Brian’s yDNA connects to hundreds of men in the Clan Donald yDNA
Project database (compare to Gary’s number of Muffley matches =
1). Brian has zero Rooney surname yDNA matches. Moria’s cousin Roger
Donald’s yDNA connects to no one in the Clan Donald Project, but rather has a
few close Scandinavian matches, as do other members of the yDNA “Donald-Six”
descendants of Alexander Donald (died in 1806 in South Carolina).
Brian’s closest matches are 64 of 67 STR (Short Tandem Repeats)
yDNA markers matches. Some of those appear in the Haplogroup R1a “Red-Black”
subgroup at http://dna-project.clan-donald-usa.org/tables.htm For
example, G. A. MacDonald, whose data appears atwww.ysearch.org under Code BX9BP, &
who has tested positive (= mutated from a prior value) on SNP marker Z283.
Brian’s data at Y-Search appears under Code 3PHX5. For each STR marker (label
top of page) in the Red-Black subgroup, the Modal (most frequently seen) values
near the top of the table represent the best guess for the pattern which might
have been seen in John MacDonald, First Lord of the Isles, who died in 1386.
Six centuries before Brian’s birth. Brian’s known Rooney ancestry reaches back
only a third of that distance. The Most Recent Common Ancestors for Brian
versus each of his 64 of 67 markers matches would have lived much closer to the
present time. Perhaps the 1600s. Brian has a value of 16 on the STR marker
DYS458, suggesting that Brian descends from Lord John himself, rather than from
John’s brother.
Some Ulster Scots reportedly migrated to Lurga in Kilbeagh Parish,
Mayo. Brian’s 5th great-grandfather Patrick Rooney
was in the 1856 Griffiths Valuation index for Upper Lurga, Kilbeagh Parish,
County Mayo, Ireland. In the vicinity then lived several McDonald
& McDonnell families. To date, no DNA or documentation has linked our
Rooney & these McDonald or McDonnell neighbors. Both of the latter surnames
are among Brian’s many yDNA matches in the Clan Donald yDNA Project database.
Patrick McDonald, who appears in the 1856 Griffiths for Lower Lurga, is in this
ancestral account: http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/McDONALD/2012-06/1340159789 This
write-up has many occurrences of the surname Moran. Winnie Moran was the wife
of our Patrick Rooney. There is considerable Rooney genealogy and history in a
My Heritage site tree by Brian’s Aunt Linda.
The ancestry of Patrick McDonald of Kilbeagh, Mayo, is said
to have been County Down. County Down also is reputed to be the origin place of
the surname O’Rooney (descendant of the champion). However, that coincidence
alone cannot convincingly account for Brian’s pattern of yDNA matches to
several other men. And we do not know at this point if neighbors Patrick
McDonald & Patrick Rooney of County Mayo were even genetic kin. Adjacent to
County Down is County Armagh, birthplace in 1820 of Henry Gillespie, whose
descendant Ian is a 64 of 67 markers match to Brian. See the Gillespie data at
Code 57TTS at Y-Search. “Most settlers in Lurga came from Northern Ireland”, according
to Linda. At the very least, the counties Down and Armagh warrant a closer look
in accounting for the some of the common ancestries with Brian.
Our assumption is that Patrick Rooney himself matched Brian’s
yDNA, and that a Donald-to-Rooney Non-Paternity Event did not subsequently
occur, as there do not seem to be intersections of migration routes that could
explain the patterns of matches. The Rooney-Gillespie Most Recent Common
Ancestor has an 88% chance of having lived within the past 11 generation,
according to the FTDNA calculator. We are probably not looking beyond about 4
or 5 generations back from Patrick Rooney. Maybe not earlier than the early
1600s. The Plantation of Ulster began in the early 1600s, and almost certainly
included substantial numbers of men bearing the Brian’s R1a profile from John
MacDonald, First Lord of the Isles. Seehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantation_of_Ulster
