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DNA and Surnames

The recent discussion of Irish surnames listed many sources of variation, while somewhat soft-pedaling all the complications introduced by anglicization. In my case the surname "Fallin" (dating back to a first immigrant to Virginia before 1671) was a mystery.  YDNA analysis solved that mystery by showing that, while it resembled (and was pronounced like) "Fallon," all my primary DNA connections were with people with "Phelan," "Whelan," and similar anglicized versions of Ó Faoláin.  That result, while it didn't provide an answer to why we left Ireland for Virginia (possible with a stopover in the West Indies), it did provide me with a positive link to a new Whalan "cousin" in South Australia with our closest common ancestor a mere 450 years back!  It may not work for everyone, but when it does, it's clear as day.

Jack Fallin

Walnut Creek, CA

jakff@astound.net

4 replies

That's quite interesting Jack

MartinCurley

It might be interesting, if possible, to look at the possibilities of the Royal Navy for reasons to be in the West Indies? Up to 40% of the British Arny across all regiments were formed from Irish soldiers -regular pay, adventure, esscape from a hard and relentless lifestyle for another with possible benefits?

Although Navy records are bot likely to list anyone the history of the navy in forming the British Empire in the 1600s and 1700s might provide a background, especially as Virginia was associated with large commercial concerns (in my opinion, more than other states at that time)

Seamus Crowe, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

I should also have written here about the use of DNA to go back beyond 4-6 generations of a tree (at-dna). In order to help others reading this posting

 As described above, using your DNA matches and the Leeds Method to identify groups from your tree, give indications of origins for different members and groups of your tree

The main thing for some is to have a haplogroup designation for your male and female lines, which you only get with y-dna and mt-dna (mitochondrial DNA from your mother) However, 23andMe DNA tests give this for free. Once this is gained then it can give indications of your direct male (y-dna) or direct female origins (mt-dna).

Seamus Crowe, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

Dear Seamus,

That is an important point to make.  In my case, I was able to find my way back through the Anglications of my surname through Y-dna.  My remote South Australian cousin and myself found ourselves have the same sub-"haplogroup" below the primary group "R1b."  23 and Me can get you that primary group - but not all the steps below it, for that we had to use FTDNA.  R1b is a primary haplogroup shared with a great many males with Irish roots.  It didn't arrive in Ireland until the late Bronze Age and somehow supplanted most of the previous, Neolithic, male haplogroups.  Arriving that late, we can't really share credit for Newgrange, Carrowkeel, etc.  However, we appear to have something of an adventurous past, because the R1b is said to have originated in the "Pontic Steppe" above the Black Sea, within a tribal group usually named the "Yamnaya," which gradually moved across Europe and somehow emerged as the dominant male haplogroup in Atlantic Europe, England/Scotland and Ireland.

Mt-dna will also track ancestors on your mother's side back through the mists of time, but it's far more difficult to use because of the western habit of having wives take up their husbands surname.  After a relatively few generations, the name usually becomes impossible to trace.

Jack - now a well-aged amateur

jakff@astound.net

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