When researching our family, especially as we are building a solid foundation of facts for generations to come, we need to be as accurate as possible. The Clan Carruthers Research Institute (CCRI), comprising our historians, geneticists and genealogists is always excited to uncover new information that will advance our understanding of our family’s past.
They take on such tasks as supporting the upcoming Gathering in Annan on August, 24-25 2024, researching or studying the historic, genealogical or genetic (DNA) evidence and piecing it together and sadly on occasions and when needs must, clarifying and challenging false claims.
As the evidence changes so does our current knowledge base and understanding of the of our past. If our current stance is wrong, we accept it and change our perception of the facts. Because our Society genuinely believes in finding out and publishing the facts, we will always choose to share it with you.
With this in mind, one question we are asked, albeit very occasionally these days is: Are Carruthers Irish or Viking based on our DNA research? Well, based on an exciting new discovery led by our DNA Project team and their Director Steve Colburn, let’s see what the current evidence actually says.
Carruthers the Gael.
The kingdom of Dal Riata
Firstly this is not our DNA research as we make no such claims. Our DNA Project uses the best testing available to us to ensure outcome accuracy (Big y-DNA 700).
The advantage of robust family research by competent and tenacious individuals is that we can say without any fear of contradiction what the evidence states, in this case that we are not of Irish.
The Irish, or Scotti as they were called in the 3rd Century AD/CE by the Romans are Gaels (Q-Celts), whose language was different to the Celtic language of Briton ie Brythonic (P-Celts), which was spoken throughout our island. The Gaels did invade and inhabit part of the west coast of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Dal Riata/Dalriada. Although same say they overtook and colonised Scotland, current research is proving this wrong
According to Brittanica.com: Dalriada, Gaelic kingdom that, at least from the 5th century AD, extended on both sides of the North Channel and composed the northern part of the present County Antrim, Northern Ireland, and part of the Inner Hebrides and Argyll, in Scotland. In earlier times, Argyll had received extensive immigration from the Irish (known as Scoti until the 12th century) of northern Ireland and had become an Irish (i.e.,“Scottish”) area. In c. 500, the ruling family of Irish Dalriada crossed into Scottish Dalriada and made Dunadd and Dunolly its chief strongholds.
Irish Dalriada gradually declined; and after the Viking invasions early in the 9th century, it lost all political identity. Heavy onslaughts from the Picts checked the Dalriada of the Scottish mainland. In the mid-9th century its king, Kenneth I MacAlpin brought the Picts and Scotti permanently together, and thereafter the whole country was known as Scotland.
Although the ‘Scotti’ did give their name to Scotland, it seems that the history we are taught regarding the Gaels taking over the country may not be accurate and according to the Scottish History Society: The historical record of Dalriadan history is very thin and fragmentary. Historians have been rising to the challenge of understanding it, and of reversing ten centuries of medieval and modern interpretations and cynical manipulations of that history, which moulded it into shapes that fail to match the record. In hindsight medieval and modern chauvinism naturally sought to foreground and assume great things of ethnic ‘Scots’ (Gaels were called Scotti in Latin, at this time) in Scotland’s national history. Historians are working hard to understand the Dalriadan achievement in its proper perspective. In particular, that Dalriadan kings warred constantly with the Picts, conquered them in due course and reduced their country to a new Scottish homeland, all centrepieces of later manipulations of early Scottish history, find no support in the evidence.
It is therefore obvious that in time and through integration into the local community, that the Irish Gaels were being diluted and gradually in and around 847, there are strong indications that Dalriada is itself conquered and Gaelic families are successfully realigning themselves as Pictish aristocrats. It is from this conjoining of peoples that Kenneth McAlpin united both Picts and the remnants of Dalriada to form the new kingdom of Scotland which existed north of the Clyde and Forth Rivers. It has to be said as was alluded to before, the unification of the two peoples did not totally come about through defeat of one over the other, but rather through intermarriage and the inevitable outcome of mixed-race children, which diluted both races over time.
Interestingly, in 2015 research by the University of Edinburgh showed that Irish DNA was found in 12 per cent of men in Argyll and south Scotland who carried the M222 chromosome. This chromosome is believed to have been brought over from Ireland from the fifth century when Irish invaders crossed the North Channel. These men are believed by the researchers to be direct descendants of the first Irish High King – Niall Noigiallach.
Impressive huh, but do Carruthers fall into this category?
But didn’t the Gaels/Irish conquer Scotland?
Actually based on current research as above, it seems not. However what the Gaels did leave as a legacy was their language (Gàidhlig) which was spoken, mainly throughout ‘Scotland’ to include Galloway, but not as much in the lowlands or border regions and especially less so in the south west of Scotland where Cumbric was spoken until the 11th century. Cumbric was a variety of the Common Brythonic language spoken during the Early Middle Ages in what is now the counties of Westmorland, Cumberland, northern Lancashire in Northern England and the southern Scottish Lowlands. Its closest link today is in modern Welsh.
It seems therefore that the Scottish borders were never really influenced by the Gaelic Culture and language and used to call the ruling dynasty of the time, appreciating Dunfermline was their seat, as the ‘King in Fife’. This was a derogatory term suggesting he was not important in their lives. The Gaelic language was gradually phased out by the monarchy during the time of Malcom Canmore, and old Scots, already spoken in half the country took its place.
So are Carruthers ‘Irish’ at all?
Are Carruthers descended from the Gaels, or in fact Irish Royalty: check here, but the answer according to our DNA research is NO, our DNA does not link into M222.
Carruthers, the Viking from Gutland
There are those who claim that we are descended from Vikings and that marauders sailed up the Solway Firth to invade and inhabit Annandale, well that may or may not have occurred, but do we as a family carry Viking DNA.
Interestingly the period when Vikings sailed the seas was not until around 793 AD/CE and was finish after the battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066. However they did colonise in areas of Scotland mainly into the highlands and islands in the North West.
So who were the Vikings?
The Vikings were a seafaring collective of peoples from Norway, Denmark and Sweden. However, we do know individual groups had sailed and traded from what is now Scandinavia, prior to the Viking age. Therefore, according to current academic and university research, not all Vikings were Scandinavian and in fact not all Scandinavians were Vikings.
What it is true to state, again using research from 2015 from the University of Edinburgh is that Vikings are still running rampant through Scotland. According to the researchers, 29.2 per cent of descendants in the Shetland Isles have the DNA, 25.2 per cent in the Orkney Isles and 17.5 per cent in Caithness in the north of Scotland. This compares with just with 5.6 per cent of men in Yorkshire carrying Norse DNA which is strange appreciating there was a huge settlement there. The percentage then drops as low as 9 per cent in the South-west of Scotland, but this is still a relatively high number.
Do we as Carruthers carry the Viking gene, if so are we in the true sense of the word Viking? Well no more than we are Ethiopian based on the anthropologists hypothesis of the Cradle of Life. We are Scots, see below!!
Carruthers DNA Research Programme update:
The question is do we inherit our DNA from the Irish or Vikings or did a Swedish male arrive in Annandale in and around 900 AD/CE to begin the chiefly line of Carruthers?
So what does the evidence suggest?
Firstly the best available resource for DNA testing is to use Big Y-DNA 700 samples, not all groups do thus as its expensive, but to coin the old adage, you get what you pay for. Our Carruthers Project uses these tests and because of its accuracy, it easily ties in with other programmes of a similar ilk and strength of research.
What we once believed ?
Originally, we did believe that a Swedish male found his way into Annandale in and around 900 AD/CE and interbred with the local population starting the Carruthers chiefly line. As the DNA carries a Single nucleotide polymorphism, frequently called snps (pronounced “snips”), which are the most common type of genetic variation among people, it allows our researchers to map out the past and include or exclude any DNA branches that may exist. This allows us to investigate further as new evidence surfaces.
An important and exciting Carruthers DNA update.
By mapping the snp in our DNA samples we have now proven beyound a shadow of a doubt that our Swedish ancestor, definitely not from Gotland, arrived in what was to become Scotland around 500 BC/BCE. This is 500 years before the birth of Christ, and nearly 600 years before the Romans reached Scotland. Our Swedish ancestor did not come up through Wales but rather landed, possibly as a trader on the east coast of Scotland. Either himself or a male member of his family made their way to Annandale, where they integrated into the local Celtic population. In our case this seems to have been the members of the Selgovae, who were a Celtic tribe who inhabited Annandale at the time. It is from this tribe that ‘our’ Rhydderch of the fort fame came from.
Carruthers can therefore and with great pride and honesty state that our ancestry from hundreds of years BC/CBE are Celtic/Scottish. The DNA evidence ‘as of recently‘ and ‘hot off the press‘ suggests that we are definitely not genetically linked to either the Irish nor of ‘Viking’ stock and we are definitely not from Gutland.
One has to assume that even in the deepest depths of misunderstanding of our origins, that ‘surely after existing in Scotland for over 2500 years, we can claim it as our home, and most certainly appreciate our origins in Annandale. Well we think so!
Our lineage as a name, is as other researchers before us have stated, topographical in nature from the south west Scotland. We took our name from the lands of Carruthers, which became a parish in its own right, which in turn took its name from Caer (fort) Rydderch (Ruthers in ancient Cumbric). The first recorded use of the name was William de/of Carruthers who gave a donation to Newbattle Abbey in Midlothian in the east of Scotland during the reign (1214 – 1249) of Alexander II born in 1198. William himself died circa 1245.
We know we have a long and proud history in both Dumfriesshire and Scotland itself as reflected in the ancient stories of both, as such surely we do not need fantasy to enhance our heritage nor embellish the rich tapestry of Carruthers, deeply woven into both the roots of Dumfriesshire and Scotland?
The evidence, well researched over time, shows quite clearly that we are not an American, Irish nor in fact a Viking Clan. What we are is quite simply from the lands of our forebears in Annandale, with a proud Scottish border name and origin and a historic line of Chiefs going back nearly 1000 years. If we can’t appreciate that then…………
So enjoy who and what you are, if you need anything else to bolster your pride in our name, more so than that as an ancient Scottish clan and family with all that that carries, you may be in the wrong place.
Promptus et Fidelis
Enjoyed reading. More history as to our origins. Family heritage / lineage is always good to know. Thank You for all the time involved in research.
Thank you very much, its great to see the research continuing.
I was JUST SAYING the other day about how heavy Cumbric culture seems to permeate our foundations the more research I do! Ahhh! So excited to see this! Very validating, I feel like I’m researching in the correct direction!
If you pick up on anything just let me know. Thank you for your last comment