Event Name: Norfolk'S 2015 Winter Sleep Topics: Fill & Download for Free

It’s important to remember that not every Australian - even those with British ancestry - has convict ancestry. Plenty don’t.In any event, my convict ancestor was a young woman by the name of Phoebe. She was a thief, but had stolen some handkerchiefs or some other small amount of linen. That was enough to land her in jail and on a ship bound for Botany Bay.Things picked up for her, though. She met a marine who’d come over in the First Fleet by the name of Benjamin. He’d had some adventures himself, particularly on Norfolk Island. After she’d served her sentence, the two got married and lived to pretty ripe old ages, as well as founding one line of my family tree.

The study of place names, their origins, meanings is called Toponymy.Modern day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh have thousands of villages and towns as well as large cities. Origins of names of these towns and cities can be broadly attributed to 3 major periods -1. Colonial era/British Raj2. Mughal empire and other Islamic rulers of India3. Pre-Islamic and Ancient IndiaI have covered these 3 in detail below -1. Colonial India – It all began with arrival of Portuguese explorer, Vasco Da Gama, in Calicut in 1498. Cochin and Goa became key centres in next few years. By 1600, Dutch, French, Danish, and British followed to get their hands in the lucrative trading with India. Towns set up by colonists as trading centres had their names anglicised. Ancient traders had referred Cochin to as Cocym or Cochym or Kochi from Malayalam word ‘kochu azhi’ which means small lagoon. Goa was earlier referred to as Gomanta or Govarashtra which meant ‘nation of cowherds’. Sri Lanka was known by multiple names, but Portuguese called it Ceilao which was later changed to Ceylon by the British. They also named Coromandel coast which was earlier called Cholamandalam. Danish setup Tranquebar, Calicut, Serampore, and Nicobar islands as trading outposts. Dutch setup Cannanore, Travancore, Quilon as trading outposts.French setup Pondicherry on the Coromandel coast as their first centre. Later settlements were Chandernagore, Yanam, Mahe.The British ultimately came to dominate and left an indelible mark on every sphere of life in the subcontinent. Calcutta came to be the capital of British held territories in India till 1911 when they decided to shift capital to Delhi and built New Delhi by 1931. The 3 Presidencies were Bengal Presidency with Calcutta as the capital, Bombay Presidency with Bombay as the capital, and Madras Presidency with Madras as the capital. Towns that got anglicised names were Lucknow (from Lakhanpur), Cawnpore (Kanpur), Meerut, Port Blair, Chittagong, Trivendrum, Alleppey, Coimbatore, Cuttack, province of Oudh (Awadh), Dacca.In order to escape the hot plains of India in summer, they created around 80 hill stations where they could spend summers and often names were anglicised. Simla was their summer capital that was derived from Shyamala Devi which was a reincarnation of a Hindu goddess. There were other popular hill stations like Mussourie, Landsdowne, Landour, Nainital, Dalhousie, Darjeeling, Ootacamund (from Udhagamandalam), Wellington, McLeodganj, Shillong, Cherrapunjee, Mount Abu, Gangtok, Matheran, Murree and Abbottabad (in Pakistan).There are over 100 ‘Cantonment’ towns in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh that were set up by the British. Then there were some towns that were named after the founder, for example the now infamous Abbottabad in Pakistan was named after its founder Major James Abbott, Jacobabad was named after General John Jacob, Lyallpur (now called Faisalabad) in Pakistan was named after the Lieutenant Governor of Punab, Sir Charles James Lyall. McLeodganj in India was likewise named after Sir Donald Fiell McLeod, who was another Lieutenant Governor of Punjab. Robertsganj, Forbesganj, Ellenabad are few other small towns in India with some story linked to the founder.Surprisingly, British did not name towns in India after places in their home country while in America (mostly in Northeast), Canada, Australia and New Zealand, they named hundreds of places that way. For example New York, New Hampshire, New England, New South Wales, New Plymouth, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Ipswich, Brighton, Salisbury, Norfolk, Chelsea, Hastings, Oxford, Windsor, and so on. Did they not intend to settle in India forever? Or the vast tracts of empty land they acquired in settler colonies called for a new beginning with memories of home? Or was there plenty of history in Indian towns that did not justify a brand new name and therefore they simply anglicised the existing name? Or the landscape and weather of India just did not remind them of England.Anglicisation of city names is not just limited to Indian subcontinent. There are many cities that seem to be comfortable with an anglicised name. For example, Munich (München), Cologne (Köln), Vienna (Wien), Naples (Napoli), Rome (Roma), Milan (Milano), Athens (Athina), Moscow (Москва, Moskva), Saint Petersburg (Sankt-Peterburg), Warsaw (Warszawa), Prague (Praha), Bucharest (Bucureşti), Belgrade (Beograd), Lisbon (Lisboa), Cairo (Al-Qahira), Copenhagen (Kobenhavn), Gothenburg (Goteburg), though the original names often appear as an alternative on maps and at their airports. But then most of these cities are European and don't associate anglicisation the way ex-colonies do.2. Islamic Period - Before the Europeans arrived in India, period of 1200s to 1700s was dominated by Islamic rulers – Mughals, Lodhis, Sayyids, Tughlaqs, Khaljis, Mamluks. The towns that were created or transformed in this period came to reflect Persian, Arabic, and Urdu in their names.‘Abad’ is a Persian word that means to cultivate or grow or thrive in the context of a village or city. There are many cities in Iran with this suffix. Several towns in India that came to prominence in this period had ‘abad’ as the suffix and the prefix being the founder’s name or dynasty – Tughlaqabad, Ferozabad, Shahjahanabad, Faizabad, Hyderabad, Daulatabad, Aurangabad, Allahabad, Ahmedabad, Moradabad, Gulshanabad (later called Nashik), Akbarabad, Farrukhabad, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Islamabad, Faisalabad (formerly Lyallpur), Secunderabad.‘Fateh’ means victory in Arabic as in Fatehpur Sikri that was built by Akbar.‘Hisar’ is an Arabic word for ‘citadel’. Town of Hissar in the state of Haryana was named Hisar-e-Feroza originally.‘Qila’ is another Arabic word meaning ‘fort’ as in Qila Rai Pithora.‘Shahar’ is a Persian word meaning ‘town’. For example, Bulandshahar.‘Bagh’ is Persian word for ‘garden’. For example, Charbagh, Karol Bagh. (not to be confused with Vyagh which means Tiger in Sanskrit, as in town called Baghpat (originally Vyaghpat).‘Ganj’ is an Urdu word meaning ‘neighbourhood’ or ‘trading post’ or possibly meaning ‘treasury’ in Persian, as in Daryaganj, Hazratganj, McLeodganj.‘Bassi’ and ‘Basti’ are Persian words from the word Basar-Gurdan meaning 'habitat'. For example, Dera Bassi, Bassi Pathana, Bassi Kasso and Bassi Daulat Khan.‘Kasba’ or ‘Qasbah’ is an Arabic word for market town. Often used a prefix.‘Kalan’ meaning 'Big', generally the bigger of two towns/villages with the same name as in Palia Kalan, Umri Kalan, Assi Kalan in Punjab‘Khurd’ meaning ‘Small’, generally the smaller of two towns/villages with the same name. For example, Assi Khurd in Punjab‘Serai’ meaning ‘resting place’ as in Serai Kale Khan, Sarai Rohilla, Mughal Sarai, Yusuf Sarai, Sarai Mir‘Wala’ referring to towns where a major Saint or personality or tribe came from, as inGujranawala, Attariwala, Nihal Singh Wala‘Wali’ where a lesser known saint or personality came from, as in Mianwali. Hiranwali, Moranwali.‘Ana’ as in Lodhi-Ana which meant ‘town of Lodhis’ for modern day Ludhiana.‘Dera’ is a Urdu/Seraiki word meaning ‘camp or settlement’ as in Dera Ismail Khan, Dera Ghazi Khan. Dera Baba Nanak, Dehradun.There are several villages named after Mughal emperors. Akbar tops the list with 234 villages. His grandfather, Babur, has 62 villages in his name while his father, Humayun, has only 30. There are 51 villages are named after Shah Jahan and 8 after Aurangzeb.3. Medieval and Ancient India - This post covers period before 1200s when the languages widely spoken and written were Sanskrit and its variants like Prakrit, Pali, and Apabhramsa in addition to Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam.The most common suffix in names of towns was ‘Pur’ which means city or settlement. Till date there are hundreds of cities, towns, and villages in India ending in Pur.Ancient epics of Mahabharata, Ramayana had an everlasting influence on names of towns and villages. Of the 600,000 odd villages in India, 3,626 are named after Lord Ram while 3,309 are named after Lord Krishna, 367 villages named after Hanuman, 160 after Lakshman, 75 after Sita, 385 after Bhim, 259 after Arjun. Interestingly, there is no town or village named after Vibheeshan! Several towns are named after a certain event in Ramayana –Ayodhya as birthplace of Ram, Saket (modern Allahabad) where Ram met a sage, Chitrakoot where Ram went to exile with his wife, Sita and brother, Lakshman, Nashik or Nasik where Lakshman cut off Shrupnakha’s nose (called Nasika in Sanskrit), Kishkindha where Ram met monkey god, Hanuman, Lakhanpur (modern day Lucknow) named after Lakshman, Sitamarhi in Bihar as birthplace of Sita, Lavapuri (modern day Lahore in Pakistan) founded by Ram’s son Luv and Kasur (in Pakistan) founded by Ram’s other son Kush. And not just India, towns all over Southeast Asia were influenced by ancient Indian epics – Ayutthaya near Bangkok in Thailand named after Ayodhya, Angkor Wat in Cambodia dedicated to Lord Vishnu, Madura after Mathura, Bali in Indonesia.Towns related to Mahabharata - Hastinapur from Hastin (elephant) + Pur (city) was named after king Hastin, an ancestor of Kauravas and Pandavas. Then the 5 cities that Pandavas demanded in lieu of their kindom, Hastinapur were – Panduprastha or Panprastha (modern day Panipat), Baghprastha or Vyaghprastha (modern day Baghpat) which means land of tigers, Tilprastha(modern day Tilpat), Sonaprastha or Swarnaprastha (modern day Sonepat) meaning land of gold, Indraprastha (supposed to be near site of Purana Quila in New Delhi on banks of Yamuna). Kanpur, which was called Cawnpore by British, originated either as Kanhiyapur as in Kanhaiya or as Karnapur, named after Karna. Gurugram (modern day Gurgaon) where Dronacharya trained the young princes, Kurukshetra was city of Kuru who was father of Pandavas and Kauravas and where the battle was fought, Sakala (modern day Sialkot) was founded by King Bharata’s son, Sirsa is said to be one of the oldest places of North India and its ancient name was Sairishaka, which finds mention in the Mahabharata and Panini's Ashatadhayayi.Holy cities from Hindu religion in India include different groupings – Char Dham (meaning 4 sacred places) including Gangotri, Yamnotri, Badrinath, Kedarnath or another Char Dham (with a wider scope) including Badrinath, Dwarka, Puri, Rameshwaram. Kumbha Mela is a holy gathering every 14 years and has name in Guiness book of records for biggest crowds ever in human history. It is held in 4 cities alternately – Haridwar, Allahabad, Ujjain, Nashik. As per mythology, one of the gods flying while carrying sacred nectar spilled the nectar over these 4 cities making them holy. Another grouping of 7 holy cities of Hindu pilgrimage - Benaras, Mathura, Haridwar, Ayodhya, Ujjain, Nashik, Dwarka. Book called ‘India – A Sacred Geography’ written passionately by Harvard Professor, Diana L. Eck covers all these towns and the spirit behind them very well.And not just India, the influence of Sanskrit and Hindu culture reached far in Southeast Asia in modern day Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia.Modern day names are modified or simplified versions of Sanskrit names of the ancient towns. For instance, Peshawar in Pakistan used to be Purushapura and headquarters of Kushan empire headed by Kanishka. Kashgar in China near Kyrgystan border gets its name from Kushan and so does Hindu Kush. Ranthambore used to be Ranasthambapura, Patna was Patliputra, Ujjain was Ujjayini, Multan in Pakistan was Mulasthana, modern day Jalandhar was Prasthala, Taxila, the ancient University town in Pakistan used to be Takshashila founded by King Taksha, Kandahar in Afghanistan used to be Gandhara. Paithan in Maharashtra used to be Pratishthana.Some towns have their ancient name till date like Srinagar, Mathura, Puskar.Greek influence – Punjab region was Alexander’s last stop in his quest to conquer the whole world. He founded several towns called Alexandria wherever he fought and won. In Pakistan-Afghanistan, there are around 20 towns that were founded but are mostly forgotten now. One of the towns around 20 kms from Jhelum was called Alexandria Bucephalous, named after his horse Bucephalous (Yes, just like Chetak!). Modern day city of Uch in Pakistan was calledAlexandria, Bagram in Afghanistan was another Alexandria.Here's a list of common suffixes and examples of names of towns -Suffix - Meaning - Examples of Town NamesPur/Pura/Puri/Puram/Pore - City or Settlement or Walled City -Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Kanpur, Nagpur, Rampur, Bilaspur, Hoshiarpur, Bahawalpur, Kolhapur, Udhampur, Jabalpur, Palampur, Anuradhapura, Hastinapur, Puri, Dharmapuri, Thiruvanthapuram, Malappuram, Singapore,Nagar - Town in Sanskrit - Srinagar, Gandhinagar, Ganganagar, Yamunanagar, RamnagarKot/Kode/Kotla/Durg - Fort, Fortification - Sialkot, Rajkot, Pathankot, Dharamkot, Kozhilkode, Ferozeshah Kotla, Nandidurg, JaladurgGarh - Fort, Hub - Chandigarh, Chittaurgarh, Ramgarh, Aligarh, Fatehgarh, Lohgarh, Keshgarh,Pat or Prastha - Level ground - Sonipat, Panipat, Baghpat, Tilpat, IndraprasthaNath - Refers to a Hindu deity or shrine - Amarnath, Badrinath, Kedarnath,Eshwar/Eswaram - God in Sanskrit - Rameshwaram, Bhubaneshwar, Bageshwar, Ankleshwar, Mahabaleshwar,Nadu - Country in Tamil - Tamil NaduGiri - Mountain in Sanskrit - Chandagiri, Dhaualagiri,Malai - Hill in Tamil - Annamalai, Kollamalai,Mer, Meru - Mountain or High - Ajmer (Ajayameru), Barmer, JaisalmerConda/Konda - Hill in Telugu - Golconda, Penukonda,Wada - House - Bhilwada, Teliwada,Bandar/Bandra - Port - PorbandarDwar - Door - Haridwar, Kotdwar,Ur/Uru/Oor - Village/Town in Tamil, Kannada - Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Conoor,Patnam - Port - Masulipatnam, VishakhapatnamSar/Tal - Lake, Natural Lake - Amritsar, Nainital, Bhimtal, NaukuchiatalHat/Hati/Het - Market or Fair - Guwahati, Jorhat, SylhetPet - Market - Begumpet, HospetGuri - Place in Bengali - Siliguri, Jalpaiguri, Mainaguri***********************************************************************

Well, I can speak about one, at least, since I’m a descendant of the bottleneck and have genetic proof of one of the problems originating from this sort of phenomenon.My mother’s mother was descended from Canadians who came to the New World from France after 1651 (one of my first ancestors to be born in France but died in the New World). After 1763, France wasn’t particularly encouraging emigration into what was its former colony, which territory was ceded (along with other lands in the New World) after the end of the Seven Years’ War. This article has a lot of very good information about the details. It must have been quite a blow to France.There is a ton of information out there about the whole megillah since records were really good regarding this population’s goings-on (Catholics kept good church records - birth, death, weddings, baptism, etc), but basically the colony-then-free community began with a great deal of single men - oops - and eventually women had to be, well, basically imported from France to correct the unfavorable ratio of 169 males per 100 females. Too much competition for wives. Plus they probably needed someone to steal the remote from time to time. (Actually, the girls weren’t shipped in like puppies. The young ladies came of their own will, sponsored financially for their passage plus dowry by King Louis XIV, and subsequently were named the ‘casket girls’, for the little trunks they brought with them (the ‘caskets’ - their only belongings). Another name for the group was the ‘‘Filles du Roi’- for ‘daughters of the king’ —of course they weren’t really ‘daughters’ of the King. Even the King never was that busy. They were just sponsored for passage by the King. Nevertheless, I AM A DESCENDANT OF THE DAUGHTERS OF THE KING just sounds delightfully snotty and I like to one-up the DAR ladies with it.) Take that, DAR. ;P… not *my* fault my ancestors were probably Loyalists. We made your Winthrop Fleet look like ze bathtub toys! :P *begins to sing ‘O Canada’*…. : )Ahem. Anyway. Most of the Filles were orphans, actually, probably attracted by the thought of a new husband with land in the New World- and a husband that they could choose, instead of being bargained off without any say, which apparently happened quite a bit). So when my husband complains about me flouncing about putting on airs, all I have to say is that I’m descended from fancy French imports and I cannot help it so Ça va and also nyah. And now I will take my tea and madeleines in the drawing-room, please, hold my calls. (Actually, these ladies were probably tough as nails. They had to withstand a month-long voyage overseas and didn’t know the people they were going to meet and only a faint concept of what the land was like). My mother’s people are descended from two lines of these Filles du Roi and their husbands. There were, all in all, a few hundred who came over a period of about ten or fifteen years, I think. They chose their husbands, got land (that was ‘land’, tch-tch), and probably had better lives than growing up in French orphanages or being pawned off on some random dude they’ve never met, which probably would totally suck.Mesdames Tougher-Than-They-LookIn any case, this having a small group of ancestors with only recourse to a few people brought in from time to time to offer genetic variation (not to mention a pair of warm feet at night) results in some peculiarities with genetics. There’s some complicated math with all this that I will never, ever understand, involving lots of the frightening symbol Ʃ and ɰ and sometimes Ω but I can probably say logically that the smaller the original population is, the higher the chances are that even a random genetic mutation may re-appear and have its chances to re-appear enhanced in that population’s descendants if they continue to.. well, inbreed. This is a demonstration of not just a population bottleneck but also an example of what’s called a founder effect.Take this for example: a graphic from this great, short article about bottlenecks and founder effects. Below we have someone (Charles II of Spain, say) taking marbles (or jawbreakers or gumballs, if you’d like- he couldn’t chew them anyway, so you get them all) from one bag. In the bag there are red, green, and white gumballs in a somewhat equal ratio - slightly fewer white gumballs than red and green, but you can see what’s going on.On the first draw of a sample of gumballs from the bag (the “draw”), there’s a ratio of 2:5:3 for white:green:red, which is about what it is in the original population of gumballs in the bag. That is, the draw in a non-bottlenecked population is a fairly representative sample of the whole population’s makeup.Then, the bag is then restocked from that population. There’s another draw. In that draw, there are no white gumballs (representing some sort of gene or maybe a set of genes). The population now is reduced to just that of the draw. This is the bottleneck event. Even with a burgeoning population in the next generation, the effect of the missing gene(s)/white gumballs from the bottleneck lingers: no white gumballs/special genes in the next generation, and, as long as that population exists without outside enrichment, possibly never again. This could work the other way, too, of course for deleterious genes: let’s say that one individual in the bottleneck had a really rare genetic mutation that causes hereditary blindness, colon cancer, etc. Because of the reduced genetic variation in the bottleneck, the future population has a higher chance of that gene being inherited from parents that come from that bottleneck, and have less genetic variation to pass on to their offspring as well. (I think I explained that correctly).This effect of genetic restriction can have severe effects on even ‘rebounded’ populations, from, say, nearly-extinct species (not just humans). The Berkeley article points out the lack of genetic variation in elephant seals - but certainly, there are thousands of species today that have restricted genetic variability since their ancestors came from just a handful of survivors. Think also of those extinct species brought back through in-vitro fertilization and de-extinction. You’ve brought the creature back from the brink of being lost forever, but then what about genetic variability? How can a population really fully recover from near-extinction?You can prove this with math again, but please don’t ask me how. Point is, genetic restriction even a long time ago can affect the vigor and health of all future generations, regardless of their quantity. So, ‘hybrid vigor’ accounts for a lot, and can help save a population if there’s outbreeding where there wasn’t any before (see this fascinating little tidbit written in 1928 about a micro-community of the descendants of the mutineers of the HMS Bounty on Norfolk Island). Point is, we all need each others’ genes (!) and the concept of ‘race purity’ is a great big pile of sheer nonsensical ridiculousness.Tall tough Tahitian/English people descended from English mutineers“On the whole, Tahitian and English characters form a mosaic, the totality of which in some tends toward the English and, in others toward the Tahitian. Heterosis or hybrid vigor, which is frequently observed in the first generation after the original cross, is well illustrated in the stature of the Norfolk Islanders. Early records indicate that the hybrids in the first generation were considerably taller than either Tahitian or English. Although this excessive stature has diminished among the Norfolk Islanders, it is still greater than that of the parent stocks”.For myself, I have a fairly common recessive autosomal mutation called ΔF508 (delta-F508), on Chromosome 7. Genes make proteins, remember, so this “recipe” on this gene instructs the making of a protein that doesn’t fold properly in cell membranes, and therefore screws up how salt and water moves across the cell membrane. I’m only a carrier (I have only one copy of this gene) but if I’d reproduced with someone else with the same mutation (much more likely in a bottlenecked population), my offspring would likely express this mutation, i.e. develop cystic fibrosis. (I never had children and that ship has sailed by now). [By the way, the fact that this mutation also appears in Jewish populations has led to some very confused speculation - without proof- that the two populations actually share the same roots, which I don’t see. While there were Jews in Normandy (being one of the cities from which many of my émigrés came) prior to the first wave of settlers, they don’t seem to have been part of the initial settlement in New France. It is feasible that a genetic mutation could arise de novo within two separate populations, after all. Unfortunately, under King Louis XIV’s edicts, only Roman Catholics could enter the colony -with one fascinating exception of Ester Brandeau, who fooled everyone, at least for a bit - but that’s a different- really exciting - story. Personally, I would have been thrilled to have had a Jewish ancestor, though -especially in my maternal line!]This little variation apparently accounts for about 70% of the forms of cystic fibrosis mutations. Typically, the ratio of being a carrier of this mutation for Caucasians is apparently about 1 in 29; from those with French-Canadian ancestry from my particular region of origin, about 1 in 15. The interesting thing about the mutation is that it is thought by some to improve one’s chances of surviving cholera, so there. Some deleterious mutations do have a quasi-protective effect (sickle cell, for example, has an effect on one’s resistance to malaria). So that’s interesting.I count myself fortunate, since there are other founder populations with worse problems: breast cancer, Gaucher disease, Canavan disease, and other devastating diseases pop up in descendants of Ashkenazi Jews, another bottleneck population (some writers say, based on the genetic evidence, the bottleneck population was only some 350 individuals!). The incidence of gene mutations for breast cancer in this population is so prevalent that many physicians recommend that any woman of Ashkenazi descent be tested for the BRCa1 and BRCa2 gene mutations. And generally speaking, there’s even a modern theory that we ourselves now are now a bottleneck population from a mass die-off of men about 7,000 years ago (!), so perhaps these other bottleneck populations could be regarded as bottlenecks within bottlenecks. Iceland’s[1]population is also thought to be a result of a series of bottlenecks as well. I bet it would be fun to be a genetic counselor there (!) You’d never lack for work.Science fiction stories talk about population bottlenecks a lot, as it has to be up to some series of people to colonize some damn place or another - e.g. in one film, 17 females to every male. Nice planning, Dr. Strangelove. The rest of us had better get a nicer suit.We’re not thinking about genetic mutations now, are we, Doctor Strangelove?————————————————————*N.B. Speaking of bottlenecks, in an act of Klein-bottle-evocative-warped-reality feverishness, I think I’ve answered my own Quora question. Ha!Footnotes[1] mtDNA and the Origin of the Icelanders: Deciphering Signals of Recent Population History