People in South East may be descended from Romans as study suggests invaders may have stayed in Britain

The Romans may have given us impressive roads, plumbing and an entirely new calendar, but it was always thought that when they left Britain they took their DNA with them. Previous studies have shown that the legionnaires left little genetic legacy before returning to defend the Roman Empire from marauding barbarians in the 5th century.

But new research could be about to prove otherwise.

A recent study by Harvard University found a strange genetic disparity emerged in south-east England around the Iron Age and Roman Period. At that time most Britons were descended from The Beaker People, a group of farmers who migrated from the central Europe around 2750BC, and who replaced 90 per cent of Britain’s gene pool within just a few hundred years. Yet new studies of ancient skeletons showed that people in the south-east were getting their DNA from elsewhere, and now researchers at Harvard are trying to find out from whom.

So far they have three theories. Either a small pocket of ancient Britons, such as those who built Stonehenge, survived and set up a last ditch colony, holding out in isolation until they began mixing with groups in the south-east. Alternatively, an entirely different group may have migrated from Europe.

But the third theory is the most controversial. The strange genetic disparity could prove for the first time that many of the Romans soldiers stayed in Britain after all, starting families and leaving a lasting legacy written in bone.

Professor David Reich, a specialist in ancient DNA at Harvard has begun sampling 1,000 new skeletons from the period to find out where the truth lies.

“We see changed in ancestry in the south-east of Britain by the Roman period compared to 1000 years before,”  said Prof Reich.

“This means that there must have been admixture into south-eastern Britain in the Iron Age or Roman period that did not affect the North to the same extent.

“However, we don’t know the details of how this occurred and several explanations are possible.We are just starting out on this project.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018/04/11/did-romans-leave-genetic-legacy-britain/

British-Italians? May god have mercy!

That wouldn't be suprising, didn't veterans get a piece of land usually in the country they finished their service in?
They wouldn't all be Italians as the legions were made up of men from all over the Roman Empire, so they could well find all sorts of genetics. We do have a sizable amount of Brit - Italians in the valleys of course but from a later period (1920/30's).

Original Quill wrote:
British-Italians?  May god have mercy!

Those Romans/eye-talians certainly did get around over the centuries, didn't they...

Britain,
Germany, Switzerland,
Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Lebanon, Malta,
USA (especially since the 1920s..),
Australia (noteably post-WWII..),
Argentina, Brazil..