Some early results for Finding Grace

In a previous article, I outlined how we have currently identified 13 people who reportedly descend from Grace O'Malley's great great grandfather Dermot (born about 1400 AD). Several of these people did a preliminary Y-DNA-37 test and several others (already within the project) upgraded to the Big Y test. Some early results are beginning to trickle in and already these shed some new light on the various genetic groups within the O'Malley DNA project and where Grace O'Malley's male forbears might sit.

There are 3 main lines that reportedly descend from Grace's great great grandfather (hereinafter referred to as Dermot 1400). These are ...

• Line 1 - descendants of Melaghlin (born c.1545), a reported brother of Grace, and therefore great great grandson of Dermot 1400. Several families are associated with this line including the O'Malley's of Belclare (e.g. Sir Owen O'Malley), Hawthorn Lodge, Ross House, and Achill.
• Line 2 - descendants of Dermot (born c.1490), a reported uncle of Grace, and therefore great grandson of Dermot 1400. This line includes the Kilmilkin O'Malley's.
• Line 3 - descendants of Donal (born c.1430), Grace's great great uncle and son of Dermot 1400. Families associated with this line include the O'Malley baronets (e.g. Sir Samuel O'Malley) and the O'Malley's of Ballyburke, and Eden Park.

Below is a summary of the family tree for Lines 1, 2 and 3 and the new DNA signatures identified for the descendants tested so far. Line 1 is probably associated with the overarching SNP for Group 3a (BY35730) whilst Line 2 is characterised by the SNP FTC36168, at least up as far as Sean na Firinne 1740. This is explained further below.

Grace's Y-DNA "family tree" showing early Big Y results - click to enlarge.
Test-takers are highlighted in light green at the bottom of each line.
Bold colour fills highlight the branch test-takers likely belong to ... 
green (likely BY35730); blue (definite FTC36168)
A high quality pdf is available for download here.

Each of these genealogies needs to be verified and evidence is being gathered to attempt to tackle this task. Thankfully this is a well trodden path and there are many avid O'Malley researchers who have left us with the fruits of their labour. However, at least one line appears to have died out or "daughtered out" (i.e. no living male descendants on the direct male line), namely Line 4 - that of Charles O'Malley of Cloonane, reportedly a descendant of Grace's supposed brother Teige (see previous article here). In addition, it is quite possible that there were other descendant lines for which there is no surviving documentary evidence (e.g. Line 5 - the descendants of Grace's brother, Donal na Pioba). Descendants of these lines may show up in the Big Y results.

Now to the new DNA results ... 

Participant 976196

This descendant of Line 1 (the Melaghlin line) sits on row 39 of the Results Page. His Y-DNA-37 results place him firmly in the middle of Group 3a, close to the group's modal haplotype (i.e. "average" genetic signature). This is the largest group in the project and is presumed to represent descendants of the originator of the O'Malley surname about 1000 years ago, based on ...

1. the weight of numbers (currently 39 people)
2. TMRCA estimates suggest that this group's DNA signature has been associated with the O'Malley name for approximately 1000 years (which roughly corresponds with when surnames were introduced in Ireland)
3. the fact that this group sits below the M222 branch on the Tree of Mankind. M222 is associated with Niall of the Nine Hostages, who is recorded as a brother of Brian / Brion, the ancestor of the O'Malley's (see previous article here).

Participant 977436 

This project member (on row 57 - see diagram below) is one of the Kilmilkin O'Malley's (from Line 2 - the Dermot 1490 line) and his Y37 results place him as a close Y37 match to the other Kilmilkin O'Malley's within the project. He also shares the Unique STR Pattern (pink & purple columns) in the last 6 rows of Group 3a on the Results Page - this has been discussed previously here.

Y-STR results extracted from the project's Results Page
(click to enlarge)

Now we come to the new Big Y tests. And these produced some interesting data that changes the groupings, alters the configuration of the O'Malley genetic tree, and raises some interesting possibilities about the Y-DNA signature of Grace O'Malley's male forbears.

Participant 438148

Firstly, member 438148 (row 62 above) tests positive for the SNP marker BY205502 and this places him in the same subgroup as the participant immediately below him (723727, row 63), who belongs to Group 3a1. Therefore I have moved 438148 into Group 3a1. I have also moved member 577761 (row 61 above) into Group 3a1 as he is a Genetic Distance of 0/37 to 438148, indicating a very close relationship. 

This is a somewhat surprising result, given that these latter two participants share almost all the elements of the Unique STR Pattern of the members in rows 57 to 60. Another point to note is that, even though member 438148 & 723727 both share the same terminal SNP, they have a Genetic Distance of 6/37 which means they are not closely related, so much so that they don't even appear on each others' match list. This reminds us how difficult it is to accurately assign group membership for all the Group 3 subgroups based solely on STR data and how important Big Y data is for accurate grouping of participants.

Participants IN102000, 778791, 961903

Secondly, 3 of the six test-takers in the Kilmilkin O'Malley group test positive for the SNP marker FTC36168, and two of them share this SNP and an additional SNP further downstream (FTC27440). This has resulted in the formation of a new group, namely Group 3g, and it is likely that the other Kilmilkin O'Malley's currently undergoing testing will also fall into this group. Consequently, all of them have moved into the new Group 3g. Interestingly, the Unique STR Pattern did not predict a subgroup of 3a but rather an entirely new group altogether. 

However, these new results allow us to say with confidence that the MRCA (Most Recent Common Ancestor) for these test-takers, namely Sean na Firinne 1740, carried the SNP marker FTC36168, and subsequently passed it down to all 3 of his descendants whose Big Y results recently came back from the lab. Similarly, we can surmise that the MRCA for participants 778791 & 961903, namely Tomás 1808, carried the SNP marker FTC27440. These "triangulation points"are indicated by the green triangles numbered 8 and 9 respectively in the first diagram above.

Next Steps

To summarise:

Line 1 - a single participant matches others within Group 3a, who are the largest group among the Mayo O'Malley's and are presumed to represent the descendants of the progenitor of the O'Malley surname. Results from an additional 4 test-takers on this line (barring any surprise results) will hopefully define the Y-DNA signature of ancestors at triangulation points 10, 13, 12 and (most importantly) 2 in the first diagram above. The latter would allow us to characterise the signature of Teige O'Malley 1665.

Line 2 (the Kilmilkin O'Malley's) have a very different DNA signature to Group 3a and form their own group, the new Group 3g. Their results delineate the Y-DNA signature of Sean na Firinne O'Malley 1740.

Line 3 - results are not available as yet but Y37 results from one participant should be available in 4 weeks. And what will they tell us? Well, there are some interesting possibilities:

1. if they match Line 1  then this suggests that Grace's male ancestors carried the same DNA signature as the main group, Group 3a.
2. if they match those in Line 2  then this suggests that Grace O'Malley's male forbears carried a different DNA signature to the main group, namely that of Group 3g.
3. if they match neither line, then that really throws a spanner in the works (a monkey wrench for those of you in the US). In this situation, a triangulation on Grace's male forbears will not be possible and we won't be able to figure out their DNA signature.

We may know the answer when we get the Y37 results in 4 weeks, or we may have to wait for Big Y results in 8-12 weeks. It could very well be that the male forbears of Grace O'Malley had a different DNA signature to the main group of O'Malley descendants today (i.e. Group 3a). This would not be surprising given the many opportunities for potential Surname or DNA Switches that presented themselves during medieval times (see this previous article here).

The rearrangements to the groups have altered the row numbers that people sit on below row 32 on the Results Page.  They have also resulted in a reconfiguration of the diagram in the recently posted article that shows how all the O'Malley's are related. A revised diagram can be seen in an updated section at the end of the previous article and can be downloaded via this link here.

In subsequent blog posts, we will take a closer look at Groups 3a1 and 3g and see what else the Big Y data can tell us about them.

Maurice Gleeson

April 2022