Back in 2015 or thereabouts, Denis O'Malley (a former chieftain) and a few others approached me after a talk I gave at the Silvermines Historical Society in Dolla, county Tipperary. They wanted me to help them interpret some DNA results. And thus the O'Malley's of Group 2 were born (although they had not become "Group 2" at that point in time).
And furthermore, Denis and I are DNA cousins ... but (as with many DNA matches) we still have to figure out exactly how we are related.
O'Malley Group 2 has grown steadily over time. We had 10 people in 2019 (see previous post) and now the group numbers 21 people altogether, and has split into 6 subgroups (numbered 2a to 2f). The two common factors that connect these various subgroups is the fact that
- they all appear to originate from the area around counties Limerick and Clare; and
- their DNA signature indicates that they share a common ancestor who lived in the Limerick area some time around 400 AD.
Much research has been done on the particular portion of the Tree of Mankind where Group 2 O'Malley's sit. One of the overarching DNA markers for the Group 2 O'Malley's is L226 and this is associated with the tribe of the Dal gCáis (pronounced Doll Gosh) with origins in the region around countries Clare & Limerick. Bart Jaski wrote an authoritative account of the rise of the clan in a recent book entitled Medieval Dublin XVI: Proceedings of Clontarf 1014-2014. The chapter can be downloaded for free here (after creating an account). Denis Wright's seminal paper from 2009 describes the fascinating story of how the DNA signature of the Dal gCáis was discovered and is well worth a read.
Origins of the Limerick O'Malley's
The fact that Group 2 has been split into six subgroups does not come as a big surprise. The O'Malley surname has been present in and around Limerick since the 1100s (long before the time of Grace O'Malley, the Pirate Queen, who is associated with the Group 3a O'Malley's). This was highlighted in previous posts where the O'Malley presence in Limerick is evidenced in medieval manuscripts, such as The Black Book of Limerick.
In addition, the 19th century antiquarian TJ Westropp refers to the Limerick O'Malley's as one of several "petty tribes ... rather families than septs ... of very uncertain affinity". Westropp also describes the territory of the O'Malley's of Limerick as being Crewmalley which appears to have been an alternative name for the townland of Ballyclogh (a few miles south of Limerick city), situated in the Civil Parish of Knocknagaul, in the Barony of Pubblebrien. See this previous post for a detailed description.
So, with such a long presence in Limerick, it is not surprising that there may have been Surname / DNA Switches over the course of the last 900 years that have given rise to several O'Malley subgroups.
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| Ballyclogh townland (orange border) in the Civil Parish of Knocknagaul (yellow border) in the Barony of Pubblebrien (blue border). |
The Group 2 subgroups & the Tree of Mankind
Here are the six subgroups of Group 2. Some members have supplied details of their EKA (Earliest Known Ancestor). Ten members have done the Big Y test, which has provided us with their current "terminal SNP" (the DNA marker in the Haplogroup column) and this in turn has enabled us to place each of these groups on the Tree of Mankind (a.k.a. Y-Haplotree) and visualise how they are related to each other.
The list of ancestral SNPs (DNA markers)* associated with each of the subgroups gives us an idea of which subgroups are more closely related to each other ...
- R-Z17669 > R-FGC79628 > R-DC63 > R-BY4101 > R-DC362 > R-DC735 ... Group 2a
- R-Z17669 > R-FGC79628 > R-DC63 > R-BY4101 > R-DC362 ... Group 2b
- R-Z17669 > R-ZZ31_1 > R-FGC5628 > R-BY4102 > R-DC40 > R-FT62906 > R-FT159770 > R-FT244455 > R-FT242218 ... Group 2c
- R-Z17669 > R-ZZ31_1 > R-FGC5628 > R-FGC5623 > R-FGC5659 > R-DC209 > R-DC21 ... Group 2f
- R-Z17669 > R-ZZ31_1 > R-DC194 > R-FTA80958 ... Group 2d
- R-Z17669 > R-DC9 > R-DC8 > R-DC1165 > R-DC135 > R-FT223736 ... Group 2e
Thus all the groups share a common ancestor who passed on the DNA marker Z17669 to them all. Note that Z17669 is itself a descendant of L226 thus:
- R-L226 > FGC5660 > Z17669
Groups 2a and 2b share a more recent common ancestor who passed on the DNA marker DC362 to both groups.
Similarly, Groups 2c, 2f, and 2d share a more recent common ancestor who passed on the DNA marker ZZ31_1 to them all. And in fact, Groups 2c and 2f, share an even more recent common ancestor who passed on the DNA marker FGC5628 to them both.
We can also see a visual representation of this on the Group Time Tree for these subgroups. This shows the following:
- the common ancestor for all groups (Z1699) lived about 400 AD
- the common ancestor for Groups 2b and 2a (DC362) lived about 750 AD
- the common ancestor for Groups 2d, 2c and 2f (ZZ31_1) lived about 450 AD
- the common ancestor for Groups 2c and 2f (FGC5628) lived about 500 AD
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| Group Time Tree for O'Malley Group 2 subgroups (with crude dates) |
Initial age estimates for each of the branching points were very crude, but this has changed since FTDNA introduced the new Discover feature and the associated suite of tools. This does give us more precise age estimates, but the ranges (95% Confidence Intervals) around these TMRCA estimates (TMRCA, Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor) are still quite large (usually +/- 200-300 years) so we cannot take these age estimates as gospel. A copious amount of salt needs to be sprinkled upon them. And they will change and evolve as more data is added to the Tree of Mankind.
Nevertheless, these age estimates give us a useful idea of how closely each of the Group 2 subgroups are related, and it is clear from the above diagram that all of these subgroups share common ancestors before the emergence of surnames in Ireland (about 1000 AD). And this in turn suggests that all of these subgroups acquired the O'Malley name independently of each other i.e. there is not a single common ancestor called O'Malley for all six subgroups. Expressed another way, the common ancestor who lived about 400 AD was not called "O'Malley" (he was about 600 years too soon for a surname), but at least 6 of his many descendants somehow acquired the surname "O'Malley" (or variant) and passed it down to their descendants. The question is: how? or why?
It is also worth noting that this common ancestor from 400 AD also gave rise to a variety of other surnames, and in fact, he has over 350 descendant branches, containing about 500 people with a variety of different surnames ...
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| "Classic Tree" view of the Z17669 branch (see here) |
Unfortunately there is no version of the Tree of Mankind that shows "every branch with every surname" so we have to fish around for surname information (either among the matches of the members on a particular branch, or by searching for the relevant branch of the Group Time Tree in relevant projects - it's a very cumbersome exercise). Below is the Time Tree version for each of the 6 subgroups, along with their adjacent branches, so we get some idea of the surnames that sit nearby. Note that the Time Tree gives all the branches with no surnames, and the Group Time Tree does give surnames, but only if a) the member is in that particular DNA project / "Group"; and b) only if he has has changed his settings from the default "private" setting. It's complicated!
Group 2e
This subgroup consists of only the one person. He has done the Big Y-700 test so we have data for his first 111 STR markers as well as his current "terminal SNP" (namely FT223736) based on an analysis of over 200,000 SNP markers. You can see where he sits on the Tree of Mankind below, as well as the surnames (and EKA) of his nearest genetic neighbours on adjacent branches. His closest genetic matches sit on the FTB65001 branch and both are called McMahan. These two McMahan men share a common ancestor about 1767, but the ancestor they share with the single Group 2e O'Malley would have lived about 1450.
Reviewing his STR matches reveals that he does not have any particularly close matches and there is no dominant surname among them. So this does not give us any clues as to where his O'Malley surname came from, or if it was some other surname prior to becoming "O'Malley". So, an open question is: did McMahan come before O'Malley? or did O'Malley come before McMahan?
Of potential significance is the fact that one group of people who adopted the McMahon surname came from neighbouring county Clare. The name derives from Mahon, grandson of Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, who was killed by the Vikings at the battle of Clontarf in 1014. See more about the history of this surname here.
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| Time Tree showing branch FT223736 and adjacent branches - surnames & EKA info was sourced from Z253 Project & STR matches of the single Group 2e member (click to enlarge) |
Groups 2a and 2b
Group 2a has 10 members, 3 of which have done the Big Y test (which indicates they sit on branch DC735). Group 2b has 3 members, one of which has done the Big Y test (which indicates they currently sit on the upstream branch DC362).
Below is a snapshot of the DC362 branch of the Group Time Tree for the Z253 Project. This only gives a limited number of the surnames attached to the various branches below DC362 but it does give some indication as to the nearest neighbours for Groups 2a and 2b. Only two of the three Big Y test-takers from Group 2a are shown. The third Group 2a Big Y test-taker and the single Big Y test-taker from Group 2b are not shown, probably because they are not members of the Z253 Project. This is a further explanation for why "all the relevant data is not all in the same place".
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| Group Time Tree for DC362 from Z253 Project |
The DC362 branch (Group 2b) is about 1250 years old, given that the age of DC362 is about 750 AD. Other surnames associated with this branch are varied and are mainly of Irish origin (as per the limited diagram above). The closest STR matches of the Group 2b O'Malley's are each other. They do not match any other surnames closely. So they appear to sit on a relatively isolated branch of the Tree of Mankind with a connection to their nearest genetic neighbours about 1250 years ago.
The three Big Y test-takers of Group 2a sit on the DC735 branch and the age estimate for this branch is about 1822 (range 1675-1920). This is in keeping with the known genealogy for this group, which was discussed in the 2019 update and is shown again below. Based on these known genealogies for the group, the overarching common ancestor for the current group members may have been born about 1750 or 1720.
Of note, 5 group members have ancestry from Murroe and 3 from Cappamore, which are about 5 miles apart, and 10 miles east of Limerick.
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| Murroe & Cappamore, county Limerick |
So it appears that the O'Malley surname has been associated with Group 2a for at least the last 250 years or so. But what happened before that (i.e. from 1750 back to 1000 AD - when surnames arose) is currently not known. It may be that the O'Malley surname has been associated with this group for much longer than 250 years but we would need Big Y data from additional test-takers to answer that question. There are no big clues among the many STR matches of the Group 2 members, although matches with the name Slattery seem to be genetically closer than matches with other surnames. Whether or not this is a relevant observation remains to be seen as more people join the FTDNA database and more data comes in.
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| 2019 Mutation History Tree for Group 2a showing where mutations occurred (yellow boxes are test-takers; Y111 = Y-DNA111 test, etc; SP = SNP Pack; BY = Big Y; SNPs in blue, STRs in red) (click to enlarge) |
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| 2019 McGuire Chart for those Group 2a men who have also done atDNA testing (numbers represent amount of DNA shared in cM) (click to enlarge) |
Group 2c
This group of four O'Malley men sits on the FT242218 branch, the common ancestor of which lived about 1450. So the O'Malley name has been associated with this group for at least the past 550 years - this is the longest time (established thus far) for any of the Group 2 subgroups.
One of the group has ancestors from Castleton Cross, county Galway.
Evaluation of the STR matches for this group, and the group's position on the Time Tree, did not provide any suggestions regarding the evolution of the O'Malley surname pre-1450.
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| Time Tree showing branch FT242218 and adjacent branches - surnames & EKA info was sourced from STR matches of Group 2e members (click to enlarge) |
Group 2d
Both men in this group have done the Big Y test and this place's them on the FTA80958 branch of the Tree of Mankind, sharing a common ancestor who lived about 1765, which is within a generation or two of their respective EKAs.
But this branch is also a very isolated branch and the common ancestor (DC194) that they share with their nearest genetic neighbours lived about 550 AD (roughly 1500 years ago).
One of the group members has ancestry from Ennis in county Clare.
Their STR matches (which include non-Big-Y test-takers) offer no additional suggestions about the origins and evolution of this group.
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| Time Tree showing branch FTA80958 and adjacent branches |
Group 2f
The sole man in this group is an O'Melia and he sits on the DC21 branch. The common ancestor for this branch lived about 1000 AD. The two other people who sit on this branch are a Riel & a Malone.
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| Time Tree showing the three men currently sitting on branch DC21 - surnames & EKA info was sourced from STR matches of the sole member (click to enlarge) |
Conclusions
The O'Malley men of Group 2 belong to the tribe of the Dal gCáis. Many ruling families in Limerick & Clare descend from this dynasty including clans with the following surnames: O'Brien (descendants of Brian Boru), McNamara, O'Kennedy, O'Grady, O'Dea, O'Quinn, McInerney, and Moloney. These surnames appear among the matches of many of the men in the various subgroups of Group 2.
The subgroup with the most test-takers is Group 2a (10 members), but the group who has been carrying the O'Malley name for the longest period of time is currently Group 2c. It is not possible to say which of the 6 subgroups is most likely to represent the group of O'Malley's described by Westropp as living in Crewmalley (aka Ballyclogh). It may even be that another subgroup exists who will prove to be descended from that particular family.
Hopefully, as the FTDNA database grows and more Big Y data becomes available, additional light will be thrown on these tantalising questions.
* to do this I use the "Find Common Ancestor" tool on Rob Spencer's Admin Utilities website at ... http://scaledinnovation.com/gg/adminUtils.html
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