Browse using the Side/End Menu
Family Research using Y-DNA testing
Introduction
In April 2025, on the FamilyTreeDNA website, Mike Fitzpatrick PhD and Esther Fitzpatrick PhD published a ground-breaking article entitled “ASTs, CASTs, and the Quest to Reclaim Lost Irish Clans: “Gene-Ealogy” and the New Era of Irish Surname, Clan, and Kindred Research” .
This article clearly demonstrated that modern-day Y-DNA results presented in the form of “Big-Y Group Time Trees” can be used to confirm/elaborate on the accuracy of early family relationships as documented in the traditional genealogical sources.
For their test case the authors used the Fitzpatrick family Y-DNA test results database at the FamilyTreeDNA website and showed that the Fitzpatrick diaspora consists of several family groups/groupings with possibly new and different origin stories than those documented in the traditional sources.
In this article we look at applying the Fitzpatrick methodology to further refine the early family history of worldwide Nolan diaspora and draw conclusions for future research into early Nolan family history.
The dawning of a New Age
Quoting the authors of the above-mentioned article:
a new era has dawned on Irish surname, clan and kindred research – what we have elsewhere referred to in a recent publication as working the hyphen of “GeneEalogy” – and it’s a moment of celebration. The dominant narrative era, in which the big heroic and anti-heroic narratives popularized in some Irish history books and pedigrees, is passing, and we are entering a phase of much deeper scholarly interrogation and understanding of Irish clans and kindred groups and their surnames.
DNA Information of Genealogical Interest
The main Y-DNA tool used to identify separate groups of families as was done for the Fitzpatricks, is the Big-Y DNA Group Time Tree which graphically displays how the various identified family sub-groups are related to one another, some within the last millenium and some even further back.
The Nolan Group Time Tree is derived from the Y-DNA test results for Nolan descendants who have had a Big (700+ markers) Y-DNA test done with the FamilyTreeDNA organization and, as of April 2025, 13 sub-groups, have been identified. This, however, does not mean that the different sub-groups identified so far do not have some sort of common history if one goes further back in time. In the next paragraph, I show that this is indeed possible using my own family sub-group as an example.
Knowing that my Canadian ancestor came from the Ballon Village area, known as the heartland for Carlow Nolans and having had my Big-Y DNA test done, I found it unusual that my Y-DNA results were not grouped with the main Carlow Nolan sub-group. However, choosing to display only my own line identified as “Unmatched – Haplogroup R-M269 – No Meaningful Matches” and the main Carlow line, identified as “R-M269#01 (County Carlow)” in the Group Time Tree, I was quickly rewarded with an answer. The trimmed version of the Nolan Group Time Tree (reproduced below) now clearly showed that my line (node R-FT84221; James Nowland of Killane) branched off from the main Nolan family tree around 750 AD (node R-Y62520).
This trimmed view of the Nolan family Group Time Tree also showed me that I have modern-day relatives with different family names. The Cullen family particularly stood branching out (node R-FT83747) from my line around the turn of the first millennium. Other than the DNA proof, collaborating evidence is the fact that when my Canadian ancestor emigrated from the Ballon area in the early 1800s, there were Cullens living on a neighbouring townland, the “Burrenside Cullens”.
Traditional Genealogical Sources
In the article, the authors identify several sources which they consulted in their genealogical study for the Fitzpatrick family.
The two main sources were:
however, the authors emphasize that the second source of genealogies (GBIG), available as a five-volume set from de Búrca books, is far superior, being in comparison a spaceship vis-à-vis a skateboard for the O’Hart source.
Another source which they consulted, albeit not as authoritative as the CBIG, is the Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae (hereafter CGH) which contains “pre-Norman Irish and related tracts from the twelfth century” identified as:
with variants and some additions from parallel material in “The Book of Lecan” and the “Book of Ballymote”. Available from the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, CGH can be accessed online as can the “Ó Cléirigh book of genealogies”.
Conclusions
In this article we have shown how Nolan Y-DNA test results, as displayed in the form of a Group Time Tree, can help to identify Nolan family sub-groups as was done for the Fitzpatricks (see article referenced in the introduction). We have also shown that what may initially be identified as a separate sub-group may still be part of another identified sub-group if one goes back far enough in time. This was the case for the sub-group identified for my family which we have shown was just a branch in the family tree which occured around 750 AD.
That being said, the Fitzpatrick approach to undertanding Irish family history is promising and may lead to greater and greater refinement as regards the history of families with Irish roots. Looking at the Nolan Group Time Tree and the identified 13 sub-groupings of Nolan families, several questions present themselves:
- What is the origin story for each identified sub-group
- Where were the ancestral lands for each identified sub-group.
For the Carlow Nolan sub-group, identifying the 7 or more fohartas granted to Eochaidh Fionn may help, however, given that surnames began to be used only around the 9th century, it is likely that modern-day descendants of Eochaidh Fionn carry different family names such as Larkin associated with the barony of Forth in Co. Wexford or even Cullen in Co. Carlow as we saw earlier.
Summarizing, we have made a giant step towards elucidating early Irish history related to our branch in the human family tree but there is still much work to do.
