Reggae With Bagpipes?

Historian James Cant is exploring whether the fair-skinned residents of Treasure Beach, Jamaica, descend from Scottish sailors whose ship sank offshore in the 1830s.

Cant, piecing together what might have happened from oral history, speculates: "The Scottish sailors - perhaps understandably - decided that settling in this area and marrying beautiful Jamaican women was preferable ... . So they stayed, they settled and they married - thus giving so many of the people of Treasure Beach their distinctive features."

"Dialect, in particular, will be fascinating to look at and I expect that much of the dialect in Treasure Beach will be linked back to the kind of Lowland Scots' dialect that was spoken in Scotland two hundred years ago." [Link]

Way, Way Off the Reservation

Two women in England, Doreen Isherwood and Anne Hall, have learned that their mitochondrial DNA is Native American.

Indigenous Americans were brought over to the UK as early as the 1500s.

Many were brought over as curiosities; but others travelled here in delegations during the 18th Century to petition the British imperial government over trade or protection from other tribes.

Experts say it is probable that some stayed in Britain and married into local communities. [Link]