Guys, don`t forget masses of Scottish mercenaries who visited Poland on various occasions, mostly with invading armies. Where do our Polish red-haired types come from?
Actually, no, it's probably vice versa: red hair existed in Eastern Europe and turkic tribes long before Scot migration in the 16th Century, and actually could have migrated with the first Celtic tribes to Gaul and the British Isles.
Ok, here are some quick links and excerpts (I couldn't find my other links at the moment, but these will do):
khazaria.com/khazar-history.html
"Origins. The Khazars were a Turkic people who originated in Central Asia. The early Turkic tribes were quite diverse, although it is believed that reddish hair was predominant among them prior to the Mongol conquests.
geographia.com/russia/rushis02.htm
"The early history of Russia, like those of many countries, is one of migrating peoples and ancient kingdoms. In fact, early Russia was not exactly "Russia," but a collection of cities that gradually coalesced into an empire. I n the early part of the ninth century, as part of the same great movement that brough the Danes to England and the Norsemen to Western Europe, a Scandanavian people known as the Varangians crossed the Baltic Sea and landed in Eastern Europe."
redheads.ie/Origins-Red-Hair.htm
"Red hair is often assumed to have emerged with the Celts, but the gene for redheadedness existed long before the Celts came into being, at the start of the first millennium BC around the headwaters of the Rhine, the Rhone and the Danube. One theory is that red hair arrived in Europe with the Iranic-speaking steppe tribes who lived the areas north of and around the Black Sea from 4,000 years ago to the 6th century. Today, there is a surprising number of redheads in Afghanistan, Iran and the Urals, as well as in Azerbaijan and Georgia. It is possible that this "Iranic" ginger trait was transferred to other populations, including the Celts, whose original hair color was various shades of brown and black in general."
