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Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2005-04 > 1114561159


From: "Daniel Jenkins" <>
Subject: RE: [DNA] DNA shows Celtic hero Somerled's Viking roots
Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 00:19:19 +0000
In-Reply-To: <246baaff05042610122e1a9f18@mail.gmail.com>


I will be willing to bet that there are more people on the planet named
Jenkins then all the desc's of Somerled, Khan and Charlamaine added
together.

Dan Jenkins

>From: Havelock Vetinari <>
>Reply-To:
>To:
>Subject: [DNA] DNA shows Celtic hero Somerled's Viking roots
>Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2005 13:12:49 -0400
>
>http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=442642005
>
>IAN JOHNSTON
>
>SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT
>
>A HISTORIC Celtic hero credited with driving the Vikings out of
>western Scotland was actually descended from a Norseman, according to
>research by a leading DNA expert.
>
>According to traditional genealogies, Somerled, who is said to have
>died in 1164 after ousting the Vikings from Argyll, Kintyre and the
>Western Isles, was descended from an ancient royal line going back to
>when the Scots were living in Ireland.
>
>But Bryan Sykes, an Oxford University professor of human genetics who
>set up a company called Oxford Ancestors to research people's DNA
>past, has discovered that Somerled's Y-chromosome - which is inherited
>through the male line - is of Norse origin.
>
>Prof Sykes' studies of three Scottish clans have also led to the
>conclusion that some 500,000 people alive today are descended from
>Somerled - a number only bettered by Genghis Khan, who, among
>historical figures studied to date, has an estimated 16 million living
>descendants.
>
>The MacDonald, MacDougall and MacAllister clans all claim descent from
>Somerled and Prof Sykes found that between 25 and 45 per cent of them
>shared the same Y-chromosome, of a kind normally found in Norway but
>rare in Scotland and Ireland.
>
>By analysing the rate of mutation in DNA samples from clan members,
>Prof Sykes was able to show that the Y-chromosome came from a common
>ancestor who lived roughly 1,000 years ago.
>
>He then tested five chiefs from the clans and discovered they all
>shared the same chromosome, which convinced him that the common
>ancestor must be Somerled, Lord of the Isles, in keeping with clan
>histories.
>
>However, the analysis threw into doubt Somerled's own origins. Prof
>Sykes told The Scotsman: "In the traditional genealogy, Somerled is a
>great Celtic hero who drives the Norse from Scotland, but his Y-
>chromosome is definitely Norse. The genealogies trace him back to a
>long line of Irish kings. But that's not what the Y-chromosome says.
>
>"He is certainly of Norse Viking paternal origin."
>
>It is open to question whether Somerled, who made driving the Vikings
>from western Scotland his "cause clbre", would have known the truth.
>
>But Prof Sykes said: "I think it is something you would want to keep
>quiet."
>
>The fact that clan chiefs still share the same basic Y-chromosome
>after some 87 generations shows that high-status women in the
>MacDonald, MacDougall and MacAllister clans were extremely faithful.
>
>However, the large number of people alive today with the same
>Y-chromosome means the men in the family did not share this virtue to
>the same extent.
>
>Maggie Macdonald, archivist of the Museum of the Isles on Skye, said
>Somerled was traditionally viewed as a Celtic hero.
>
>But she added: "Maybe at that time it was more important who it was
>said you were descended from than who you were actually descended
>from.
>
>"People may well have known his great-great-grandfather was a Viking.
>
>"But it could have been that his great-great-grandmother had relations
>with someone who wasn't her husband - it could be Somerled wouldn't
>have known and thought he was this great Celtic hero."
>
>
>==============================
>Census images 1901, 1891, 1881 and 1871, plus so much more.
>Ancestry.com's United Kingdom & Ireland Collection. Learn more:
>http://www.ancestry.com/s13968/rd.ashx
>

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