- all Spearin's with origins in Limerick are genetically related and go back to a family of Spierin brothers who probably arrived in Limerick in the late 1600s. Before that they are linked to a family of goldsmiths in London going back into the mid-1500s, and before that there are links to Flanders where they possibly followed the profession of bookbinding.
- several variants of the name are all closely genetically related - Spearin, Speerin, Speiran, Spearing, Speering, Spierin, & Sperin.
- the common ancestor to the whole group was probably born about 1650.
However there are several questions that remain unanswered:
1) Where did they originate? Are their roots in Flanders (modern Belgium) as the genealogical data suggests, or alternatively are they descended from English Spearing's (a surname concentrated in and around south-west England)?
2) How are the various families among the Limerick Spearin's related to each other? Many hit a Brick Wall at the 1800 timepoint in their individual family research - can we use DNA to try to establish who is more closely related to whom?
The good news is that it may now be possible to address this second question and that will be explored in the second part of this update. For now, let's look at where we are with the project.
Recruitment
The project currently boasts 112 members. Recruitment to the project has been steady over the past year with approximately 1 new member joining each month. The most frequent test in the project is the Family Finder test (70) followed by the Y-DNA test (63) and mtDNA (23).
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| The Project Recruitment Graph shows steady recruitment to the project (click to enlarge) |
Genetic Groups
The Y-DNA test explores only the direct male line and thus follows the surname. Members who have tested with Y-DNA have been divided into genetic families on the project's Results Page.
The largest group is Genetic Family 1 - the Limerick Spearin's. There are 20 members in this group. Fifteen (15) of them belong to a "core group" of Spearin's (one is a duplicate so there are only 14 individuals) and 5 are outliers (with non-Spearin surnames) who have been included in the group for comparison purposes (more on them later). The 20 group members and the results of their first 37 STR markers are below.
There are very few mutations (pink & blue squares) among the core group members (indicating a tightly knit group) and a lot more mutations among the outliers (indicating a more distant relationship to the core group).
Placement on the Tree of Mankind
Genetic Family 1 belongs to Haplogroup I and the subgroup I-M223 (which used to be called I2b1 and is now called I2a2a). Two members of the core group have previously undertaken the Big Y-500 test and have both tested positive for the Terminal SNP Y18109. The SNP Progression* associated with this SNP is as follows:
- Core Group ... I-M223 > CTS616 > CTS10057 > Z161 > L801 > Z165 > CTS6433 > S2364 > S2361 > Z171 > CTS8584 > Z185 > Z180 > Z166 / L1198 > Y17535 > Y18109
This particular subgroup of Haplogroup I could be associated with a variety of early Western European tribal groups, such as the Franks, Anglo-Saxons, Goths and Vikings. However there is (currently) insufficient evidence to say which of the origin theories is more likely - the Flanders origin theory or the English origin theory. You can read more about the deeper origins of this subgroup on Eupedia here.
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| The section of the Haplogroup I tree where the Limerick Spearin's sit (green arrow). The common ancestor (L801) is about 4000 years ago and started in Germany. (click to enlarge) |
We can see where the Y18109 branch sits on the Tree of Mankind on FTDNA's new Big Y Block Tree (below). The Y18109 branch is characterised by not 1 SNP but 9 i.e. it is a 9-SNP Block and the first SNP is Y18109. The others are Y18112/3/4/5/6/7/8 and BY37502.
From the diagram below it appears that the nearest genetic neighbours to the Limerick Spearin's are two men, one called Bowden (with origins in England) and the other called Murdock (with origins in Scotland) and they sit on the upstream branch Y18110. Their common ancestor with the Limerick Spearin's lived about 1100 years ago** (i.e. pre-surnames).
Beyond that, the next neighbours are a man (probably called Braz) from Portugal and 2 men from Cuba, and their common ancestor with the Limerick Spearin's would have lived about 2150 years ago and sat on the upstream branch Y17535. Two other people may also sit on or below this branch - Laveaud & Manning (according to the I-M223 Haplogroup Project).
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| The Big Y Block Tree - the Spearin's (Irish flag) sit on branch Y18109 and the nearest neighbours sit on the branch above (Y18110) (click to enlarge) |
So the Limerick Spearin's sit on a relatively isolated branch of the Tree of Mankind with only very few genetic neighbours. And of particular note, there are no neighbours from Belgium or the surrounding areas. So there is no data to suggest an origin for the group in Flanders. In fact, the nearest genetic neighbours are English & Scottish which might suggest a British origin for the Limerick Spearin's ... but I would be reluctant to draw any firm conclusions on the basis of only 2 matches. Simply put, we need more matches with more data.
Thus there is still only limited genetic evidence regarding the deeper origins of the Limerick Spearin's (i.e. prior to Limerick and London). Several project members have recent ancestral origins in Belgium, Netherlands & Germany but none of them match the Limerick Spearin's. Hopefully as more people join the project we will get one or more matches between the Limerick Spearin's and someone who has either Flemish or English ancestry and that will help definitively settle the origins question.
The Outliers
We now turn to the 5 outliers in Genetic Family 1. They all have differing surnames: Flodmark, Laveaud, Wall, Graham, and Church. The question is: are these very distantly related individuals or has there been a relatively recent Surname or DNA Switch (SDS)?
In the first scenario, the common ancestor between the outlier and the core group would have lived >1000 years ago, before the time of surnames. In the second scenario, a switch in DNA or surname could have occurred sometime within the last 1000 years. This could have been due to an adoption, a legal name change, a young widow remarrying, etc, etc. And it could have happened either way i.e. Spearin DNA became associated with a different surname, or different DNA became associated with the Spearin surname. It's a classic case of: which came first - the chicken or the egg?
But we can help answer the questions with SNP-marker testing (such as the Big Y) and two members of the the core group have done this. They share the Terminal SNP Y18109 whereas the Flodmark member has the Terminal SNP BY46958. These are on very distinct branches of the Tree of Mankind, a fact that is appreciated when you compare their abbreviated SNP Progressions* ...
- Core Group ... I-M223 >> Z161 >> Z166 / L1198 > Y17535 > Y18109
- Flodmark ...... I-M223 >> Z161 >> Z166 / L1198 > FT73935 > BY46958
In the above case the common ancestor would have tested positive for the SNP marker Z166 (a.k.a. L1198) and this is at least 2900 years old. So clearly, the connection between the Flodmark member and the core group is before the time of surnames (roughly 1000 years ago in Ireland) and does not represent a recent Surname or DNA Switch (e.g. adoption, illegitimacy, infidelity).
Assessment of the other outliers is more difficult because none have done the Big Y test which would place them definitively on the Tree of Mankind and answer the question (in the same way that we have done for the Flodmark member above). So instead we have to rely on Genetic Distance (i.e. compare their STR marker values to those of the core group and thus calculate the number of steps away they are from an exact match to the core group). Here are the GD values for the remaining 4 outliers.
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| GD Matrix for Outliers shows Church & Wall may be related recently (green) (Key: no. of markers tested in grey along the diagonal; yellow = match, green = close match, white = no match) |
Here are the conclusions we can draw from this comparison:
- Wall and Church do not match the core group (GD 10/67 & 19/111) but may be related to each other within the last 200 years (GD 2/67, TMRCA via TiP Report = 1860 [90% range 1710-1950]).
- Laveaud is a match to the core group (GD 9/111) and has tested positive for Z166 (on a single SNP test) but there is no information on any SNP markers downstream of this. Hence it is not possible to say definitively that there is no recent connection (i.e. within the last 1000 years). The Laveau family name has a fascinating history that you can read about in this previous blog post here.
- Graham is the closest to the core group (GD 5/67) but without Big Y data it is impossible to say if the common ancestor is before or after the advent of surnames (i.e. about 1000 years ago). If it is after the advent of surnames, then which name was first associated with this particular DNA signature - Graham or Spearin? We simply can't tell for certain based purely on the DNA. However, as discussed in a previous post, there is a Surname or DNA Switch on Mr. Graham's direct male line - his father's father is unknown and the name Graham was taken from his paternal grandmother. So he could very well have a Spearin on his direct male line. The estimated Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor between Mr. Graham and the core group (using the TiP Report tool) is about 8 generations (with a 90% range of 3-16) which crudely translates as a common ancestor born about 1710 (90% range 1470-1860). So it is conceivable that he may be descended from the Limerick Spearin's. On the Family Finder test, he doesn't appear to match any known descendants of the Limerick Spearin's, so this suggests that any connection (if it exists) has to be no closer than 4th cousins. Ultimately it may be the Big Y test that will help confirm or refute this potential connection.
The Limerick Spearin's sit on an isolated branch of the Tree of Mankind. Further matches are needed to determine if they originally came from Flanders (as suggested by the genealogical evidence).
The outliers in Genetic Family 1 (Laveaud, Wall, Graham, Church) should consider undertaking the Big Y test. This will help place them on the Tree of Mankind which in turn will help answer the question: is their connection to the Limerick Spearin's after the advent of surnames (about 1000 years ago) or before it? If the connection is after the advent of surnames, then there has probably been a Surname or DNA Switch some time in the last 1000 years and that raises the question: which came first - the Spearin chicken or the foreign egg?
FTDNA just launched their Summer Sale and there are significant discounts on the Big Y test as well as upgrades to higher marker levels (67 and 111). So now would be a good time to take advantage of these discounts if you are thinking of upgrading.
However, we may be more successful in determining the origins of Group 1 by targeted testing of English Spearing's and European Spiering's. This is an ongoing task and the subject of occasional Facebook recruitment campaigns. Despite our efforts, all the Spearing's and Spiering's who have tested so far have not shown any match to the Limerick Spearin's ... or each other. This suggests that there may be several distinct genetic signatures among both the English and the European groups. This will only become clear as more people test.
In the next part of the update we will take a closer look at the connections between the members of the core group of the Limerick Spearin's and explore techniques (using both Y-DNA and Family Finder data) to determine who is more closely related to whom.
Maurice Gleeson
Aug 2019
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