About us
This project has been established to study the genetic heritage of the Meredith and related families from Queen’s County (now Co. Laois) in Ireland. There were four distinct geographical clusters of Meredith families in 16th and 17th century Ireland, centred around the present counties of Laois, Dublin/Wicklow, Sligo and Kerry. Additionally, there is a fifth cluster comprising descendants of Richard Meredith, Bishop of Leighlin in the late 16th century, that is less well-defined geographically. An outstanding question has been whether these different branches are related. Traditional genealogical research is able to take us only so far back in time, not least because of the destruction of many Irish records in 1922. DNA analysis now provides an important tool for investigating common ancestry in earlier periods.
The scope of this project is twofold:
1) to determine whether the five clusters of early Irish Meredith families have a common ancestry, and to trace that ancestry back to medieval Wales.
2) to determine the relationship among different branches of families within the former Queen’s Co.
A schematic diagram here shows the various branches in relation to each other and to possible origins in medieval Wales, and summarises what DNA analysis has been able to tell us about the connections so far.
The project draws on the results of three different tests of DNA samples from Meredith and related descendants:
a) The Y-DNA test carries out Y chromosome analysis for information about direct paternal ancestry. Y-DNA is passed almost unchanged from father to son. Our project compares results from male descendants with the surname Meredith, which helps to establish the relationship among early Meredith families within Queen’s Co. and more broadly among the five clusters (and their possible Meredith ancestry in Wales).
For completeness, this webpage also presents the Y-DNA results for descendants with other surnames who have taken the Family Finder test (see below).
Click on Y-DNA Results in the top menu on this page for a compilation of results for those tested so far.
b) The mtDNA test carries out Mitochondrial DNA analysis for tracing direct maternal ancestry of either a male or a female descendant. This test is of limited value for the purposes of the current project, but we are including results here as individual participants may find them useful.
Click on mtDNA Results in the top menu on this page for a compilation of results for those tested so far.
c) The Family Finder test carries out autosomal DNA analysis for tracing all the ancestral lines of a descendant (male or female) within recent generations (typically the most recent five). This is most useful for finding connections among the different Queen’s Co. branches of Meredith and related families.
Click on Family Finder Results for a compilation of results for those tested so far.
i) Males with the Meredith surname who are known or thought to descend from an Irish Meredith ancestor from Queen’s Co. - they should take the Y-DNA test as a priority, and also the Family Finder test if they have recent descent from the Queen’s Co. branch of Merediths and related families. Note: the Y-DNA results for Meredith descendants are also included in a separate project which, importantly, includes results for Meredith descendants from Co. Sligo as well as from other countries.
ii) Males or females with any surname who are known or thought to descend from a Queen’s Co. Meredith or related family - they should take the Family Finder test. Surnames of particular relevance are: Broomfield, Clarke, Ince, Meredith, Metcalfe, Moore, Pattison, Strong, Southern,Thompson and Wilkinson.
To join the project click on Join Request in the top menu.
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Merideth/ Meredith family DNA Project - this is a general project not constrained geographically
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Understanding Y-DNA Matches: 37 Markers, 67 Markers and 111 Markers