A Scots-Irish case study: the Irwin DNA Project (James Irvine)
Channel: Genetic Genealogy Ireland
Date: 2015-12-12

Founded in 2005, the Clan Irwin Surname DNA project now has nearly 400 participants. What was traditionally a single-origin Scottish surname turns out to have 30 genetic families unrelated during the surname era. Some of these families are Scottish without Irish connections, some Irish without Scottish connections, but most include Scots-Irish who originated in the Scottish Borders. One of these genetic families has over 250 participants, of whom 12 have BigY test results. The scale of this predominantly Scots-Irish project offers fresh insights into popular understandings of what y-DNA tests can and can't tell us about surname origins and spellings.

James Irvine has been an amateur genealogist since the 1950s. Brought up in Ulster amongst his maternal Scots-Irish cousins, he later found his paternal ancestors were from Orkney, reputedly descended from the Scottish Borders family of Irving. Since retiring from a career in the shipping industry in 2000 he has written, edited and published several books including Trace Your Orkney Ancestors, and founded and administered the Clan Irwin Surname DNA project.

This lecture was presented at Genetic Genealogy Ireland 2015. Please note that these GGI2015 videos are copyrighted to the presenter and should only be used for personal study. They are not to be used for any other purpose without the presenter's express permission. Also, please note that because this is a rapidly advancing field, the content may quickly become outdated.

The lectures were sponsored by FamilyTreeDNA (at www.ftdna.com) and organised by Maurice Gleeson, a volunteer from ISOGG (International Society of Genetic Genealogy at www.isogg.org).