Week 25: Unexpected #52Ancestors — Making Sense of it All

When I started down the family history road with my husband’s paternal line, I dove into it with minimal background information and family legends, such as:

· Baty was originally spelled Beatty.

· Beatty’s were originally Scottish, from a “Border Reivers” clan.

· The Beattys came from Scotland to northern-Ireland and then settled in the U.S.

· The family is descendant from Colonel William Ashfordby Beatty, Jr, a Revolutionary War hero.

There are lots of famous Beattys, including Warren, Ned, Ryan, and others. There are towns named Beatty in Nevada, Ohio, and Oregon.[1] I’ve read in several places that Beatty may have been derived from Bartholomew. A Baty cousin told me he had contacted relatives in Scotland and had been invited to see the ancestral home.

Okay, all well and good and I am on my merry way.

As I’ve previously mentioned, I know next to nothing about DNA. However, I do know that if you want to trace a paternal line, you need to take a Y-DNA test. So, back in 2011, I sent away for a Y-DNA test for my husband from FamilyTreeDNA, the only Y-DNA public testing company. I ordered a test that analyzed 37 markers on the Y-chromosome and got back a couple of Baty matches, but also some Owens and Hines. I immediately added Bruce to the Beatty Y-chromosome project at FTDNA. Currently, the project has over 600 men with the Beatty surname, including variants, working to connect lineages via DNA to supplement traditional research. The guys that run the group are really great.

Okay, la de da. All good.

For a reason I cannot remember now, in 2015, I decided to upgrade Bruce’s DNA analysis to what was called the Big Y-500 and that’s when the “trouble” started.[2] I got a message from one of the Beatty administrators who said (paraphrasing here) “Bruce can stay in the Beatty project because of his last name, but he really belongs in the ‘Clan Colla 425 null’ project.” So, like a good girl, I add Bruce to the Clan Colla project and if I was barely treading water before, I am truly drowning now. Since I can’t comprehend 90% of any of this you will be (mercifully) spared any detail analysis. What I found out in regard to the four bullet points above:

· No.

Well that was unexpected.

The first thing I learn about the “Clan Colla 425 null” project is that it is named thus because all of the men in this project have a 0 (“null”) for the 425 STR marker. Quick DNA lesson: a STR is a “short tandem repeat” which are very short regions located along the Y chromosome. “Each is made up of multiple copies of a short sequence of nucleotide bases that repeat a variable number of times.”[3] Each STR marker has a different name; in this case DYS425.[4] There are three other STR markers that define the Clan Colla DNA and here are over 600 men in the FTDNA Clan Colla project who have these markers and other distinguishing mutations, including Bruce. Because the Y-chromosome does not undergo extensive recombination as it is passed down to the next generation, it is particularly useful in determining the paternal line. A value of “0” for any marker is infrequent.

All of the men in this project descended from three warlike brothers known as the Three Collas who lived in the early part of the 4th century in a part of Ireland called Airgíalla (in Ulster).[5] Where these brothers came from is still up for debate. One view is that they were Roman-trained mercenaries from Colchester in Essex. Another theory is that they migrated from the west of Scotland.[6] The discussion among the academics and researchers is fascinating, but inconclusive. And while interesting, none of it is helpful for my research as the Baty/Beatty surname is not yet traditionally associated with the Three Collas.

What do I do with this unexpected turn of events?

David Baty is Bruce’s third great-grandfather and the last known ancestor on his paternal line. A big bright brick wall. Over many years, I’ve used lots of strategies to try and find his origins. The earliest evidence I have for his existence is the marriage bond between him and Samuel Pickerill dated May 9, 1808, in Mason County, Kentucky.[7] I’ve nothing on his parents, siblings, cousins or where he was born.

Armed with this DNA analysis, this is my current working theory:

David’s father was not a Baty/Beatty.

One of Bruce’s paternal ancestors is related to

· Thomas Hines from Ireland;

· Hugh Owens from Ireland; and/or

· Eugene J. Owen from Ireland and Franklin County, PA.

My next step will be to build out trees for all these men and see where/if David intersects. Wish me luck!

[1] Wikipedia.org, “Beatty,” rev. 10:52, 3 June 2020.

[2] FTDNA does a “Big Y-700” now where they analyze over 200,000 SNPs and up to 700 STRs.

[3] Blaine T. Bettinger and Debbie Parker Wayne, “Chapter 3: Genealogical Applications for Y-DNA,” Genetic Genealogy in Practice (Arlington, Virginia: National Genealogical Society, 2016), 26.

[4] D=DNA, Y=Y chromosome, S=segment. Ibid.

[5] “Background - Who Were the Three Collas?” Clan Colla 425 null, (https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/clancolla-42-5null/about/background : accessed 2 July 2020).

[6] “Origin of the Three Collas - Patrick McMahon Email of May 17, 2018,” Z3000 DNA of the Three Collas(http://www.peterspioneers.com/colla.htm#origin : accessed 2 July 2020).

[7] Mason County, Kentucky, Clerk of the Court, “Loose bonds 1806-1819,” David Beatty-Emlou Pickerrell, 9 May 1808; “Kentucky, County Marriages, 1797-1954,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9S7-9CRV?cc=1804888&wc=QD3Q-4X8%3A1300412311 : accessed 4 December 2017), FHL microfilm 5,552,766, image 81 of 569.

SNP Tracker for Bruce’s terminal SNP. Tracking Back (http://scaledinnovation.com/gg/gg.html?nm=tools)

We have never been to Northern Ireland, but here is a lovely shot of the Killary Fjord in Connemara.