4 March 2020

Since 2015 we have been conducting forensic and genetic research on remains in the Barrymore mausoleum in County Cork, under the Earls of Barrymore DNA Project. (https://sites.google.com/site/barrymorednaproject/) We have now completed YSTR tests from the remains, identified as those of Richard Hugh Smith-Barry, great great grandson of James Barry, 4th Earl of Barrymore. .  They confirm that this individual (kit number 480303) has a highly unusual pattern of markers that is shared by one group in the Barry project.  The new results are now posted. 

These findings confirm that the Barry project subgroup, R1b>U152>L2>Z49>S8183>Y11179 and subclades, represents the original Anglo-Norman Barry family.  Moreover, a subset of that cluster, Y13610, is almost certainly from the Barryroe (West Cork) branch, which includes the direct paternal ancestors of the Earls of Barrymore.  The YSTR results from men in that subgroup who have chosen to make their findings public can be viewed on the DNA Results pages.

There are two possible candidates for Barry families descended from Irish clans: Based on comprehensive test results from a member, and comparison with traditional Irish genealogies, the subgroup I2a>P37>CTS5595>L161> . . . >FT162530 appears to represent the O'Baire sept of West Cork, one of the Corca Laíde clans. The subgroup R1b>L21>DF13>ZZ10_1>Z255>FGC8077>L159.2 may be from the O'Beargha family of Limerick, although these results are speculative and less certain than the findings for the Anglo-Norman Barrys.

Test results from more than 200 men show that there are also a large number of other paternal lineages among Barry families.  Some of these may reflect other Irish or Scottish origins, or families from England or France who used the surname spellings Barry and Berry interchangeably. Others result from discontinuities in the paternal line that may result from undocumented adoptions, incorectly identified paternity, out of wedlock births or surname changes.

A comprehensive report on these findings is available here. 

13 August 2020

A Research Note providing an update on new test results for the Y11179 group is available here.