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Welsh in America - Wait, that's not what I meant!
I've seen a lot posted lately exploring the possibility of the discovery of America by a Welsh group prior to Columbus, and about their surviving progeny. While reading this morning, I ran across ANOTHER possible link between Wales and early America - but from a completely different direction! The article I was reading pointed to the strong genetic link (through y-chromosomal haplogroup R1b) among the Welsh, Irish and Basque peoples. But it didn't stop there! It also linked all three populations to the Siberian Kets, and from there, via the Bering Strait, to pre-Columbian Native American populations! (Read the article in full here: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/content_objectid=13502852_method=full_siteid=50082_headline=-Genetics-make-Welsh-distinct-name_page.html ). I'm not sure about the strength of the genetic arguement, but upon looking farther, I found at least one site where the possibility of an early ATLANTIC migration from Europe, following a series of ice flows, by predecessors of R1b was discussed ( http://www.eupedia.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-25951.html )!The questions just keep coming!
I agree. I haven't put a lot of stock in the Madoc discussions, but there seems to be more and more possible lines of connection that the likelihood of SOME relationship keeps getting stronger IMO. I'm not sure when haplogroup R1b separated from R1, but it seems likely that at least some Cymru and some Amerindians might not ne all that far apart.
An Atlantic migration - some of the Clovis arrow heads have been traced to this possibility, and there has been known to be evidence of Caucasian people in North America at least as far back as 9,300 years ago (the discovery of Kennewick Man in Washington State, whose bones were radiocarbon dated to around 7300 BCE, is one piece of evidence, if highly controversial), and possibly further. It would be interesting to see if all those connections true up - might make some genetic obscurities in Europe a good deal less obscure!