Y-DNA Testing - Warland / Worland

From mid 2013, basic Y-DNA tests were carried out through www.familytreedna.com to determine if the Warland and/or Worland families were related. The results collected so far were unexpected.

Dorset area Warland Y-DNA

Testing of one Warland living in Australia from the Dorset/Australia line indicated that his Y-DNA was FT229020, a 'terminal' subclade that descends from L21 (S145/M529) that is believed to have migrated to Britain around 2,500 BCE (displacing the group of people who arrived in around 4,000 BCE). In other words, they were Britons who, by the time of the Romans, were loosely described as being Celts (but were more likely independent groups of individuals who had a similar culture).

Detailed DNA analysis suggests that the direct ancestors of the person with the above DNA lived in mid-western Britain around 950 BCE then his descendants gradually moved southwards, ending up in the Canford Magna/Wimborne area of Dorset. Between 10 and 30% of Britons were enslaved by the Anglo-Saxons in Mercia and/or Wessex, who referred to the native Britons as 'wealh' which loosely has the same meaning as Welsh.

The laws of Ine, King of Wessex from around 688 to 726 AD provides an interesting clue to the existence of both free and enslaved Britons in Saxon society. The following are examples from that document:

'Welsh rent-payers' (said to be the highest class of Welsh peasant).
'Welshman' who own five hides (of land).
'Homo waliseus' (Welshman) who have a hide of land.
'The king's horsewealh (Welsh horsemen), who can carry his messages'. According to one researcher, this line could mean that 'an unfree hose-servant in the king's service was to be paid for as a freeman'.
'If a Welsh slave kills and Englishman, then he who owns him shall surrender him to the lord and kinsmen or pay 60 shillings for his life'. (If the owner doesn't pay, then 'the avengers are to deal with him').
'Welsh ale' ('cervisie Wilisce') to be paid (among other items) as 'food rent from 10 hides'.

The original Brythonic peoples became 'villeins' from the beginnings of the Norman feudal system until around 1500 to 1600 CE.

Oxfordshire area Warland Y-DNA

Testing of one Warland living in Australia from the Oxfordshire area indicated that his Y-DNA was I1 (M253). According to a Wikipedia article on this haplogroup:

More than 99% of living men with I1 belong to the DF29 branch which is estimated to have emerged in 2400 BCE.
A 2024 study found that I1-M253 expanded rapidly during a migration from the eastern or northeastern parts of Scandinavia into Southern Sweden, Denmark and Norway around 2000 BC.
The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain introduced I1 to the British Isles. A 2022 study found that out of 120 samples from Anglo-Saxon period England, 41 samples or roughly 34.17% of the samples belonged to haplogroup I1.
During the Viking Age, I-M253 saw another expansion. Norwegian and Danish Vikings brought more I1 to Britain and Ireland, while Swedish Vikings introduced it to Russia and Ukraine and brought more of it to Finland and Estonia.

So, were the Oxfordshire Warlands 'free migrants' with other Anglo-Saxons or Vikings (who had relatively similar DNA origins), or their slaves?

Cambridgeshire area Worland Y-DNA

Testing of a Worland from the Cambridgeshire area (with links to Australia and other parts of the world) indicated that his Y-DNA was J2-M172. There are various theories around how this Y-DNA arrived in the UK. Some of these theories are found on this site (with links to other sources), and include the following suggestions:

They were the 'Herdsman-Farmers' (J-M172) who came with the Romans.
They were 'from gypsy background or, possibly, from Eastern European soldiers stationed in Britain during the Roman occupation in the first three centuries AD'.
It could represent remnants of eastern Mediterranean troops stationed on the island during the Roman occupation.

For more details about J2-M172, see this link: J2 - M 172