In 2010 I discovered that the surnames of the people with who I shared a common male ancestor as revealed by a Y-DNA were all associated with County Laois in Ireland and that my paternal 'Bowes' ancestors originate there, subsequent Y-DNA testing of people called Bowe(s) living in Laois confirmed my ancestral ties to that area. This was a surprise to me as I had always assumed that my ancestors (given my very English surname) were English. So began my research to demonstrate that Y-DNA testing could be used to pinpoint other people's paternal geographical origin.
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 I was a guest speaker for Family Tree DNA at the 2013 Who Do You Think You Are LIVE event in London.
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 I was invited by the world's largest commercial ancestral DNA testing Company 'Family Tree DNA' to give a talk entitled 'Pinpointing a Geographical Origin' at their
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To explain how DNA can shed light on one’s Irish ancestry requires a brief reminder of a crucial biological event. This event is the moment of conception, the point at which we receive half of our DNA in the form of chromosomes from each parent.
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 This is an early image from my days making the Castles of Ireland map.
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In the course of this website I have had some emails from those involved in surname groups questioning the accuracy of some maps. I have used 2 sources in making these maps: (1) 1911 census of Ireland (2) MacLysaghts book: 'The Surnames of Ireland.' As a scientist I am trained to look for, or spot paterns emerging in the results. With surnames that pattern can reflect ethnicity. For example Irish Surnames (lets say those of Gaelic Irish origin) typically begin with O' or Mac, people with these 'Irish Surnames' are also typically over 90% Catholic in 1911.
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 This detailed map shows the precise location of nearly 1,400 Castles in Ireland with a known association to 500 of the most prominant Irish, Norman, Gallowglass, S
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