Let's begin with my father's line, the Moore's of Wigan, England and Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia, Canada.
A few years ago I had my DNA tested. The test I took analyzed the DNA I received from my father, who got it from his father, who got it from his father and so on. It just measures the male direct line. That means the test is very narrow in scope. The test covers only about six known men out a family tree that may contain over 1000 names. Of course it also analyzes the DNA of hundreds of unknown males in our direct line dating back 1000's of years.
From this test it turns out the Moore's in our line are from a group called the I haplogroup. Narrowed down even futher within that group we are M170 and/or M258.
From this information we can begin the Moore family history. It seems that the first ancient Moores left Africa thousands of years ago. They migrated to the Middle East in what is now the area where Iraq is today. At that time the distant ancestors of the Moore's were in the F haplogroup. However, in Iraq our genes mutated into the I halpogroup with certain markers. It is here we acquired the M170 marker which is unique. That happened around 25,000 years ago. (As far as I can tell there has been only been one Moore to that has returned to the Iraq homeland. That would be my son who was stationed in Iraq while he was in the army.)
From Iraq the ancient Moore's migrated into Europe. They settled in the Balkins near the present day country of Croatia. It is there today we find the highest percentage of people that have the I haplogroup.
But the ancient Moore's were not done with their migrations. They left the Balkins and moved northward into Scandinavia and north Germany. The I haplogroup is found in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. This happened at the end of the ice age about 10,000 or more years ago.
Britain is where the modern Moore's originated. In Britain there is a relatively low percentage of of the population that has the I haplogroup, but there are some people with the I haplogroup like the Moore's of Wigan, England. It is possible if not probable the Moore's received their DNA from Vikings (Norsemen) who came to that part of England prior to 1000 CE. To add credence to this theory, there are a number of place names in Wigan that have Viking origins.
I also had a second hypothsis on how we ended up with our I haplogroup DNA. It is my own hypothsis, so it is proabaly not good as the Viking hypothesis. I saw a map of Europe showing where people with the I haplogorup live today. There were many hits in Germany around and to the north of the rhine. I thought perhaps the Saxons may have lived in this area of Germany and migrated to the Wigan area around the 5th century CE. Wigan was home to the Saxons.
Maybe we received our DNA from both the Saxons and theVikings!
The information for this blog came from the DNA testing company I used at http://www.genebase.com/.
Copyright 2011 Paul F Moore
Blackrod, EnglandCemetery
My wife, Connie and I at a cemetery in Blackrod, England
Hi Paul,
ReplyDeleteJust in case you are interested, a piece of your blog caught my eye concerning Valentine Walls who was listed as living with a Moore family relative in 1841.
He was boarding with the Moore family at the time as he worked in the local area in the coalmines aged 12
This Valentine Walls was the brother of My great great grandfather William Walls 1819 - 1891. Valentine unfortunately died in a mining accident a few months after the 1841 census was taken.
Coincidentally i also have an Elizabeth Ann Moore in my tree on the Lee side of the family who married George Lee and they lived in Wigan also, i wonder if there is another connection there also, although they were married around 1910 after Elizabeths first husband John Moore died. All 3 of them are buried in the same grave in Ince cemetary (Plot number I 688).A search facility for the Moore name in this cemetary can be accessed on the Wigan world website.
My email is fran.collins@representative.com in case you would like to get in touch