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Elliott (And Border Reivers) DNA Project News (May 5, 2005)

Hello Elliotts, Border Reivers & Other Friends,

Since our last bulletin on February 5th, we have received:

  • 1-12 marker results for 1 Cresswell, 1 Duckworth, 11 Elliotts, 1 Ellwood, 1 Gowland, 1 Hall, 1 Heron, 1 Hume, 1 Irwin, 2 Irvines, 1 Kerr, 1 Laidlaw, 1 Robson, 1 Shortridge and 1 Witherington - 26 new DNA profiles altogether.
  • 13-25 marker results for 1 Armstrong, 1 Carruthers, 1 Cook, 18 Elliotts, 2 Ellwoods, 1 Erwin, 2 Halls, 1 Heron, 1 Irvine, 1 Kerr, 1 Laidlaw, 1 Neely, 1 Telford and 2 Witheringtons.
  • 26-27 marker results for 1 Laidlaw, 1 Neely, 2 Elliotts and 1 Ellwood. 
  • mtDNA results for 1 Laidlaw.
  • SNP Test results for 1 Cook (P25 positive for R1b) and 1 Witherington (P19 positive for Haplogroup I).

 

(A copy of our complete Y- DNA results is attached.)

 

We now have 123 official participants, which puts the Elliott (And Border Reivers) DNA Project at Number 17 of the more than 1,700 Family Tree DNA Surname and Geographical Projects.  Of these, 111 participants have so far returned their kits.  Our most recent additions include:

  • 1 Cresswell (a Border family with roots in Renfrewshire)
  • 1 Duckworth (a family from Lancashire)
  • 8 Elliotts
  • 1 Ellwood
  • 1 Gowland (another Border family with roots in Durham and Northumberland)
  • 1 Irwin
  • 1 Irvine
  • 1 Heron
  • 1 Johnston
  • 1 Kerr
  • 1 Milburn
  • 1 Robson
  • 1 Shortridge
  • 1 Stewart

 

We have added DNA Results & Genealogy web pages dedicated to the Hall and the Irvine/Irving clans.   These web pages may be accessed from the "Border Reiver DNA By Surname" web page ( http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gallgaedhil/dna_by_surname.htm ) by clicking on the "Project" link for "Hall" or " Irvine ".   The actual URLs for these new pages are:

 

We will shortly create more web pages dedicated to other clans for which we have accumulated multiple DNA results and genealogies - such as Carruthers, Rutherford, Kerr (or Carr), Witherington and Heron.

 

We have also added more families and DNA profiles to the overall Border Reiver DNA database, bringing the total number of profiles to 1,016, and the total number of familes to 98.  Our new Border families include:

  • Allison (a Lanarkshire family descended from the MacAlisters of Loup, also commonly found in Northern England since Border Reiver times, frequently under the name Ellison)
  • Ballantyne (also known as Bannatyne, listed as a Border family at the leading Border Reiver web site http://www.borderreivers.co.uk/index.html )
  • Crawford (a common surname in southwestern Scotland and in Ulster)
  • Cresswell (also listed as a Border family at http://www.borderreivers.co.uk/index.html )
  • Gowland (based on Gow, which has been listed as a Border family on various web sites)
  • Harden (a Border Reiver clan, listed in "The Steel Bonnets")
  • MacLellan (premier family of Kirkcudbright in Border Reiver times, of Gall-Gaedhil descent, involved in the Border Wars, feuds with the Douglases, and the general mayhem of the era)
  • McCulloch (another Gall-Gaedhil family of Wigtownshire, whose members include "Cutler" McCulloch, who raided the Isle of Man for booty circa 1500, and another clansman who was executed for murdering a Gordon in a dispute over the ownership of Cardoness Castle)
  • Murray (a prominent Scottish family, one of whose members was immortalized in a Border Ballad about the "Outlaw Murray")
  • Orr (a common surname in southern Scotland, with roots in Ayr and Renfrewshire, but also appearing in Kirkcudbright and Selkirk.  An Orr was "cursed" by authorities during a famine in the 1500's for price-gouging in the grain market - also common in Ulster, and the progenitors of the great Bobby Orr)
  • Rayburn (a reiver surname that appears in James Hogg's Border Ballad "Lock The Door Lariston", about Jock Elliot of Lariston.  Progenitors of Sam Rayburn, mentor to Lyndon Johnson)
  • Stewart (the famous royal family of Scotland, heavily involved in the Border Wars - e.g., James IV dying alongside the Elliots at Flodden - as well as in persecuting the reivers.  It was James V who laid the trap to capture Johnnie Armstrong.  Please note, however, that we have selected just a subset from the vast Stewart DNA sample, consisting only of those who explicitly profess British origins.)

 

The much enhanced Border Reiver DNA By Surname web page may be found at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gallgaedhil/dna_by_surname.htm

 

The entire Border Reiver DNA database is now available to you as an Excel spreadsheet.  You may access this spreadsheet from the link labeled "Border Reiver DNA Results (Excel spreadsheet)" on the project home page at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gallgaedhil/elliott_border_reivers_dna.htm - or you may access it directly at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gallgaedhil/Border_Reiver_DNA_Results.xls .

 

We have also revised our Border Reiver "Deep Ancestry" web page at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gallgaedhil/border_reiver_deep_ancestry.htm - and have updated our information about DNA marker mutation rates at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gallgaedhil/YHRD_mutation_rates.html

 

We have made the following interesting discoveries about our DNA profiles.  If you need a refresher, or even a first time orientation, in the subject of Y chromosome DNA genealogy, please visit the Family Tree DNA web site and read some of the explanatory web pages there ( http://www.familytreedna.com ):

 

   The Elliotts

  • We have 53 Elliotts, Eliots and Ellwoods in our group, 47 of whom have returned their kits, and 44 of whom have gotten their DNA results.  (Please send in your kit if you still have it out, or contact us if you have had any problems in getting your kit to us.)
  • One pair of Elliott participants share Y-DNA results whose closest match in the Family Tree Haplogroup database belongs to Haplogroup P, which occurs primarily in Central and Southern Asia.  The closest match in the worldwide Y-DNA database YHRD falls in Iran.  We suspect that these two participants, who are an exact match on 25 markers, may be descended from the Sarmatian troops who patroled Hadrian Wall during the Roman Era.
  • Another pair of Elliott participants have Y-DNA results whose closest match at Family Tree is with Haplogroup C, which also occurs primarily in Central and Southern Asia - and was, in fact, the haplogroup to which Genghis Khan belonged.  These Elliotts may also be descended from Sarmatian troops.  They are also most likely related to one another, even though their DNA results are not exactly the same.  One of these participants has volunteered to take a SNP test to validate or disprove membership in Haplogroup C, and the results are stll pending.
  • We have one Elliott each who belongs to Haplogroups I1a, I1c and R1a.  These Elliotts are not patrilineally related to our other Elliotts, or to each other, but each of them may be descended from Normans or Norse Vikings.
  • 37 out of the 44 Elliotts posted so far belong to haplogroup R1b, which is the most common haplogroup in Western Europe.
  • We have three Elliotts who share the same relatively uncommon 25 marker Y-DNA results (in haplogroup R1b).  Two of them are ancestrally from Enniskillen, Fermanagh, while the third lists his ancestry only as "Scotland".   The two Elliotts from Fermanagh are clearly related along the paternal line.  But, by a remarkable coincidence, these two participants have already established that they are also descended, on their father's sides, from two Elliott sisters, both from Fermanagh.  One of these participants has told me that these sisters may actually have married brothers who were also named Elliott, and that's where the shared paternal ancestry may have arisen.
  • 17 of the 44 Elliott DNA results posted are perfect Western Atlantic Modal Haplotypes, and at least 4 others are only 1 step away from also being WAMH.  The Western Atlantic Modal Haplotype, which belongs to haplogroup R1b, is the most common Y-DNA signature in Western Europe.  It is especially common among the Basques, the Welsh and the people of Western Ireland.   The fact that so many of the Elliotts have this signature suggests that the mainstream of the Elliott family may be of British Celtic origin.
  • The Western Atlantic Modal Haplotype group includes two individuals descended from an 18th century British Elliott rumored to have been a man of means, one descended from a well-to-do family in Durham, another Elliott who, according to family legend, is descended from Martin Elliot of Braidley, a Canadian Elliott who is a 4th cousin of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, and many other Elliotts of Scottish, English and Scots-Irish descent.
  • Within the Western Atlantic Modal Haplotype group, we have identified two 25 marker DNA signatures that are shared by five Elliotts apiece.  15 of the WAMH Elliotts have tested to at least 25 markers, and virtually all of them are within 3 steps of matching one of these two signatures.  These signatures are 13-24-14-11-11-14-12-12-12-13-13-29-17-9-9-11-11-25-15-19-29-15-15-17-17 and  is 13-24-14-11-11-14-12-12-12-13-13-29-18-9-9-11-11-25-15-19-29-15-15-17-17.  The family with the largest number of close matches in the Ysearch database to either of these haplotypes - besides the Elliotts and the Ellwoods - are the Glendennings.  Since the Glendennings (and the Clendennins and other variants) also originated in the Scottish Borders, we suspect a possible ancestral relationship between the two families.
  • Of our three Ellwood participants, two  - one a Briton with Cumbrian roots, and the other a Scots-Irish American - have 25 marker signatures identical to the most common WAMH signatures among the Elliotts.  This very strongly suggests that the Ellwoods and Elliotts are essentially branches of the same family - both descended from the Elewald or Elwald family that appeared in Cumberland in the 13th century.  Those Elwalds are also most likely the ancestors of Robert Elwald, acknowledged by many to be the first chief of the Elliott Clan.
  • There are other clusters of Elliott results that also belong to haplogroup R1b.  Some of these may or may not be related to the Elliott mainstream, but those in each of these clusters are probably related to one another.  For instance, there is one group of three or four that share the same DYS393 value of 14, which is rare.  Two of these participants have Pennsylvania roots, and are likely to be related.  Another two from southwestern Donegal share a rare combination of marker values, including the rare DYS393 value of 12, and these are also most likely related.
  • To review our Elliott/Eliot/Ellwood DNA Results, please visit this URL: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gallgaedhil/haplo_elliotts.htm

       

The Armstrongs

  • We have identified an Armstrong in the FTDNA customer database whose 12 marker haplotype exactly matches one of our Eliot participants.  This Armstrong is not in Ysearch, so he is new to us, and we are attempting to contact him to obtain his genealogical info.
  • The latest Armstrong to be tested by the Border Reiver DNA Project appears to belong to the J2 haplogroup.  Whit Athey's Y Haplogroup Predictor has given the highest probability to haplogroup J2 for this Armstrong's full 25 marker results, and his closest match in Ysearch is also a J2.  Hence, we have changed his tentative haplogroup estimate to J2.
  • We have identified the Armstrong Modal Haplotype.  On a 12 marker level, it is - like the Elliott Modal Haplotype - identical to the Western Atlantic Modal Haplotype.  Half of all Armstrongs gathered so far share that 12 marker haplotype.  At 25 markers, the Armstrong Modal Haplotype clearly diverges from the typical Elliott results.  Nonetheless, it does appear that the Elliotts and the Armstrongs come from the same stock, and are probably both descended from British Celts.
  • The Armstrong Modal Haplotype at 25 markers is 13-24-14-11-11-14-12-12-12-13-13-29-19-10-10-11-11-23-15-19-32-15-15-17-17.  Almost all of the 25 marker haplotypes in the Ysearch database that come within 3 steps of this haplotype belong to Armstrongs.  Included among this group is a British Armstrong who can cite sources claiming his descent from Johnnie Armstrong of Gilnockie.
  • To review our Armstrong DNA Results, please visit this URL: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gallgaedhil/haplo_armstrongs.htm

  

The Irvines & Irvings

  • All but one of the Irvines, Irwins, Erwins, Ervins and Irvings recruited so far belong to the most common European haplogroup, R1b.
  • About two-thirds of these haplotypes fall within 1 step of the 12 marker Irvine Modal Haplotype, which is 13-24-14-11-11-15-12-12-12-13-13-29.  This haplotype is 1 step removed from the Western Atlantic Modal Haplotype, which typifies both the Armstrongs and the Elliotts.  The Irvines and Irvings could easily be of British Celtic origin, but the geographical distribution for the Irvine/Irving haplotypes has a slightly more Nordic or "Frisian" tinge than the Western Atlantic Modal Haplotype.  This suggests that an Anglo-Saxon or Danish origin is also possible.
  • The 25 marker Irvine or Irving Modal Haplotype is 13-24-14-11-11-15-12-12-12-13-13-29-17-9-10-11-11-25-15-20-30-15-16-17-17.  Nearly all of the 25 marker haplotypes in Ysearch that come within 1 step of this one belong to an Irvine, an Ervin, an Irwin or an Irving.  This strongly suggests that the different variations of the clan name do not necessarily signify different families, and that all variations most likely share a common ancestor.
  • We have identified a new Irwin in the FTDNA customer database whose 12 marker haplotype exactly matches at least one of our Irvine participants.  This haplotype is apparently not in Ysearch, but we have the individual's e-mail address and will attempt to contact him soon.
  • We have added two Irvine haplotypes, one from the Shetland Isles project and the other an Orkney Islander recruited by Kent Irvine, to our database.  These haplotypes are both R1b, and are not at all dissimilar.   They are also close enough to the Irving/Irving group of Scots-Irish and Borders stock to suggest a shared origin, however distant.
  • We have recently posted Border Reiver DNA Project notices on the Erwin, Ervin, Irwin and Irvine Message Boards at Genforum (we had previously posted one only on the Irving Message Board), and eagerly await new inquiries.

 

The Halls

  • We only have about 10 Halls of probable Anglo-Scottish Border stock so far, some of them official participants, and some of them drawn from Ysearch.
  • One of our official Hall participants has a very rare DNA signature which most likely belongs to a subclade of the superhaplogroup E.  The closest matches in FTDNA and YHRD, respectively, are with a French Ashkenazi and a Sicilian, which is consistent the E3b haplogroup, common in the Mediterranean.  This haplotype may have come to Britain with Mediterranean traders or Roman troops and settlers.
  • We also have a Hall who apparently belongs to haplogroup J2, which could suggest a Roman origin as well.
  • 70 percent of the British Hall haplotypes are R1b, which is most likely the modal haplogroup for the family.   The actual haplotypes are as yet too various for us to suggest a modal signature, but the geographical distributions of these haplotypes are consistent with either a Celtic, Anglo-Saxon or even a Nordic or Norman origin.
  • We have recently posted a Border Reiver DNA Project notice on the Hall Message Board at Genforum, and look forward to receiving inquiries.

 

The Witheringtons & Wetheringtons 

  • We have three Witherington or Wetherington participants.  Two of them are exact matches on 25 markers, and the third is a 22/25 match with the other two.
  • We have identified another Witherington in the FTDNA customer database whose 25 marker haplotype exactly matches two of our Witherington participants.  This haplotype is apparently not yet in Ysearch, but we have the individual's e-mail address and will attempt to contact him soon.
  • The Witherington DNA signature is remarkably consistent.  3 out of 4 exhibit the same 25 marker haplotype, which is 14-22-14-10-15-15-11-14-12-12-11-29-16-8-9-8-23-16-20-28-12-14-15-16.   This haplotype belongs to haplogroup I1a, and suggests Anglo-Saxon descent.  That is entirely consistent with the English origin of the family, and with the derivation of the family name.

 

The Carruthers & Rutherfords

  • We have four Carruthers participants, and are currently negotiating to get a fifth to join us.
  • We have also acquired DNA profiles from Ysearch for a Scottish/Scots-Irish family called Crothers, which is a variation of Carruthers.
  • The Crothers all belong to haplogroup I1a, and resemble a single Irvine haplotype which is also I1a, but not any of our Carruthers.
  • Most of our Carruthers participants are R1b, but one is an I1b, and all the haplotypes are pretty different.  We need more info to determine what the genetic mainstream of the family is.
  • We also have four Rutherfords, all of which are R1b, but each quite different from the rest.
  • The co-administrator of our project, David B. Strong, has detected an affinity between the Carruthers and the Rutherfords, based on the similarity of their names and on their shared identity as septs of Clan Bruce.  He has grouped their data together on this web page, with various additional links pertaining to Carruthers and Rutherford clan history: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~donegalstrongs/clanbruce.htm

 

The Carrs & Kerrs

  • Our Carr and Kerr DNA profiles are all R1b so far, but are as yet strongly various.
  • We are still awaiting kits from Donal Carr and Harold Kerr, and we hope you gentlemen will send them in soon.  We need your DNA profiles to make sense of the clan!
  • We have been working closely with a former Border Reiver participant, John Carr, who has taken over a previously existing Carr project and is working on his own to identify other DNA profiles of the Carr clan.

 

The Weirs

 

If we have not mentioned your family specifically, please don't feel slighted.  We are working to identify matches for all of you, and to recruit new members from your clans.

 

We are also considering these other families for imminent inclusion in the Border Reiver DNA database:

  • Burrell (a Border family that had altercations with the Reivers)
  • Eure (a noble family active in Border Reiver times)
  • Hamilton (another very prominent Southern Scottish family)
  • Lisle (another Border Reiver family active in the 16th century, Sir William Lisle in particular)
  • Wilkinson (a Border Reiver family listed by George Macdonald Fraser in "The Steel Bonnets")

 

Also, just for fun, I thought I would send you all the link to some web pages about a BBC TV show that ran from 1968 to 1970, and was called "The Borderers".  The plot summaries are quite amusing.  Many mentions of the brave, upstanding Kerrs of Cessford, attempting to control the unruly "outlaws of Liddesdale" (AKA Elliotts and Armstrongs).  I had never heard of it, but it seems to have been the British equivalent of an American "Wild West" episodic drama, like "Bonanza" or "Gunsmoke", wherein various characters learn the value of wisdom and the wages of sin in parlous times.  (If any of the Britons in our group have ever seen this show, and remember it, please let me know what it was like to watch.  It couldn't have been that bad, as it had Michael Gambon - of "Singing Detective" and " Gosford Park " fame - in the role of a young Kerr scion.)

 

The URL for this amusing Blast From The Past is: http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-25382/

 

As always, the main link for our own web site is:  http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gallgaedhil/elliott_border_reivers_dna.htm

 

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns about any of the foregoing material.

 

James V. Elliott

Group Administrator

Elliott (And Border Reivers) DNA Project