An Orcadian ethnicity has developed since around 900 AD.Goethe University's historian, Daniel Föller, describes the Orcadian ethnic group's early ethnogenesis occurring between the 10th and 12th centuries, during the same period in which theSwedish,Norwegian,Danish, andManx ethnicities emerged.[10] According to historianJames Hunter, the "ethnic composition" of Orcadians was then significantly impacted by colonisation from Lowland Scots people between 1494 and 1659.[9]
AnthropologistAgnar Helgason's research in 2001 found that themtDNA ancestry of Orcadians is around 36 percent "Scandinavian", suggesting an ethnic composition comparable toIcelanders, a modern North Germanic ethnic group. 2003 research found that the majority of Orcadians can trace theirpatrilineality to Scandinavia, with 55% ofY chromosome DNA relating to migratingNorth Germanic peoples.[5] In research analysing different European ethnic groups, physicianLars Klareskog and geneticistPeter K. Gregersen have compared the Orcadian ethnicity in relation to other European island-based ethnicities, such asSardinian people.[11]
Orcadians have a range of ethnic or national identities, including Orcadian, Scottish, and British.[12] Swedish artist,Gunnie Moberg, suggests that within the Orkney Islands, "People are Orcadian first, thenScots orBritish".[13] HistorianHugh Kearney has written that Orkney's historical connection with theNorth Sea Empire has allowed Orcadians to remain "ethnically distinctive".[13] With regards to self-governance,Laurentian University's historian Daniel Travers has written thatOrkney Islands Council has "considerably more influence over insular matters than othercounties" in theUnited Kingdom.[13]
Researcher, James B. Minahan, has described the Orcadian people as a stateless nation, noting their history of seeking independence from Scotland, their opposition to the1979 Scottish devolution referendum, and a history of seeking "political status that theChannel Islands, theIsle of Man, and theFaroese Islands" have in relationship with the sovereign states of the UK and Denmark, respectively.[14]
During the colonial era, Orcadians have been documented migrating in search of opportunity.York University historian, Carolyn Podruchny, notes that "freemen" (as opposed to "voyageurs"), involved in theNorth American fur trade up until the early 19th-century came from a range of disparate ethnic groups and "could bemétis, Orcadians, other Scots,English, andIroquoians from theSt. Lawrence valley".[15] Emigrants toLondon andYork, England, also found inland posts related to the fur trade. According to ethnohistorianJennifer S. H. Brown, "at least twenty-eight Orkneymen became either governors, chief factors, chief traders, or district master between the early 1700s and the mid-1800s".[2]
Colonel Henry Halcro Johnston (1856–1939), botanist, physician, rugby union international and Deputy Lieutenant for Orkney
Lt.Col. James Johnston (1724–1800), early and principal Scottish merchant at Quebec following the fall of New France
Malcolm Laing (1762–1818), author of theHistory of Scotland from the Union of the Crowns to the Union of the Kingdoms
Samuel Laing (1780–1868), author ofA Residence in Norway, and translator of theHeimskringla, the Icelandic chronicle of the kings of Norway
Samuel Laing (1812–1897), chairman of the London, Brighton & South Coast railway, and introducer of the system of"parliamentary" trains with fares of one penny a mile.
Kristin Linklater (b. 1946), voice teacher, actor, director and author
^Ritchie notes the presence of an Orcadian ruler at the court of a Pictish high king atInverness in 565 AD.[7]
^Robert Frost's ancestors were Scotch-English. His mother was a Scottish emigrant who appears in most records as Isabelle Moody (Moodie); her family was from Orkney.
^abJennifer S. H. Brown (1996). "Company Men with a Difference".Strangers in Blood: Fur Trade Company Families in Indian Country.University of Oklahoma Press. p. 31.ISBN978-0806128139.It is clear, however, that while the Lowland Scots were not viewed as particularly distinct from theEnglish ethnically or socially, the Orkneymen acquired considerable visibility as a separate group
^Jones, Charles (1997).The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language. Edinburgh University Press. p. 394.ISBN978-0-7486-0754-9
^abcS Goodacre (31 January 2005). "Genetic evidence for a family-based Scandinavian settlement of Shetland and Orkney during the Viking periods".Heredity (journal).Nature Publishing Group.A further study suggests that Icelanders and Orkney Islanders have similar proportions of Scandinavian mtDNA ancestry (E36%; Helgason et al, 2001). ... A sizeable component of Scandinavian patrilineal ancestry has been reported in Orkney (55%) and Shetland (68%) based on likelihood estimates of population admixture and principal components analyses of haplotype frequencies (Capelli et al, 2003).
^Thomson, William P.L. (2008).The New History of Orkney. Edinburgh: Birlinn. pp. 4–6.ISBN978-1-84158-696-0.
^Ritchie, Anna (2003). "The Picts". In Omand, Donald (ed.).The Orkney Book. Edinburgh: Birlinn. p. 39.ISBN1-84158-254-9.
^abJames Hunter (2010). "No joy without Clan Donald: 1494 - 1659".Last of the Free: A History of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.Mainstream Publishing.ISBN978-1845965396.Lowland colonisation of Orkney and Shetland had gone some way, byJames VI's reign, to effecting irrevocable changes both in the ethnic composition and linguistic identity of those island groups. ... the five or six hundred Lowlanders who arrived in the vicinity ofStornoway towards the end of 1598, were themselves obliged to fight for their lives. Unlike Orcadians and Shetlanders, who mounted no effective resistance to settlers from the Lowlands
^Daniel Föller (2021). "Byzantium and Scandinavia".A Companion to Byzantium and the West, 900-1204.Brill Publishers. p. 274.ISBN978-9004498792.Before c.1100, when major ethnic groups such as Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, Icelanders, Orcadians, or Manx had emerged, and with them corresponding political communities
^Chao Tian;Lars Klareskog;Peter K. Gregersen (November 2009). "European Population Genetic Substructure: Further Definition of Ancestry Informative Markers for Distinguishing among Diverse European Ethnic Groups".Molecular Medicine (journal).Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. p. 371-383.Clearer separation of different ethnic and regional populations was observed when northern and southern European groups were considered separately and the PCA results were influenced by the inclusion or exclusion of ... Sardinian, and Orcadian ethnic groups.
^Eve Hepburn; Godfrey Baldacchino, eds. (2013). "The long-term propensity for political affiliation in island microstates".Independence Movements in Subnational Island Jurisdictions.Routledge.ISBN978-0415505857.The greatest impact of the Scottish referendum is likely to unfold in Orkney and Shetland. ... And, unlike the Western Isles, the Northern Isles present the possible articulation of a local ethnic identity in contrast to the national Scots identity.
^abcDaniel Travers (2018). "Orkney".The Second World War and the 'Other British Isles': Memory and Heritage in the Isle of Man, Orkney and the Channel Islands.Bloomsbury Academic. p. 91.ISBN978-1350006942.Schei andMoberg have observed, 'People are Orcadian first, then Scots or British'.Hugh Kearney, in his survey of the 'four' nations of Britain, designated the islands, along with Shetland, a distinct 'subculture' within the British Isles, arguing that involvement with Norse naval empires has meant that Orcadian communities have remain 'ethnically distinctive' ... This unique sense of identity, according to Michael Lang, constitutes both an ethnicand 'national' expression. It is 'ethnic' in the sense that many Orcadians still trace their ancestry back to Norse roots, and 'national' because it provides a way for Orcadians to differentiate themselves from Britain and Scotland. ... Though officially one of the thirty-two council areas of Scotland, the Orkney Islands Council, which administers the islands, has considerably more influence over insular matters than other counties in the UK
^James Minahan (2002). "Orcadians".Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: Ethnic and National Groups Around the World.Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 1466.ISBN978-0313321115.The Orcadians, culturally and historically distinct ... On 21 February 1994, along with the Shetlanders*, the Orcadians called for a referendum on independence from the rest of Scotland and the establishment of sovereignty and ties directly to the central government in London. Many Orcadians advocate a status similar to that ofthe Manx ... The Orcadians voted overwhelmingly against the proposal for a Scottish parliament in the 1979 referendum ... Many Orcadians seek the same political status that the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, and theFaroese Islands enjoy.
^James Minahan (2006). "Disengagement".Making the Voyageur World: Travelers and Traders in the North American Fur Trade.University of Nebraska Press. p. 293.ISBN978-0803287907.Unlike voyageurs they did not comprise an easily identifiable ethnicity or cultural group. Freemen could be métis, Orcadians, other Scots, English, and Iroquoians from the St. Lawrence valley, though this chapter is concerned primarily withFrench Canadians.
^McNeill, F. Marian.The Silver Bough: A four volume study of the national and local festivals of Scotland (Paperback ed.). Glasgow, UK: William MacLellan.ISBN0-86241-231-5.
