Ancient DNA and ‘Anglo-Frisians’

Like so many towns and villages in East Anglia, the character of Whittlesey has now been changed by new housing and commuters. Sixty years ago, though, it was a remote and compact village, and one of the few places on earth where I did not have to spell my surname when asked for it. From the town’s mayor to the local shopkeepers, there were scores of Catlings in Whittlesey, and, in the 1840 census returns, people called Catling outnumbered all the other surnames in the town. The latest CA was a special issue, highlighting new evidence of migration in the early medieval period. When, in the 1980s, I regularly visited Amsterdam in order to write guidebooks, I would routinely be address