The Livingston/Maclea/Boggs DNA Surname Project

Founded February 2003, Last Updated 2-Sep-09

 

This project is open to all families potentially affiliated with any Livingston(e) or Maclea family.

It is run by participants, for participants.

This is a joint genealogical effort to try to reconstruct family trees, which may contain errors. If you think you see something you want to copy, please also do me the favor of contacting the maker of this webpage (Andrew.Lancaster “at” skynet.be) to give me a chance to update you on the latest possibilities.

 

Participation

  • Concerning testing, see here on separate page. You need to be a male with one of our surnames.
  • There are also other ways of providing assistance to this project for relatives (not male, or not having one of the key surnames) and genealogist friends of these families. Options include sponsorship, coordination and research. Please contact me for more ideas, or if you want to make contact with any of our participants families.
  • There is also now a member-only discussion group:          http://groups.yahoo.com/group/livingston_maclea_DNA/

 

This is the results page for our NON “R1b” haplotypes

To go to the main page, click here.

To go to our web page for R1b haplotypes of our project, click here.

 

A quick introduction to the DNA results and what they mean

Background reading:       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_genealogy

  • Along the tops of tables you can see the names of places ("loci" or "markers") on the Y chromosome. Every man has a Y chromosome, made up of DNA, which he gets in a fairly accurate from his father.

 

  • The particular places on the Y chromosome which are studied by genealogists are "stutters" in the "code" of the DNA, which are relatively unstable, called "STR markers" (with names like "DYS393" or "YCAII"). This makes them suited for identifying large patrilineal families or dynasties, and therefore for surname studies. For distinguishing specific individuals compared to relatives with the same surname, or distinguishing whole ethnic or geographic groups, other DNA "markers" can be used.

 

  • The numbers within the table can be considered as the number of repeats within each of the "stutters" under consideration.

 

  • Several of the markers have multiple copies at different places within the Y chromosome. These add an extra complexity, because in a single generational step one of these copies can overwrite another. For example the two different YCAII markers might go from YCAII=19-24 to YCAII=19-19.

 

  • These multi-part markers must be interpreted carefully because the lab results are not always certain. One single result could mean that one of the copies has been deleted or that there are two with the same number of repeats. In the case of DYS464 there can even often be extra copies (more than the normal 4).

 

Here are some example of multi-part markers from our first results table below. Compare these to these more full lists of the possible interpretations to the standardized formats presented below…

 

 

DYS459

 

DYS464

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

YCAII

 

 

 

 

CDY (DYS724)

normal number of alleles

2 parts

 

most common is 4 parts, but often more or less

 

2 parts

 

 

 

2 parts

 

 

Livingstone

21629

9-9 or just 9?

15-15-15-15 or 15-15-15 or 15-15 or 15 or something else?

19-24

 

 

 

 

38-38 or just 38?

McLean

28652

9-10

 

 

15-15-17-17 or 15-17 or something else?

 

 

 

 

 

19-24

 

 

 

 

36-38

 

 

 

MacLea

16114

9-9 or just 9?

15-15-16-16 or 15-16 or something else?

 

 

 

 

 

19-19 or just 19?

 

39-39 or just 39?

McCauley

17767

9-9 or just 9?

15

16

16

16

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

19-19 or just 19?

 

39-42

 

 

 

 

  • MARKER STANDARDS. Wherever marker standards differ between labs I have used the Family Tree DNA standards for the first 37 markers (the ones up to and including DYS438). For the next 11 markers (DYS461 up to DYS463) we use the most common standard for those markers, which is that of the companies DNA Heritage and Relative Genetics (also used on www.ysearch.org). We use the standards of DNA Fingerprint on all other markers. See their conversion table.
  • HAPLOGROUPS. When we speak about “haplogroups” we are talking about the broad groupings of humankind who share ancient common ancestry, in this case only in their paternal ancestry, and from a common paternal ancestor. A great resource for this is at http://www.isogg.org/tree/index.html.

 

KEY. To make it easier to take this large R1b group in I have divided it into two tables and used a colour coding based which tries to make what is most unusual most obvious. Only the very fastest markers are given red titles. And all coloured cells within the table are on the following basis:

1.      Pale Yellow for 1 repeat less than the typical group value (group modal) chosen for comparison (bright green row at top).

2.      Bright Yellow for 2 repeats less than group modal.

3.      Pink for 1 repeat more than group modal.

4.      Magenta for 2 repeats more than group modal.

5.      Purple for 3 repeats more than group modal.

6.      Red for 4 repeats more than group modal.

7.      Bright green for more distant, and therefore outstanding, results.

Individuals marked as SMGF come from the Sorenson database at http://smgf.org and are not participants of the project as such.

1. R1a Haplotypes

In men of British ancestry R1a is associated with peoples who entered this region since Roman times. Two distinct types of R1a account for most of these, which arrived from central Eurasia by very different routes: one is the so-called Norse R1a, associated with Vikings, such as those who ruled the Western Isles of Scotland for centuries, and the other arrived with Eastern Europe Ashkenazim Jews. Our project has both types.

Four of the R1a signatures above seem generally similar to typical Clan Donald type R1a, which has been found to be the DNA signature of the Dark Ages warrior Somerled, whose reconstructed signature is included for comparison. More generally this type of R1a is always considered to be Norse in Scotland, and has mostly been found in Norway within Europe, proving that Somerled, who defeated the Norse, was himself not purely Scottish or Irish. The Norse R1a seems to be a small branch of a bigger tree that is still being studied. R1a is found from Eastern Germany across to Siberia. One of the most famous Eastern European R1a types is the Ashkenazi Levite modal, shown above for comparison. By some people’s estimation, the Norse type looks more similar to R1a types from central Asia than the types found nearby in Germany, Poland and Russia. Further research is likely to clarify the issue in the next few years. Doug McDonald of the clan Donald has a very tentative theory that the variations we see in our clan (those with 25 markers) might be those of the MacDougall branch of Somerled’s descendents.

On the whole though, I feel our project has its our own little R1a family which is pretty clearly identifiable within the bigger R1a world. In any case the main matches are Scottish.

Many of them seem to have been “Scots Irish” but none of them had any known relationship, so this is developing to become a very significant Livingston DNA family.

 

  • The family of participant 31630 can be traced back to 1699 in Aberdeenshire in the north of Scotland. There seems to have long been a branch or branches of the Maclea clan present in the north, though the exact links are not clear. This is something the project hopes to shed light on. The 24 at DYS390 is on a “slow-changing” marker and could be significant.

·         The family of participant 110480 go back to Robert Livingston b. 1797 who married Elizabeth McFarland b. 1811. Robert had been a British soldier, in the 50th Regiment in Londonderry, and listed his home place as Armagh. He was returned to Ireland after service in the West Indies aboard ship in early 1827. He and his wife settled in Alma, Albert County New Brunswick and after applying for the Land Grant in 1833 finally got it in 1858.

  • The results from SMGF is a family we have no contact with but it is a perfect match for 44312 and the provided pedigree states that this line goes back 5 generations to George J. Livingston who was born 18 Apr 1833 Alabama, USA and who married Sarah A. Beach, with whom he had a son in Florida, James M. Livingston, born 6 Dec 1865 Florida, USA. This James married Elizabeth H. Reeves.
  • The family of participant 44312 seems to come from South Carolina, and before there, from Northern Ireland. In other words it is presumably “Scots Irish”. The 30 at DYS392-2 is on a “slow changing” marker and could be significant.
  • Our Leviston with DNA FP kit 5185.70 is Australian, and tested with a different company. His ancestry is in Northern Ireland.
  • According to pedigree study, the group of 89656, 91974, 119885 and our Ancestry participant, go back to John Livingston, b. about 1760-1770 who married 14 Dec 1791 to Mary Carvin, Botetourt Co., VA. While some of them have been proposed as members of other families such as the Poropotank Livingston family, and the Shelby Co., Kentucky Livingstons, the DNA shows these to be part part of one male line, separate from those others.
    • Our Ancestry participant in this group is from a line that can be traced back to Jesse Livingston born 12 Jan 1818 in Morgan Co., Alabama, died 1879 in Crane Hill; Cullman Co., Alabama. He was son of William Carvin Livingston, oldest son of the above-mentioned John Livingston and Mary Carvin
    • 91974 can be traced back to Richard Carvin Livingston, b. 1814 in TN, son of the above-mentioned John and Mary.
    • 119885 goes back to Jackson Livingston, son of Moses Livingston, who was another son of John and Mary.
    • 89656 goes back to William Livingston, oldest son of Moses Livingston
  • Livingston N14434 traces his family back to Hartford Connecticut and is another Norse type R1a, and although we only have 12 markers tested it seems likely he might match with the three families above.

 

  • Levy 45631 is a family which may be Jewish. (The full 37 marker results came in February 2006 and seem to make that decisive that this family has the Eastern European R1a which is possessed by many Jewish Levy families.) On the other hand family records suggest a Scottish influence, and Levy could be Scottish name also.  It remains a question whether all Scottish Levys are Jewish in origin. It would seem unlikely because the name has been there a long time.
  • Concerning Livingston family N42996 we have had no correspondence.

 

2.  “I” Haplotypes

 

In Scotland, I haplotypes are associated with Scandinavian or ancient “Anglo-Saxon” influence, although in fact they are very diverse, and many times might be very ancient in Britain. See:

I1.

  1. The SMGF Mackley comes seems to be from a paternal line which was in Norwich, Norfolk, England as early as the 17th century.  It is confidently predicted to have SNP mutation P30, and indeed to be what is called “Anglo Saxon I1” – a type in other words which is felt to have originated somewhere around Holland, Lower Saxony and South West Denmark.
  2. McConley 41398 is also predicted to have SNP mutation P30. It is a classic “Norse I1” type – a type which seems to have originated in the northern Baltic region of Western Demark, Sweden or Finland. His closest matches include many names famous from the Scottish-English border: Johnson, Armstrong, Clendennan and Gordon; and also highland names like Buchanan, Mac Innes, Campbell and MacLaren. Outside of Scotland, there are close matches in Scandinavia, but also English matches, and matches with an Irish Neeley, and an American McNeal. SMGF search.

I2.

  1. Our biggest I group so far: I2* (I-S31*) also once known as the “y cluster”

 

This one Livingston family belongs to a rare I haplotype, noticed by genetic genealogists some years ago. In this project in 2005 we worked together with others including Glen Todd, Ken Nordvedt, Larry Rutledge and distinguished this was as the “y cluster” which we summarized on a webpage at the time. Since that time SNP mutations defining the clades has helped clarify the I family tree enormously, and the y cluster is now known as I2* (I-S31*). Ken Nordvedt keeps the newest updates on his webpages. Also see below for the “x cluster” which was defined during some of the same discussions. He divides the cluster into 3 clusters (A, B, C). Ours are in cluster A, defined for example by DYS549=10,10, DYS448=21,and YCAII=19-19.

 

The closest matches so far are with Scottish surnames: Lockhart, Adamson (traced back to Fife in Scotland), and Ritchie (Aberdeenshire). The other matches are all generally Northern European, but the number is so small that it is difficult to make many conclusions. Ysearch.

 

For family tree building purposes we can note that this is a neatly defined group with reasonably close relatedness, and it should be possible to now build a paper trail. Numbers 34212 and 13913 believe they have found a common ancestor in John Livingston, born about 1750 in Westmoreland or Adams Co., Pennsylvania, USA. 26323 traces back so far to Samuel Livingston, born about 1749 in Jessamine Co. Kentucky, who then possibly had roots in Pennsylvania also. 11714 can be traced back to William Livingston b. 1793, Burke/Jefferson Co., Georgia.                      Contact a member of this Livingston family.

 

This family felt itself to be related to the New York Livingstons, which would make them lowlanders if true. Its closest genetic matches also tend to be lowland Scottish, Welsh, English and (a little further off) Nordic. So the family could well be a lowland family.

 

  1. The Dunleavys included make up the rest of the 12 Irish Dunleavys from the publicly available data from Brian McEvoy and Daniel G. Bradley “Y-chromosomes and the extent of patrilineal ancestry in Irish surnames”, Human Genetics 2006. See http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1380239 and http://www.gen.tcd.ie/molpopgen/resources.php . With the longer 67 marker haplotype we can confidently predict that they are in the so-called Isles-A cluster of I2a2 (I-M423).

 

  1. Olliffe 13714 is confidently predicted to belong to the haplogroup now known as I2b1 (E-M223). The DYS464 and DYS385 values are typical of the variety of I1c which is thought to be native to Britain (and possibly Scotland), and known now as I2b1a (I-M284) but other markers put that designation in doubt with only 25 markers tested. There are no very close matches on smgf.org.
  2. In Ireland, MacAleavy is a surname derived from MacDunleavy.  It is said that the break between McAleavey and Dunleavy (from Down to Donegal) is 700 years ago. And the move of the Dunleavys from Donegal into Connacht was the early 1400s. Our participant turns out to be of a DNA sort called the “Isles” subcluster of I1b1 by Ken Nordtvedt, meaning it should be I2b1a (I-M284). The DNA signature is quite different from our Olliffe. Some people associate this group particularly with Northern Ireland and Western Scotland. SMGF Search.

 

  1. MacLeay 14338 and McKinney 27772 are perfect matches and therefore they certainly share a common ancestor since after the Middle Ages. Their haplotype is the so-called “x cluster” of I2b2. See http://users.skynet.be/lancaster/Ix.htm. One of them, a McKinney, has joined our project because of the name similarity, given that the original of Macleay was Maconlea. The other close matches are a McKinzey and a Rose.

Upon investigation, it appears that the old Scottish pronunciations of McKinzey and McKinney may have sometimes been almost identical. And Rose was also often a Scottish surname, as was Ross. It is perhaps a curious coincidence that a royal commission of 1498 by King James III refers to one Kenyoch McConleif, who raided Huchone Ros of Kilrawok. While the later person was clearly of the Rose family of Kilvarock (probably Hugh, its leader, an ally of King James), Kenyoch is an old personal name which is thought to lie behind many McKinzey and McKinneys family names while McConleif is thought to be an old form of MacLea.

  1. Levack 45394 participant still lives in the Northern Scottish highlands where this surname (with variant spelling often Levach) originated. More specifically, his family and the surname both originate in Caithness. His DNA is yet another example of the unusual “x cluster” or “I2b2”, but very different from MacLeay 14338. His closest matches seem English.

 

4. Our G haplotypes

 

 

3

3

1

3

3

3

4

3

4

3

3

3

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

G

Y

Y

4

6

5

5

C

C

4

4

 

 

9

9

9

9

8

8

2

8

3

8

9

8

5

5

5

5

5

4

3

4

4

6

6

6

6

6

A

C

C

5

0

7

7

D

D

4

3

 

 

3

0

 

1

5

5

6

8

9

9

2

9

8

9

9

5

4

7

7

8

9

4

4

4

4

0

T

A

A

6

7

6

0

Y

Y

2

8

 

 

 

 

 

 

a

b

 

 

 

|

 

|

 

a

b

 

 

 

 

 

 

a

b

c

d

 

A

I

I

 

 

 

 

a

b

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1

 

2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

H

I

I

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kit

Last Name

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4

a

b

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

40585

Livingston

14

22

15

10

14

16

11

14

11

12

11

29

16

9

9

11

11

22

16

21

30

12

13

13

14

11

11

20

20

15

13

15

17

37

37

11

10

80093

Livingston

14

22

15

10

14

15

11

13

13

12

11

29

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

40585. Our first G type Livingston is American, and has the best “paper trail” claim to be a direct descendent of the Livingstons of Clermont in New York and therefore from the Livingstons of Callendar. If the Callendar family really descended from the Dark Ages Living of Living's Town, then all sorts of theories exist about where he might have come from. This G haplotype is extremely unusual at DYS388 and was in fact not recognized as such by Family Tree DNA’s software.

See: http://www.stirnet.com/HTML/genie/british/ll/livingston01.htm

 

80093. Our second G haplotype is also American, but very different to 40585. This is a more typical sub-type of G known as G2.

 

The populations where G is most common are in the Caucasus, and amongst Iranian-language speaking peoples. The DNA signatures above are no exception, as can be seen by using the database on www.yhrd.org.

 

Iranian languages used to be spoken right into Central and Eastern Europe, and all the way to China, for example (in Classical historians like Herodotus) by Scythians and later (in Roman times) by Sarmatians and Alans. During the Dark Ages, these peoples, most famously the Alans, participated in massive invasions of Western Europe. There are theories that the Sarmatians, like the better-known Germanic tribes of the north, or Central Asian Turkic tribes like the Bulgars, integrated themselves into Medieval Europe, amongst peoples who spoke other languages. This is especially felt to have happened in central Europe, for example in Poland and Hungary. The theory is partly based upon the fact that the concept of a knight on horseback, with a design upon his shield and a network of allegiances, seems to come from them. Some people (and one fictional film of recent years) even made King Arthur a Sarmatian. Indeed, Sarmatian units of cavalry were stationed in northern England Romans times. More realistically, the Polish aristocracy felt themselves to descend from the Sarmatians, and many of their insignia are now confirmed by archaeologists to look a bit like old Sarmatian ones. I mention this because amongst all the theories about Living, I know one is that he was from what is now Hungary. He could conceivably have been a Gaelic speaker, but the leading theory now is that he was an Anglo Saxon or Continental (Fleming, Frank, Norman, or even Hungarian), who possibly arrived in Scotland with queen Margaret, wife of Malcolm Canmore.

 

On the other hand G is certainly found in the continental and Scandinavian Germanic homelands, and also G is so scattered in its distribution around Europe that it might be very old. It might have once been more common in Scotland and then been over run by newer incomers with the more common I and R types. In any case it is very widely scattered.

 

...put simply, if aristocratic families often have unusual Y DNA, either because they come from a very old line, or because they come from a very geographically distant line, then this is such a DNA signature. But I am not sure this theory is reasonable.

 

Here is a page about it on a project to do with the Scottish border lands. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gallgaedhil/haplo_g.htm . 40585 appears to be a cousin of haplogroup 5, but with a very unusual value on DYS388. There is now also a much more comprehensive study of this haplogroup here:

http://www.members.cox.net/morebanks/G2Ideas

http://www.members.cox.net/morebanks/MoreG2

 

5. Our one E-M2 (formerly E3a, also now known as E1b1a) haplotype

 

 

 

3

3

1

3

3

3

4

3

4

3

3

3

 

 

9

9

9

9

8

8

2

8

3

8

9

8

 

 

3

0

 

1

5

5

6

8

9

9

2

9

 

 

 

 

 

 

a

b

 

 

 

|

 

|

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1

 

2

Livingston

N5888

14

21

15

10

16

18

11

12

12

13

11

30

 

This person expected African ancestry and that is what his DNA says that he has, at least certainly along his paternal line. The E haplogroup is one of the most important in Africa and spreads into Europe and the Middle East. However E3a is normally only found in Africa itself. What would a Livingston project be without an African DNA type?

 

6. Our two E-M78 (formerly E3b, also now known as E1b1b1) families

 

 

 

3

3

1

3

3

3

4

3

4

3

3

3

 

 

9

9

9

9

8

8

2

8

3

8

9

8

 

 

3

0

 

1

5

5

6

8

9

9

2

9

 

 

 

 

 

 

a

b

 

 

 

|

 

|

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1

 

2

Livingston

N5888

14

21

15

10

16

18

11

12

12

13

11

30

Livingston

N57225

13

25

13

10

17

18

11

12

12

13

11

32

 

These are both strongly predicted to be E3b1 (M78) haplotypes of the type which is thought to have entered Europe with first farming and pottery some 10,000 years ago.

 

It can however usefully be noted that N57225 is of a more unusual variant, and most of his matches are seemingly in Germany or surrounding countries. This is interesting, because this family, like others amongst our R1b families claims to descend from a Liebenstein families who lived in Durres in Germany.

 

We also have one E-M78 haplotype which belongs to a Kinley family that have joint membership in our project.

 

This is a widespread minority all over Europe, and has apparently been so for a long time, but it is at its most diverse and intense as one approaches the Balkans, or even the Danube. Within the Balkans it is most common in the mountainous areas of Albania and Macedonia. It is never common around the North Sea, though it is found there, and often in local families who show no signs of immigration from outside the region in recent centuries. Like G, it may once have been more common in Britain.

 

See...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_E3b_(Y-DNA)

http://dirkschweitzer.net/E3b-papers/MolecularBiologyandEvolution-07-24-6-1300.pdf

http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/GENEALOGY-DNA/2004-04/1082517307

http://www.ftdna.com/pdf/hape3b.pdf

http://hpgl.stanford.edu/publications/AJHG_2004_v74_p1023-1034.pdf

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/%7egallgaedhil/haplo_e3b.htm

 

 

This person is a joint participant in both our project and the MacKinley clan project, which we believe will often overlap with ours. I would suggest that this participant gets more markers tested in order to make more meaningful searches for relatives near and far.

 

7. Our one T (formerly known as K2) haplotype?

 

DYS 393

DYS 390

DYS 19/394

DYS 391

DYS 385a

DYS 385b

DYS 426

DYS 388

DYS 439

DYS 389-1

 

 

 

 

 

13

24

15

10

14

17

11

12

11

13

 

 

 

 

 

DYS 392

DYS 389-2

DYS 458

DYS 459a

DYS 459b

DYS 455

DYS 454

DYS 447

DYS 437

DYS 448

DYS 449

DYS 464a

DYS 464b

DYS 464c

DYS 464d

15

30

16

9

9

11

13

27

14

19

31

12

12

15

16

DYS 460

GATA H4

YCA IIa

YCA IIb

DYS 456

 

 

 

 

 

DYS 442

DYS 438

 

 

 

10

10

23

24

15

 

 

 

 

 

11

9

 

 

 

DYS 444

DYS 446

DYS 461

DYS 462

GATA A10

DYS 635

GAAT1B07

DYS 441

DYS 445

DYS 452

DYS 463

 

 

 

 

12

18

11

12

13

21

10

14

11

30

19

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like E3b, K2 appears to be have long been in Europe, but in small numbers. While E3b may have been present for 10,000 years in most of Europe however, K2 is often felt to show the presence of Mediterranean immigration in the last few millennia. Most famously, Thomas Jefferson is known to have been a member of this haplogroup.

 

Our participant’s great-grandfather was George Washington Livingston, born 12 June 1842 in Blair County, PA, USA, died 14 August 1925 in Jordan, Whiteside Illinois. This lineage has some reasonably interestingly close matches with lineages attached to the surnames Drake, Shaw, and Hoskins.

 

In 2008, it has been proposed in a paper by Karafet et. al. that the name of this haplogroup should be changed to “T”, instead of K2. This seems to have caught on quite quickly. See the ISOGG webpage.