Roots

Roots are the foundation of the plant. In Welsh, the word "plant" means children. As you know, in genealogy, the roots of the children are their ancestors. Ancestors (roots)...children (plant)...interesting use of words.

Since the JONES surname is Welsh, our roots go back to the tribal groups that occupied the Islands from its early days. (Albion and Hiberna) [Claudius Ptolemy tagged these islands around 150 AD! Of course Albion is the big island, and Hiberna is the little.] Thus our Y-chromosome would take these roots.

The following tables list the Celtic tribal groups that have been named among those who occupied the islands. They are arranged by somewhat of a geographic location, with those known above Antonine Wall (Firth of Forth), North of Hadrian's Wall (Solway Firth), and south of Hadrian's Wall. [Roughly Scotland today.] The tribal groups in Wales and the Marches are next, with the single tribe from what is now Cornwall. Those tribes in the central, southern, and eastern area of the big island are listed next.

The nine tribal groups from Ireland are:

Dalriata
Nagnatae
Erdani
Cauci
Auteini
Gangani
Vellabori
Brigantes
Iverni.

This gives a total of 35 tribes. What a group it is! The roots of our Y-DNA. Somewhere there is the Y-chromosomes for the JONES surname! Any guesses?

Various sources have been used to compile this list, the major ones are:

Celtic Britain, by Lloyd Laing, p.11, Charles Scribner's Sons, NY, 1979

A History of Britain, by Simon Schama, p.59, p.83, talk miramax books, NY, 2000

The Oxford Illustrated History of Roman Britain,p.4, p.29, p.94, p.143, p.147, by Peter Salway, Oxford University Press, 1993.

Roman Britain, Outpost of The Empire, by H.H. Scullard, p.24, Jarrold and Sons, Ltd., Norwich, 1979.

The Celts, Uncovering the Mythic and Historic Origins of Western Culture, by Jean Markale,p. 11, Inner Traditions International, Rochester, Vermont, 1993.

Please note that not all spellings were the same, and not all sources listed the same number of tribes.