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From: "Gary & Ann Blakely" <>
Subject: Re: [DNA-R1B1C7] Ui Neill & Connachta Surnames
Date: Thu, 22 Nov 2007 07:34:48 -0600
References: <d68.17ded131.3476a381@aol.com>
In-Reply-To: <d68.17ded131.3476a381@aol.com>


John,

I keep seeing Cannon listed for the Trinity study but I have never seen any
Cannon DNA results in any of the results tables that I have looked at. Have
you seen Cannon in any of the actual results tables?

Gary Blakely

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Subject: [DNA-R1B1C7] Ui Neill & Connachta Surnames

Here's a basic list of Ui Neill and Connachta surnames taken mainly from
the
O'Clery Book of Genealogies and the Topographical Poems of O'Dugan. As
most
of you probably know, the Connachta (Ui Bruiun and Ui Fiachrach) are NOT
said to be descendants of Nial and are NOT Ui Neill. They are said to
descend
instead from brothers of Nial - but no historian really believes in that
genealogical fiction. Yet it appears there is a connection of some kind
since the
leading chieftains, like those of the Ui Neill, are mainly R1b1c7. How far

back does the connection go? That might be an interesting project. There

is at least some Connachta DNA on Ysearch (McGovern, MacDermott, O'Reilly,
O'Flannagan, O'Dowd). For the Ui Neill of the north there are plenty of
McLaughlin and O'Doherty DNA samples plus a few Gallaghers and O'Boyles.

The term Connachta now mainly applies to the province of Connacht (Leitrim,

Sligo, Roscommon, Mayo, Galway). But it's derived from Conn 'of the
Hundred
Battles', also the ancestor of the Ui Neill.

The southern Ui Neill, centered in Meath and Westmeath, are still a
mystery.
The leading family of the southern Ui Neill were the O Maoilsechlainns
(O'Melaghlin), whose surname was unfortunately misanglicized to McLoughlin
rendering them indistinguishable from the other various MacLochlainn septs
of
Ireland. And since 90% of our McLaughlin surname project members have no
idea
where their ancestors came from, we have been unable to draw any
conclusions
about the DNA of the O'Melaghlins of Meath. There do seem to be a few
R1b1c7
samples linked to the southern Ui Neill but so far nothing on the scale of
what
we've seen in the NW or Connacht. The southern Ui Neill are another
fertile
area for further research into R1b1c7.

Here are a few possible southern Ui Neill DNA samples.

Geoghegan (from the Sorenson database) R1b1c7 Westmeath
A2GCJ Molloy Tipperary, Ireland
U7NDR Dunn U.S.
3G5W3 Dunne Kings/Offaly, Ireland

The surname Dunn, while it has several origins, does appear in the
Topographical Poems in Teffia, although O'Donovan notes the surname is
unknown in
that country. It also appears to the south in Leinster (Queen's Co.).

The Trinity study also didn't seem to catch many southern Ui Neill in their

net.

(O')Gallagher (12), (O')Boyle (9), (O')Doherty (5), O'Donnell (4),
O'Connor
(3), Cannon (3), Bradley (2), O'Reilly (2), Flynn (2), (Mc)Kee (2),
Campbell
(1), Devlin (1), Donnelly (1), Egan (1), Gormley (1), Hynes (1), McCaul
(1),
McGovern (1), McLoughlin (1), McManus (1), McMenamin (1), Molloy (1),
O'Kane
(1), O'Rourke (1), and Quinn (1).

With the possible exceptions of Molloy and McLoughlin, most of these
surnames appear to be either Cenel Conaill, Cenel Eoghain or Connachta.


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