DNA testing and Manx Ancestry

This section outlines the status of current DNA projects relevant to the pre-1700 Manx population.

Isle of Man Y-DNA project

This large project has been running since 2010, and contains Y-DNA results from over 700 men of Manx ancestry. It is adminstered by John Creer who describes its objectives of the effort as follows:

• To use Y-DNA testing to identify the earlier genetic origins of the roughly 135 indigenous Manx male line families and any genetic connections between them.
• To identify the timescales in which the early populations of the Isle of Man arrived on the Island.
• To see if there is any connection between the etymology of the surviving indigenous Manx family names and their male line genetic origins

Substantial progress has been made against all of these objectives. The evidence gathered indicates that the majority of the indigenous Manx families represented are each descended each from a single male patriarch for that family. A genetic signature has been identified for almost all of the common Manx surnames. About a quarter of these have been shown to have a patrilineal Scandavian heritage. The remainder appear to have Celtic heritage and to come from the British Isles or Ireland. In a small number of cases different surnames share a similar signatures, indicating that several patriarchs with different surnames descended from a common ancestor (prior to the adoption of surnames). The relevant Links page (the Links option on the side panel is accessible from the Introduction top panel heading) points to pages which discuss the results in more detail.

Individual Manx surname projects

There are also a number of projects focussing on the origins and branches corresponding to a single common Manx surname. These projects will typically include instances of the surname from outside the Island, and may also incorporate other types of DNA test.

Creer was the first Manx surname DNA project. It is in a mature state, with the results well documented.

The Keig, Skaggs, Cain(e), Cormode, Cretney, Curphey DNA project is researching the origins of these six connected Manx families of Norwegian Viking descent. DNA shows that all six families are descended from the same man.

The Cannell DNA project is relatively new and is exploring the origins of that name.