If your ancestors were part of the nasty Saxons that invaded England b4 1066, where would you trace them,?

DNA testing has shown that a good share of the native English are in fact not Anglo-saxon at all. Most,especially in the maternal lines, are descended from prehistoric peoples (not celts either) who arrived after the ice age or in the neolithic.

I also have a 'saxon' sounding last name but surnames didn't become common till the middle ages anyway,about 6-700 years after the saxons arrived.. The root is anglo-saxon because that is the root of the language spoken at that time. Language doesn't imply ethnicity.

A dna test might help you, i've seen tests at about $200 in the US so prices are falling.

I run a UK FHS and the chances of researching back this far is remote and something that I have never heard of amongst the hundreds of people I have had contact with over the past years.

Saxon records are so rare they will be in museums and are not easily read.

Also, just because your surname resembles a German verb doesn't necessarily mean it was that originally. My name is also Saxon in appearance and is in use today as an adjective, but the population of England in 1066 was also composed of people descended from Romans, Danes, Celts etc. When surnames were given out by the Normans a person could pick a name to use or just be given one by the Norman rulers, who were a very nasty, oppressive, cruel and ruthless bunch! They could choose any name they wished and this led to Britons being given French names such as Corbett (little crow) etc. which were to some extent derogatory, as well as Saxon names that could include words that were in common use at the time.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/2905362/Treasu...

According to your history books, the Saxons were a GERMANIC tribe who invaded most of Europe between the 5th and 7th centuries A.D., after the Romans left. Shortly afterward, Anglo-Saxon tribes who had been sporadically harassing its shores for years invaded in force. The Angles and Saxons, as their tribes were properly known, were a warlike people hailing originally from Germany and they were aggressive in stamping their authority and ownership upon much of England. Their new kingdoms ranged from Wessex in the west to Kent and East Anglia in the east, the Northumbrians dominated further north, and what is now the Midlands was then Mercia (the people in Mercia spoke Old English, a Germanic language which modern-day Britons would find largely unintelligble, and writing things down for posterity was never high on their list of priorities).

It wasn't until the time of Alfred the Great [who ruled up until the end of the 9th century], who had a great interest in writing, that things began to be written down. That’s why historians call it the "Dark Ages", because there is not much light shed on what was going on.

We know the names of the Anglo-Saxon kings in the 7th and 8th centuries --Wulfhere, Aethelred the First, Coenred, Ceolred-- but almost everything else about them is shrouded in mystery. Nothing is known about their homes, etc. because the buildings were made of wood, which time and nature destroys eventually. Archaeological finds help us to learn other facts about them.

Just today, in fact, it was revealed that an amateur metal detector enthusiast in Staffordshire, England unearthed a huge find of Anglo-Saxon gold (these items alone weighed 11 pounds) and silver artefacts on July 5 that offers new insight into the world of the Anglo-Saxons, who ruled England from the fifth century until the 1066 Norman invasion and whose cultural influence is still felt throughout the English-speaking world. The treasure trove includes intricately designed helmet crests embossed with a frieze of running animals, enamel-studded sword fittings and a checkerboard piece inlaid with garnets and gold. One gold band bore a biblical inscription in Latin calling on God to drive away the bearer's enemies. The cache of gold and silver pieces was discovered in what was once Mercia, one of five main Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and is thought to date to between 675 and 725 A.D.

(So like Joyce says, tracing your ancestry back that far would take some doing, especially since no written texts--such as birth, death, marriages, children, etc.-- still exist. If you could, however, you'd have to go back to Germany, Austria, etc.)

It is highly unlikely that you will be able to trace any ancestor back that far with credible documentation. How do you know you have Saxon ancestry?

Why do you think the Saxons were nasty? Were the Angles OK? How about the Romans?

http://www.thenagain.info/webchron/westeurope/Angl...

it would be really hard to go that far back because i don't even know what kind of records they kept back then. contact the archives in the and UK and ask them where the oldest records are held. you might have to call several places. Churches are also one of the best places to look because they kept baptism, marriage, and death records. contact the oldest churches you can find in the and the UK. let me know if you find anything!

I know someone gave me a thumbs down for this, but since you specifically said "invaded England", checking archives in england (if possible) is your best shot. plus- trying to trace them back to GERMANY much earlier sounds nearly impossible. unless you speak deutch, i would start with england.

Seems a little strange to say the Saxons were nasty...most cultures were back then.