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From: "David Ewing" <>
Subject: Re: [DNA-R1B1C7] Age of R1b1c7
Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2008 07:40:16 -0700


First of all, I want to acknowledge how privileged we are to have John
McLaughlin contributing to this list. His scholarship is impressive and he
is tirelessly helpful. Thank you, John. I think I speak for the entire list.

John writes, " With the prevalence of R1b1c7 in Scotland I'm not sure why
you'd question why your group of Ewings matched that modal. R1b1c7 is
spread thinly across much of Scotland, from the western Isles through
Galloway and the lowlands and into the northern border regions of England.
The fact that other Ewings in Scotland are not R1b1c7 would seem to imply
multiple origins for the surname. Clearly R1b1c7 is not as prevalent
anywhere in Scotland as it is in west-northwest Ireland but it's there in
substantial amounts."

I have no doubt that when surnames emerged in Strathclyde, a number of men
with unrelated Y-DNA took the Ewing surname. It is certainly possible that
some of them were R1b1c7. This would explain why we find among Ewings of
Scottish origin a number of different species of R1b1, including R1b1c7. But
most American Ewings who trace their origins to Donegal are not only in
R1b1c7 but are members of a specific sub-cluster of the haplotype and are
undoubtedly closely related to one another. As I said in my initial posting,
in the Ewing project we think this fact suggests that only a few closely
related Ewings immigrated to Ireland from Scotland, they happened to be
R1b1c7, and we are seeing the results of a founder effect--their descendants
immigrated to America in large numbers, and so we see a large contingency of
R1b1c7 American Ewings.

But what a coincidence this is! There may have been twenty different
haplotype clusters of unrelated Ewing families in Scotland and members of
only one of these seem to have immigrated to Donegal. If members of one of
twenty different unrelated Ewing families immigrated to Donegal, what a
coincidence it is that they happened to be those who had precisely the
haplogroup typical of their destination! Coincidences happen; this could
have been one--indeed, that is our presumption. But doesn't a coincidence of
this kind make you want to scratch your head?

David Ewing

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