DNA conclusions... From Adam to Oisin and Woden...
There are only two types of DNA that can be measured, Y-Chromosome DNA and Mitochondrial DNA.
Y-Chromosome is passed only down the male line so in my case it goes John Keegan-Paul Keegan-Walter Keegan-Dave Keegan-Simon Keegan.
Mitochondrial DNA is passed only down the female line so in my case it goes Annie Brighouse-Isabella Buchanan-Louisa Molloy-Carol Nelson-Simon Keegan.
The Mit-DNA is passed to sons and daughters but doesn't go any further from sons (so I inherit it from my mum but don't pass it on) whereas Y-DNA is only passed to sons.
So with a Y-DNA test like I took, I can only determine the ancestors of the Keegan line, and if I was to take the Mit-DNA test, I could only test down the female line.
The experts have discovered that every man in the world traces his Y-DNA line to a single person who they call "Y Chromosome Adam" he lived in about 60,000BC probably in Kenya.
This "Adam" wasn't the first man, he wasn't the only man, and he wasn't the only one to leave descendants, he was just the ancestor to whom all men can trace their paternal line. Of course we can also trace back to his father, and his father, but "Adam" is the most recent.
With the female line, the most recent common ancestor who they have dubbed "Mitochondrial Eve" lived around 200,000BC again, probably in Kenya. Again, she wasn't the first woman, or the only woman, just the most recent who left a female line that all women trace back to.
From these original lines, the boffins have plotted various DNA mutations throughout history.
Since our Haplogroup (R1) is of the R1B1 subclade (R1B1A2 to be precise) we can plot the particular migration of our paternal ancestors by joining up the dots of the DNA mutations.
We began with "Y Chromosome Adam" of course in 60,000BC, then our ancestors made their way north, up through Ethiopia and across to the area called the Levant (Israel and Saudi Arabia). It looks like our ancestors began to move steadily north, probably reaching Siberia in about 25,000BC but then the cold of the Ice Age became unbearable so they began to move south again.
From Eastern Europe (Kazakhstan etc) they moved south to what is now Iran.
An author named Bryan Sykes (Blood of the Isles) has determined that the R1B1A2 subclade are traceable to one man who lived in around 16,000BC.
Since he is the ancestor of many Irish families, Sykes has named him Oisin, after an Irish mythological hero.
When the Ice Age ended in about 10,000BC, the nicest place to live was the "Fertile Crescent" - the melting ice made for good grazing and so civilisations begun in Jericho, Sumeria and Egypt.
Oisin's descendants even spread to Egypt and in 1,300BC Tutankhamun was one of his descendants. Tut's father has recently been revealed to be Akhenaten.
Irish mythology states that Merytaten (niece of Tutankhamun) also called Princess Scota married the Scythian King Nial (also of Egyptian stock) and their son was Gael Glas, eponymous founder of the Gaelic people - or at least the Brigantes tribe.
The Brigantes (in both history and mythology) made their way across to Carthage and Gallacia and under the semi legendary Milesius, made their way over to Ireland.
My DNA test revealed a mutation that is found mostly in clans descended from the Ui Niall, or its subsidiaries, the Ui Maine and the Ui Fiachrach.
What this means is that the Keegan claim to be part of the Ui Maine (in some genealogies Maine was the son of Nial) is likely to be true, as is the Milesian legend about Egypt.
My maternal great grandmother was a Buchanan. Since they have also tested the DNA of American president James Buchanan and found he is also of Nial's stock, which confirms the lineage which traces the Buchanans to Anselan "Buey" O'Kyan who was 15 generations removed from Niall. The same also looks true for the Molloys (my grandmother's name).
I thought, we can't all be from that line, so I picked the most "un-Irish" branch of my family - the Nilsons.
I looked at people from Sweden with the name Nilson, Nilsson, Nilsen etc who had posted Y-DNA results and found that almost all of them were from a completely separate Haplogroup I1 (that's an i not an L) which Sykes has identified with a hypothetical ancestor called Woden (as the norse equivalent of Oisin).
Although the first mutation splitting I1 away from I2 may have arisen as long as 20,000 years ago, people belonging to this haplogroup all descend from a single man who lived between 10,000 and 5,000 years ago.
Haplogroup I is almost entirely confined to Europe, where it accounts for 20 percent of the population. The mutation that defines it is believed to have occurred 22.2 thousand years ago somewhere in Europe.
The mutation that defines this group appeared 15 to 20 thousand years ago. Because it originated immediately after the last ice age, it is not clear whether the founder lived in the Iberian peninsula, the Balkans or the Ukraine. Humans retreated to all three areas during the ice age, and later spread out through Europe. All living members of this haplogroup share a common ancestor who lived in northern Europe 4 to 6 thousand years ago.
Haplgroup I1 reaches Its highest frequency is in Scandinavia — 40 percent of Finns, and 35 percent of Danes, Swedes and Norwegians. It has been called the Viking gene because smaller concentrations along the coasts of northwestern Europe probably reflect Viking raids and settlements in the 8th and 9th centuries. Even in its areas of greatest concentration, I1 is overshadowed by haplogroups I1a and I1b.
So the Keegan, Molloy, Buchanan and Ivers branches seem to be descended from Niall , as well as from Milesius, Gael Glas and from Egyptian pharoahs and right back through to our Haplogroup "clan founder" Oisin.
Whereas it seems likely that the Nilsson family were descended from "Woden".
The main split that divides the "Oisin" (Celtic) line from the "Woden" (Viking) line occurred around 45,000BC in the Levant. Both are descended from Haplogroup F.
Haplogroups P and K became R and from this the R1B haplogroup moved towards Mespotamia.
Another group, J made their way to north Africa where they are the ancestors of the Semetic (Jewish) people.
Whereas when the Ice Age fell, one group, Haplogroup I took refuge in the Mediterranean.
From northern France Haplogroup I1 made their way to Skandinavia around 25,000 years ago - becoming the "Woden" Vikings whereas the related group 12a became the "native Europeans" who may be the ancestors of the Saxons.
Y-Chromosome is passed only down the male line so in my case it goes John Keegan-Paul Keegan-Walter Keegan-Dave Keegan-Simon Keegan.
Mitochondrial DNA is passed only down the female line so in my case it goes Annie Brighouse-Isabella Buchanan-Louisa Molloy-Carol Nelson-Simon Keegan.
The Mit-DNA is passed to sons and daughters but doesn't go any further from sons (so I inherit it from my mum but don't pass it on) whereas Y-DNA is only passed to sons.
So with a Y-DNA test like I took, I can only determine the ancestors of the Keegan line, and if I was to take the Mit-DNA test, I could only test down the female line.
The experts have discovered that every man in the world traces his Y-DNA line to a single person who they call "Y Chromosome Adam" he lived in about 60,000BC probably in Kenya.
This "Adam" wasn't the first man, he wasn't the only man, and he wasn't the only one to leave descendants, he was just the ancestor to whom all men can trace their paternal line. Of course we can also trace back to his father, and his father, but "Adam" is the most recent.
With the female line, the most recent common ancestor who they have dubbed "Mitochondrial Eve" lived around 200,000BC again, probably in Kenya. Again, she wasn't the first woman, or the only woman, just the most recent who left a female line that all women trace back to.
From these original lines, the boffins have plotted various DNA mutations throughout history.
Since our Haplogroup (R1) is of the R1B1 subclade (R1B1A2 to be precise) we can plot the particular migration of our paternal ancestors by joining up the dots of the DNA mutations.
We began with "Y Chromosome Adam" of course in 60,000BC, then our ancestors made their way north, up through Ethiopia and across to the area called the Levant (Israel and Saudi Arabia). It looks like our ancestors began to move steadily north, probably reaching Siberia in about 25,000BC but then the cold of the Ice Age became unbearable so they began to move south again.
From Eastern Europe (Kazakhstan etc) they moved south to what is now Iran.
An author named Bryan Sykes (Blood of the Isles) has determined that the R1B1A2 subclade are traceable to one man who lived in around 16,000BC.
Since he is the ancestor of many Irish families, Sykes has named him Oisin, after an Irish mythological hero.
When the Ice Age ended in about 10,000BC, the nicest place to live was the "Fertile Crescent" - the melting ice made for good grazing and so civilisations begun in Jericho, Sumeria and Egypt.
Oisin's descendants even spread to Egypt and in 1,300BC Tutankhamun was one of his descendants. Tut's father has recently been revealed to be Akhenaten.
Irish mythology states that Merytaten (niece of Tutankhamun) also called Princess Scota married the Scythian King Nial (also of Egyptian stock) and their son was Gael Glas, eponymous founder of the Gaelic people - or at least the Brigantes tribe.
The Brigantes (in both history and mythology) made their way across to Carthage and Gallacia and under the semi legendary Milesius, made their way over to Ireland.
My DNA test revealed a mutation that is found mostly in clans descended from the Ui Niall, or its subsidiaries, the Ui Maine and the Ui Fiachrach.
What this means is that the Keegan claim to be part of the Ui Maine (in some genealogies Maine was the son of Nial) is likely to be true, as is the Milesian legend about Egypt.
My maternal great grandmother was a Buchanan. Since they have also tested the DNA of American president James Buchanan and found he is also of Nial's stock, which confirms the lineage which traces the Buchanans to Anselan "Buey" O'Kyan who was 15 generations removed from Niall. The same also looks true for the Molloys (my grandmother's name).
I thought, we can't all be from that line, so I picked the most "un-Irish" branch of my family - the Nilsons.
I looked at people from Sweden with the name Nilson, Nilsson, Nilsen etc who had posted Y-DNA results and found that almost all of them were from a completely separate Haplogroup I1 (that's an i not an L) which Sykes has identified with a hypothetical ancestor called Woden (as the norse equivalent of Oisin).
Although the first mutation splitting I1 away from I2 may have arisen as long as 20,000 years ago, people belonging to this haplogroup all descend from a single man who lived between 10,000 and 5,000 years ago.
Haplogroup I is almost entirely confined to Europe, where it accounts for 20 percent of the population. The mutation that defines it is believed to have occurred 22.2 thousand years ago somewhere in Europe.
The mutation that defines this group appeared 15 to 20 thousand years ago. Because it originated immediately after the last ice age, it is not clear whether the founder lived in the Iberian peninsula, the Balkans or the Ukraine. Humans retreated to all three areas during the ice age, and later spread out through Europe. All living members of this haplogroup share a common ancestor who lived in northern Europe 4 to 6 thousand years ago.
Haplgroup I1 reaches Its highest frequency is in Scandinavia — 40 percent of Finns, and 35 percent of Danes, Swedes and Norwegians. It has been called the Viking gene because smaller concentrations along the coasts of northwestern Europe probably reflect Viking raids and settlements in the 8th and 9th centuries. Even in its areas of greatest concentration, I1 is overshadowed by haplogroups I1a and I1b.
So the Keegan, Molloy, Buchanan and Ivers branches seem to be descended from Niall , as well as from Milesius, Gael Glas and from Egyptian pharoahs and right back through to our Haplogroup "clan founder" Oisin.
Whereas it seems likely that the Nilsson family were descended from "Woden".
The main split that divides the "Oisin" (Celtic) line from the "Woden" (Viking) line occurred around 45,000BC in the Levant. Both are descended from Haplogroup F.
Haplogroups P and K became R and from this the R1B haplogroup moved towards Mespotamia.
Another group, J made their way to north Africa where they are the ancestors of the Semetic (Jewish) people.
Whereas when the Ice Age fell, one group, Haplogroup I took refuge in the Mediterranean.
From northern France Haplogroup I1 made their way to Skandinavia around 25,000 years ago - becoming the "Woden" Vikings whereas the related group 12a became the "native Europeans" who may be the ancestors of the Saxons.
Notes:
When Mitonchondrial Eve was around, in about 200,000BC we don't know what the Y-Chromosome of the men was. But Eve's haplogroup was L.
After the volcano that reduced the world's population to a few thousand in circa 65,000BC there was a further mutation of the female DNA and this is represented by the letters L3, as such Y-Chromosome Adam's own mother may have been of the clan of "Lara."
In around 50,000BC there was a move north. We know there was a male mutation marked F and G and a female mutation marked N. These are known respectively as the clans of Gilgamesh and Lara.
One group that moved out of Africa kept moving further north than the others and they are represented by a mutation in the male line called I and a mutation in the female line called U. The names given to these clans respectively are Woden and Ursula.
Although the name "Woden" suggests a Skandinavian bias, these people were probably the first Cro-Magnons to expand throughout most of Europe, replacing the Neanderthal. The research into the clan Ursula states: "She was among the first arrivals of a new, modern human to set foot in Europe. She was slender and graceful, in marked contrast to the thickset Neanderthals with whom she and her clan shared the land for another 20,000 years. Her kind brought with them a new and more sophisticated type of stone tool with which to hunt and butcher the abundant game, animals that soon appeared on the walls of limestone caves as the first expression of human art. They spread right across Europe, west across France and north as far as the British Isles."
Meanwhile, as the Ice Age descended and "Woden" remained in Europe, other groups huddled around the Levant. A mutation in the male line, defined as R occurred about 30,000 years ago, around the time a female mutation marked X appeared. These clans are known respectively as Seth and Xenia. They were likely the ancestors of the early "Kurgan" people around the Levant and further north in Eastern Europe. "Of all the clans, Xenia's is the most mysterious. We know that she lived about 25,000 years ago on the cold and inhospitable European tundra at the eastern edge of the Black Sea. Although bleak and windy, the tundra was teeming with good things to eat as massive herds of bison and reindeer moved slowly over the plains, feeding on grass and mosses. As the climate grew worse with the onset of the last Ice Age, Xenia's descendants left the rapidly cooling mountains and spread out to the East and West."
With the advent of the Ice Age, two mutations of the R line occurred called R1A and R1B in around 16,000BC. We call these groups Sigurd and Oisin. The clans of Sigurd, Kurgan people of the Steppes, were probably associated with women of the haplogroups V and K, called Velda and Katrine.
Velda's descendants shared their lands with the clan of Ursula, and competition for the meager resources that this mountainous land had to spare caused conflict between them. However, once the weather began to warm up, the old quarrels were forgotten and children of both clans could travel to new lands. Velda's descendants pushed north around the strip of land to the west of the Pyrenees into the plains of Gascony, and slowly over the next three centuries across France and into Britain. Eventually, a few members of her clan edged up the still frozen seaboard of Norway to the far north where they joined pioneers from Arctic Russia to become the Lapps, or Saami, of northern Finland and Norway, where they can still be found today.
One day in the Autumn of 1991, two hikers who were enjoying a late summer holiday in the Alps, strayed off the main path and crossed the head of a small glacier. To their astonishment they saw, protruding from the ice, the head and upper torso of a man. At first, these were thought to be the remains of a music teacher who had been reported missing two years previously. However, the real importance of this find was realised only when the renowned alpinist Reindhard Messner determined that the small axe found near the body was made not of steel but of copper. The remains were actually those of the Ice Man, a hunter who had lost his way and died of hypothermia some 5,000 years ago.
When DNA from a small fragment of one of the Ice Man's bones was analysed, we saw clearly that Oetzi, as he became known (after the valley where he was discovered), belonged to the clan of Katrine. Katrine lived 15,000 years earlier on the southern slopes of the Alps that run gently down to the sea near Venice. She lived on ibex and chamois from the mountains, supplemented with whatever small mammals and roots could be found in the woods that covered the narrow plain.
As the glaciers retreated and snowfall became restricted to winter on the Alps, Katrine's children ventured farther north into the valleys to hunt the marmot and the ibex. As it became warmer still, her descendants crossed the great range and moved up the valley of the Rhine to meet the North Sea. Katrine's clan is still found in the Alps, five thousand years after the Ice Man had lived, as well as over much of northern Europe.Oisin's people who ventured around the Levant, Mesopotamia and Egypt probably bred with women of the Jasmine haplogroup.While the other six clan mothers had to endure the hardships of the European Ice Age whilst bringing up their children, Jasmine was enjoying the comparative warmth of the Syrian savannah. Life was good. The spring and autumn migrations of gazelle passed through her territory and provided a supply of meat that could be dried and made to last. There were sand grouse to trap and abundant small game on the open grasslands. In fact, so reliable was the food supply that it became unnecessary to move from one temporary camp to another.
Jasmine was born into one of the first semi-permanent camps that would eventually become the villages and towns most of us inhabit today. This domestic stability removed the pressure to spend all their time searching for food allowing them time to experiment. A man from a settlement nearby had found that the dried seeds of wild grass could be collected without much trouble and made a tasty alternative to dried gazelle. Someone else found some larger grains on a distant hill and spilled a few at the campsite. After the rains, he noticed that the seeds had grown into new plants and that they, too, held the large grains of their parents. Thus began the greatest shift in human evolution, the invention of agriculture.
As wheat replaced meat, the population began to grow. Brave souls captured wild sheep and cattle and fed them with the new crop. Slowly, over years of selective breeding, these animals lost their savage tendencies and settled into a life of domestication, where they remain to this day. Before long, it was getting crowded and so it became the custom that the second sons moved away to establish their own farmsteads. Slowly at first, the children of Jasmine spread across Anatolia and into Greece. Then the groups split up: one forced its way across the Balkans and up the fertile valleys of the Danube and the Elbe, tilling and planting in the fine soil formed by the wind blown particles ground from the mountains by the retreating glaciers. The other band took to the sea, edging round the Mediterranean as far as Spain and Portugal.
However, they were not arrivals in an empty land. At every turn they encountered the hunter-gatherers. At first, these meetings were uneasy confrontations, but as the hunters realised that they faced no competition from the much slower farmers, the process of integration began. Little by little, the proud hunters abandoned their nomadic ways for the comparative comfort and security of life on the farm -a way of life brought to Europe by the children of Jasmine.When the later descendants of Oisin moved from the middle East towards Spain (and later Ireland) - becoming the Gaelic people they probably bred with women of the Velda, Helena and Tara clans.Of Helena it is written: "Whether just by chance or by the guiding hand of natural selection we do not know, but Helena's clan has grown to become the most widespread and successful of the Seven Daughters of Eve. Her children have reached every shore, settled every forest and crossed every mountain range. Helena's descendants can be found from the Alps in the South to the Scottish Highlands and the Norwegian fjords in the North, and as far east as the Urals and the Russian steppes. Helena was born about 20,000 years ago on the strip of land that joins France and Spain, near what is now Perpignan. She belonged to a family of hunters, who harvested the rich oyster beds in the lagoons of the Camargue to supplement their diet of meat. Helena's clan arrived in Europe from the Middle East, pushing their way along the Mediterranean, constrained to the narrow strip of land that was still habitable."Perhaps the female haplogroup whose movements most closely match those of Oisin's descendants are those of Tara: "Tara lived in Tuscany about 17,000 years ago. At the time, Europe was in the grip of the last Ice Age and the only parts of the continent where life was possible were the lands bordering the Mediterranean. Then, the Tuscan hills were a very different place. No vines grew; no Bougainvillea decorated the hillside farms. Instead, they were thickly forested with pine and birch. The streams held small trout and crayfish, which helped Tara to raise her family and held the pangs of hunger at bay when the men folk failed to kill a deer or wild boar. As the Ice Age loosened its grip, Tara's descendants moved round the coast into France and joined the great band of hunters following the big game across the tundra that then covered Northern Europe. Eventually, Tara's descendants walked across the dry land that was to become the English Channel and moved right across to Ireland, from which Celtic kingdom the clan takes it name."
When Mitonchondrial Eve was around, in about 200,000BC we don't know what the Y-Chromosome of the men was. But Eve's haplogroup was L.
After the volcano that reduced the world's population to a few thousand in circa 65,000BC there was a further mutation of the female DNA and this is represented by the letters L3, as such Y-Chromosome Adam's own mother may have been of the clan of "Lara."
In around 50,000BC there was a move north. We know there was a male mutation marked F and G and a female mutation marked N. These are known respectively as the clans of Gilgamesh and Lara.
One group that moved out of Africa kept moving further north than the others and they are represented by a mutation in the male line called I and a mutation in the female line called U. The names given to these clans respectively are Woden and Ursula.
Although the name "Woden" suggests a Skandinavian bias, these people were probably the first Cro-Magnons to expand throughout most of Europe, replacing the Neanderthal. The research into the clan Ursula states: "She was among the first arrivals of a new, modern human to set foot in Europe. She was slender and graceful, in marked contrast to the thickset Neanderthals with whom she and her clan shared the land for another 20,000 years. Her kind brought with them a new and more sophisticated type of stone tool with which to hunt and butcher the abundant game, animals that soon appeared on the walls of limestone caves as the first expression of human art. They spread right across Europe, west across France and north as far as the British Isles."
Meanwhile, as the Ice Age descended and "Woden" remained in Europe, other groups huddled around the Levant. A mutation in the male line, defined as R occurred about 30,000 years ago, around the time a female mutation marked X appeared. These clans are known respectively as Seth and Xenia. They were likely the ancestors of the early "Kurgan" people around the Levant and further north in Eastern Europe. "Of all the clans, Xenia's is the most mysterious. We know that she lived about 25,000 years ago on the cold and inhospitable European tundra at the eastern edge of the Black Sea. Although bleak and windy, the tundra was teeming with good things to eat as massive herds of bison and reindeer moved slowly over the plains, feeding on grass and mosses. As the climate grew worse with the onset of the last Ice Age, Xenia's descendants left the rapidly cooling mountains and spread out to the East and West."
With the advent of the Ice Age, two mutations of the R line occurred called R1A and R1B in around 16,000BC. We call these groups Sigurd and Oisin. The clans of Sigurd, Kurgan people of the Steppes, were probably associated with women of the haplogroups V and K, called Velda and Katrine.
Velda's descendants shared their lands with the clan of Ursula, and competition for the meager resources that this mountainous land had to spare caused conflict between them. However, once the weather began to warm up, the old quarrels were forgotten and children of both clans could travel to new lands. Velda's descendants pushed north around the strip of land to the west of the Pyrenees into the plains of Gascony, and slowly over the next three centuries across France and into Britain. Eventually, a few members of her clan edged up the still frozen seaboard of Norway to the far north where they joined pioneers from Arctic Russia to become the Lapps, or Saami, of northern Finland and Norway, where they can still be found today.
One day in the Autumn of 1991, two hikers who were enjoying a late summer holiday in the Alps, strayed off the main path and crossed the head of a small glacier. To their astonishment they saw, protruding from the ice, the head and upper torso of a man. At first, these were thought to be the remains of a music teacher who had been reported missing two years previously. However, the real importance of this find was realised only when the renowned alpinist Reindhard Messner determined that the small axe found near the body was made not of steel but of copper. The remains were actually those of the Ice Man, a hunter who had lost his way and died of hypothermia some 5,000 years ago.
When DNA from a small fragment of one of the Ice Man's bones was analysed, we saw clearly that Oetzi, as he became known (after the valley where he was discovered), belonged to the clan of Katrine. Katrine lived 15,000 years earlier on the southern slopes of the Alps that run gently down to the sea near Venice. She lived on ibex and chamois from the mountains, supplemented with whatever small mammals and roots could be found in the woods that covered the narrow plain.
As the glaciers retreated and snowfall became restricted to winter on the Alps, Katrine's children ventured farther north into the valleys to hunt the marmot and the ibex. As it became warmer still, her descendants crossed the great range and moved up the valley of the Rhine to meet the North Sea. Katrine's clan is still found in the Alps, five thousand years after the Ice Man had lived, as well as over much of northern Europe.Oisin's people who ventured around the Levant, Mesopotamia and Egypt probably bred with women of the Jasmine haplogroup.While the other six clan mothers had to endure the hardships of the European Ice Age whilst bringing up their children, Jasmine was enjoying the comparative warmth of the Syrian savannah. Life was good. The spring and autumn migrations of gazelle passed through her territory and provided a supply of meat that could be dried and made to last. There were sand grouse to trap and abundant small game on the open grasslands. In fact, so reliable was the food supply that it became unnecessary to move from one temporary camp to another.
Jasmine was born into one of the first semi-permanent camps that would eventually become the villages and towns most of us inhabit today. This domestic stability removed the pressure to spend all their time searching for food allowing them time to experiment. A man from a settlement nearby had found that the dried seeds of wild grass could be collected without much trouble and made a tasty alternative to dried gazelle. Someone else found some larger grains on a distant hill and spilled a few at the campsite. After the rains, he noticed that the seeds had grown into new plants and that they, too, held the large grains of their parents. Thus began the greatest shift in human evolution, the invention of agriculture.
As wheat replaced meat, the population began to grow. Brave souls captured wild sheep and cattle and fed them with the new crop. Slowly, over years of selective breeding, these animals lost their savage tendencies and settled into a life of domestication, where they remain to this day. Before long, it was getting crowded and so it became the custom that the second sons moved away to establish their own farmsteads. Slowly at first, the children of Jasmine spread across Anatolia and into Greece. Then the groups split up: one forced its way across the Balkans and up the fertile valleys of the Danube and the Elbe, tilling and planting in the fine soil formed by the wind blown particles ground from the mountains by the retreating glaciers. The other band took to the sea, edging round the Mediterranean as far as Spain and Portugal.
However, they were not arrivals in an empty land. At every turn they encountered the hunter-gatherers. At first, these meetings were uneasy confrontations, but as the hunters realised that they faced no competition from the much slower farmers, the process of integration began. Little by little, the proud hunters abandoned their nomadic ways for the comparative comfort and security of life on the farm -a way of life brought to Europe by the children of Jasmine.When the later descendants of Oisin moved from the middle East towards Spain (and later Ireland) - becoming the Gaelic people they probably bred with women of the Velda, Helena and Tara clans.Of Helena it is written: "Whether just by chance or by the guiding hand of natural selection we do not know, but Helena's clan has grown to become the most widespread and successful of the Seven Daughters of Eve. Her children have reached every shore, settled every forest and crossed every mountain range. Helena's descendants can be found from the Alps in the South to the Scottish Highlands and the Norwegian fjords in the North, and as far east as the Urals and the Russian steppes. Helena was born about 20,000 years ago on the strip of land that joins France and Spain, near what is now Perpignan. She belonged to a family of hunters, who harvested the rich oyster beds in the lagoons of the Camargue to supplement their diet of meat. Helena's clan arrived in Europe from the Middle East, pushing their way along the Mediterranean, constrained to the narrow strip of land that was still habitable."Perhaps the female haplogroup whose movements most closely match those of Oisin's descendants are those of Tara: "Tara lived in Tuscany about 17,000 years ago. At the time, Europe was in the grip of the last Ice Age and the only parts of the continent where life was possible were the lands bordering the Mediterranean. Then, the Tuscan hills were a very different place. No vines grew; no Bougainvillea decorated the hillside farms. Instead, they were thickly forested with pine and birch. The streams held small trout and crayfish, which helped Tara to raise her family and held the pangs of hunger at bay when the men folk failed to kill a deer or wild boar. As the Ice Age loosened its grip, Tara's descendants moved round the coast into France and joined the great band of hunters following the big game across the tundra that then covered Northern Europe. Eventually, Tara's descendants walked across the dry land that was to become the English Channel and moved right across to Ireland, from which Celtic kingdom the clan takes it name."
Clans which are descended from Oisin:
- Keegan/Egan (Clann MacAodhagain) descended from King Niall, Irish Gaelic [Simon Keegan tested]
- Molloy (Clann O'Maolmuaidh) descended from King Niall, Irish Gaelic [Ui Niall descendant tests]
- Buchanan (Clann MacAuselaian) descended from King Niall, Irish-Scots Gaelic [President Buchanan's descendants tested]
- Fagan
- Ivers
- Bradshaigh
- Landry
- Legg
Legg notes from various forums:
The Traversari are an ancient noble family of Italy. Their origins may lie in the late fifth century, being descendants of Theodore, General of the Heruli. There are other sources that cite theTraversari Decia as descendants from the Gens Decia of Ancient Rome. Theodoric I was named Count of Rimini and Senigallia after the death of Orestes. After the Byzantine conquest of Italy, the Traversari retained significant and influential positions.
n 476 AD with the death of Orestes, Odoacer, leader of the Heruli, Scirian and Torcilingi was declared the "King of Italy" on 23 August 476 AD, with its capital at Ravenna. Odoacer gave Theodore the office of the General Assembly. Theodore took the surname of Traversari and built a castle (still extant) named "Traversara"
Decius is an ancient Roman nomen; notable individuals of the gens Decia include:
The abbreviation D. stands for the praenomen Decimus, not Decius.Publius Decius Mus, son of Quintus, of the plebeian gens Decia, was a Roman consul in the year 340 BC. He is noted particularly for sacrificing himself in battle through the ritual of devotio, as recorded by the Augustan historian Livy.
The surname Legge can be traced back to ancient Rome. The gens Atia was a powerful scribal family in Rome. "From it descended the Traversari family taking its name from a castle biult in 476 A.D. by Teodoro, the prefect of Ravenna who was the founder of the family. Around the 1100's the Traversari family became powerful lawyers,senators and judges. Because of this,their name was changed to Traversari dalla Legge meaning Traversari of the Law due to their involvement in law. There name was eventullaly shortened to da Legge in Ravenna and other parts of Italy and England, and da Lezze in Venice. All were eventually shortened to Legge.'Traversari dalla Legge' the family traces back through the female line of the ancient Roman gens Atia of Julius Caesar's family and from there research through Troy via the Canaanites. Much further back, at the Ravenna castle of the same name where, in 476 after all the remaining Roman princes were beheaded, my female ancestor from Octavian's line was taken by the ruling Goth, and it was he who started the Traversari family, to which was later added dalla Legge, on account of them being in control of the courts of law. Eventually, especially in England, all forms of the name were shortened to Legge or Legg and even though it looks like a jewish name, with some Marranos even faking it, it is actually the vulgar Latin word for law. This Etruscan line predates the Roman empire and traces to Ennean and the fall of Troy.
http://www.archive.org/stream/notesdocumentsre00legg#page/n7/mode/2up
Hugh and William Della Legge circa 1160
Luca Da legge 1297
Thomas Legg, Sheriff of London, Lord Mayor, circa 1350
until 476 under Odoacer the Herulian, King of Italj'. But Girolamo Fabri
in his Sagre Mentorie de Ravenna, maintains that the castle received its
name from the said Teodoro. Importune Traversari, son of Teodoro, was
likewise Prefect of Ravenna in 496, and also Secretary to Theodoric the Goth,
King of Italy. Sergio Traversari, his grandson, who was living in 543,
was a monk and a saint; Giovanni Traversari became Archbishop of Ravenna
in 898 ; and so since then from time to time men of distinction and power
have sprung from this house. Hence it advanced to such greatness that
often kings and sovereign princes intermarried with it, as may be seen in
Lucas de Linda; and in 11 80, in the person of Pietro, surnamed the Great,
one of the most glorious members of the house, it attained the absolute
lordship of the State, which, after remaining with his descendants for a long
series of years, was taken from them and finally, after many revolutions,
seized by the family of Polenta. Thus they were robbed of their ancestral
lordship ; but no one could take away from them the glory of their birth,
nor the lustre of the doughty deeds of their ancestors.
The Traversari being thus despoiled of the seigniory and compelled
to go into exile, some of them betook themselves to Constantinople, others
to Ferrara, and many to Tuscany ; one branch of the last, having taken
refuge in Portico, a castle in the territory of Forti, near the Apennine
Mountains, were reduced to such distress that to make a living they were
obliged to follow the craft of blacksmiths, whence their descendants took
the surname of Fabbri. But the brothers Tomaso and Ugolino, who moved
on to Venice, passed the remainder of their lives in more dignified rank; for
Ugohno became a captain of some note in the army of the Venetian
Republic, which by about the year 1000 had, as Casimir Freschot relates
in the Pregi della Nobilta Veneta, distinctly received among its patricians
some persons who belonged to this house, and who were the ancestors
of the Venetian senatorial family of Da Legge.
- Keegan/Egan (Clann MacAodhagain) descended from King Niall, Irish Gaelic [Simon Keegan tested]
- Molloy (Clann O'Maolmuaidh) descended from King Niall, Irish Gaelic [Ui Niall descendant tests]
- Buchanan (Clann MacAuselaian) descended from King Niall, Irish-Scots Gaelic [President Buchanan's descendants tested]
- Fagan
- Ivers
- Bradshaigh
- Landry
- Legg
Legg notes from various forums:
The Traversari are an ancient noble family of Italy. Their origins may lie in the late fifth century, being descendants of Theodore, General of the Heruli. There are other sources that cite theTraversari Decia as descendants from the Gens Decia of Ancient Rome. Theodoric I was named Count of Rimini and Senigallia after the death of Orestes. After the Byzantine conquest of Italy, the Traversari retained significant and influential positions.
n 476 AD with the death of Orestes, Odoacer, leader of the Heruli, Scirian and Torcilingi was declared the "King of Italy" on 23 August 476 AD, with its capital at Ravenna. Odoacer gave Theodore the office of the General Assembly. Theodore took the surname of Traversari and built a castle (still extant) named "Traversara"
Decius is an ancient Roman nomen; notable individuals of the gens Decia include:
- Publius Decius Mus (340 BC), son of Quintus, consul in 340 BC, fought the Battle of Vesuvius
- Publius Decius Mus (312 BC), son of Publius, consul in 312 BC, 308 BC, 297 BC, and 295 BC, fought the Battle of Sentinum
- Publius Decius Mus (279 BC), son of Publius, consul in 279 BC, fought in the Battle of Asculum
- Publius Decius, tribune 120 BC, prosecuted the murderer of Gaius Gracchus
- The Emperor Decius. Gaius Messius Quintus Traianus Decius, reigned 249 AD to 251
The abbreviation D. stands for the praenomen Decimus, not Decius.Publius Decius Mus, son of Quintus, of the plebeian gens Decia, was a Roman consul in the year 340 BC. He is noted particularly for sacrificing himself in battle through the ritual of devotio, as recorded by the Augustan historian Livy.
The surname Legge can be traced back to ancient Rome. The gens Atia was a powerful scribal family in Rome. "From it descended the Traversari family taking its name from a castle biult in 476 A.D. by Teodoro, the prefect of Ravenna who was the founder of the family. Around the 1100's the Traversari family became powerful lawyers,senators and judges. Because of this,their name was changed to Traversari dalla Legge meaning Traversari of the Law due to their involvement in law. There name was eventullaly shortened to da Legge in Ravenna and other parts of Italy and England, and da Lezze in Venice. All were eventually shortened to Legge.'Traversari dalla Legge' the family traces back through the female line of the ancient Roman gens Atia of Julius Caesar's family and from there research through Troy via the Canaanites. Much further back, at the Ravenna castle of the same name where, in 476 after all the remaining Roman princes were beheaded, my female ancestor from Octavian's line was taken by the ruling Goth, and it was he who started the Traversari family, to which was later added dalla Legge, on account of them being in control of the courts of law. Eventually, especially in England, all forms of the name were shortened to Legge or Legg and even though it looks like a jewish name, with some Marranos even faking it, it is actually the vulgar Latin word for law. This Etruscan line predates the Roman empire and traces to Ennean and the fall of Troy.
http://www.archive.org/stream/notesdocumentsre00legg#page/n7/mode/2up
Hugh and William Della Legge circa 1160
Luca Da legge 1297
Thomas Legg, Sheriff of London, Lord Mayor, circa 1350
until 476 under Odoacer the Herulian, King of Italj'. But Girolamo Fabri
in his Sagre Mentorie de Ravenna, maintains that the castle received its
name from the said Teodoro. Importune Traversari, son of Teodoro, was
likewise Prefect of Ravenna in 496, and also Secretary to Theodoric the Goth,
King of Italy. Sergio Traversari, his grandson, who was living in 543,
was a monk and a saint; Giovanni Traversari became Archbishop of Ravenna
in 898 ; and so since then from time to time men of distinction and power
have sprung from this house. Hence it advanced to such greatness that
often kings and sovereign princes intermarried with it, as may be seen in
Lucas de Linda; and in 11 80, in the person of Pietro, surnamed the Great,
one of the most glorious members of the house, it attained the absolute
lordship of the State, which, after remaining with his descendants for a long
series of years, was taken from them and finally, after many revolutions,
seized by the family of Polenta. Thus they were robbed of their ancestral
lordship ; but no one could take away from them the glory of their birth,
nor the lustre of the doughty deeds of their ancestors.
The Traversari being thus despoiled of the seigniory and compelled
to go into exile, some of them betook themselves to Constantinople, others
to Ferrara, and many to Tuscany ; one branch of the last, having taken
refuge in Portico, a castle in the territory of Forti, near the Apennine
Mountains, were reduced to such distress that to make a living they were
obliged to follow the craft of blacksmiths, whence their descendants took
the surname of Fabbri. But the brothers Tomaso and Ugolino, who moved
on to Venice, passed the remainder of their lives in more dignified rank; for
Ugohno became a captain of some note in the army of the Venetian
Republic, which by about the year 1000 had, as Casimir Freschot relates
in the Pregi della Nobilta Veneta, distinctly received among its patricians
some persons who belonged to this house, and who were the ancestors
of the Venetian senatorial family of Da Legge.