I have always been fascinated with the fate of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel since I was a teenager. I first became interested in the British Israelite teachings when I read a book by Gilbert Saddler a British Israelite writer called "Christians Awake" when I was about 13 or 14 years old, which I found in my mother's draw along with a number of British Israelite magazines. I was to find out that my family had been followers and believers in the British Israel identity for at least 4 generations on my mother's maternal side. My mother's grandmother was a staunch British Israelite believer whose grandmother was a cousin to the Montefiore family and her second husband was Moses Augustus Montefiore a brother of Jacob Barrow Montefiore, she may have come to the British Israelite beliefs through them. However, one of my ancestors on my mother's paternal side had in 1800 gone with his wife and two children to look for the Lost Tribes amongst the Ojibwa Indians of Wisconsin, and they were later involved with the Albury movement of Sir Henry Drummond that led to the foundation of the Catholic Apostolic Church which were also interested in this topic of the identity of the Lost Tribes. Another ancestor had been influenced and converted by the teachings of Joseph Wolff of the London Jews Society who was also fascinated by the search for the Lost Tribes.
I became involved with the British Israel World Federation and spent many hours at their bookshop in the city centre and received literature from England, South Africa and Canada on a regular basis. Even after I became a Catholic I still retained many of my British Israelite ideas on the lost Tribes and I also became involved in the orthodox Jewish led group called Brit-Am in Israel and I even was a guest speaker on Davidic genealogy at one of their meetings in Jerusalem in 2002. It wasn't until the advent of dna testing (I became interested in it from 2008), that I started to change some of my understandings about the identity of the Tribes of Israel.
Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone and granddaughter of Queen Victoria, niece of Queen Mary and Royal Patron of the British Israel World Federation. Queen Victoria believed she sat on King David's Throne and had her genealogist draw up a chart demonstrating her descent from David. Princess Alice was the daughter of Prince Leopold the Duke of Albany and youngest son of Queen Victoria. When Princess Alice died in 1981 her daughter Lady May Smith (born a Princess of Teck) became the patron of the British Israel World Federation until her death in 1994.
As a British Israelite I believed that the British belonged in the main to the Lost Tribe of Ephraim and were the fulfilment of the Biblical prophecy that Ephraim would be a nation and a company of nations. They were the Birthright people of God. However now due to my further study of the Tribes and their migrations using dna evidence I no longer believe that the British and Irish are Ephraim (of course there are certain families and clans within Britain who are Ephraimites such as those MacDonald and Alexanders of R1a ydna who descend from Somerled, King of the Isles). Genetic dna studies have demonstrated that the bulk of the peoples of Britain and Ireland (before the recent influx of immigrants) are overwhelmingly of Gaelic R1b -L21 ydna. My research now demonstrated to me that this is the ydna of the Davidic House of Nathan. Thus I now realised that Shakespeare was correct when he called Britain -"this royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle"- as they are truly the Isles of King David and his seed.
Previously I had believed that the British throne was the throne of King David but now I realised that the bulk of the people were also Davidic descendants. The Stuart Dynasty belonged to R1b- L21 and thus on the direct male line were descendants of King David as were most of the Irish and Scottish Kings before them. However Judaism teaches that one can have Davidic status through a female. Thus the famous Hillel and Gamaliel were considered Davidic even though they were from the marriage of a man of the Tribe of Benjamin with a Davidic heiress. Our present Queen Elizabeth II is a Davidic Queen through the female line even though her family's male line is from the Tribe of Zebulon. Prince Phillip her husband however is most likely of R1b-L21 as is the last Czar of Russia and are thus of direct male line Davidic ancestry like the bulk of the so-called Anglo-Saxon-Celtic people.
My dna study has confirmed that many of the Dutch and Germans belong to Zebulon (R1b U106). Many of the Anglo-Saxons also belonged to this haplogroup. I have concluded that Zebulon which came to Europe long before the Assyrian Exile by their ships with the Phoenicians is R1b U106. These are the Hellenes or Danaan of the Iliad or Odessey which were found in the north of Europe not the south. The Zebulonites who went via the Russian Steppes with other Israelite tribes are R1b L238/S182. However the Saxons who the British Israelites referred to as being sons of Isaac are in fact mainly sons of Issachar and their ancestors were known as the Sacae. Sacae, Saka or Sakkai (Scythians) is a diminutive of Issachar rather than Isaac. I had once believed that the Russians and the Slavs were of the tribe of Issachar. Now I was shocked to realise that it is in fact Russia and the Slavic nations are that Nation and Company of nations that belong to the Tribe of Ephraim (R1a Z283). My former belief that many of the French were Reuben has been confirmed by dna evidence as the ydna of the Tribe of Reuben (or at least the main bulk of Reuben) is R1b U152. Both the Plantagenet dynasty (except the House of York) and the Habsburgs belong to R1b U152 and the Bourbon dynasty to Zebulon (R1b U106).
That many of the Spanish and southern French are Simeon has also been confirmed as the Tribe of Simeon mainly belong to R1b DF27. My belief that in Europe was to be found the Tribes of Naphtali and Dan was to be found mostly correct with I2 found there. N ydna (probably the dna of the sons of Nahor brother of Abraham) is the the ydna of the later Rurikovichi rulers of Russia descended from Ruling Prince Igor. I was also surprised Asher and Gad are I1.
George Gawler second Governor of South Australia a friend of Sir Moses Montefiore who he travelled with to Palestine in 1849 who was a British Israelite believer and his son Colonel John Cox Gawler was a well known British Israelite author.
While the British Israelites may have been wrong on their Identity of Ephraim and some of the other Tribes I have gained immense riches from my reading of their literature in regards to the migrations of peoples. This interest increased my love of history, genealogy, folklore, fairy tales, legends, mythology and heraldry. Though I now realise that the envy between Ephraim and Judah is not between the British and the Jews (in fact the British are mostly descended via David from Judah) but is the envy between the Jews and British on one hand and the Russians and Slavs on the other. The Slavs descend from the Persians and Parthians of the Tribe of Ephraim through the Wends (Voni or Vonones clan of the Parthians) . The various genetic studies have also demonstrated that the Kelts of Europe are mainly from R1b U152 (along with some other groups especially Syrian G haplogroup) and the so-called Celts of Britain and Ireland are not descended from them but came to the British Isles by way of Spain.
The Reubenite Kelts of Europe (U152), the Davidic Gaels and Cymri of the British Isles (L21), the Simeonite Iberians and South Western French (Senones/ Semnones) all descend from R1b S116 (P312) haplogroup, as well as the Issacharite Anglo-Saxons (R1b DF19 ydna), from before 600 BC (by my revised chronology but 721 BC in the Accepted Chronology of Academia). This common genetic source is not found in Europe but far to the east in the Levant. While the bulk of the Lost Israelites descended from R1b are in Western Europe (though there are also large numbers found in Africa and Central Asia and the Middle East) they are not all of the lost Tribes. In reality most of Europe and much of Asia are today descended from the lost Tribes of Israel. This reading of the dna evidence to find the Lost Tribes can only be done if one puts aside the evolutionary based methodologies for dating dna which are ridiculously too old.
Do I still think America represents Manasseh (R1a-Z93)? Possibly not, even though many of the Ashkenazi Jews belong to Manasseh as do many of the 19th century German immigrants as well as certain groups from British ancestry in the United States. R1a-Z93 is Eastern Manasseh and R1a L664 is Benjamin (Dorians of ancient Greece were a mix of Z93 and L664) and R2. Other Israelites belong to the I ydna (Sarmatians and Vikings) and J2 ydna (Judah, Kohenim and Levi also found among the Samaritans). J1 is found among the Arabs and some of the Samaritans. Many Jewish Kohenim (priests) of J1 and Levites of J2 origin are in fact originally Jews that became Samaritans who re-converted to Judaism in Second Temple times. The R1b priests directly descended from Aaron on the male line belong to R1b- L584 y-dna. The Edomites are mainly found in Asia especially in China. It would seem that the huge 200 million army from the East will be an Edomite army on the day of Armageddon. After this China will become a Catholic monarchy.
Am I still a British Israelite? Yes and No. While I believe in the lost Israelite identity of the British I do not believe they are the birthright nation and company (commonwealth) of nations. I believe the birthright nation and commonwealth of nations to be Russia and the Slavic majority countries such as Poland. Does Britain have a role to play in prophecy? Yes they do as they represent the House of David and from this House may arise the Great Catholic Monarch called Henry the Lion to deliver Europe and the world. Besides the tribal identity of Ephraim with the Slavs, I continue to believe that Ephraim or Joseph represents the Church just as Judah represents the Synagogue no matter what ones y-dna happens to be. I continue to pray for the reunion of the stick (tree) of Joseph and the stick (tree) of Judah into one fellowship in unity but not uniformity.
Note: This is an area of speculative theology, history and science so one needs to keep an open mind and adjust ones understanding when new information is discovered.