Genetic studies based on Y-chromosome markers and mitochondrial DNA confirmed the South Asian origin of Roma. Y-chromosome marker M82 (H1a) and mtDNA haplogroups M5a1, M18 and M35b, which are characteristics of South Asian ancestry, are typical in Roma populations [8, 9].
A full genome autosomal DNA study on 186 Roma samples from Europe in 2019 found that modern Roma people are characterized by a common south Asian origin and a complex admixture from Balkan, Middle East, and Caucasus-derived ancestries.
Gypsies (including English Gypsies, Scottish Gypsies or Travellers, Welsh Gypsies and other Romany people) Irish Travellers (who have specific Irish roots) Roma, understood to be more recent migrants from Central and Eastern Europe.
Overview. The term Gypsy derives from Egyptian, reflecting a mistaken assumption of the origins of the people who refer to themselves as the Roma. Ethnic Gypsies are the descendants of diverse groups of people who were assembled in northern India as a military force to resist the eastward movement of Islam.
In comparison with other studied groups from Ukraine (mainly Ukrainians but also other minorities) Djaczenko found that Gypsies have the lowest cephalic index, the widest nose, darkest pigmentation, and the most dense beard. Generally those features are rather alien to Eastern European populations.
Nine disorders are caused by “novel private” Roma mutations, including forms of glaucoma, polycystic kidney disease, limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, and a few neuropathies.
There are around 300,000 Gypsy Roma and Irish Travellers in the UK – Roma Gypsies are originally from northern India, whereas Travellers are of Irish origin – and both groups are nomadic.
A Gypsy is a member of a race of people who travel from place to place, usually in caravans, rather than living in one place. Some Gypsies object to this name, and prefer to be called Romany.
Most Eastern European Roma are Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or Muslim. Those in Western Europe and the United States are mostly Roman Catholic or Protestant. In southern Spain, many Roma are Pentecostal, but this is a small minority that has emerged in contemporary times.
Talk to older relatives for clues and family stories. Old family photos can help to identify Gypsy heritage. Photographs taken at gatherings such as hop picking or fairs might be a sign, although these were often annual events which brought together families from many backgrounds, not just Gypsies and Travellers.
Common Gypsy names
You may have Romani, Traveller or Gypsy ancestry if your family tree includes common Romani or Gypsy surnames such as Boss, Boswell, Buckland, Chilcott, Codona, Cooper, Doe, Lee, Gray (or Grey), Harrison, Hearn, Heron, Hodgkins, Holland, Lee, Lovell, Loveridge, Scamp, Smith, Wood and Young.
Companies like Sequencing.com offer convenient DNA testing kits that can tell you exactly what ethnicities you are whether you're Hungarian Roma, European Roma or English Roma. Today's tests are incredibly precise and can denote specific locations regarding places of origin, such as Eastern Europe or Western Europe.
Regardless of the origin theories, Lowland Gypsies are still viewed as a Romani group, with Romani culture being a part of Scottish Lowland Gypsy culture.
Romani is the only Indio-Aryan language that has been spoken exclusively in Europe since the Middle Ages and whose vocabulary and grammar are related to Sanskrit. The language used by Romani people is a source of great pride, facilitating the connectivity and communication between people across the world.
Roma, singular Rom, also called Romany or Gypsies (considered pejorative), an ethnic group of traditionally itinerant people who originated in northern India but live in modern times worldwide, principally in Europe.
Couples marry young - girls at around 16 or 17, and boys between 18 and 19. They're not supposed to marry non-travellers but marriage to second cousins in families is common.
A gorger is a Romani word for a non-Romani person.
Gypsy Roma Travellers are not currently recognised as indigenous, but could be. These communities have distinct cultural practices and experience colonisation. These communities have higher mortality, morbidity and infant mortality.
This is not dissimilar to other indigenous peoples, even though many Gypsy Roma Traveller communities are not identified as indigenous.
Genetic analysis has shown Travellers to be of Irish extraction, and that they likely diverged from the settled Irish population in the 1600s, likely during the time of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. Centuries of cultural isolation have led Travellers to become genetically distinct from the settled Irish.
"Most Roma have brown hair and eyes, but there are many blond Roma with blue eyes," said Juan Gamella, a social anthropologist at the University of Granada in Spain.
Gypsy, Roma and Travellers have the poorest health outcomes than any other social or ethnic group (SWPHO, 2011:3). The life expectancy of a GRT person is 50 years old for both men and women.
The term 'Gypsies and Travellers' is difficult to define as it does not constitute a single, homogenous group, but encompasses a range of groups with different histories, cultures and beliefs including: Romany Gypsies, Welsh Gypsies, Scottish Gypsy Travellers and Irish Travellers.
Here is the Peaky Blinders Gypsy debacle explained. Tommy Shelby and his kin are Irish-Romani (sometimes spelled Romany) Gypsies, a unique cultural and ethnic group present in Britain since the 1500s. The award-winning Peaky Blinders is directed by Steven Knight and has run for 6 seasons, the most recent hitting U.S.