Wednesday 24 July 2013

John Creer - How DNA testing and analysis has transformed the knowledge of a Manx family’s history – so far!

Name - John A Creer BSc JP

Member - ISOGG, GoONS and the Cheshire and Manx Family History Societies

Day JobI am a retired pharmaceutical company director with a science background. I live in Cheshire, but my paternal family line comes from the Isle of Man. In the 1500’s the family name was McCrere.

Night JobI run the following websites - 

What is your involvement with genetic genealogy?
I am the coordinator of the Creer One-Name study as well as the Creer Y-DNA and Manx Y-DNA projects, and have been using DNA testing and analysis in support of my family history interests since 2005.

So what will you be talking about?
The presentation will illustrate my personal journey of discovery into my own Manx family history and show how the use of several types of DNA testing and analysis (Y-DNA and autosomal) have answered questions and solved problems, that the conventional paper sources and records available could not!

The talk will conclude by looking forward to the new levels of understanding into our families’ past that are being gained through Y-SNP testing, with specific reference to the Creer and Manx Y-DNA studies. This may, in time, reveal more about the shared earlier Celtic (and Viking?) history of the Irish and Manx people. 

Where can people get more information about you or your topic?
For more information just click on the links below:

What DNA tests will you be discussing?
Y-DNA mainly, but also autosomal DNA

Watch John's presentation here.


John Creer - How DNA testing and analysis has transformed the knowledge of a Manx family's history

Published on 20 Oct 2013
John Creer is the first person to complete a Y-DNA project. Having exhausted all documentary resources, John turned to Y-DNA to help him break through the Brick Wall he had with his Creer line, and when that didn't provide the answer, autosomal DNA did. In so doing, John has traced the genetic ancestry of every Creer alive today.

Presented at Genetic Genealogy Ireland 2013 on Sunday 20th Oct 2013. Please note that these GGI2013 videos are copyrighted to the presenter and should only be used for personal study. They are not to be used for any other purpose without the presenters express permission. Also, please note that because this is a rapidly advancing field, the content may quickly become outdated.

The lectures were sponsored by FamilyTreeDNA and organised by ISOGG (International Society of Genetic Genealogy).




Gerard Corcoran - Speaker Profile

Name - Gerard Corcoran

Member - ISOGG, GSI, Global Diaspora Forum

Day Job - Senior Solutions Manager, Huawei Technologies - Internet and Telecommunications Industry

Night Job - Genetic Genealogy Evangilist
I've tested with National Genographic, FTDNA, 23andme, deCODEme, and BGI
My special interests are Irish Migrations, Ireland Reaching Out, and Irish DNA Roots (see http://pinterest.com/gerardcorcoran/ireland-reaching-out/)

How did you get into genealogy?
My father was born in 1900 and died in 2000 and was a great source for family history and lore going back to the 19th Century. I remember our conversations under a big plum tree in our garden. I collected all the scraps of information and computerised them in the early 1970s while doing a computer assignment at Trinity College. The punched cards used in those days were ideal for recording key life events of Family Tree members. I dug out all my old records in 2005 and began seriously devoting time to this hobby.

What about your involvement with genetic genealogy?
I first tested in 2005 with The National Geographic, Genographic Project using the primitive 12 marker STR test. I uploaded these results to FTDNA and upgraded progressively 25, 37 and 67 and a la carte SNP tests to determine my terminal SNP. I am L21-DF21 on my Y-DNA and H1C1 on my mitochondrial DNA. It was using FTDNA that I first discovered my Minnesota Corcorans who emigrated from Clonfert in the 19th century. I organised a Gathering for this branch of the family in August of this year. When the first 23andme test became available I tested and am now up to one million SNPs. I have over 1,000 cousins using Autosomal matching on 23andme and FTDNA. I ordered the National Genographic 2.0 150 thousand SNP test last year and am looking forward to full Y Chrosomone sequencing. I joined ISOGG in its early days and am actively involved in most of the Genetic Genealogy projects and discussion groups dealing with Ireland. I volunteered for the Irish DNA Atlas Project and helped set up the Irish DNA Roots Project on Ireland Reaching Out and am helping set up the Genetic Genealogy component of the proposed Irish Global Diaspora Center in Dun Laoghaire. I am also interested in applying Internet Platforms and Social Media to Genetic Genealogy.

So what will you be talking about at Genetic Genealogy Ireland?
As Regional Co-ordinator for ISOGG in Ireland, I will be giving an update on recent developments in Irish genealogy, particularly those relevant to Irish genetic genealogy.

Where can people get more information about you or your topic?
For more information just click on the links below:

You can downed a pdf version of Gerard's slides by clicking here ...

Watch Gerard's presentation here.

Gerard Corcoran - Using Genetic Genealogy to map Inbound & Outbound Migrations from Ireland

Published on 19 Oct 2013
Gerard is Irish representative for the International Society of Genetic Genealogy. As an expert in both IT and genetic genealogy, Gerard has advised groups such as Ireland Reaching Out and the Global Diaspora forum on what types of DNA testing would be beneficial in defining the genetic signature of the Irish people. Here Gerard presents the vast amount of Irish and DNA-relevant online resources he has amassed, all freely available, and describes some key aspects of DNA tests he personally has undertaken.

Gerard says: I am passionate about the ability of Genetic Genealogy to help map the inbound and outbound Migrations to and from Ireland. I see it as a powerful tool for connecting the Irish Diaspora which numbers over 70 million. Projects such as the Ireland Reaching Out, Irish DNA Roots, Irish DNA Atlas, The Gathering, The Global Diaspora Forum and The Irish International Diaspora Center will help achieve this aim.

The presentation will trace the history of migrations into and out of Ireland from the Mesolithic, Neolithic, Copper, Bronze, Iron Ages through Early Christianity, The Celtic Monastic Movement, Vikings, Normans, Gaelic, Tudor, Elizabethan, Cromwellian, Williamite periods, The Wild Geese, The Penal Laws, The Great Famine, Georgian, Victorian and Modern periods. We will look at how Genetic Genealogy and Ancient Irish Genealogies can help tell these stories. Finally we will look at concrete projects which will help connect the 70 Million strong Irish Diaspora to its homeland.


Presented at Genetic Genealogy Ireland 2013 on Saturday 19th Oct 2013. Please note that these GGI2013 videos are copyrighted to the presenter and should only be used for personal study. They are not to be used for any other purpose without the presenters express permission. Also, please note that because this is a rapidly advancing field, the content may quickly become outdated.

The lectures were sponsored by FamilyTreeDNA and organised by ISOGG (International Society of Genetic Genealogy).


You can watch a video of the 2014 presentation by simply clicking on the image below. To watch it in Full Screen, click on the "square" icon in the bottom right of the screen.




Nigel McCarthy - DNA profiling of McCarthy septs and agnomens

Name - Nigel McCarthy

Day Job - Project engineer, mainly in petrochemical construction industry

Night Job - Administrator of the McCarthy (Y-DNA) Surname Study, and co-administrator of the Munster Irish (Y-DNA) Project.

What's your involvement with genealogy?
I've been a genealogist for 35 years and have been actively involved in the transcription of East London Catholic parish registers and the production of data CDs for the Catholic Family History Society.

What about your involvement with genetic genealogy?
I have been Administrator of the McCarthy (Y-DNA) Surname Study since 2010 and also the co-founder of the Munster Irish (Y-DNA) Project which I run with Elizabeth O'Donoghue-Ross and Finbar O'Mahony.

So what will you be talking about?
My presentation will cover the following:
  • First millennium origins of MacCarthys according to ancient genealogical tracts 
  • Second millennium MacCarthy septs 
  • Use of McCarthy agnomens 
  • Y-DNA profiling of McCarthy agnomens 
  • Genetic grouping of McCarthy lineages 
  • Comparison of genetic evidence with documented genealogies 
  • Reconstructing McCarthy genealogies from present day backwards 
I will show how DNA testing is helping to validate and/or correct the recorded history of the MacCarthys and their predecessors. I will also show how these results throw light on who and what were the origins of the MacCarthy kings of Cashel and Desmond. Did all the major MacCarthy septs share a common ancestor in the eponymous Cárthach? How do recent McCarthy agnomens relate to earlier septs?

What DNA tests will be discussed?
Y-DNA only 

To what surnames is this topic relevant? 
McCarthy, McAuliffe, Crimeen and variants, and other McCarthy agnomens which have appeared in documentation as surnames in their own right.

Where can people get more information about you or your topic?
For more information just click on the links below:

To download a pdf copy of the slides, please click here
Please note that these slides are copyrighted and should only be used for personal study. They are not to be used for any other purpose without the owners express permission. Also, please note that because this is a rapidly advancing field, the content may quickly become outdated.

Watch Nigel's presentation here.


Nigel McCarthy - DNA profiling of McCarthy septs and agnomens

Published on 23 Oct 2013
Nigel is administrator of the McCarthy Surname Project at FamilyTreeDNA. Nigel has spent months analysing the STR and SNP markers to generate incredibly intricate family trees based entirely on these mutations. In his talk, Nigel explores how this new DNA data ties in with the ancient medieval genealogies of the McCarthy families and their associated surnames.

Presented at Genetic Genealogy Ireland 2013 on Saturday 19th Oct 2013. Please note that these GGI2013 videos are copyrighted to the presenter and should only be used for personal study. They are not to be used for any other purpose without the presenters express permission. Also, please note that because this is a rapidly advancing field, the content may quickly become outdated.

The lectures were sponsored by FamilyTreeDNA and organised by ISOGG (International Society of Genetic Genealogy).




Tuesday 9 July 2013

Maurice Gleeson - Speaker Profile


Title of presentation: How DNA can help at Tuam

Member - ISOGG, APG, GOONS, IGRS, GSI

Day Job - psychiatrist, pharmaceutical physician, & part-time actor

Night Job - Project Administrator for several surname projects (Gleeson, Farrell, Spearin, etc) as well as the Irish mitochondrial DNA project and the WWI Missing-in-Action Legacy Project

How did you get into genealogy?
My Dad has been "doing the family tree" on and off since I was a teenager. I remember him having long conversations with my granny on Sunday afternoons when we used to visit her in Clontarf. I think we still have the roll of engineering graph paper on which he drew his first version of the tree. It's up in the attic somewhere. I joined the fray about 2006 and quickly became addicted. I've been an avid genealogist ever since.

What about your involvement with genetic genealogy?
I first tested in 2008 and have since used DNA to trace one line of my family (the Spierin line) back to the 1600's in Limerick. I also made some astounding discoveries about my Morgan line which has opened up a whole new avenue of research. I write about DNA for a variety of genealogy magazines including Irish Roots, Irish Lives Remembered, & British Connections. I have organised and chaired the DNA Lectures at Genetic Genealogy Ireland since 2013 and have assisted with the organising and chairing of the DNA Lectures at Who Do You Think You Are in the UK since 2014. I speak on DNA for Family History Societies across the UK and Ireland and have spoken at international conferences in Los Angeles, Washington, Houston, Toronto & Ottawa. Next year I have a speaking tour of the Eastern US (Boston & Philadelphia) as well as New Zealand & Australia. I have delivered a very successful week-long workshop on DNA in Salt Lake City and plan to return there to do the same in 2019. I run an online course on DNA at regular intervals during the year.

My passion projects include helping adoptees in Ireland to reconnect with their biological families via DNA. I co-ordinated a Commentary on the proposed Adoption Bill (Information & Tracing) 2016 and have liaised with the Department of Child and Youth Affairs in this regard. I am also passionate about helping to identify the remains of the 338,000 soldiers from World War One who are still missing-in-action. Each year 30-60 of them are discovered on the Western Front during routine farm work and, without DNA testing, most would remain unidentified.

So what will you be talking about?

Almost 800 children died at the Tuam Mothers & Babies home between 1925 & 1961. Many of them may be buried in a pit discovered on the old site of the home. This talk reviews how DNA can help identify the skeletal remains found in the pit, and explores some of the ethical issues involved.

Previous presentations at GGI:

GGI2018 Belfast: Using Triangulation to break through your Irish Brick WallI will explore how Brick Walls can be broken down by the use of Triangulation with your autosomal DNA results. There are various ways in which triangulation can be used and these will be explored in this presentation. I recently achieved a major break through and pushed my Morgan line back to Limerick in the 1600s and Wales in the 1400s (potentially). It would also appear that I am related to some rather famous people.
GGI2017: I have two presentations. The first explores how to interpret your Y-DNA results and discusses not just your personal Y-DNA Results pages, but also what your results mean in the context of a surname project and a haplogroup project. How these various projects can help inform your own personal genealogy will be explained.

The second presentation explores the use of Triangulation with your autosomal DNA results. This is a relatively simple technique that can have a major impact on your genealogical research. There are various ways in which triangulation can be used and these will be explored in this presentation.

GGI2016I have two presentations this year. The first deals with World War One. Over 330,000 WWI soldiers are still missing-in-action on the Western Front. Every year 30-60 soldiers (many of them Irish) are found during routine farm work. This presentation discusses the identification process using examples from recent finds (such as Fromelles) and how you can help the process to identify your own war dead relatives.

My second talk explores the challenges involved in researching the DNA of Irish Clans. I set out to connect my Gleeson “Clan” to the Ancient Irish Annals, only to be confronted with a variety of different hurdles and challenges. The same obstacles are likely to be encountered by many genealogists and DNA Project Administrators attempting to achieve the same objective and I will discuss some hints and tips on how to approach these genealogical conundrums. 

GGI2014My first presentation is "Which DNA test is best for you?" and I will give a detailed description of the 3 main types of DNA test.That way you can decide for yourself which test might be best to help answer the questions you have relating to your own family tree research.

The second presentation is called "Solving Adoption Mysteries in your Family Tree". Many family trees have an individual who was adopted. It might be the person researching the tree, one of their parents, or one of their grandparents. There may be documentary evidence, there may not. In both cases, DNA testing can answer questions that the documentary evidence has failed to address. And in some instances, DNA testing can circumvent the need for documentary evidence entirely. There is a full explanation of how this can be done on a dedicated page on the GGI website here - Solving Adoption Mysteries in your Family Tree

GGI2013: Many people are interested in doing a DNA test but are not sure what tests are available or what the difference is between the various tests, so my first presentation is entitled "What DNA test is best for you?" and I will give a detailed description of the 3 main types of DNA test. I will cover what each test will tell you, and equally as important, what each test won't tell you. That way you can decide for yourself which test might be best to help answer the questions you have relating to your own family tree research. The presentation will cover how the Y-DNA test can tell you about your deep ancestry, and connect you with relatives, on your direct MALE line (your father's father's father's line). I'll also discuss how Y-DNA is particularly useful for surname projects (because like the surname, the Y-DNA is passed down from father to son in a direct male line). Similarly, I'll discuss how the mitochondrial DNA test can inform you about your deep ancestry, and connect you with relatives, on your direct FEMALE line (your mother's mother's mother's line). Lastly, I will talk about the autosomal DNA test and how it can help you connect with more recent cousins (on all your ancestral lines) who share a common ancestor with you in the last 200 years or so. All of the tests will be illustrated with examples, mainly from Irish projects.

GGI2013: "Autosomal DNA, Adoptees, and finding long lost Irish relatives". This talk will focus almost exclusively on autosomal DNA and how to use it to find long lost cousins. I've used it in my own family tree to find second cousins of my father's who live in Australia. We wouldn't have been able to establish this link without the DNA test. I'll also be explaining a step-by-step approach to assessing your "matches" on the autosomal DNA test and how to narrow down the number of potential candidates for the common ancestor that you share with each match. In this regard, the adoption community in the US have developed some amazing tools to help with this process and I will be looking at the successes they have had reuniting adoptees with their biological families and how the methodology can be applied to ordinary family tree research (with a particular focus on its potential usefulness from an Irish perspective).

Where can people get more information about you and your research interests?

For more information just click on the links below:


You can watch a video of previous presentations by simply clicking on the image below. To watch it in Full Screen, click on the "square" icon in the bottom right of the screen.











These lectures are sponsored by FamilyTreeDNA and organised by volunteers from ISOGG (International Society of Genetic Genealogy).