebrew
Hindi
Hmong
Hungarian
Icelandic
Igbo
Indonesian
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Javanese
Kannada
Kazakh
Khmer
Korean
Kurdish (Kurmanji)
Kyrgyz
Lao
Latin
Latvian
Lithuanian
Luxembourgish
Macedonian
Malagasy
Malay
Malayalam
Maltese
Maori
Marathi
Mongolian
Myanmar (Burmese)
Nepali
Norwegian
Pashto
Persian
Polish
Portuguese
Punjabi
Romanian
Russian
Samoan
Scottish Gaelic
Serbian
Sesotho
Shona
Sindhi
Sinhala
Slovak
Slovenian
Somali
Spanish
Sudanese
Swahili
Swedish
Tajik
Tamil
Telugu
Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian
Urdu
Uzbek
Vietnamese
Welsh
Xhosa
Yiddish
Yoruba
Zulu
Just an anecdotal comment really but it would not be a surprise of rh negative is seen as a Celtic trait when lots of rh people are redheads. Scotland redhead capital of the world, closely followed by Ireland. I’ve done a lot of family tree research and lots of my ancestors on paternal and maternal line are Irish. I’m a redhead and rh neg. have also had DNA tested and lots of genetic relatives have r1b1 in their profile.
Thank you, Karen. I have added the red hair map to compare to the R1b map on the bottom of the post. And yes, R1b1b would be the right subclade to identify Celtic tribes best from what I have seen.
This is the one story that connects everything leading and setteling in morroco and exsplains the diffrent in black people and the and there roots to rh- connects the bible and so many ancient mythology witch we know are facts ….please watch its the Islam teaching and it sadly fits
https://youtu.be/vUEN1ZuDSMg
I’m and H2 haplogroup female on the maternal side, R1b1b2a on the paternal side, born red-head, RH neg blood type and according to 23andme, Celtic-Irish, British, French, German in that order with 80 some odd percent being Irish – British. Just to add to your findings…
I’m B-ve. I’ve got black iris ,some black wavy like hairs here and there ,white/yellow in complexion.
I’m from kerala state/ south India. I’ve no clue about lineage of my rh negative blood.
My grandma( via father) also got b-ve.
I speak Malayalam.
In religious wise, I’m part of Roman Catholic Syrian Christianity in kerala.
How can you relate me to Celtic ?? :O
My point is that the origin of the Celts could easily be a similar origin like that of your ancestors. Everything points towards the Fertile Crescent. I have added a video to the post and hope I was able to explain myself better than I did in writing. 🙂
My mother is rh neg and she has dark brown hair and eyes. Her mother was Metis from Alberta, Canada. Neither she or my father are red headed but I have reddish brown hair, hazel eyes and freckles. None of my four little sisters have any of that. I’m so curious about this, I hope we get more answers.
Thank you for intresting information about R negative, yet I am just more confused. I am norwegian ( west-norway) , ash-blonde wavy hair with some golden complexion . Heard so much wierd and dark stories about reshus negative, like that one about fallen angels from the old world that sneaked its soul in to the son of Noah to survive .
This is the most sane information I have found til now. Please continue.
I’m not sure if you’ll ever get this, but I recently started checking out rh-..and yes all the crazy stories. I’m Rh- and my great-grandfather from my dads side was from Oslo Norway! That’s all I seem to know. But I would have thought to be rh- from my mom due to her red hair🤷♀️
I’m ecuadorian and rhesus negative b . According to my second name (Bermeo). It comes from northern Spain but I’m not white or redhead
Hi interesting read, I’m rhesus negative blood group my mother is to, I can’t remember what blood type my father has but his hair was very ginger and curly haired, I had blond hair that changed to a auburny colour then mousy brown hair i have green eyes, born British live in England Surrey x
My father told me that our ancestors came from Scotland, Ireland, and England. I am O-, as well as my father. I have light brown hair, mixed with some red, and blue eyes, that change to green and gray occasionally. I have a light skin color, with lots of freckles. I live in the United States. I participated in a study, and my chromosome plot shows mostly European descent, with some Central/South Asia and West Asia/North Africa.
Kerala (a region of southern India) has quite a large number of people with Rh negative blood groups. It is quite common. These people all have black hair and black eyes. No possible connection to Celtics with red hair and green eyes.
I agree with you that of course, they wouldn’t be Celtic. What I am looking at and for are common ancestors between the people in Kerala and the Celts. The Celts probably had their rhesus negative blood frequencies from the Yamnaya people. The Yamnaya were also ancestors of the Scythians. Yes, you don’t have to have red hair or blue eyes. Dark traits are dominant. I have dark hair and eyes, but my mom has red hair and green eyes, so even though I don’t look like her, I still carry the traits recessively. What do you know about the people of Kerala? I have different data regarding their frequencies. This site claims 4.1% https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/A-forum-for-people-with-rare-blood-groups/article15238068.ece
But this study shows 9.52% which is much higher than most of India
https://www.ijcmr.com/uploads/7/7/4/6/77464738/ijcmr_1764_v1.pdf
The sites that you mention give the percentages recorded during a drive for blood donation in Kerala. It will not denote the correct frequency of rhesus negative blood, as donating blood is not very popular in India. Not many will volunteer for this, unless the incentive offered is tempting. Very often, private patients pay donors for blood.
Kerala is a small narrow region along the South-West coast of India, and I think it may have a higher percentage of Rh negative groups. Closer to 15%.
Kerala is known as the Spice Coast of India – black pepper, cardamom, nutmeg, and so on. There was active trade between Kerala and the Middle-Eastern countries for centuries, may be from around 500 BC. Many merchants/traders from Syria, Turkey, Armenia, Iraq (Mesopotamia) and other Middle-Eastern lands lived in Kerala in the olden days. They had families back home but invariably had a ‘local’ family here, too. There was also a strong Jewish community in Kochi (which has a natural harbor) but most of them migrated to Israel in the 1950s. A few Jews still remain. A beautiful synagogue, too.
Christianity was introduced in Kerala by the Apostle Thomas, who came in AD 52. This in turn attracted more people from the Middle-East places, especially when Jews and Christians were persecuted by the Romans. They arrived in shiploads in the 4th century.
(You may google “Syrian Christians in Kerala” , “Knanaya origin in Kerala” , “Chaldean church in Kerala” , “Bene Israel” , and several others).
I have no strong evidence, but I think the people of Kerala got the Rh negative blood from the Middle-East migrants. It is especially common among the Christians of Kerala.
The Yamnayas ‘invaded’ India around 1500 BCE. They were known as Aryans. In general, they were tall and fair-skinned, with light brown hair. They displaced the local inhabitants in the North-West (present day Pakistan) and the northern regions of India. The original inhabitants were Dravidians, generally shorter and dark-skinned, who moved further down south. The Yamnayas introduced the Sanskrit language to India, which is considered to be an Indo-Iranian language. According to Wikipedia, 6 – 20% of the DNA of Indians comes from the Yamnaya.
The Scythians ‘invaded’ India during the 1st century BCE. They also settled mainly in the North-West and northern regions of India. They were known as Sakas.
Were the Yamnayas ancestors of the Jews, or Syrians, or any other Middle-Eastern people?
You are asking all of the right questions, so let me try my best to get to all of it. Whenever there is a blood drive, I would assume rhesus negative percentages are higher than usual, because often they focus on promoting the drive to O negatives. I guess it depends on locations. But the original TheHindu article I have posted claims 4.1 percent, the one I posted almost 10 percent. But having seen recent studies of Lower Silesia, Poland where frequencies vary within the region between something like 17 and 25%, I wouldn’t be surprised if parts of Kerala, smaller towns, may show up as 15, 18, if not 20%.
The Yamnaya are ancestors of the Celts, at least the male lineage. Also, they are ancestors of the Scythians who are a mix of Asians and Yamnaya. Of course, Yamnaya are also ancestors of many current residents around the Black Sea region, but they are not the ancestors of the Jews or any Semitic population. The 3rd Dynasty of Ur in Sumer is the origin of the ancient Hebrews. On Arabs I have not focused that much as rh- frequencies are usually low, but when you look at Bedouin tribes for example, they are very high in rhesus negative blood. Bedouins would be related to Jews at least on the male lineage with ancient origin in Sumer.
The Yamnaya were ancestors of the Scythians, nomadic Aryans. Likely a mix between the light skinned, often blue eyed red haired Yamnayans and also East Asian populations, similar to the Han and the Nganasan (a Samoyedic people from northern Siberia).
The Basques were invaded by the Yamnaya. The entire male lineage of the original Basques was replaced with Yamnaya (R1b) DNA. This is a topic I have brought up many times, but guess what… mindless attacks followed.
Everyone wants their own ancestors to be “the good guys”. I used to believe rhesus negatives are above that. Guess what… some are… most are not. But so be it. “6 – 20% of the DNA of Indians comes from the Yamnaya” Makes sense to me, probably half of the Basque does, almost.
The female line of the original Basques goes back to the Fertile Crescent and they had high percentages of the Jewish mtDNA K, which of course originated in Sumer, home of the Jews’ ancestors. The male lineage was likely from the same region or close by, also relations to Caucasus regions like Georgia.
Persians, Jews, Scythians, Aryans, Yamnaya… all interesting regarding rh negative blood import. Syria not sure, now less than 10% negs. But then again, so in Israel as well.
For all I know, the scientist claiming Yamnaya to have been 40% rhesus negative, could have been talking out of his ass. He has provided no evidence, even on request and probably just assumed by estimating today 25% rh- in Ireland and the male ancestry taking rh positive women along the way, so he assumed that the high rh negative came from the Yamnaya and the locals must have been positive mainly.
I will read more on the Sakas later, looks interesting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saka
It would be great to have as many Kerala studies as possible and then determine which region, what makes each population unique and so on. India is one of the places that holds many answers. The best is always to find communities which have been isolated for some time, be it by group or location (such as Basques, Bedouins, Karaites). Maybe some island communities. SEA admixture of course drove down rh-%s over time. But if we are able to look at specific communities known to have been more or less isolated over the centuries, we are likely to find answers no one else has discovered so far.
I forgot to mention that I’m from Kerala, 66 years old, blood group O negative.
Btw. of course, I know many rh negatives from Africa and Asia who have dark eyes and black hair, but when in the sunlight, many show a red shimmer in their hair. Many have eye colors also showing traces of light. This is a phenomenon I have observed for a very long time, that along with the rh negative blood factor, other recessive traits appear to show rather than just being dominated and disappearing. It is not about phenotypes being the common ones of a region, but what is “under the hood” that is of interest to me.
Europeans; Celts, Gauls, Franks, the various Goths, Danes, Berbers, Iranians, Pashtuns, Scythians; were all the Lost Tribes of Israel, the ancient Israelites who were captured by the Babylonians and Assyrians and relocated along their frontiers as buffers.
The tribes grew in size and power, migrating in ever successive waves into Russia and Europe.
Not all of Abraham’s children went to Egypt with, and not all left with Moses. Some departed earlier, settling in Greece and and Europe.
But that is our Heritage. Please read the Declaration of Arbroath online in the National Library of Scotland, where Robert the Bruce recounts the historical migration of the Scots back through Ireland, Spain, Northern Africa, Italy and Samaria in the middle east.
That is our Heritage. Europeans are the Ancient Israelites.
Please also research Noahs Ark in Turkey if you have an doubts as to the historical veracity of the Holy Bible.
The problem with that theory is that the y-dna (male line) doesn’t match. Celts, Gauls, ect don’t have typical Hebrew y-dna signatures.