Tag: Haplogroup

My FamilyTree DNA test results resulted in a new Haplogroup that contains both my results and two Singletons. The Haplogroup is defined as BY2574.Cascading down from Z255 to L159 to ZZ7_1, Haplogroup BY2574 shares BY2573 with a Byrne and a Brabazon as shown on THE BIG TREE Chart for R-ZZ7. Thanks to the wonderful work of Alex Williamson, those who take FamilyTree DNA’s Big Y Test are able to see how their haplogroup is embedded in a broader DNA Tree.   http://www.ytree.net/DisplayTree.php?blockID=132

As a result, a Singleton and I were able to make email contact with each other to establish a historical/genealogical nexus with DNA testing. Both families appear in English History during the 12^th century in the Chartulary of Cockersand, Vol. I, Part II, p.263 states that Huck de Singleton was born c1100 at Little Singleton, Kirkham, Lancashire and died in Broughton, Preston, Lancashire sometime after 1170.

Three generations later, Huck’s grandson, Robert de Singleton, had a son named Richard (circa 1204) who purchased land in the village of Cottam and thus changed his surname to Cottam and became Richard de Cottam. “Geoffrey de Glazebrook and Edith his wife released to Richard de Cottam an oxgang of land in Bilsborrow in 1227.” Final Conc. (Rec. Soc. Lancs, and Ches.), i, 47.

R-ZZ7 separates into haplogroups as detailed in Big Tree data for R-ZZ7 (above). The Big Tree data for R-ZZ7 above shows two Singletons and a single Cotton under R-BY2574 with a single Byrne under R-BY2573. Yet, R-ZZ7 is dominated by the Irish O’ Byrne Clan descended from Bran mac Málmórda, King of Leinster, of the Uí Faelain. The single Byrne in haplogrop R-BY2573 is Irish while the two Singletons and single Cotton in haplogroup R-BY2574 are English. As I am the single Cotton sharing haplogroup R-BY2574 with two Singleton cousins, I cannot help but be curious as to how and why our Irish DNA journeyed across the Irish Sea. Surprisingly, the answer appears that they were taken to across the Irish Sea with Vikings fleeing Dublin.

The Viking Kingdom of Dublin was established in Ireland in the mid-9^th century. Early in the 10^th century, however, a united Irish force from the Kingdoms of Brega and Leinster drove the Viking King Ímar ua Ímair and his warlord, Ingimundr, out of Dublin in 902AD. Ingimundr fled across the Irish Sea to the Wirral Peninsula in the far north of the Kingdom of Mercia between Wales and The Dane Law. King Ímar ua Ímair led his followers to Scotland where he confronted Constantine, King of the Picts, and was eventually defeated by Constantine at Strath Erenn. In 917, Ímar ua Ímair returned to Dublin and defeated the armies of Leinster. Ingimundr and his followers settled on the Wirral Peninsula between the Dee and Mersey estuaries and may have struck a deal with Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians and daughter of Alfred the Great, to safeguard the surrounding region from Viking raids. A study published in Molecular Biology and Evolution in February 2008 shows that up to 50% of men on the Wirral Peninsula are of Scandinavian ancestry.The Viking’s were notorious for capturing slaves and a large number of Irish slaves must have accompanied Ingimundr when he fled Dublin for the Wirral Peninsula in 902- including the ancestor of the Singleton/Cotton haplogroup R-BY2574. In Ireland, the King of Leinster, “Braen mac Máelmórda” was deposed in 1018 and the ClanO’Byrne was established. The time period between the Wirral Peninsula migration and the establishment of the O’Byrne line is about 100 years and coincides with the approximate separation of Singleton/Cotton haplogroup R-BY2574 from the older Irish O’Byrne haplogroup R-BY2573.

The Lancashire Chartulary, Series XX. Charter No. II (A.D. 1153-1160 Stephen to Henry II)  contains the first historical mention of the surname “Singleton” as Ughtred, son of Huck de Singleton, of the village of Broughton in Amounderness. Just north of the Wirral Peninsula is what is now Lancashire. Historically it was divided into the Six Hundreds of Lancashire and included the Amounderness Hundred that was strategically important in the 10^th century in the Dublin-York (Jórvík) axis of power. The towns of Singleton and Cottam existed in 10^th century Amounderness and still lie just north of Preston in Lancashire.