How to Participate, the Scots-Irish DNA project

Ouachita Mountains, Arkansas

It is easy to participate in the Scots-Irish DNA project.  The project's home is with Family Tree DNA of Houston, Texas.  It is a Y chromosome project and the goals are to assist participants with their genealogy, family history, and to locate kinfolk that remained in Ireland and Scotland and to find the geographic point of origin of the family.

Scots-Irish immigrant ship 1762

The Scots-Irish DNA project uses the Y chromosome paternal test. The Y chromosome is only carried by men and is handed down from father to son.  This makes it a powerful tool for paternal line research.  While only men carry the Y chromosome, both men and women participate in the project.

For a male who is in a direct paternal line of a Scots-Irish ancestor the process is easy; join the project, order the test and await the results.  An example: a man named Campbell is a direct paternal descendant from an immigrant from Ireland to the Colonies in 1730.  His Y chromosome test will reveal his related Campbell family branches, in Ireland, Scotland, and in the Diaspora. 

 

For women, and men who are researching a non direct paternal line, it is a little more complex.  Both groups need to do an autosomal DNA test to locate a male relation that is in a direct paternal line of the family they wish to research.  When one is located, that male can proxy test and provide the Y chromosome needed to research that line.  The autosomal test is used to confirm kinship with that paternal line.

An example:  A man wanted to research his father's mother's father's family.  While he carries their autosomal DNA, he does not carry their Y chromosome.  He did the autosomal DNA test, located a female cousin of that line, he then had her brother do the Y chromosome test and in this manner obtained the needed Y chromosome to research the paternal line of that family.

To join the Scots-Irish DNA project one goes to the project's page and asked permission to join.  The project is limited to true Scots-Irish families so a note stating that the participant is 'Scots-Irish' is required.

For women and men who are researching non direct paternal lines, they will do the autosomal test first; locate a male of direct paternal descent of the family they are researching, have him do a proxy Y chromosome test, then join the Scots-Irish project using that Y chromosome results.

There is a stereotype of all Scots-Irish being descendants of Ulster Scots that in turn were descendants of Lowland Scots who settled in Ulster during the Ulster Plantation in the seventeenth century.  It is true that many were, it is also true that many families that were Scots-Irish have other origins.  As many as 35% of the Scots-Irish are of Highland Scots ancestry, usually from mid and northern Argyll or Lennox.  There two areas in the Highlands were influenced by the reformed church movement in Scotland at an early date and also had migration to the north of Ireland beginning in the 1500s and continuing into the 1600s.  Two of the most numerous 'Scots-Irish' surnames are Campbell and MacDonald, both of Highland Scots origin. 

Other families also became Scots-Irish.  In east Donegal and in the Bann valley area, there was many native Irish families that converted to the reformed church and later the Presbyterian faith, and also were part of the Ulster migration to the New World in the 1700s. 

There were also a number of Welsh and English families that were living in Ireland and participated in the Ulster Migration and that became part of the Scots-Irish society in the Colonies.  In the Colonies the process continued, with Platt Deutsch, American Indian, and others, marrying into and became allied to and part of the Scots-Irish community here.

While most Scots-Irish came from the nine counties that make up the province of Ulster in the north of Ireland, some Scots-Irish came from other parts of Ireland.  By the 1700s there were families of Scottish origin living in many parts of Ireland and some Scots-Irish have ancestors that migrated to the Colonies from Mayo, Sligo, Dublin, Cork, etc. 

The criteria we use at the Scots-Irish DNA project is, does your family consider themselves 'Scots-Irish.'   One of the goals of the project is to collect data on the origins of the Scots-Irish and to add to the information we already have on them.   Most of the families that are participating are 'Ulster Scots'  and have ancestors from Ulster that immigrated to the Colonies in the 1700s, but as the project grows we are getting families that originate from other parts of Ireland who are very much Scots-Irish.

To join the project:  Scots-Irish DNA Project

Scots-Irish DNA Project results:  Results 

Scots-Irish DNA Project Update 2 Jan 2016

'Young Frontiersman' by H. David Wright

The Scots-Irish DNA project has reached 1,000 participating families.  This list below shows families participating in the Scots-Irish DNA project.  It is NOT a comprehensive list of all Scots-Irish surnames; it is a list of those Scots-Irish families that are participating to date in the Scots-Irish DNA project.

 

The families participating show very typical Scots-Irish surnames.  The surnames originate from around Scotland, but the majority of the families are from the western Lowlands and the southwest Highlands. The majority of the haplogroups (circa 86%) show most Scots-Irish are the descendants of the Cumbric and Gaelic Celtic people of southern and western Scotland, with about 10% being of Norse or Norman ancestry. 

 

The majority of the Lowland surnames continue to be from Ayrshire, Wigtown, Kirkcubright, Dumfries, Lanark, and Renfrew (using pre 1975 nomenclature).   Many of the families participating in the project are descendants of the first wave of Scottish settlers in Ireland and the surnames of Cunningham, Hamilton, Stewart, Montgomery, Graham, etc., are well represented.   

 

The Highland families are from the southern Hebrides, Argyll, Lennox, and Dumbartonshire.  Two Highland clans that sent many families to Ireland in the mid to late 1500s are Clann Dhónaill and Clann Chaimbeul and both are well represented in the Scots-Irish DNA project participants. Those surnames associated with Clann Dhónaill tend to be from County Antrim and northeast Ulster in general and those associated with Clann Chaimbeul are usually from west Ulster, from Donegal, Tyrone, and Londonderry.

 

While most Scots-Irish families are of 'Ulster Scots'  ancestry and are from one of the nine counties of Ulster; Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone, in  Northern Ireland and Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan, in the Republic of Ireland.  However, there are a number of Scots-Irish families from other parts of Ireland such as County Mayo, Sligo, from urban areas such as Cork, Galway, and Dublin.  Most of these families migrated to the New World in the 1700s and became what we now call the Scots-Irish and self identify themselves as being Scots-Irish.   

 

The Scots-Irish DNA project is run through Family Tree DNA.  The goals are to help Scots-Irish families in the Diaspora re-establish contact with their kinspeople in Ireland and Scotland, and to confirm genealogies and recover lost family history using DNA testing.

 

Surnames that have multiple listings indicate the number of families with that surname that have joined the project.   

To view, click on a page and this will bring that page up in a larger format. 

To view the DNA results, visit the Scots-Irish DNA project results page.

All families that identify themselves as Scots-Irish are welcomed participate in the project:  Join Scots-Irish DNA project.

Scots Irish Surnames

Below is a list of families participating in the Scots-Irish DNA Project as of November 2015.  There are now over 900 participating families. 

 

The surnames are very typically 'Scots-Irish.'   The Lowland Scottish names draw very heavily from the western seaboard counties of the Lowlands, with many families from Ayrshire, Wigtown, Kirkcudbright, and Renfrew (using the older county names).   Most of the Lowland Scottish families migrated to Ireland post 1609.  

 

Many of the surnames, about 35% are of  Highland Scots ancestry.  The majority of these are from mid Argyll, Lennox, and the southern Hebrides.  Many of the Highland families migrated to Ireland in the mid to late 1500s. Mid Argyll and Lennox were areas influenced by the Reformed faith and this fact influenced their relationship with the Lowland Scots migrating to Ireland in the 1600s.

 

There are several native Irish families that became Scots-Irish, most of these were from the Bann valley and had converted to the Reformed faith or to the Establish Church by the late 1600s.   

 

The deep ancestry of these Scots-Irish families reveal that a large majority of them descend from the indigenous Celtic tribes of Scotland, over 84%, while the Norse and Norman origins coming in at about 10%. 

 

The Scots-Irish DNA Project is open to families of Scots-Irish ancestry.  The project has several goals, including reconnecting Scots-Irish in the Diaspora with their families that remained behind in Ireland.  Another goal is to locate a family's point of origin in Scotland and recover lost or forgotten family history.  

 

Multiple listings of a surname indicate the number of families with that surname participating.  You will see a lot of Highlanders with Campbell and MacDonald the two most numerous.  Several of the participating families are descended from famous Scots-Irish men, such as David Crockett (who turned about to be from Ayrshire ancestry, not Huguenot as often report in older history books).

Families interested in participating can do so by contacting the Scots-Irish DNA Project.

Click on a page to enlarge:

Scots-Irish, Genetically Speaking

The Scots-Irish were descendants of Scottish settlers in Ireland.  Many of these Scottish settlers were in turn descendants of Lowland Scots that settled in Ulster circa 1609 to the early 1700s.  Others were descendants of Highland Scots from Argyll, the southern Hebrides, and Lennox, that settled in Ulster during the 1500s.  Both of these groups in turn were the descendants of the various Celtic groups indigenous to what is now Scotland.  Recent DNA testing has revealed that the dominated DNA haplogroups of the Scots-Irish are R-M222 and R-L21.  Below are illustrations that show the geographic locations of these two haplogroups.

map showing highest concentration of R-M222

maps showing highest concentration of R-L21

Scots-Irish DNA Project Update 13 August 2014

442 families are now participating in the Scots-Irish DNA project and the project is growing at a rapid pace.  We have enough DNA results to begin analysis of the group.  As expected, the Celtic haplogroups dominate, with R-M222 and R-L21 the largest two elements in the R1b Celtic group.  I haplogroups are running around 11% of total, which is also expected for men with origins in the Lowlands of Scotland and west Highlands.  One family of note, descendants of David Crockett are participating in the project and appear to be Norse in paternal ancestry.

New Haplogroup Designations

Family Tree has released their new haplogroup designations.  However, there has been some issues with this release that are still being sorted out.  Participants in the Scots-Irish DNA project are asked to be patient while Family Tree corrects the issues.  You might see your kit in the results move around as these corrections are made. 

Ultimately, the new haplogroups will contribute to our ability to fix a point of origin of families in the project.  The geneticists are uncovering more SNPs which in time will have a geographic link.

The Scots-Irish DNA Project

The Scots-Irish DNA project is open to men that have done Y chromosome paternal DNA testing with Family Tree labs.  To join go to your Projects link on your Family Tree page and tick the Scots-Irish project when it comes up. 

If your surname does not appear in the list of Scots-Irish surnames in the project, just send a note to the project administrators. 

The project will assist Scots-Irish families with genealogy and family history research.  The project is open only to men of Scots-Irish ancestry.

You may also use the link below to join the project.


LINK:  The Scots-Irish DNA Project