The article, while interesting, is somewhat journalistically deceptive. What it purports to quantify is the percentage of males whose direct male ancestors end up being a particular individual. Reason alone dictates that the farther back you go, the fewer common direct male ancestors there are. In fact, depending on how many generations we are talking about, each of us are descended from thousands of different people during that time period, and each of those thousands had millions of descendants. What we are only measuring on the Y chromosome test is the father of the father of the father of the father, etc. Likewise mitichondrial dna only traces the direct female line. Useful for tracing patterns and a limited number of relationships, but you miss an awful lot of relatives along the way. What is socially interesting is that so many people with different surnames seem to be descended from the Nialls. Hmmmm. Makes you wonder how many Nialls were milkmen.

> > Hi Squire, Generally I agree with you. Niall's brothers would carry the > same DNA and on down their lines. However, the statement below needs some > clarification: > > "What is socially interesting is that so many people with different > surnames seem to be descended from the Nialls. Hmmmm." In the old days, the eventual surnames were derived, simplyfying it, from the names given to the sons. "They" say the surnames started about 1000AD but I think it may have really begun in a limited way in the 800's. So in the 800's a son was named Flaithbertach, which eventually became O'Flaherty, and he was in the direct O'Neill line. Tons of new surnames came about in the same line in that way. But your postman theory is meaningful too :) Lots of illegitimate births over the centuries. Janet ==== IRL-TIPPERARY Mailing List ==== > Join us for a chat about researching families in Tipperary (and > everything else!). 'Open House Sessions' every Thursday/Friday (depending > on your location). Starting at 11pm Thursday Tipperary Time. This means the > time will be 11pm in England; 6 pm in New York and Montreal; 3pm in > California and Vancouver; 7am (Friday) in Perth; 10am (Friday) in Sydney; 12 > noon (Friday) in Wellington. > http://www.rootsweb.com/~irltip2/chat/index.htm > >