This study formed a pilot project first to test the validity of using surnames as a method for sampling and to carry out an in-depth study of a small area of the British Isles to test for the genetic legacy of the Vikings. For this reason two different sampling methods were used. The first of these is the one that is often used, that of two generations of residence in the area, getting round the problem of very recent immigration in that the person’s ancestry is known to extend back for at least that time span. Surnames were ignored for this sample set. However, the urban and coastal nature of much of the Wirral and West Lancashire, is likely to mean that a proportion of these sorts of samples will be made up of individuals who moved to the area within the last few hundred years, not least as part of the population movements that took place during the Industrial Revolution. As such, this was unlikely to be a close representation of the population of the distant past. By simply sampling men living there today we are likely to get a very blurred picture of the genetic contribution of the Vikings.
The second sampling method used was that where people we asked if they had two generations of residence combined with having a surname which was known to have existed in the Wirral or West Lancashire long ago. Although this approach does not guarantee that sampled men are the descendants of these past surname bearers it does at least make it more likely. This is particularly true for men bearing surnames that are rare and largely confined to this area. For surnames that are common the link is more tenuous as it is much more possible that the men sampled now are not descendants of a local original surname bearer but of someone who moved into the area more recently but who also carried this common name.
World History
