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Birth Name:
Catherine Zeta Jones
Birth Place:
Swansea, Wales
What Race or Ethnicity?:
Welsh, Irish
The Welsh actress was born to an Irish mother and a Welsh father. She is named her maternal grandmother, Catherine Fair, and her paternal grandmother, Zeta Jones.
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she is very dark, but I believe she is irish and Welsh,because her parents looks much more white than her.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/06/13/article-1286353-0A02D4FD000005DC-755_468x594.jpg
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She is Irish and Welsh get over it people!
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I have to disagree, I think Catherine Zeta Jones does look of Welsh descent. Welsh/ Irish people are descendants of Celts, who were known for having very dark hair and sometimes dark skin. It is not uncommon to find the Mediterranean look in Wales, not only because of the influx of Italian immigration, but there is evidence to prove that the celts in south Wales are descendants of the Silures tribe, who were in fact from Northern Spain. I myself am Welsh with Welsh ancestry and have an olive complexion, this is not uncommon here. You only have to look at the likes of Tom Jones, Kelly Jones, Ryan Giggs and Gavin Henson, to name a few to realise that dark hair, eyes and skin are not unusual in Wales.
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that wasn’t the celts that had dark hair buddy, it was the indigenous Bretosn that mixed with ancient Celtic settlers from central Europe
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Forget of this obsolescent theory that celts came to England from Central Europe in La Tene period!
Proto-celtic (neolithic) settlers arrived to North-Western Europe from south at 2500 BC or even earler!
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True! My mum is 3/4 Irish, 1/4 Scottish and had pitch black hair, brown eyes and olive skin. She even looked the double of Catherine Zeta Jones when she was young. Same eye shape too (can’t see the lids).
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Your correct Kayleigh. Celts were nomdiac people. I’m a little of Scottish descent. They can have dark hair and olive skin. There were Iberiancelts in Spain & Portugual. They lived in a lot of places, even alway to Turkey. The Celts moved out from their original homeland in western France & southern Germany & into western & southeastern Europe. They also settled in northern Italy & the plains of central Anatolia. The name ” Celt” dates from the sixth centry B.C. when Greek sources used the term to denote tribes living around the Danube & Rhone rivers. People in France have a Celtic ancestry.
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Loads of Welsh, Irish and western English (Cornwall) people have this colouring. I do myself! My grandmother was even darker. I’ve traced my family a few 100 years–no one outside the British Isles/Ireland at all. The earliest people in these areas came from Iberia and northern France thousands of years ago, and there has been very little genetic input into the more remote areas since.
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I always thought that she and Sean Connery had Black Irish ancestry (a phenotype with origins coming from those who migrated to Ireland from the Iberian Peninsula thousands of years ago.) Geneticists have found that most of the DNA of those indigenous to the British Isles came from the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the last major ice age. No single later invasion (with perhaps the exception of the huge influx of forreign peoples which has occured since the 1960′s) has contributed more than 5%.
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sorry, i mean 200 thousand italians in preceding comment
PS.Wales on of the few regions in Europe witn one of the lowest level of migration for the last 4000 or more years!
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Mark Jordan you’re liar or not belong to history society!!!
Population in Wales before 1830 was about 800-900 thousand people.And there’s absolutely normal when population in Wales grew to 2 million in 1900.Such a big increase -It’s a common situation for all Brit.Islands and Europe generally,it’s not a migration,it is just high fertility of industrial society
you’re saying: 200 italians in South Wales in 1900!!!!!!?????
Mark you have sunstroked when you wrote this?
In this case halfmillion of modern Welsh people must be with italian surnames LOL))))))))))))
By the way,Jenkins is not Anglo-saxon surname,it Cornwall surname appears in Britain after Normands conquest as composit of early christianic (not anglo-saxon) name Ioan and flemish/french word ”kiin” what means ”son”.Thus normands registered native people
There’s a lot of darkhaired people in South Wales because of one of the early neolithic migrations from Iberia.Some Roman chronists in the beginning of AD described Silures as people, looks like Iberians.
i don’t know what does it means Zeta,but i’m goin’ to find out that.i’m sure Catherine doesn’t have italian heritage,she is 100 % Briton
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Welsh Historians certainly write a skewed history of Wales and bend the facts to promote their own nationalism. If you believed their history, Italians started arriving in South Wales in 1885, yet many Italian businesses are recorded from 1820. The massive amount of Italians and Germans that came to Glamorgan don’t show up on the census’ due to name changes (Jones), naturalisation and offspring being civically Welsh.
I said Fair was Anglo Saxon – Jenkins is an English name.
No population can increase by a muliple of 4 in 100 years without massive immigration. Especially in a society where children died at childbirth.
Zeta means ‘Little Girl” in Italian. Jones was a generic name given to foreignors by the local Welsh administrators, there in no getting away from that.
Catherine Zeta Jones is, in my opinion, as ethnically Italian and English. Only a full study of her geneology would confirm this.
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OK! In your mind:200 THOUSANDS Italians!!! came to Wales around 1850-1900 and most of them changed their surnames immediately???!!! Sorry man but it is a whopper! Where did you get this information? Real number of Italian immigrants in Wales were no more than just 1000-1500 about 1900 year and most of them worked in the coal mines and as a seamen on a ships
No,you said that Jenkins is Old English name. It’s not true,cause Old Eanglish it’s the same that Anglo-Saxon!
This surname is derivative from early Christian (Latin) name Ioannes ,more widespread in Wales, Cornwall,Devon and West Midlands. It’s earliest documented occurrence in Monmouthshire,Wales in the Domesday in XI century.There is no connection with Old English names.
Increase of population by a multiple of 4 in 100 years is characteristically situation for all Britain,not just for Wales. Because of high fertility and low mortality thanks to advances in medicine and healthcare.
“Zeta means “Little Girl” in Italian” – Lie again!!!
Name Jones derives from early medieval Latin name Ioannes,and you must know that Christianity,and this name respectively became common in Wales much earlier than in Eastern England ,and by the time of Eduard I,name Ioannes and derivatives from that were very common in all Christian Europe including Wales,so, your version that this name brought to Wales from England in Modern Era is absurd.
Your opinion about Italian heritage of Catherine is just your imagination ,it’s can never be confirmed
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If you are interested in a list of old english names for boys and girls try this one Old English Names
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Ok,Mark Jordan,in your mind 200 thousand Italians!!!! settled in Wales in XIX century,and all of them didn’t registered and immediately changed their names ???!!!! Sorry man but this is bullshit!
In fact real number of Italian immigrants in Wales by 1900 year was never more than 1000-1500 people and most of them worked as a seamen or miners.
You said that Jenkins is Old English surname,but Old English is the same Anglo-Saxon language.
In reality surname Jenkins (which very widespread in Wales,Cornwall,Devon and West Midlands) derives from early Christian (Latin) name Ioannes,and you must know that Christianity became common in Wales much earlier than in Eastern England,so respectively name Ioannes and derivatives were widespread in Wales long before Eduard I.For example surname Jenkins first documented in Monmouthshire in Doomsday book in XI century.
Increase of population by a multiple of 4 in 100 years is characteristically for England and Wales.because of advanced in medicine,health education.welfare work and other actions.i don’t say that there wasn’t immigration to Britain,but it was not decisive reason of increase of population there.
“”"Zeta means “Little Girl” in Italian”"” _Lie again!
What about surname Jones.By 1811-1841 year about 145,000 people named Jones were livin’ in Wales,more than in England! So,your posulate that surname Jones had brought to Wales just by immigrants is absurd!
Your opinion,that Catherine as ethically Italian is just your imagination which not based on any facts and can’t be confirmed.
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Why are some of you getting so upset. The simple answer is Migration. No matter how long ago it happened explains why it all. Saying a country doesn’t explain ethnicity and we really shouldn’t get angry when someone notices that someone doesn’t look like their fellow countryman. Their ancestors mixed in with the original countryman but their original DNA is still present and so what if we still see traces of it. If hundreds or more years didn’t irradicate it, how will getting mad change things?
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This is an interesting site, many people have negative and emotional things to say when it comes to this over talked about issue.
Come on. Why can’t she be Welsh and Irish? Why does she have to be anything other than what she is? Not that there’s anything wrong with it, but honestly, in the times we live in, we really dont have to be embarassed to admit anything, because as the person stated at the top of the post, it is not the 1940s anymore.
Now back to the issue of her heritage, many Irish and Welsh have the same features, and as for wether or not that they have been invaded by these many eastern invadors, is left up to the historians, archeologists and scientists. The rest belongs to time.
If we stopped bothering ourselves with that age old question about guessing someone is who they are by looking at them, we’re putting them into a tired stereotype. Enough of it, isn’t anyone bored yet talking about the same thing?
She is what she is, why not let her just embrace that and not have to feel like she needs to be forced to say otherwise?
Does it offend you if she isn’t black, asian, or any other race for that matter?
There is no shame to be anything than what you are-you can be any race and be proud.
She is Welsh and Irish. Period.
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well articulated!
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