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Name Variants,
Non-paternal events and name changes
The
Eoganacht surnames are being studied through the use of Y-DNA tests. The YDNA
tests only the male lineage. The number of matching markers indicates the closeness of the
genetic relationship between two families in genealogical time and the approximate time
that the families diverged can be estimated. The results for the 67 markers are
the most enlightening but 25 or 37 markers can place individuals in a lineage.
There are numerous reasons why Eoganacht
surnames have base haplotypes different than those expected from a family's
cultural history. The reasons for the different surnames primarily are:
I want to share with each of
you some very interesting information that Susan Hedeen, a M222
researcher, has provided us regarding the diversity of surnames
and base haplotypes. It explains a great deal of why so many
Eoganachts have different yDNA base haplotypes than would be
expected from the family cultural history.
According to Susan Hedeen:
- Hereditary surname usage at the earliest began
about 1050; however, not everyone was on board with that for at
least a couple of hundred years. Additionally in the beginning,
they rarely stuck for more than 2 generations before they changed.
That's just the start. Additionally many if not most of the famous
Irish surnames were actually associated with a sept or a tribe who's
leader may have gone by a particular "tag" and therefore those
with-in that sept often adopted the tag in honor of. There are
various and numerous origins of the same Anglicized surnames today.
Surname usage has been an ever evolving thing...the Gaelic names
went through many different conventions and evolutions followed by
Anglicization and standardization and registration of those surnames
later. To muddy it up more, migrations and displacements, name
changes and assumptions...
Another misconception, particularly in DNA is that it is assumed
that certain tribes and septs had homogenous DNA. They did not.
There may be a majority family, however these people even after
Christianity kept concubines, were polygamous previous...both
genders and it was normal and accepted...fostered out their children
to other allied tribes and many other customs which are foreign to
us but perfectly normal in their societies ...just like raiding one
another's cattle, blood feuds among kissing cousins to find a common
enemy the next day to kiss again and make up.
References:
"...numerous
influences upon surnames inclusive of the Ango-Norman invasions and
settlement beginning 1169 and the Anglicization of surnames
occurring in the 17th and 18th century CE; in
more recent times the registration of surnames in Ireland during the
mid 1800s (Santry, Claire 2012)
http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/niall-of-the-nine-hostages.html).
Non-paternal events:
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Adoption, stepchildren or
other similar reason for diversity in a surname.
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Deliberate name changes:
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Adopting a
Eoganacht surname when surnames were being adopted in 1000's AD.
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Taking the surname of a dominant family in order to
belong or enjoy protection provided by the surname: "It seems many males picked surnames or
were essentially given surnames from the estate on which they lived and
worked, but they had no recent relative status to the dominant family owning
the estates. So this cluster analysis is alive and well and could be
applied to a popular surname like Sullivan", according to Dr. Ken Nordvedt.
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Changing a surname to obscure origin: Irish
descendants may have changed their surname in order to assimilate into the
U.S. in order to avoid persecution from being Catholic and/or Irish.
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Additional non-Sullivan
surname matches likely occurred prior to the adoption of surnames in Ireland
(900-1100 AD). Families who lived in the same area without surnames
may have adopted surnames when surnames became necessary/required/prevalent
based on their current family group rather than the family group based on
their DNA origins.
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"Result of female
inheritance in which new surnames could
be introduced could be introduced within a Clan noted in "Pursuit of the
Heiress: Aristocratic Marriages in Ireland 1740-1840 by APW Malcomson.
Malcomson talks about a practice that was common in the 1700s called cadet
inheritance. Irish women could hold land in their own right, they
could pass it down to the second son in the family (first son always got
the father's land and title) provided the second son assumed his mother's
family name (i.e., his maternal grandfather's family name). So a genetic
second-born son of a Sullivan-Driscoll marriage, for example, might end up a
Driscoll. This may not have happened frequently, but is another route by
which "odd" non Sullivan surnames wind up being close matches, and why
"Sullivans" end up in "non Sullivan" surname clusters." Marge Sullivan
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In the 8th century, after winning victories against other
tribes, they would often take over their lands, their names and even their
saints according to Professor Lyndon as written by
Professor
Donnchadh Ó Corráin in his paper "Nationality
and Kingship in Pre-Norman Ireland":
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After this Brecrigi disappear from history. They were totally
absorbed by Cenél Maine, a rising branch of Uí Néill who invented a
pseudo-eponym for them, Breccán mac Maine, and from the grandson of this
Breccán the new ruling family of Brecrigi is said to descend. Not
only were the lands of lesser peoples appropriated but the conquerors
frequently took over their names and even their tribal saints.
Name variants within a
surname:
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