L672 placed in I-M26 tree

Since my most recent post we have tested the new SNPs in many different I-M26 people from all the major subgroups. All were L673+ and L707+ so I think L673 and L707 are equivalent to M26. (It's possible that these SNPs and L158 and L159 are actually above M26, not equivalent. But the other major groups of I-P37.2 are ancestral (negative) for all these SNPs, there are a few small groups who have not tested all of them yet).

L672 is more interesting, some I-M26 people are L672+ and some are L673- which introduces a new level in the tree. It turns out that all the people with YCAIIa,b=11,21 (or who are close matches to these people even if they have different values) are L672+. The people who are expected to test L277+ are L672-, and these people have YCAIIa,b=18,21 and are quite different in all their markers from the L672+ people. (L277 is placed in quotes because Family Tree DNA cannot make this test work for L277+ people, but we have results from 23andMe).

Tree of Haplogroup I-M26

(Click on tree to enlarge)

This is a hasty phylogenetic tree I drew up showing the major groups of I-M26 (which has been known as I2a1 for the last 3 years or so). This is the group well-known for occurring in around 40% of men in Sardinia. But in the last three years we have discovered several new SNPs that split M26 into more specific groups which occur in different regions, all in westernmost Europe.

The Sardinian M26 seems to be all L160+ which makes an out of Sardinia origin unlikely. Spain and France contain most of the major groups of M26 and I think our M26 ancestors started expanding from somewhere like southern France, up the Atlantic coast to northern France, Britain and Ireland, and probably up the Rhine to Western Germany and Switzerland. A very few M26 made it to Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The single M26 I know of from Iceland has a 37 marker STR haplotype similar to some Irish M26+ L160- people. There are also a very few M26+ people from Jewish families from Poland, Belarus and Odessa, I believe most of these probably go back to Sephardic (Spanish/Portuguese Jewish) roots, and in fact some of the families have a tradition that their paternal ancestors were Sephardic.

Some specifics about the tree: the green triangles show the periods when population have been expanding, the L160+ triangle is the biggest because this group is most common. The dates when the expansions started and when the different groups split is very loosely based on Ken Nordtvedt's work but I didn't attempt to show his calculations very accurately. Not shown is M161 which was discovered before the year 2000 but has never been found in testing at Family Tree DNA or as far as I know at 23andMe. Also not shown is the Z106 SNP, this is a subset of L160+ which probably occurs in about 1/3 of Spanish L160+ and in a much smaller percentage of English and other northern L160+. The L277 SNP is placed in quotes because FTDNA has not been able to sequence the L277 area, our information on L277 comes mostly from 23andMe. Finally, there is yet another SNP called L707 which shows the same pattern so far as L672 and L673, we are currently testing all of these in the L277+ group.

(Note: in the final line of the tree picture "happened in position A or B" should be "B or C")

Updated Haplogroup I2a Tree

(Click on tree to enlarge it).

For several years Ken Nordtvedt has been sorting Y-DNA haplogroup I into different groups based on patterns in STR marker values (these are the "37 markers" etc. reported by genealogical DNA testing companies like Family Tree DNA, SMGF, Ancestry.com). These patterns can be found in Ken's FounderHaps.xls Excel file at his website http://knordtvedt.home.bresnan.net/. If you don't use Excel, this website gives the patterns ("modals") in "Family Tree DNA order": http://dgmweb.net/genealogy/DNA/Hg-I-subclades-FTDNA-order.shtml

(You can click on the links to go to the websites, and you can click on my tree to enlarge it).

Although Ken was able to use his modals to distinguish several groups within haplogroup I2a, (he called the largest groups Dinaric, Sardinian, Isles and Western), most of these groups did not have a SNP to identify them. And without an SNP, many scientists, genealogy testing companies etc. did not accept these groups as proven.

In 2009 and 2010, four members of the I2a project at FTDNA did a "Walk on the Y" to sequence a portion of their Y chromosomes and 6 new SNPs were discovered. Some of these seem to be equivalent to previously known SNPs (L158 and L159.1 are equivalent to M26, and L178 is equivalent to M423. The new L161 SNP confirms Ken's modals: his Isles group tests L161+ while his Dinaric and Disles groups (and all the rest of I2a) test L161-.

But there are two new SNPs which showed us new things which weren't predicted by Ken: The new SNP called L233 separates Ken's old I2a*-Western group from I2a*-F and all the rest of I2a: Western and Western-Isles all test L233+, while I2a*-F and Dinaric, Sardinian, Isles and Disles all test L233-. This much was expected based on Ken's work. What wasn't expected was that a very small number people who he had placed in Western tested L233-. Closer inspection showed that they had slightly different 37 marker results from most Western, and a new group was found, which Ken called I2a*-Alpine because the few known members come from southwestern Germany, northeastern Italy, and Romania.

On my latest I2a tree shown here I am including I2a*-Alpine for the first time. You can see a previous version of the tree here: http://cullengene.blogspot.com/2009/12/tree-of-y-dna-haplogroup-i2a.html at that time we had not tested enough supposed "Westerns" and hadn't learned of the "Alpine" group yet.

The other very interesting new SNP discovered in the WTY is L160. Some of Ken's Sardinian group test L160+ and some test L160- and it can't be easily predicted from 37 or 67 markers. That is why I show the green I2a1a and I2a1a* triangles as overlapping, since their modals/marker values overlap a bit.
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As of August 26, 2010 the ISOGG tree includes all SNPs shown here, and hopefully commercial DNA testing companies like Family Tree DNA and 23andMe will update their trees soon. You can see the most recent ISOGG tree at http://isogg.org/tree/ISOGG_HapgrpI.html , and the current offical FTDNA tree at http://www.familytreedna.com/snps-r-us.aspx, and the working draft tree of Dr. Thomas Krahn at FTDNA at http://ytree.ftdna.com/ (use the drop-down box at top to switch between his draft tree and the 2008 YCC tree which is the oldest tree of all of these).

[this post edited August 27, 2010 to note that ISOGG has updated its tree, and to correct placement of L160 in my own tre--Bernie]

The only American ever executed in Northern Ireland

Eddie Cullens was a Jew born in 1904 in the eastern Mediterranean, different sources say Crete, Cyprus, or Smyrna (Turkey). It is not known what his name at birth was, I think it's unlikely he was born a Cullens. At some point. he moved to the US and was naturalized as an American citizen in 1928 while living in the Bronx, New York. In 1931 he boarded a ship to England and his occupation was listed as "motion-picture projectionist", and he was traveling with a Mr. Zaro Agha, a native of Turkey. According a story from the BBC, Edward Cullens was involved with a circus exhibition of Mr. Agha, the "oldest man in the world" at age 156!

Eddie went to Belfast with another Turkish circus worker, Achmet Musa, who was found shot dead one day. Eddie was convicted of the murder and hanged at Crumlin Road jail, all the while protesting his innocence. As was the custom, he was buried in an unmarked grave on the Crumlin grounds.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8394309.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crumlin_Road_Jail

Because of new construction at the site, the government is planning to allow the bodies of the executed men to be claimed by relatives, identified by DNA testing if necessary, and reburied in cemeteries. The Jewish community of Belfast is interested in burying Eddie in their cemetery, but so far no relative of Eddie has come forward.

I recently received an email from an interested party who is searching for any relatives or information. Eddie is believed to have had a brother who remained in New York. By searching Ancestry.com databases, I was able to find Eddie's 1928 Naturalization index card, where he was listed as single, living at 1709 E. 174th St., and his ship's arrival record in Southhampton, England in 1931. I have not been able to find him in any census.

If you have any ideas or information, please email me at berniecullen@gmail.com

1911 Irish census: Spelling variations

Cullen is much more common than any of its variant spellings or similar surnames (except for Collins of course). Here are some of the different names/spellings found in the 1911 census of Ireland.

What is interesting about this? Some of the names that appear somewhat common in the U.S are rare or absent (Cullens and Cullins for example, also Cullum/Cullom is rare--maybe it's more of an English name?) Also names mentioned in the surname histories as being variants of Cullen are absent (Culloon, Culhoon).
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If a number is not given, there were less than 10 people with that name in the census, usually only 1 or 2.

CULLEN-7181 names

variant spellings and very rare surnames:
CULAN, CULLAN (66), CULLEEN, CULLEM, CULLENN, CULLAN, CULLENS (8 only), CULLEON, CULLION (96, mostly Donegal, some Tyrone), CULLLEN, CULLIM, CULLIN (82), CULLINS (10 only), CULLOM, CULLUM (15), CULLUMM, CULLON, CULHAM, CULHAN, CULLA (10), CULLAM, CULLANE (15), CULLANNE, CULLE, CULLEA, CULLEAN (10), CULLEANE, CULLEENY, CULLEHY, CULENEY, CULLER, CULLERY (10), CULLEW, CULLING, CULLINY, CULLIS, CULLNEY, CULLOHY, CULLOLY, CULLOO (17), CULLUANE, CULM, CULMEA, CULLINGNE, CULLMAN, CULLNEY, CULLOM, CULLON, CULLUM,

Then there are some names that are clearly different families, not just spelling variations:
CULHANE (611, mostly Limerick)
CULL (232, Down, Leitrim, Antrim and a few other counties)
CULLINEY (44, Mayo and Clare)
CULLINAN (863, Waterford to Roscommon)
CULLINANE (1240,Waterford to Roscommon)

Then there are the variant of McCullen:
McCULLEN (91), MacCULLEN (1), McCULL (17), McCULLION (12), McCULLAN (12), McCULLINS (11), McCULLIAN, McCULLIN, McCULLON, McCULLUM, McCULLAND, McCULLEM, MCULLIN

This list is only for names containing CUL, so names like COLLEN, COLLINS, KILLEN, QUILLEN, and McQUILLAN are not listed

Tree of Y-DNA Haplogroup I2a

Besides the Cullen DNA Project, I'm also interested in my Y-chromosome haplogroup, which is a way of placing people into the grand family tree of all humanity. I drew up this tree to explain some of the new research on haplogroup I2a, and I'm placing it here so other people can easily see it. This tree is based on Ken Nordtvedt's Warped Founder tree at http://knordtvedt.home.bresnan.net/WarpedFounderTree.ppt

My cousin in Ireland and I belong to I2a1-"Sardinian" which gets its name from the Italian island of Sardinia where it is most common (this is just a convenient label--our ancestors probably never lived in Sardinia--some distant "cousins" probably were among the first settlers of Sardinia thousands of years ago).

No other Cullens are known to belong to any other group of I2a, all other Cullens tested so far are either R1b, I1, I2b1, or I2b2.

Complete 1911 Census of Ireland now available online, for free

One of my contacts just informed me that the complete 1911 Census is now available and easily searchable at: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/

Be sure to click through to see the original handwritten census returns.

The 1901 census will be made available within a year, hopefully. All earlier censuses for Ireland were destroyed, and later censuses have not yet been released for privacy reasons.

My own great-grandfather had already emigrated to Chicago by 1911, but his sister and other relatives in Tullycorker, Tyrone appear in the census.

In the coming weeks I hope to add some posts about Cullens in the 1911 census, about things like different spellings of Cullen, Protestant Cullens, and Irish speaking Cullens.