Accepting our Swedish ancestor arrived in the lands of ‘Caer Ruthers’ in 900 AD, the lands of our forebears were at that time still speaking Cumbric Welsh. The Celtic kingdom of Strathclyde, in which our lands were placed, was still in existance well into the 11th century‘. Strathclyde was finally defeated some time before 1054 and absorbed into Alba, but by then the Carruthers chiefly line was already well in place and the lands of Carruthers, taken as our own.
The truth about Carruthers
We are fully aware that there are those who, with a huge level of inaccuracy, suggest that most famous people in Scottish, Irish and Viking history are in fact CARRUTHERS.
The truth of the matter is simple. Based on the genetic pool and origins of all humans, we are definitely more part of them, than they are of us as CARRUTHERS.
However, this blog is specifically looking again at our perceived viking heritage and any genetic links that may exist to support it.
It is important to remember that in medieval times, only those who could read retained the power, as it was only their interpretation that was passed to the masses. This interpretation was not always accurate but in some cases was based simply on the agenda or ego of the individual. These situations still exist to this day.
To remove this mystique, we have put before you scientific facts, rather than attempting to feed you fiction. It is known and accepted, based on current and up-to-date research, that ‘Viking’ dna has been established. This categorisation is founded on samples taken from archeological sites and other scientific evidence.
Accepting this, here is a follow up piece tagged to our previous blog on the subject, this time from our y-DNA Research Group Director.
For those of you with even a very basic understanding of DNA research, the information below is very clear in its outcomes.
For those who don’t, the information again speaks for itself as our DNA line split from the ‘Viking’ line, nearly 1500 years before Vikings actually came into existence.
Carruthers is there a Viking Connection?
The Y chromosome is passed from father to son remaining mostly unaltered across generations, except for small traceable changes in DNA. By tracking these changes, we can construct a family tree of humankind where all male lineages trace back to a single common ancestor who lived hundreds of thousands of years ago. This human tree allows us to explore lineages through time and place and to uncover the modern history of your direct paternal surname line and the ancient history of our shared ancestors.
Investigations and further discovery which shines a light on our past continue.
A team of workers in 2008 were going to lay road cable in Salme in Estonia, a small village on the island of Saarema. What they stumbled across during their excavations were small pieces of metal and human remains. Uncertain of what they found, a group of archaeologists was brought in and what they discovered was a Viking burial ship. Using, the new technology available, DNA tests were performed on the skeletal remains.
Of the remains, they discovered four brothers and labeled them:
- Salme 1-7.
- Salme 2-C.
- Salme 2-H.
- Salme 2-J.
These four brothers all tested positive for the I-L22 yDNA Marker.
One of the brothers, Salme 1-7 had less degraded DNA and again with more advanced testing was found positive for I-Y19932.
Since these were confirmed brothers through their DNA testing, we can confirm that all four brothers would in fact test positive for I-Y19932 if their DNA wasn’t damaged.
We also know that the I-Y19932 marker mutated approx 780 BC. and the Carruthers line is a child branch of I-Y19932.
So what does this mean? Are we descendants, are we related or none of the above?
We must consider that there are of course multiple child branches of the I-Y19932 male and they are as follows:
- I-Y22015, this child branch stayed in Scandinavia.
- I- BY60851, this child branch stayed in Scandinavia. This is the branch of the Salme Vikings
- I- BY120623, this child branch also stayed in Scandinavia.
- I- FGC35577, this child branch migrated from Scandinavia to Scotland and is the branch of Carruthers.
So as we can see from the yDNA evidence, the Salme Vikings and the Carruthers do in fact share a common male ancestor in around 780 BC (Metal Ages). But does that suggest we have any ‘Viking’ links?
(It is quite obvious, as Vikings only came into being in the late 8th century AD, that Carruthers is not of Viking descent, as the evidence shows that our DNA line split from I-Y19932 well over 1000 years before Vikings even existed. Further Carruthers only came into being in the 10th-11th century in South West Scotland ed.)
To date, we can confirm that there is still no DNA evidence to make the claim that we are/were of Viking stock.
All we can claim (along with millions of others on the planet today ed), is that the Vikings of Saalme would only be related as very distant cousins to our family.
Carruthers yDNA Study
Help us map out the y-DNA history of our family by joining our research programme here
Clan Carruthers (International), bringing you facts not fiction for the benefit of future generations.
