In 2030, we will be celebrating the 500th birthday of Grace O’Malley, “the Pirate Queen” (1530-1603). Grace is one of the most important figures in Irish history and a source of great national pride. Her many exploits are both legendary and inspirational, with successive generations of people worldwide becoming enthralled with her life and her legacy. She was a fearless soldier, and a shrewd politician, the protective matriarch of her family and her tribe. It is no wonder she has rightly become a national hero and a feminist icon.
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| Brighter Futures presents “Grace O’Malley, Our Pirate Queen” at St Patrick’s Day Parade, 2017. (CC BY-SA 2.0) From https://www.flickr.com/photos/infomatique/33398361582/in/photostream/ |
As part of commemorations and celebrations surrounding this 500 year anniversary, plans are afoot to identify as many of Grace’s descendants and close relatives as possible ... using DNA. Grace was married twice and there are many known descendants of her two husbands – Bourke’s & O’Flaherty’s. But less well known are the descendants of Grace’s immediate male O’Malley forbears.
And that is the starting point for the Finding Grace project. We aim to establish the Y-DNA signature of Grace's immediate male forbears and by doing so, we will provide a way for people to discover if they have a direct genetic connection to Grace O'Malley ... via the O'Malley side of her family.
Using a variety of documentary sources (including validated pedigrees from the Office of the Chief Herald), we have built out Grace’s family tree and have currently identified living descendants of ...
a) her reported brother Melaghlin (5 people) ... Line 1 (green)b) her reported uncle Dermot, born c.1490 (6 people) ... Line 2 (blue)c) her reported great great uncle Donal c.1430 (2 people) ... Line 3 (purple)
These 3 lines of descent are summarised in the diagram below.
All 13 descendants are on a direct male line of descent from Grace’s great great grandfather Dermot 1400. The theory is that all 13 men will have received their Y-DNA (virtually unchanged) from Dermot 1400 … that is, unless there has been some sort of a DNA switch along the way that has resulted in a break in transmission. And if there has been, DNA will reveal it. It may also indicate if some genealogies are false, and if the wrong descendants have been assigned to the wrong ancestor.
In the best case scenario, people on all three lines would match each other fairly closely, indicating that they all sit on the same general branch of the Tree of Mankind. However subtle differences would allow us to distinguish the three lines from each other, perhaps by the presence of three distinctive SNP markers, one for each branch. In this case, anyone who subsequently tested positive for one of the specific SNP markers could be reliably identified as a direct descendant of Line 1, 2 or 3 respectively.
And furthermore, anyone who can link themselves to that particular line (either through genealogical records or any kind of DNA, not just Y-DNA) would also be able to claim to be a direct descendant of that particular line. In this way, any descendants of Grace O’Malley’s immediate male forbears could be identified:
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| Direct male lines of descent from Grace's great great grandfather (click to enlarge) - 13 descendants have been identified so far |
All 13 descendants are on a direct male line of descent from Grace’s great great grandfather Dermot 1400. The theory is that all 13 men will have received their Y-DNA (virtually unchanged) from Dermot 1400 … that is, unless there has been some sort of a DNA switch along the way that has resulted in a break in transmission. And if there has been, DNA will reveal it. It may also indicate if some genealogies are false, and if the wrong descendants have been assigned to the wrong ancestor.
In the best case scenario, people on all three lines would match each other fairly closely, indicating that they all sit on the same general branch of the Tree of Mankind. However subtle differences would allow us to distinguish the three lines from each other, perhaps by the presence of three distinctive SNP markers, one for each branch. In this case, anyone who subsequently tested positive for one of the specific SNP markers could be reliably identified as a direct descendant of Line 1, 2 or 3 respectively.
And furthermore, anyone who can link themselves to that particular line (either through genealogical records or any kind of DNA, not just Y-DNA) would also be able to claim to be a direct descendant of that particular line. In this way, any descendants of Grace O’Malley’s immediate male forbears could be identified:
- People who link to Donal's line (Line 3) will be 3rd cousins of Grace, about 10-12 times removed.
- People who link to Dermot's line (Line 2) will be 1st cousins to Grace, about 12-14 times removed.
- And people who link to Melaghlin's line (Line 1) will have Grace as their aunt ... but with about 10-12 "great"s in front of “aunt”.
How can I help?
We are currently applying for various funding schemes but there are several ways that you can help the project.
If you are a male O'Malley, do the Y-DNA test and join the project. If you are not a male O'Malley, find one and get them to test. We recommend to do the Y-DNA-37 test initially. You can order it from the following link but please contact me for a $40 discount code (my email is below) ... https://www.familytreedna.com/group-join.aspx?Group=Maley
If you know someone who is on one of the direct male lines of descent described above, then please let us know. We would like to offer them a free Y-DNA test. In particular we need more recruits for Line 3.
Another way you could help would be to contribute to the General Fund. We will need to spend $400 within the next 3-4 weeks so it would be great if we could raise that amount before then. If you wish to contribute to the Finding Grace project, please make a donation to the General Fund. All donations are welcome (no matter how small) and you can do so by clicking on the blue Donate button below.
If you are a male O'Malley, do the Y-DNA test and join the project. If you are not a male O'Malley, find one and get them to test. We recommend to do the Y-DNA-37 test initially. You can order it from the following link but please contact me for a $40 discount code (my email is below) ... https://www.familytreedna.com/group-join.aspx?Group=Maley
If you know someone who is on one of the direct male lines of descent described above, then please let us know. We would like to offer them a free Y-DNA test. In particular we need more recruits for Line 3.
Another way you could help would be to contribute to the General Fund. We will need to spend $400 within the next 3-4 weeks so it would be great if we could raise that amount before then. If you wish to contribute to the Finding Grace project, please make a donation to the General Fund. All donations are welcome (no matter how small) and you can do so by clicking on the blue Donate button below.
Maurice Gleeson
May 2022
Email: mauricegleeson AT doctors.org.uk
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