August  23, 2006

Dearest Family,

Let me tell you what I know about our family, going back, as far as I feel 
comfortable, to Germania in the 2nd century AD.  DNA tests confirm that you 
and I descend from a mixture of barbarian tribes known as the Angles and 
the Saxons.  Historians who recorded the Roman Empire's interaction with 
these people describe them as having "fierce blue eyes, red hair, huge 
frames, fit only for a sudden exertion."  They were not warlike people which 
is the image history gave them.  They were militant farmers and herdsmen 
who would organize themselves in clan groups and fight to the death 
against any outsider force that threatened the family.  

During the 6th and 7th centuries, these Anglo-Saxons moved out of 
Germania into the land we know today as England and the southern regions 
of Scotland.  They intermarried with Celtic and other indigenous people but 
their male line remained Anglo Saxon.   They became the peasant stock, 
the serfs of England during its feudal period governed by a predominately 
Norman nobility.

With time and the breakdown of the feudal system, these Henderson serfs 
established themselves as free men and they farmed the land and raised 
cattle and sheep in the region that borders England and Scotland known as 
the Lowlands.  Farther north, in the mountainous Highlands of Scotland, the 
predominately Celtic people known as Picts used the Lowlands as a 
battleground in their wars with the English army and as raiding territory 
where stock was routinely stolen and herded north.

Surnames were taken in Scotland between 1250 and 1450, probably in 
connection with the development of inheritable property rights and trades.  
An exact date is not possible since this practice was adopted gradually over 
time.  The surname Henderson is the modern version of an ancient 
Scottish/Irish patronymic; that is, a name derived when children of the first 
generation are known as their father's sons (Henry's sons).   Scottish 
records show that there were several origins of the Henderson family since 
there were several prominent Henrys in Scotland who had sons.  For this 
reason, we know that not all Hendersons who join our DNA project will 
share the same DNA signature.  In theory, we should find several 
Henderson DNA signatures that trace back to the original Henrys of the 15th 
century.

There are four facts that make me believe our own Henderson family, the 
Thomas Henderson line, came from the lowlands of Scotland, migrated in 
the 18th century to Northern Ireland, and in the early 19th century migrated to 
the United States, settling in the frontier state of Tennessee.  The first is the 
DNA evidence of our Anglo-Saxon origin.  The second is the documented 
location of the Anglo Saxons throughout England and the lowlands of 
Scotland.  The third fact is that Henderson is a Scottish surname rather than 
an English or Irish surname.  The fourth is the historical record of Ulster 
Province in Northern Ireland being settled by Scottish Protestants from the 
lowland counties of Scotland.  In Ireland, these people did not intermarry 
with the Catholic Irish but maintained their ethnic identify and became 
known as the Scots-Irish or Ulster-Scots.   The final connection between 
Tennessee and Ireland comes from my paper research, as explained here:

In the early 18th century and prior to the American Revolutionary War, 
approximately 200,000 Irish migrated to the American colonies from Ireland.  
Following the war and up to the great potato famine of 1840, more than 
300,000 new Irish immigrants arrived.  These immigrants though called Irish 
were in the majority Presbyterian Scots from Ulster, Northern Ireland.  
Philadelphia was the primary port of entry for these Scots Irish where they 
began their journeys, traveling north into Canada, west into Pennsylvania 
and Virginia, and south into the Carolinas.

According to the death certificate of Thomas' oldest son, Samuel Anderson 
Henderson, and census records of his other sons, William H. and John A. 
Henderson, and daughter, Mary Jane Henderson, their father was born in 
Ireland.  This would make Thomas, who was Presbyterian, a latecomer to 
America in the closing days of the 18th century, part of a group of Scots-Irish 
pioneers who traveled west from Philadelphia then south down the 
Shenandoah valley to settle the southern regions of the great Appalachians, 
specifically Tennessee and Kentucky.  

That concludes my story.  I just wanted you to know where you came from 
and give you insight into the anthropology of our family.  As I learn more, I 
will write again.

Love to all,

Jim


DNA Test Results – J. Henderson