Slave or not, that is the question
I cheated! Bad, bad me!Yes, in my previous entry (5 things you don't know about me) I cheated a little. 4 items were true and 1 item was almost true. Desperate attempt to cover over my inability to come up with something smart and to try to trick people into not guessing that one. Björk is not my seventh cousin but rather 6th cousin one removed... Practically everyone in Iceland is related. There are these urban myth that a friend of someones cousin actually found someone that wasn't related to them:-).
How do we know this? A company doing genetical research in Iceland has documented and made a database out of all known information. I have found information about my ancestors all the way back someone born in 1225 but I generally think it only reaches back to around 1500-1600.
It is actually true that my 9x great grandmother was a slave in Algerie for almost a decade. In 1627 a group of people from Algerie attacked Vestmannaeyjar and took a group of people back with them to Algerie and sold them as slaves. It is called the Turkish invasion (because Algeria had a Turkish ruler). Almost a decade later the Danish king bought some of those slaves back and my 9x great grandmother Guðríður Símonardóttir (nickname Tyrkja-Gudda) was one of them. She married one of Iceland's most famous poets Hallgrímur Pétursson when she came back and I come from the line of their oldest son Eyjólfur.
It is believed that 380 people in total were kidnapped and put into slavery. 35 were bought back by the king but only 27 lived to see Iceland again. The Danes were the protectors of Iceland during that time but the regular boats coming to check upon Iceland were three months delayed at that exact time.
This isn't really something that has been brought down in generations. She is really just known because of the famous poet she married. We learn about this in school and there was a book written about her few years ago. I hadn't really thought about this much until recently when I wrote somewhere that I was probably a decedent of Irish slaves. It all of a sudden dawned upon me that I was truly a decendent of a slave. I then dug up my password to the Icelandic genetic database and voila you can see the trace below.
I think you all deserve a virtual hug even though nobody guessed correctly (since I cheated). Carlsson get two for doing all the research and reasoning he did!
Mediumsnake
Cool! Based on the high age difference between each generation, I suppose you stem from a family line of last-borns? I was thinking along the line of first-borns and had placed your 9x grandmother some 60-70 years later in time, more in line with your 7x grandfather. Not that it matters, if the Algerians were around since the 1590s.
If this Tyrkja-Gudda had been raped while serving as a slave and then been bought back home by the king, you may just as well have had traces of Arabic-Turkish blood. I suppose by now you have fleshed out most of your ancestors so you have determined if you do have Irish heritage or if it just is a feeling. It is like some animals in the wild, sometimes one race mimics another although they're not related. Sometimes even a completely different species mimics another one, like those harmless snakes who are coloured in a similar way to those deadly poisonous ones, as it leaves the harmless snakes alone from predators.
Medium-what, I hate snakes
Yes, you are right. Quite few in that line are last-borns. I was a little late accident myself. My mom was 38 and my dad was 52 when they had this mediumgeek.
It had never occurred to me that I could have Arabic blood in me. Now that would have been cool! I don't think that is possible though. It was a long trip back and they stayed a winter in Copenhaguen and got lessons to revive their Christianity before heading back to Iceland. She met her husband there but where she had the kid I don't know. I am embarrassed to say that I actually have that book about her and I still haven't read it. I think I will read it after I finished the one I am reading now.
I haven't really tried investigating whether my ancestors were Irish or not. I don't think it is possible since most of the information so far back (Iceland was first inhabited in 874) is relying only on the Sagas which tend to state preferred relations only. Don't think many would have admitted having bastards with slaves and the slaves themselves were rarely mentioned in the Sagas. It wasn't something that was mentioned too much in my history classes that we were a mixture of Irish and Scandinavian. Whether it was embarrassement that we took slaves or that we generally consider it better to be of Scandinavian race I am not sure. I tend to believe the latter though.
I only guess that I might have a strong Irish heritage because I have been told few times that I look Irish (I hate it, since it reminds me how pale I am). I have actually thought about taking one of those National Geographic dna test to see if it can tell me where I come from.
Evolution is quite smart (as you mention with the snake example). I am wondering though how long it took those harmless species to become like the dangerous ones.
Tenth cousin in a country far, far away?
It neccessarily wouldn't have to be an Irish slave. It could be some Irish who legitimately moved to Iceland and married one of your ancestors in the 18th century or so. I assume you have full coverage of at least the last two-three generations?
Another explanation is that 1000 years ago, Icelanders looked like you, and some of them emigrated to Ireland, so the relationship is the reverse to what you suspect.
The age difference between your grand^9 and grand^8 parents suggests that the former slave became a mother rather late in her life, or that she had prior children. If so, any illegitimate child would probable have been born before your grand^8. Perhaps you have some ninth (or is it tenth?) cousins somewhere in Algeria? A bit hard to investigate though, as I doubt they have as well organized records as e.g. Iceland has.
My big brother was a bit into genealogy a few years ago, but I don't think he reached earlier than mid 1700's, if even that far. Somewhere he has kept the records, but probably he didn't discover anything interesting enough to continue the research. One could also argue that it is more important to live your current life than to spend it to map your ancestors' lives.
Yes, might have relatives in Algeria!
I have an easy overview of the last 5 generations and unfortunately it is all utterly boring Icelandic. It is quite a lot of clicking looking at previous generations but so far I haven't found anything that indicates other than I am _very_ Icelandic. Now you never know if there were some Irish seamen sneaking into my ancestors beds.... I am guessing there is quite a lot of my ancestors that are wrongly fathered anyway.
I doubt that there were any Icelanders that emigrated to Ireland 1000 years ago. We were barely Icelandic back then and as far as I know the only real emigration that has happened from Iceland is to the US and Canada.
The great*9 was married and had a kid (Sölmundur) when she was abducted which according to my sources remained in Algeria. This is not stated in the genetic database so I don't know the accuracy of it yet. If that is true then I might very well have relatives in Algeria.
When she came back to Iceland 10 years later her husband had dided and she married the poet and had kids with him. I just started reading that book about her. It is a story using historical data but then the details are filled in so I guess most of it is fiction.
Home Sweet Home
Utterly boring Icelandic? I think you're too harsh on yourself!