The Murray, Sutherland and Douglas families: were they related and were they Flemish?

Amy Eberlin
Friday 26 February 2016

Genetic genealogical analysis has developed rapidly in recent years with new techniques being applied to an ever increasing volume of data from samples of DNA taken from individuals, much of it pertaining to Y-DNA passed down through the male line. This posting reports on innovative work being undertaken by Alexandrina Murray on the Murray family and two other families – Douglas and Sutherland – that are believed to be closely related to it.

As discussed in an earlier blog posting: ([1]) heraldic, documentary and conveyancing land record evidence held within Scottish archives point to a familial relationship during the medieval period in Scotland between certain members of the Murray; Sutherland & Douglas families.([2]) This descent was assumed to be via a common descent from a Flemish warrior knight: Fresechinus ([3]), residing near Wiston in Pembroke Wales in the year 1130. ([4]) This progenitor was referred to later as Freskin or Freskyn of Moray- or de Moravia, son of Ollec. See the extract from the Great Roll of the Exchequer below .

Walt filius Witson & Freskin ‘son of’ |Ollec |resident in Pembroke 1130 ([5])([6])

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Whether this shared genetic relationship was via paternal vs maternal lines is a matter for further research. Heraldic evidence alone is generally not deemed sufficient to establish a basis for arguing direct paternal line relationships between members of families granted the same or similar heraldic ordinaries. Historically, armorial bearings and titles were sometimes evidenced to have been granted within non paternally  descending land owning families.([7])  (ie: land that was not passed down from father to son).

It is thought that Freskin was resident in Pembroke, Wales in 1130 ([8])([9])at the time Saint David’s Cathedral Pembroke (see below) was built and consecrated.

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Saint David’s Cathedral Pembroke. Consecrated 1130c ([10])

The Douglas & Sutherland relationship.

In order to test whether the Douglas and Sutherland families had a common ancestor, a potential genetic link between Morton Earls Douglas ([11] & [12])  & Sutherland of Moray Firth ([13]) members within their respective Y-DNA surname projects at Family Tree DNA were investigated by this writer during May of 2013. In facilitating this investigation, respective Y-DNA Allele STR marker values were organized on spread-sheets then sorted according to similarity of their values within apparently similar haplotype groupings. At that stage not many of these men had undertaken advanced SNP nor Big Y testing.([14]) (Those that have now done so have been included in the analysis below.) These results were further sorted into modal values and compared to each other.

The analysis of the data pointed to an apparently close genetic relationship between all of the Moray Firth Sutherland men & the Douglas Earls of Morton membership cohort. These findings were reported to the respective Project group administrators Messrs Mark Sutherland-Fisher of Ross Shire & his Douglas Project colleagues- Francis Douglas QC and Belinda Dettman.([15]) The general consensus was that this group of Douglas and Sutherland members ‘may’  represent the Y-DNA profile of the potentially Flemish Ollec and his son Freskin Moray (or: de Moravia ([16]) progenitors of the Douglas, Sutherland and Murray Clans.

The Murray relationship with Sutherland & Douglas

As at February 2016 , almost 3 years after initial analysis, no substantial genetic link has been found between relevant groups of Murray project members and the Sutherland-Douglas matching Haplotype: sub group SNP = DF27 R- FGC23066]. ([17]) There is however finally, one sole Murray member of our project whose lineage has tested positive for the same relatively common([18]) upstream sub-clade of R1b-DF27 and is tightly related via STR ([19]) analysis to the Sutherland-Douglas men. Further advanced SNP ([20]) testing should determine if this inter-relatedness will remain common through to the time-frame under discussion: approx 1200c.

This individual Murray member’s STR values though, do definitely result in a very promising genetic distance of approx 2 mutations over 67 markers = 67/2  to the  Sutherland-Douglas modal, which in general terms would usually indicate a very close familial relationship.

One would expect to find many more STR mutations than this over an 820+ year time-frame relating to their common ancestor. The Murray member will examine his family tree to determine whether it contains previously unknown connections with the Douglas or Sutherland families in recent times (this would distort the findings). The Sutherland-Douglas group also correlate extremely closely to each other and again we see surprisingly few mutations within the modal which would generally be considered unusual if the shared common ancestor were living around the year 1200. On rare occasions, the genetic distance between some father and son participants, and first cousins within Y-DNA projects, has been from 1 to 5 STR mutations over 37 or 67 markers. (

GENETIC Y-DNA MUTATION RATES – Father-Son Transmission.

For evidence pertaining to potential mutation rates between some Father/Son pairs please see Kit Numbers 214235 (son) & 289366 (father) members of Murray Project located within Group 1:01 (Teal Blue Header) Y-DNA RESULTS PAGE

ŸGenetic Distance of 2 over 37 markers between father and son within the Falahill – Cockpool Murray ; Morrow ; Waldron related group 1:01 of the Murray Clan DNA Research Project at Family Tree DNA. ([22])

ŸNote: Genetic distances of 4 or even 5 over 67 STR Markers have been reported on occasion between fathers & sons. This is very rare however. The usual pattern is zero mutations between father-son pairs over 12 ; 25; 37; 67 and 111 STR markers.

ŸSee FTDNA Forum. ([23]) (Links in end-notes below)

After a decade of Y-DNA testing analysis; if this Murray match to Sutherland Douglas is an outlier then possibly one lineage within these three families of Douglas, Murray and Sutherland, was related through intermarriage rather than via direct patrilineal descent, and research into this possibility is ongoing. On the other hand we have not yet knowingly analysed any Y-DNA results from our senior Murray line of Tullibardine.

However, the Y-DNA evidence to date is relatively clear. The Sutherland and Douglas members referred to previously are certainly descended from the same progenitor and the question is whether or not this progenitor was common to both groups  approx-imately 820 years ago, versus during a later time-frame.  To date though, as previously mentioned, only the one Murray member has also tested as DF27 positive and has a similar Y-DNA profile to the above Douglas-Sutherland men.

This is important because the Murray Clan DNA Research Project ([24]) is now entering the 10th year since inception, whereby a small group of Murray families initially tested the waters of the then unique Y-DNA Test offerings by Family Tree DNA  facilitated by scientists from the University of Arizona. Since that exploratory time our project has blossomed into one of the larger surname projects at FTDNA, with approximately 600 members plus another 200 within the Morrow surname project. ([25]) These members represent many thousands of Murray- Morrow – MacMurray & related lineages today.

The Murray & Morrow surname conundrum.

Although some Morrows are descended from men named Murray, not all are, hence the dual Y-DNA projects, and some of these Murray-Morrows are members of both projects at Family Tree DNA accordingly.

There are many derivations of surnames that have been shown after Y-DNA analysis to have been written incorrectly after mispronunciation or clerical misunderstandings, and these newly acquired surnames have just ‘stuck’ with the families concerned.  In other cases, avoidance of usage of the original surname was deliberately adopted in order to differentiate the family from others using the same name whilst  residing within close locational proximity.

Morrow is written as pronounced, especially in the ‘Border Lowlands’ whereby Murray often sounded more like Moroh-and was often then written as Morrow accordingly.([26])

The Irish Murray & Morrow families

Murray is generally speaking, a surname acquired by residents originally dwelling within the northerly lands of Morayshire. However there is a very large cohort of related Irish Murrays and Morrows within the DNA project that appear to descend from the Uí Néill  (Nine Hostage fame) lineage ([27]) ([28])  The ancestors of the members of this cohort resided in Ireland and not Scotland. By far the greatest number of individual Murray lineages within our surname project to date belong to their Haplogroup, designated as M222 and are accordingly of earlier Irish descent with shared progenitor dating back to the year 378 and arguably not of more recent Flemish-Scottish descent.

As this Irish cohort may not have decended from the Flemish immigrants to Scotland, they may not be relevant to the current topic under discussion here. It is interesting however that the arms of the O’Neil bear three mullets in chief ([29]) which coincides in part with those of Murray, Sutherland & Douglas who use three stars. ([30])

TYPICAL Y-DNA SIGNATURE FOR Uí Néill MURRAYS
murray4

 

These linguistic splits in the written form of the surname then appear to divide the related families of later generations, whereby those living in close proximity often considered their individual families to be non related. The same can be said for the surname MacMurray in all of the written forms, as this Mac prefix (son of) has also been shown via Y-DNA evidence to often derive from Murray (Moray), as has Morrey, Morah and a variety of other similar sounding surnames.([31]) To date there are a large number of totally unrelated family groups of Murrays & Morrows within our surname project, giving credence to the locational provenance of the Murray surname.

Was Freskin Flemish?

Freskin, as noted above, was resident in Pembroke prior to the David I incursions into Moray. He appears to have been an adult paying an exchequer debt by 1130, so possibly born in Pembroke to Ollec by 1100 circa.([32]) Arguably his grand-father may have arrived with Ollec as a teenager in 1066 with the Norman invasion.

Who are the descendants of Freskin of Moray then? ; he died before 1166, (some argue 1171 c), [33]) and was granted large tracts of land by David I. These lands were subsequently bequethed to William de Moravia and Hugo of Sutherland .([34]) Another issue is whether Y-DNA studies today can shed any light on the genetic background of these men during the middle ages.  Although this is possible, it is also important to understand that such studies have limitations. To date there is no solid proof that Ollec and Freskin were actually Flemish, merely circumstantial evidence.([35]) Then there is the difficult question of which DNA Haplogroup/s designate Flemish Y-DNA.

Arguably, he should be referred to as Freskin of Pembroc rather than Freskin of Moray as he was resident there, perhaps since childhood, if not born there. The debt referred to above was a 20 shilling amount Fresechinus owed to the Exchequer which was– “Et Quietus est”–and fully paid by September 1130. Freskin was resident in Pembroke with other notable Flemish families and their descendants previously removed to the unruly Southern Welsh plantations by Henry I during the 1100-1104 period.

Only a handful of men appeared to have had dealings with the Exchequer at that time in Pembroke and all were seemingly Flemish. Witso ([36]) has been referred to as Flemish in the literature and conveyancing documents support this designation.

By further researching the same Exchequer Roll, this time for London, Witso (Wyzo) son of Leuestani was found residing there in 1130.([37])Afterwhich more in depth specific research pertaining to the descendants of Leuestani (Leofstan) resulted in determining his occupation as being a goldsmith (aurifaber): Witso was also a craftsman goldsmith. He, along with possible father Leuestani, son Walter, and also Fresechin(us), are not referred to as being Flemish at all within the 1129-1130 Exchequer pipe rolls. This may indicate that they were all born locally and were perhaps sons and/or grandsons of the original Flemish immigrants 1066 or a short while later.

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Great Roll of the Exchequer: 1129-30. r.Henry I- London.([38])

Both Witso (referred to also as Wizo and Withsonis & Withsone)([39]) along with goldsmith father Leuestani (Leuestanus) ([40]) were members of the Cnihtengild (Guild of Knights) in London in 1125 ([41]) This Guild held extensive lands around Aldgate, ([42]) indicating they were men of some importance there during that era.([43]) Freskin (or his son William) was, as some commentators believe, rewarded with Scottish lands for Knights’ service. If therefore, Freskin accompanied David I to Scotland to quell Morayshire disturbances during the same era recorded in the Pipe Roll (1129-1130), this must have been immediately prior or subsequent to Michaelmas in September 1130 when these Rolls had been completed.([44]) Both Witso and his father were referred to as goldsmith, and that would have been a comparatively lucrative profession during this era. This profession may certainly be in keeping with those of other Flemish Knight-Craftsmen in England during the period under discussion.  Based upon the above analysis of his residence in Pembroke, along with other Flemish in close proximity, (notably Wiston Castle)—it would appear that Freskin was of Flemish stock, albeit born in Wales or England around the year 1100c.

Murrays descending from Flemish stock

There are many potential candidates in our Y-DNA project whose Haplotypes concur with those known to arise in Flanders and surrounding regions. In fact most, (excluding the Irish Uí Néill group previously discussed, and perhaps some R1a1 and other members) would fall into this category . Genealogical charts and family trees of YDNA project member participants are helpful, however the question needs to be asked- are their submitted trees genuine?([45]) Even if lineages are precise, accurate and detailed that is no guarantee that the male contributing his YDNA to a project is definitely lineally descended from his listed progenitor .

He might be related in other ways, for instance maternally descended from a Murray female whose son adopted the surname of Murray in order to acquire lands and/or titles. A husband having adopted the surname of Murray in order to continue family traditions and acquire inheritances after a line has ‘daughtered out’ has been proven in quite a number of Murray lineages, even some very elite ones.([46]) This circuitous route to acquiring ones’ surname, including that of Murray has come to light within many a lineage, even very noble ones, ([47])([48]) ([49]) underlying the vitally important need to test living descendants of these lineages prior to making assumptions based upon heraldry, the peerage, rumour, online ancestral services, or the paper trail alone.([50])

Flemish -Possibly?

Group 7 in our Project are Haplogoup I2a3 (I-L233) West and Western Isles Group.Germanic-Saxon Dutch-Flemish? ([51])

Group 2:D  Murray lineages belonging to Haplogroup R-U106 >Z381 which they share with the Royal Houses of Bourbon & Wettin. ([52] ) ([53]) ([54])

Group 1:01 descend from Archibald de Moravia alive 1290, who signed the Ragman roll and was the progenitor of the Falahill Murrays along with William de Moravia alive during the same era who was the progenitor of the Murrays of Cockpool. Both of these men were believed to have been Flemish. ([55])

Other factors may interrupt the genetic lineage of a surname apart from formal or informal adoption of the Murray surname: For instance orphan children, stepchildren, natural children, adopted or fostered children all have the potential to descend from a progenitor who was not of any Murray paternal lineage. These issues can occur no matter how elite or famous the lineage under consideration might appear. ([56]) This is another obstacle to identifying the chief line of Ollec and Freskin.

Finally, there can be distortions to the typical father to son or grandson inheritance pattern. In some cases the Latin term ‘filius’ (son of) is used in documentation, other times not , yet sons of ones’ daughter/s may also be argued to be entitled to use the same locational surname —of Moray—if they were also resident in that area, in this case the area around Duffus Morayshire. Lands could easily have been conveyed in this way during earlier periods with latter day antiquarians none the wiser unless historical records to the contrary remained extant.

Do Murray, Douglas & Sutherland men all descend from Freskin?

The Bothwell Murray line, and the Earls’ Sutherland line descended from the same family are both now extinct in the senior lines. So why is there such a strong genetic link between the Earls’ Morton Douglas lineage and Moray Firth Sutherland lineage? And why, in juxtaposition, is there not the same strong evidence regarding a matching Murray lineage to date if these three families do all arise from the same progenitor around 1200? Is there evidence that the Douglas & Sutherland Earls descend from Freskin de Moravia while Murrays of Morayshire do not? Or is it the other way around?

Do the Murrays descend from Freskin, and the Douglas Sutherland members from a daughter line? Perhaps none of the members descend from the elusive Freskin because the direct male lines of all three lineages ceased to exist! Arguably, it is more likely however that Scottish and/or other immigrant Murray males from this noble lineage have not yet undertaken DNA testing for genetic purposes.([57]) If the Y-DNA Moray Firth Sutherland group descend from Freskin paternally then of course so do their Earl of Morton Douglas Y-DNA cousins according to the DNA evidence to date. The Earls of Queensberry Douglas lineage on the other hand, is not a Y-DNA match to the above mentioned Douglas or Sutherland cohort.([58]) This finding needs further thorough investigation.

The one Murray member matching the Morton Earls of Douglas/ Moray Firth Sutherland lineage is undertaking further testing during February 2016. If his deeper haplogroup sub clade result continues to match the Sutherland & Douglas lines under discussion then we will be one step closer to possibly proving a more recently shared paternal descent. Moreover, without results from a larger lineally diverse but related cohort of Murrays along this member’s deeper lineage, it could be argued that one Murray lineage match alone will not provide researchers with enough solid evidence yet, to point to a strong, indisputable genetic link between these three chief lineages.

Given that two of these families — Earls’ Sutherland and Bothwell Murray—were believed to have become potentially extinct in the male chief lines, genetic evidence relies upon Y-DNA from their probable descendants. These comprise unrecorded sons of earlier Earls Sutherland within Moray Firth Sutherland cohort, and well documented Earls of Morton Douglas lineages. If any Murray member with a proven lineal provenance to noble Murray lineages were to match the Douglas-Sutherland cohort and their singular Murray match, this would be quite an historic finding.

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Douglas Castle 1900 circa- demolished 1938. ([59] )

Although the Bothwell Murray chief line led to extinction along the male line according to existing documentation, other probable descendants of this line are believed to be represented within the Murray of Tullibardine ranks. These ranks include the Dukes of Atholl and Earls of Dunmore, along with Viscounts Stormont (Earls’ Mansfield) and other elite Murray lineages. In order to ascertain if our Y-DNA Sutherland-Douglas cohort are in fact descended from the same paternal lineage as the potential Murray of Bothwell line of Atholl ( Dunmore, Stormont et al and cadets, Touchadam-Polmaise along with Abercairney Murrays),various Murray men known to be descended from the senior lines have been approached to undertake Y- DNA paternal line testing, but without success. Some members of this family are however within our Family Finder autosomal DNA project.

The Abercairney Murrays’ in our Murray Y-DNA project descend paternally from Home-Drummond relatively recently and as such are senior clan maternal line descendants of Freskin, not paternal.

Conclusion

The Murray Clan worldwide encompasses all of those bearing the surname Murray and derivatives and Septs, as well as their descendants. Our Murray DNA Project has proven a genetic link between many surname holders including Morrow, who did not realise previously that they were descended from a common Murray ancestor within their specific lines. However only one lineage can be directly patrilinially descended from Freskin if his paternal line did not become extinct.

To date due to lack of access to proven in depth lineage analysis of members and sparsity of members from proven Tullibardine Murray lineages it is not possible ascertain if that line relates in any way to the matching Douglas-Sutherland Y-DNA project members discussed above.

Fresechinus of Wiston (Whitson) in Pembroke and later of Duffus Moray with extensive lands conveyed to son William de Moravia, certainly appears to have descended from Flemish ancestral lines. However so have other founding ancestors within our project not known to be descended from him : Murrays of Cockpool and Murrays of Falahill & Blackbarony and cadets are merely three such Y-DNA cousin lines which have been argued to be descended from Flemish progenitors. These Murrays do not relate paternally to the Douglas Sutherland men under discussion, nor were they ever believed to descend in any way from Murray of Tullibardine.([60]) ([61])

If we were to recruit a number of Murray men descended from proven Tullibardine Touchadam -Polmaise and cadet Murray progenitors then, and only then would we be able to potentially answer the question as to whether a Murray-Sutherland-Douglas shared genetic Y-DNA paternal line inheritance from Freskin de Moravia is feasible. Until then though, this question remains moot.

WISTON CASTLE  PEMBROKE.([52])

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Nearby to Freskin’s abode in 1130.

For a PDF version of this blog post, see the following link: Blog Final PDF

Alexandrina Murray
February 2016

Alexandrina Murray is an Australian & British citizen. Her parentsboth Scottish, met during WW2 after they both volunteered for service within the Royal Australian Airforce. She is the Administrator for the Murray Clan DNA research Project at Family Tree DNA, and also the Administrator for the Noble Surname DNA Project. Her qualifications are B.A. & M.A., in Modern History. Alexandrina is retired as Manager; Distance Education Student Services at Macquarie University in Sydney Australia. Married to Paul Starling from a Stirling of Stirling family; they have one daughter -Alexandra.

References and Notes

[1]     M. Sutherland Fisher., J.B. Sutherland : See Blog Posting November 2014 Refer to discussion The Flemish in Scotland: Exploring the Relationships Between Some Key Flemish Families University of St Andrews. http://flemish.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/2014/11/21/exploring-the-relationships-among-some-key-flemish-families/#_edn2  Viewed November 2014.
[2] Ibid.
[3] G. W. S. Barrow., The Kingdom of the Scots Government, church and society from the eleventh to the fourteenth century. (London, 1973) p.p. 52-53 . Barrow determines that Freskin’s extensive lands were granted  in recognition of Knight service.
[4] Great Roll of the Exchequer., 1129-1130 E 372/1 31 Hen I. 1129 Mich-1130 Mich (printed by Rec Comm, 1833; reprinted by PRS, 1929) p.136. See Barrow- . Image courtesy of National Archives Kew, per Dr J. Nelson to James Brown Sutherland of Council: Clan Sutherland Society. 18 Sept 2014- via email. (Hereafter: Pipe Rolls Exchequer) Online version available: http://archive.org/stream/magnumrotulumsc01huntgoog#page/n174/mode/2up[5] Pipe Rolls Exchequer., Ibid.
[6] Note the presence of Walter son of Witz-Witson (Flandrensis) in the entry directly above Fresechin -Freskin yr 1130, Pembroke. as discussed by Sutherland & Fisher, (2014) op. cit., lending weight to their discussion regarding Witzo’s Flemish community comradeships and conveyancing trends later in Scotland. Identification of Witzo  as Witson (Wiston) with son Walt(s) is central to linking Freskin with  Wizo, the leader of the Flemish community in Pembrokeshire. Wizo Flandrensis de Castellum Witz. Walterus filius Witz was in possession of his father’s lands and ‘Castle Wiston-Witz in 1130, and Freskin (Fresechin) is listed directly under this entry seemingly living within the Flemish community at this time. This Castle passed from Walter Fitz Wizo to William Fitz Gerald in 1147. Walter & Freskin arguably of the same generation, possibly related with fathers’ also of the same generation. A Wizo  of Wiston was also prominent in Clydesdale and Kelso during the reign of Malcolm iv. Wizo in circa 1112 Wizo held the lordship of Daugleddau in Pembroke, which appears to be a name similar phoenetically to Douglas Dale.
[7] Earls of Annandale line is just one such example whereby the Crichton inheritor assumed the surname Murray. See: W.M. Morison., Ed: Decisions of the Court of Session, Vol. 6. Forum Competins Sir Robert Murray vs Murray of Bruchton (Broughton, ed. ) Feb 12th 1679 p.4803.
[8] Pipe Rolls Exchequer 1129-1130 Pembroke Wales. Op. Cit.,
[9] Also see: Lauran Toorians ., Revue belge de philologie de histoire, Annee (1996) Vol 74 No.3. pp.659-   693 Flemish Settlements in Twelfth-Century Scotland. p.663. PDF
[10] St David’s Cathedral was under construction and consecrated 1130c when Freskyn was in residence at Pembroke. Photographer Nigel Swales: Wiki Commons, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0
[11] Douglas Surname DNA Project at Family Tree DNA. Accessed 27 Jan 2017  at : http://www.familytreedna.com/public/Douglas/default.aspx?section=yresults
[12] Ibid.,  Members state progenitor is Willem  de Douglas 1174c.
[13] Sutherland  DNA Research Project at Family Tree Dna. Accessed 27 Jan 2016  at: http://www.familytreedna.com/public/Sutherland/default.aspx?section=yresults
[14] Advanced Single Nucleotide Polymorphism analysis via Family Tree DNA, Houston Texas USA.
[15] Alexandrina Murray : to Mark Sutherland Fisher., Belinda Dettman., Francis Douglas., by Email 18 May 2013. DOUGLAS MATCHES SUTHERLAND GROUP 0.3
[16] Also de Murreff.
[17] There is however one Murray project member who appears to belong to the same upstream clade of DF27 . Further SNP testing to be undertaken February-March should provide verification that his terminal sub clade will match that of the Douglas Sutherland group under discussion.
[18] Within European populations, however uncommon within the Murray Clan DNA Research Project.
[19] STR: Short Tandem Repeat DYS analysis.
[20] Single Neucleotide Polymorphism analysis.
[21] FTDNA Forum: Customer :Prarielad. Differs 4 mutations to 1st cousin.  67/4 reported 18 Sept 2015. http://forums.familytreedna.com/showthread.php?t=38515  Customer: Chills reports differs 2 markers from his father. 67/2 Reported: 6 Feb 2015.  http://forums.familytreedna.com/showthread.php?t=36922  Customer Stevo: reports 2 mutations to his son. 67/2 http://forums.familytreedna.com/showthread.php?t=35648  reported 13/8/2014.
Murray DNA Project Group 1:01 Cockpool Murray Philiphaugh Murray group report father son 2 mutations over 37 markers: 37/2 . See Family Tree DNA Father-Son-Brother Project. http://www.familytreedna.com/groups/father-son-brother/about/background
Results here. Ignore 1st group AAA. http://www.familytreedna.com/public/Father-Son-Brother?iframe=ycolorized
[22] Murray Clan DNA Research Project  at Family Tree DNA: Accessed 27 Jan 2016 at : http://www.familytreedna.com/public/murray/default.aspx?section=yresults
[23] FTDNA Forum: Op. Cit., http://www.familytreedna.com/public/Father-Son-Brother?iframe=ycolorized
[24] Murray DNA FTDNA Op. Cit
[25] Morrow DNA Project at Family Tree DNA . Accessed 27 Jan 2016 at: http://www.familytreedna.com/public/morrowdna/default.aspx?section=yresults
[26] William Murray of Murraythwaite.,  cited in Scots Lore, Proceedings of Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 166. . 1856.
[27] Matching Niall of the Nine Hostages Project at Family Tree DNA. Accessed  27 Jan 2017 at: http://www.familytreedna.com/landing/matching-niall.aspx
[28] Michael Maglio., Identifying Y-Chromosome Dynastic Haplotypes: The High Kings of Ireland Revisited (2015) LINK http://originhunters.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/ghosts-of-dna-past-irish-kings.html  PDF
[29] http://www.heraldry.ws/html/oneill-sept-arms.html
[30] Mullets are pierced however stars are not.
[31] Murraythwaite, Op. Cit., In many parts of Scotland — in Roxburghshire, in Perthshire, and else- where — Morow is still the local pronunciation for Murray or Moray. Many ways of spelling the name are preserved in old documents. It appears as Mwrray, Murrai, Murra, Murry, Mwry, Murrave, Murref, Muref, MurreflF, Murrefe, Morye,* Mowrrey,’ or Murrafe
[32] Arguably it was Father of Ollec who arrived with William the Conqueror in 1066 and Freskin was not referred to as ‘Flandrensis’ because he was actually native born 1100 circa. Flemish residents in Welsh areas and Pembroke by 1127 are discussed in depth  in: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales and.Monmouthshire: VII – County of Pembroke.(1925) . See online version:  http://tiny.cc/sz588x By Royal Warrant.
[33] Sir James Paul., (1909). The Scots Peerage 2. Edinburgh: David Douglas. p. 121.
[34] A.A.M. Duncan (1975 ) Scotland: The Making of the Kingdom. p.189.
[35] Ibid., See Note 6 above.
[36] This unusual fore-name may have been unique to this Flemish family.
[37] Pipe Roll Exchequer , Op. Cit., p145.
[38] Ibid.,
[39] All forms  of this name have may have been unique to this Flemish family in both Scotland and Wales.
[40] Round., The Antiquary. See in depth discussion  pp.109-111. Op. Cit.,
[41] Ibid.,
[42] C, Nugent; L, Brooke; G, Keir: London, 800-1216 : The Shaping of a City. pp. 98-99
[43] Round, Op. Cit., The Antiquary argues that there were at least 4 men with the forename Leuestani (Leofstan) in London during this era and warns readers not to confuse these four families.
[44] Michaelmas: Feast of Saint Michael. 29 September.
[45] In consideration of the proliferation of ancestry dot com trees whereby some member there attach their ancestors to those of others via “shaky green leaf hints” without due diligence and research. This has disseminated enormous numbers of false ancestral trees worldwide. I argue, perhaps hundreds of thousands.
[46] Murray of Abercairney is merely one elite line of Murray (Moray) with solid descent from Freskin who are recently descended as Moray from their maternal Moray line , after Son In Law- male Home-Drummond descendant assumption of the surname of Moray  to become Home-Drummond Moray. See Charles Stirling- Home- Drummond born 1814 married Christian Moray 18th of Abercairney. Charles then assumed the surname of Moray. See: The Peerage online http://www.thepeerage.com/p5240.htm#i52398
[47] An example of this is currently found within the Pringill of Stitchill Baronetcy succession dispute . Whereby the Queen has intervened in order to determine if Y-DNA test results should be provided to a judicial enquiry as evidence in this case after FTDNA Pringle project members of the Stitchill family did not match re: Y-DNA STR results. See: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3267859/Queen-demands-DNA-test-court-settle-dispute-330-year-old-baronet-title-ruling-mean-Utah-Mormon-king.html Accessed February 2016.
[48] Identification of the Remains of King Richard III (2014) in Nature Communications . PDF http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/141202/ncomms6631/full/ncomms6631.html Viewed Jan 2016.
[49] Also see evidence regarding skeletal remains of King Richard  III whose Y-DNA does not match his apparent paternal descendant line relations of the Dukes of Beaufort-|Somerset lineage. Leicester University: http://www.le.ac.uk/richardiii/science/resultsofdna.html Viewed January 2016.
[50] J.J. Cassiman (Prof) 2013. New research robs French King Henry IV of his head. At Kueleven.com http://www.kuleuven.be/english/news/2013/new-research-robs-henry-iv-of-head Viewed February 2016.
[51] See Group 7. Murray Clan DNA Results Family Tree DNA Op. Cit., http://www.familytreedna.com/public/murray/default.aspx?section=yresults[52] Ibid.,  Maarten H.D. Larmuseau et al., 2013 House of Bourbon belonged to Y-haplogroup R1b1b2a1a1b* (R-Z381*). European Journal of Human Genetics advance online publication 9 October 2013; doi: 10.1038/ejhg.2013.211 Viewed at Dienekes BlogSpot: http://dienekes.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/house-of-bourbon-belonged-to-y.html
[53] Eupedia.com Genetics. Viewed at : http://www.eupedia.com/genetics/famous_y-dna_by_haplogroup.shtml#R1b-U106 . Accessed 28 Jan 2016. See: http://yhrd.org/tools/branch/R1b1a-Z381 for Haplo-Map
[54] See Group 2:D. Murray Clan DNA Results Family Tree DNA Op. Cit., http://www.familytreedna.com/public/murray/default.aspx?section=yresults
[55] See Group 1:01. Murray Clan DNA Results Family Tree DNA Op. Cit., http://www.familytreedna.com/public/murray/default.aspx?section=yresults
[56] Ibid., All three projects: Murray: Douglas and Sutherland have enlisted members whose paper trail and published lineages place them as members within senior or well known clan lineages, yet who do not match any other members Y-DNA from within those projects. Relationship to their ancestral progenitor cannot be discounted however based solely on DNA Project membership numbers alone. Dozens of members of one family line may in fact be the outliers, having joined the project en-mass, and the lone member who does not match the others could theoretically be the genuine paternal line descendant.
[57] If they have done so, and are not aware of their distant provenance and the relationship to Tullibardine Murray, they are NOT be matching the Douglas-Sutherland group.
[58] Douglas Earls Queensberry belong to Haplogroup R1a1 see: Surname DNA Project at Family Tree DNA. Op.Cit., http://www.familytreedna.com/public/Douglas/default.aspx?section=yresults[59] Douglas Castle from Old Postcard. 1900 circa. Demolished 1938. Photo in public domain.
[60] Sir Walter Scott , a descendant of the Murrays of Falahill argued that his Murray of Philiphaugh relative and neighbour, was adamant that their line was unique and not related to any other Murrays. He especially referred to Murray of Atholl. This does not determine though that they did not also descend from the Bothwell-Tullibardine lineage during the medieval period.
[61] Group 1:01 within the Murray DNA Project are to date: the only group apart from the Sutherland-Douglas men, to have a well defined line to medieval ancestors. The related Murrays of Falahill & Murrays of Cockpool and cadets are believed to have descended from Archibald & William de Moravia. Recently, a member related to Sir James Augustus Henry Murray , (Lexicographer of Oxford dictionary fame) and believed to descend from Murray of Blackbarony, matched the Falahill & Cockpool Murray group. Their haplogroup is U152> L20. La Tene Celt. Other members of various groups unrelated to each other believe they are descended from the Tullibardine line. Most of these members descend from immigrants to U.S.A & Canada. These include men in Groups: 1:03:A; / 1:A5:2  /& 1:A5:3 ; / 1:A8:1 ;/ 2:D ; /4:0 & 7:0  /. See: http://www.familytreedna.com/public/murray/default.aspx?section=yresults
[62] Wiston Castle ruin Pembrokeshire Wales. Est date of initial construction 1110 circa. Situated in the vicinity of a dwelling inhabited by Fresechin (Freskin) during 1130, afterwards of Moray Scotland. Photo copyright by Deborah Tilley  November 2015. Available for publication under Creative Commons Licence :© Copyright:    Deborah Tilley and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

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