(2013) Analysis of I-L38 Family Names

This page investigates the cultural background of I-L38 family names in relation to their geographical location.

By Hans De Beule

About Family Names

Family name research sometimes gives a hint of the likely cultural background of a sample. In some cases the information is highly indicative, in others most speculative. As an additional historical source family name research is meaningful. Unrelated men sharing family names are significantly more likely to share haplotypes than are men carrying different names. This demonstrates that family names have been associated with specific haplotypes for many generations and suggests that access to the Y-chromosomal diversity of past populations might be possible through the selection of modern samples based on family names known to exist in a particular region during the medieval period. (Bowden, 2008)

The heritable family name often gives information about the residence of the patrilineal ancestor to whom the family name was applied. For example, the language, dialect and/or the appearance of a toponym within the family name may indicate the original geographic location of the ancestor (Winkler and Twilhaar, 2006).

Also it can be used to detect the genetic signature of an event that happened in the period after giving heritable family names but before the start of genealogical records.(Larmuseau, 2012)

For example: the De Beule family has a documented ORPA going back to the early 16th century in Flanders. Since this family name has a Flemish origin and since we know that family names originated in Flanders in the 13th-14th century it is likely that this family line was already present in Flanders in the 14th century.

To interpret family names it is important to understand that fixed hereditary family names evolved gradually. In general the following rules of thumb are relevant :

• hereditary family names originated in the south of Europe, afterwards spreading to the north;

• hereditary family names first became common in the cities thereafter on the countryside;

• hereditary family names first were used in the higher classes and then in the lower classes.

The following information is meant as a (incomplete) framework to interpret the family names if the I-L38 group:

• In the 9th Century the first family name was inherited in Venice.

• In the 10th Century this custom spread from to northern Italy and southern France.

• In the 11th century it came to use in Catalonia and northern France.

• In the 12th century the first family names were used in England and Switzerland.

• From the 13th century on family names became hereditary in Flanders. In Flemish cities like Bruges and Ghent, most citizens already had fixed family names in the 14th and 15th centuries. In Brabant and Limburg fixed family names arose a bit later than in the county of Flanders.

• In the 13th and 14th centuries, hereditary family names were adopted in Britain; initially by the aristocracy and eventually by everyone. By 1400, most English and some Scottish people used family names, but many Scottish and Welsh people did not adopt family names until the 17th century, or even later.

• From the beginning of the 15th Century on hereditary family names also became common in the German speaking regions. Immigration, often sponsored by local authorities, brought foreign family names into the German-speaking regions.. Sometimes they survived in their original form; in other cases, the spelling would be adapted to German (e.g. the Slavic suffix ic becoming the German -itz or -itsch or Baltic -kis becoming -ke).

• In 1563, the Catholic Council of Trent, decreed that all Catholic parishes had to keep full records of baptisms and weddings. The Protestants soon joined this practice, so most families in European countries can produce a paper trail trace of their genealogy back to this era.

• As a result of the Council of Trent, patronymic family names (with the –ic suffix) became fixed in Slavic countries.

• In the16th and 17th centuries the Dutch province of Holland first adopted fixed family names; the northern Dutch provinces of Friesland , Groningen and Drenthe even in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Origin of I-L38 Family Names

The present author’s collection of haplogroup I-L38 samples from public databases contains 302 family different names (variants of a name were counted as one). For 150 of them the ORPA is known.

Evaluating the family name of the ORPA can reveal information of the cultural background of a family pre-dating the known data of the Oldest Reported Paternal Ancestor.

The following table tries to identify the etymologic origin of the ORPA names of I-L38 samples.

150 I-L38 samples with European ORPA (rows) versus the origin of their name (columns)

Location Family Names

A distinct category of family names are the family names that refer to the location where the forefather of the bearer of the name lived or came from at the time family names became fixed.

Comparison of the geographical location hidden in the family name and the known geographical location of the ORPA, learns us something about the migration of the paternal line since the time the family name became fixed. The following I-L38 family names refer to a location:

I-L38 family names refering to a location

Relations between the actual geographical presence of I-L38 family name and the location it refers to

Migration of these samples must have taken place after the time when family names got established. The map above shows that there is a clear migration to eastern Europe (Prussia) and to the West (Central England).

Discussion

A remarkable conclusion is that names with German origin (27%) are present in the widest variety of countries pointing to relatively recent migrations (after family names became fixed).

When looking into the geographical relations between family names that refer to a location it becomes clear that central German I-L38 family names clearly migrated to the east (Poland)and to the west (Britain).

Not all British I-L38 samples came to the British Isles after the introduction of family names.

Also the high percentage of English names on the British Isles indicates that haplogroup I-L38 was present before family names were introduced.

Last update: November 2013 - Hans De Beule