Some people in my family have dark skin, but I traced all my family back to england?

Question

My mum always said we had spannish in my family thats why we have "throw backs" My grandmother was dark skinned, so was 1 of my aunts, my brother has the same skin and my two cousins.

I have recently got into searching my family, I have gone back to 1812 and everyone has gone back to england.

so if some 1 was dark skinned before 1812, would it of stuck? I dont understand where the colouring is coming from as everyone after 1812 is from engand?

Answer 1

Well, perhaps someone was from the wrong side of bedsheets....?!

Anyway, a throwback is just that - a throwback so the genes from way back could still be floating around.

My sister, brother and I all have v curly hair and I'm darker skinned as does our mum but everyone on both sides of the family before her had v straight hair.  Turns out that our great, great, great grandmother's surname was Hassan, and is thought  to have been Moroccan

Answer 2

My son and daughter have an olive shade of skin like a mediteranean look, but as far as I have got back to, which is 1749 with their side of the family there are no decendants from another Country.

However, who can tell way, way back where we all orginated from, and could well be that some where in the dark and distant past you and they may be related to the Romans which conquered Britain. There were also many Spaniards who came to our shores with the slave trade, so who knows.

Answer 3

Genetics is a funny science. A gene may be dominant through several generations then suddenly pop up unexpectedly.

When you say 'dark skin' do you mean slightly swarthy or dark as in African?

There were many intermarriages between Spanish and Moorish people - and the Moors were dark skinned. So if there are any Spanish ancestors, that could be one source. There are also 'Black Irish' who also resulted from intermarriages. Unlike the majority of Irish people, these folk have dark hair, brown or black eyes and swarthy skin. And many, many Irish travelled to England and intemarried there with people of AngloSaxon background.

It's also possible that two or more of your ancestors had recessive genes - and a recessive gene stays in the background unless it meets a similar recessive gene in the marital partner, in which case it can become dominant. So if you had a blond, blue-eyed ancestor who had a recessive gene from either the dark Spaniards or the Black Irish,and they married someone who had a similar dark gene, you could well have what is referred to as a 'throwback' and two blond, blue-eyed people could have a dark haired, brown eyed child with a dark complexion.

Answer 4

English people are not all pale skinned, my mother's family, compared to me, are dark skinned, my father's family were dark skinned, my sister and I pale skinned, and I can go back to the 1300s. in England, on my father's line, and the 1700s. on my mother's line. We English are the mixture of a number of different races, each generation adds another flavour. It's no big deal !

My maternal grandmother was Irish and pale skinned, red hair and blue eyes, many Irish are dark skinned, dark haired and blue eyed.

There may have been someone hundreds of years ago, not necessarily within the time period in which you can search,

if that is the case, or even if it was more recent, the only way you would get an indication of where they originated, is with a Y-DNA test of you father. That would only give an indication of origin, not a date.

Old Lady, poster below, the term "black Irish" has nothing to do with intermarriage with the Spanish or anyone else, it is a term never heard in Ireland, (the term is almost entirely restricted to North America) and is simply a way of describing an Irish person who has a dark complexion as opposed to one with a fair complexion. It is possible that the darker Irish were the earlier settlers and the fairer ones, the result of the vikings who came later.

Answer 5

There were black communities in Bristol and Liverpool in the 18th century.

Answer 6

For years my grandfather kept telling use that his mother's family came from England.  It turns out he was wrong, he'd just thought that because of the British sounding name, Hipshire.  They had actually come from Germany and Americanized the name from Huebscher.  Therefore, in spite of earlier evidence and the beliefs of older relatives the original information turned out to be false.  

For you it could be the same way.  Especially since in the 19th century U.S. being non-white could lead to problems due to all the racism.  A relative of yours could have been black or hispanic or something and this fact was downplayed or hushed up so that no one would know.  The reason was probably economical.  Or maybe you do have Spanish ancestors like you say and the records from after 1812 just aren't very good like what happened with mine.

Answer 7

It's called a "bit on the side" probably with an immigrant and it's not been registered with birth deaths and marriages

Answer 8

Even when the slave trade was at it's height in England, there were reckoned to be some 17,000 black freed slaves; so you never know!

Answer 9

Not sure as to why you are convinced that being English automatically INSURES someone to have light skin. Genetics go back as far as you have ancestors, even prior to records, for that matter.

One of my few 'worked' English lines has a Spanish wife in the 1400s or 1500s. That same family is documented to 1066, when they came to England from France. Interestingly (for this discussion), that family name comes from Le Blund, which translates to "the blond".

Being an American, the idea of "history" in my mind, tends to drift to starting in the 1600s, since that is when 'we' were settled here. Our English buddies can (rightly) laugh at me for that one, since they know history going back much much further. 1812 is very recent, speaking in genealogical terms.