Genetic Genealogy Ireland 2013

Last week I spent four enjoyable days in Dublin participating in the first ever Genetic Genealogy Ireland conference which took place at the Back To Our Past show at the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) in Ballsbridge just outside the city centre. Back To Our Past, now in its third year, is the premier genealogy event in Ireland, and is the Irish equivalent of Who Do You Think You Are? Live. Back To Our Past is held alongside the Senior Times Over 50s show which takes place in the same building, and for the price of a single ticket people can attend both events. Around 20,000 people attended last year over the course of the three days, and I'm sure that just as many people if not more will have attended this year's show.

Genetic Genealogy Ireland was sponsored by Family Tree DNA and organised by ISOGG - the International Society of Genetic Genealogy. Family Tree DNA were exhibiting at the event for the first time this year. FTDNA's involvement at Back To Our Past was the initiative of volunteer project administrator and US ISOGG member Derrell Oakley Teat, who suggested the idea to FTDNA staff back in January this year. Another ISOGG member Maurice Gleeson, the administrator of the Spearin and Irish Caribbean DNA Projects, had attended Back To Our Past in 2012 where he gave a very successful and well received lecture on DNA testing. He became involved in the organisation at an early stage and assumed responsibility for arranging the genetic genealogy lecture programme.  He approached the task with considerable enthusiasm and energy, and put together a fantastic and varied programme of talks. Katherine Borges, the Director of ISOGG, and Cynthia Wells, the administrator of the Lay/Ley DNA Project and co-administrator of the Talley DNA Project and the Wells DNA Project, both flew over from the United States to give presentations and to help on the FTDNA stand (or "booth" as they call it in America!). Some speakers came over from England and other speakers travelled to Dublin from all over Ireland. The full lecture schedule can be found here. It says a lot for the dedication of our genetic genealogy community that all the speakers paid their own way to attend the conference.

   The entrance to the Back To Our Past show 
at the RDS in Dublin.

I was invited to present two lectures. My first talk on Friday 18th October was entitled "Chromosomes, conquerors and castles: DNA testing and the Cruise/Cruse/Cruwys one-name study". On Saturday 19th October I gave a talk on "DNA for beginners: the three tests". Both of my talks seem to have been very well received. There was apparently a sudden rush for the FTDNA stand after my DNA for Beginners talk on Saturday! I was only able to attend the first two days of the conference as I had already been booked to do a talk for the Abingdon branch of the Berkshire Family History Society on the following Monday so I had to fly home on Sunday and consequently I missed the last day of the show which I understand was really busy. In contrast to WDYTYA Live, where Sunday is traditionally the quietest of the three days, several people told us that Friday is the quietest day at BTOP and Saturday and Sunday are always the busiest days.

During the first two days of the show I was helping out Derrell, Katherine and Cynthia on the FTDNA stand in between presenting my talks. John Blair and Geoff Swinfield also joined us later in the day. We had a non-stop stream of people visiting the stand to ask questions and to take DNA tests from the minute the show opened until late in the afternoon. It was difficult to find any free time to get away just to buy a drink or to get something to eat. Some people knew nothing about DNA testing and were coming up to the stand to find out how the process worked. We had a large quantity of leaflets from FTDNA and such was the interest that they had all run out before the end of show on Sunday. A lot of people wanted to know if their surname was represented in a project before deciding to test. We couldn't access the FTDNA database at the show so we sent them home with instructions to look up their names on the website. I suggested to several people that if they weren't able to test at BTOP they should wait until December to order a kit in the sale. I'm sure there will be an upsurge in orders from Ireland in the coming months. Other people, and especially those who had attended some of the talks, were happy to take a test there and then, and they will be able to look forward to receiving their results in the next six weeks or so. I spoke to a number of people who were interested in setting up DNA projects for their family history societies or their surname. A representative from the North of Ireland Family History Society came to speak to me after my talk and his society seem to be very keen to get involved in DNA testing. He insisted on taking a photo of me for their Facebook page! I was particularly pleased to meet up with one of the members of my Cruise DNA project who lives in Ireland and had come along to the show especially to meet me. He's very kindly offered to take me on a trip to Cruisetown (now known as Cruicetown), the former stronghold of one of the Irish branches of the Cruise family, the next time I visit Ireland.

I was very surprised at the number of visitors from America, all of whom were particularly interested in the Genetic Genealogy Ireland conference. There was one American visitor in the audience for one of my talks who introduced himself to me afterwards and said that he'd read both of my books! We tested quite a few Americans on the FTDNA stand. Two FTDNA project admins from America, Jim O'Halloran and Mike Carragher, had been thinking about a trip to Ireland and when they heard about BTOP they decided to plan their trips around the show. They were both hoping to travel around Ireland afterwards to test more people for their projects. All my American friends commented on how welcoming the Irish people were to Americans - they welcomed them back as long lost cousins. We all loved the Irish sense of humour and their relaxed attitude to life.

The long queue waiting for the doors to open

 for the Over 50s Show at the RDS.

A number of project administrators offered to sponsor DNA tests for people with their surnames. The free DNA tests are already a well-established tradition at Who Do You Think You Are? Live, and they went down very well in Ireland too. It's always pot luck as to whether or not someone with the right surname comes along to the show, but a number of projects were lucky to get new project members. We did free DNA tests for the surnames DOOLAN, HUDSON, KNOWLES, TAYLOR (2) and WATSON. I haven't seen the full list and other projects might have been successful too. There is a page on the Genetic Genealogy Ireland website which lists all the surnames for which sponsored tests were available. Even if you were not able to attend BTOP do check out the list and the comments section to see if your name is featured. I'm sure the project admins would be delighted to hear from you. There is also an additional listing of surname projects offering free DNA tests on this page in the ISOGG Wiki. Some of the names in the Wiki were not included in the Irish offer so do check out this page as well.

 A quiet time on the FTDNA stand
towards the end of the day on Saturday.

We had some enjoyable get-togethers in the evenings. It was a pleasure to meet Margaret Jordan who runs the large Ireland Y-DNA Project which now has over 5000 project members and is the third largest DNA project at FTDNA. Margaret told me that there is now a growing interest in DNA testing in Ireland. When she first took over the project the majority of project members were in the US but in recent years Irish people have begun to embrace DNA testing and Irish residents now comprise about 20% of her project members with the numbers increasing every week. I was also pleased to meet Elizabeth O'Donoghue/Ross, Nigel McCarthy and Finbar O'Mahony who run the Munster Irish DNA Project. I was also pleased to meet Gerard Corcoran who is ISOGG's representative in Ireland.There is a lot more DNA activity in Ireland than I had realised, and it is good to know that we have so many people living in the country who can help with the educational process.

Unfortunately I did not have time to attend any of the lectures as we were so busy on the FTDNA stand, though I did manage to catch the tail end of the L21 discussion panel on Friday. Maurice Gleeson worked hard co-ordinating all the lectures, introducing the speakers and making sure that all the equipment worked properly which was not an easy feat. He recorded all the lectures and, where the speakers have given permission, he has uploaded the recordings to the new Genetic Genealogy Ireland YouTube channel.  I gave two talks at the conference and both of my talks can now be seen on YouTube. On Saturday the subject of my presentation was "DNA for beginners: the three tests". On Friday I presented a lecture entitled "Chromosomes, conquerors and castles: DNA and the Cruise/Cruwys/Cruise one-name study". The handout for my talks can be downloaded from my Dropbox account.

Maurice Gleeson speaking to 
a packed audience at Back To Our Past.

All in all I think it was a very successful event. The DNA lectures seemed to be very well attended and were often more popular than the talks in the main lecture programme. We sold lots of FTDNA test kits on behalf of FTDNA, and I rather suspect we will all be back again next year.

Further links
- Genetic Genealogy Ireland 2013 website
- Genetic Genealogy Ireland on Facebook
- Genetic Genealogy Ireland YouTube channel
- ISOGG Wiki

© 2013 Debbie Kennett

Tom Cruise's Irish ancestry

Researchers in Ireland have been exploring the family tree of the Hollywood actor Tom Cruise. His line has been traced back to Andrew Cruise (d. 1780) who married Bridget Russell on 23rd January 1766 in Swords parish, County Dublin. The research can be found on the Eneclann website. The official press release from Tourism Ireland can be found here. Tom Cruise was in Dublin for the premiere of his new film Oblivion and he was presented with a copy of his family tree and his Certificate of Irish Heritage. You can see the video of the presentation here. My earlier blog post on the Cruise surname provides information on some of the early references to the surname in Ireland, a number of which have been used in the current research.

Irish surname maps

Howard Mathieson, the surname mapping expert in the Guild of One-Name Studies, has been experimenting with a new mapping service. I was one of the guinea pigs who tested his new service and he has very kindly provided me with some maps showing the distribution of the surname Cruise in Ireland using data extracted from Griffith's Valuation 1847-1864. You will need to click on the maps to enlarge them and to see the fine detail. The first map shows the distribution of the Cruise surname with a backdrop of an historic map of Ireland. There are two distinct clusters of the surname with one cluster in Dublin and another around Galway Bay in County Mayo and County Clare. Some Cruise researchers with ancestors from western Ireland have stories that their ancestor was a Spaniard by the name of Dal a Cruze who was shipwrecked off County Clare after the Spanish Armada. The surname was then supposedly anglicised to Cruise. There is a place in County Clare by the name of Spanish Point where the survivors from the wrecked Spanish ships came into land in 1588, but it seems that they were all executed by Sir Turlough O'Brien of Liscannor and Boethius Clancy, the High Sheriff of County Clare. I suspect there is little truth in the story of a Spanish origin but would be happy to be proved wrong. The Cruises in the Dublin area are of Anglo-Norman origin. They arrived in Ireland around the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169.

The second map below shows the distribution of the Cruise surname with the pins overlaid on a physical map of Ireland.

The final map below shows a close up of the distribution of the surname in Dublin.

Howard is now offering a bespoke surname mapping service. He is able to produce maps for England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland and the United States. Howard can generate maps using his own datasets or he can generate maps from your own data. You can read more about this new service on Howard's Surname Origins website.

© Debbie Kennett 2012

Maps © Howard Mathieson and Surname Origins 2012

Irish DNA Atlas Project

A very interesting new DNA Project for Ireland is to be launched at the "Back To Our Past" show in Dublin on 21st October. The Irish DNA Atlas Project is a joint initiative between the Genealogical Society of Ireland and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. The project's first newsletter states that the project has two purposes:

1. To further our knowledge of the population history of Ireland and its connections with other populations in Europe.
 2. To help us understand how genes influence health in Ireland through the creation of a resource for use as 'healthy' controls in researching how genes influence common diseases in Ireland, including (though not confined to) diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

 They are recruiting people with all eight great-grandparents born in Ireland. All of the eight great-grandparents should be born in the same general area of Ireland so that their DNA is representative of that particular region. The project is open both to Irish residents and people living overseas who meet the qualifying criteria.

The project will be using Y-chromosome DNA, mitochondrial DNA and autosomal DNA. I can't find any information in the newsletter about the tests that will be done but I assume they will be doing chip sequencing along the lines of the People of the British Isles Project.

Further information can be found in the Irish DNA Atlas Project newsletter. This can be read online here but the PDF cannot be downloaded without paying a fee to access the hosting company's premium service.

© 2011 Debbie Kennett

Cruises in Griffith's Valuation of Ireland 1848-1864

Howard Mathieson, one of my colleagues in the Guild of One-Name Studies, has been working on producing maps showing the distribution of a surname in Ireland at parish level based on the Griffith's Valuation Indexes. He has very kindly produced some maps for me showing the distribution of the Cruise surname and related variant spellings. From 1848 to 1864 Ireland's Valuation Office conducted its first survey of property ownership in Ireland in order to determine the amount of tax each person should pay towards the support of the poor within their Poor Law Union. This survey became known as Griffith's Valuation after Richard Griffith who was the director of the office at that time. The survey recorded the names of both landlords and tenants throughout the country in both rural and urban areas, and it provides a snapshot of the population at a key point in Irish history, beginning at the time when the Great Famine was at its peak. It is a particularly important resource because no Irish censuses have survived prior to 1901 and it effectively serves as a census substitute. Griffith's Valuation can be found online on the Ask about Ireland website.

Howard's first map below shows the distribution of Cruise tenants in Ireland. It's interesting to see that there are still Cruises in the east of the country in Meath and Dublin, the counties where the Cruise family first held lands when they arrived in Ireland in the twelfth century, though there has been a noticeable westward drift into Galway and Mayo.

The second map below shows the distribution of tenants of Cruise landlords and therefore provides an indication of the landholdings of people with the surname in Ireland at the time.

Some Cruises still held land in Dublin and Meath, and there were still Cruice landlords in Cruicetown in County Meath. It is however somewhat surprising that the largest landholdings are now in the west and south west in counties Galway, Clare and Limerick.

For anyone with an interest in surname mapping I recommend a visit to Howard's Geogenealogy website which provides a wealth of information on the subject and lots of interesting links.

© 2011 Debbie Kennett and Howard Mathieson

Cruises in Irish civil registration indexes

Thanks to the hard work of a fellow Cruise researcher I now have a major new database to add to my collection of records for my one-name study. We have now extracted all the references to the surnames Cruise, Cruice and variants from the Irish Civil Registration Indexes, and they have been placed in Excel spreadsheets for easy sorting. The Irish BMDs are available online free of charge on the new Family Search website. The births cover the period from 1864 to 1958, the marriages are from 1845 to 1958 and the deaths from 1864 to 1958. BMD records are one of the core datasets in a one-name study, and the Irish BMDs will serve as a useful baseline and checklist when work starts on reconstructing all the Cruise families in Ireland.

© Debbie Kennett 2011

IPM of Robert de Cruys of Nalle, Ireland 1292

ROBERT DE CRUYS OF NALLE

 Writ to Walter de la Haye escheator in Ireland, 25 March, 20 Edw. I  [1292]

[MEATH.] Inq. Sunday before SS. Philip and James, 20 Edw. I.

Le Nalle. Buildings with stone walls of which the timber is of oak wholly unroofed, lands, rents &c. (extent given with names of tenants), including 120a. arable in 'le Carret feld' and mill field, 20a. in 'le Resk,' 36a. on the hill (montana), 24a. at Lochmoyan, a hill containing 17a. pasture, a pasture called 'la Roche,' and a moor for oxen, held of the king in chief by service of 20s. when royal service is proclaimed.

Ardmays. Wooden buildings thatched with straw and a stone tower worth nothing because they are in the march among the Irish and cost much for maintenance, and if they are thrown down it will be to the great damage of the whole country, lands &c. (extent given), including 87a. land at Cruys town and a township at Kenethan held by the Irish.

Ynesken. The advowson of the church.

Cruys. The advowson of the church.

Moderath. Richard Moderath holds a carucate of land by rendering 16d. when royal service is proclaimed; and ½ carucate of land in fee, rendering a pair of spurs yearly to the heirs of Thomas le Gros.

            Reginald de Sancto Bosco and Isabel his wife, mother of the said Robert, hold in dower 173a. arable, meadow, a mill, an orchard, 40d. or 400 eels issue of the lake of Robert's town (Lacy Ville Roberti), with common of the whole pasture of Ardmass and howsebot and heybote.

            And the said Robert died seised of 9l. 5s. 9 3/4d. rent of freemen at Clonachbrenan in the lordship of Sir Theobald de Verdum.

            Helen (Ellena) the wife of the said Robert has a third part of all the aforesaid lands &c. as dower.

                                                                                    C. Edw. I. File 63 (15)

Source: Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem and other analogous documents preserved in the Public Record Office. Volume III: Edward I. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1912, no. 48, p37. Available online in the Internet Archive.

© Debbie Kennett 2011

The Cruise surname

Cruise is a very old Irish surname of Anglo-Norman origin which has been present in Ireland since the Anglo-Norman invasion in 1169. The family held lands in Dublin and in County Meath. In early records the name is mostly spelt Cruys, and sometimes Cruce or Crues, but the spelling evolved to Cruise, and this is now the predominant spelling of the surname in Ireland today. Some time before 1176 Augustino de Cruce witnessed a grant by Strongbow of land in Dublin,¹ and this is the earliest reference to the surname in Ireland found to date. In about 1200 the lands of Stephen de Cruwes were confiscated by order of the king. He was subsequently allowed to regain possession of these lands on payment of fifteen marks.² There are a number of early references to the surname in the Calendars of the Patent Rolls. There was a Philip de Cruce in Dublin in 1229, and Miles de Cruys held lands in the manor of Balimaglassan in County Meath in 1279. Also in 1279 Sir Hugh de Cruys was granted "certain demesnes" in Ireland for his "good service in [the] Irish wars".³ A Robert de Cruys of Nalle, Co. Meath, died in 1292 and it was noted in his inquisition post mortem that he held "tenements at Nalle, Ardmays, Cruys, and Moderath".⁴ The castle in Naul that was once the family seat in Dublin is now sadly in ruins, but the name lives on in the townland of Cruiserath in Finglas parish, County Dublin. In County Meath the family possessed the castles and estates of Cruisetown (now known as Cruicetown), Moydorragh (possibly the Moderath cited in 1279) and Rathmore. The surname Cruise has now spread around the world and is found today in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and the United States, but the highest density of the surname is still to be found in Ireland, particularly in County Dublin.

I have been collecting records on the Cruise surname for some time and I have now officially expanded my one-name study to include Cruise as a variant spelling. DNA evidence has already suggested that there is a link between the Cruwys family of Cruwys Morchard in Devon and the Anglo-Norman Cruises. The Devon family is well documented and the family tree can be traced back to the thirteenth century with reasonable confidence, helped by the fact that the family have been Lords of the Manor of Cruwys Morchard continuously from the 1200s to the present day. Irish records are more problematic, and none of the Irish Cruise lines that have been researched to date can be traced back much before the late 1700s, though there are many medieval records that have yet to be explored. We are hoping that genetic evidence will help to fill the gaps in the genealogical record, and will also provide clues as to the origins of the surname in France or Belgium. To this end I am hoping to recruit more Irish Cruises to my DNA project. A sponsor has generously provided funding and I am now able to offer free Y-DNA tests to any Cruise men with documentary proof that they have a Cruise ancestor on the paternal line who was born in Ireland. The offer is open on a first come first served basis but preference will be given to men living in Ireland. The offer is restricted to two free kits per lineage and no men closer than third cousins will be tested. If you are interested in taking part do get in touch. Full details of the offer can be found in a flyer which can be downloaded here.

References
1. T. Gilbert (ed.), Register of the abbey of St Thomas, Dublin (London, 1889), 370. Cited in An Archaeological and Historical Assessment of Cruicetown Church and Graveyard, Cruicetown, Co. Meath. Commissioned by the Cruicetown Cemetery Conservation Committee and carried out by the Discovery Programme’s Medieval Rural Settlement Project, issued 27 May 2005. Available from the Heritage Council. 
2. H.S. Sweetman, Calendar of documents relating to Ireland, 5 vols (London, 1875-86), i, no. 113, 17. Cited in An Archaeological and Historical Assessment of Cruicetown Church and Graveyard Cruicetown, Co. Meath. Commissioned by the Cruicetown Cemetery Conservation Committee and carried out by the Discovery Programme’s Medieval Rural Settlement Project, issued 27 May 2005. Available from the Heritage Council.
3. Knights of Edward I. Volume I: A to E. Notices collected by Rev. C. Moor, The Harleian Society, 1929, p257.

4. Knights of Edward I. op. cit.,  p257.

© Debbie Kennett 2011

Cruise article in Irish Roots magazine

The current issue of Irish Roots magazine (2010 number 4) contains an excellent article by Henry Cruise describing the genealogical resources he used to research the history of his Cruise family in Ireland. The article is the first in a three-part series and is an edited version of a project he submitted for a Diploma in Genealogy awarded by Independent Colleges in conjunction with the Association of Professional Genealogists in Ireland. The first part of the article focuses on Henry's grandparents, William Alexander Raleigh Cruise and Tempy Adye-Curran, who lived at a variety of addresses in Dublin and had thirteen children. William was born in 1878 in Drumhirk, County Monaghan, and was the son of Richard Joseph Cruise and Elizabeth Francesca Raleigh. The article can be seen online on the Irish Roots website by clicking on "Inside" on the cover of the magazine and scrolling through the pages. Irish Roots is only available in digital format and a subscription is required to receive the full journal. I shall look forward to reading the second article in the series in due course.

© Debbie Kennett 2011

Blood of the Irish DVD

Blood of the Irish is a major two-part documentary which was broadcast on Irish television last year. There was considerable disappointment at that time amongst the genetic genealogy community that the programme could not be seen in the United Kingdom, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and all the many other countries where the Irish diaspora can be found today. I am therefore delighted to report that the programme is now available on DVD from the production company Crossing the Line Films. Further information about the programme can be found on the RTE website here. The DVD will be region-free so that it can be viewed anywhere in the world. There is a standard three-Euro charge for shipping. The following press release was written by Crossing the Line films.

OUT ON 12 MARCH 2010

WINNER OF 2010 IRISH FILM AND TELEVISION AWARDS

BEST DOCUMENTARY SERIES

'Blood of the Irish'

Crossing The Line Films are delighted to announce the release of the IFTA-winning documentary series 'Blood of the Irish', a two-hour documentary that seeks the truth about the origins of Irish people.

Broadcaster Diarmuid Gavin travels to the heart of Africa and beyond in a quest to find the very origins of the Irish people. Who are the Irish and whose blood flows in our veins? A landmark series for RTÉ, Blood of the Irish explores the most fundamental questions about the Irish population; who were the first people to settle here and where did they come from? Why are the oldest Irish human remains less than 10,000 years old when just 100 kms away in Britain, human traces go back 700,000 years? Did the first Irish arrive overland on an ice bridge, or on a small fragile boat blown ashore by the winds of chance?

Produced by Crossing the Line Films, a veteran production company skilled at documentaries exploring history, science and adventure, the documentary is full of spectacular landscapes, cutting edge DNA studies, computer graphics, latest archaeology and prominent academic contributors. It also includes ordinary Irish people and their own quest for their origins – including even an appearance by Daniel O'Donnell.

For all those with an interest in Irish history and prehistory, geneaology, genetics, archaeology and general Irish studies, 'Blood of the Irish' is a showpiece documentary which offers an educational and approachable view into one of the great mysteries of Irish people. Who are we; and where do we come from?

Out on 12 March 2010 in retailers throughout Ireland and available region-free through the website www.ctlfilms.com

PG rated
RRP 17.99 euros

CONTACT:
Crossing The Line Films
Barr an Uisce, Killincarrig Road
Greystones, Co Wicklow
www.ctlfilms.com
Tel: (01) 287 5394

Irish BMDs online

The Irish Civil Registration Indexes for have now gone online on the Family Search pilot site. [The Irish BMDs are now available on the main Family Search website and can be searched here.] The indexes include births from 1864 to 1958, marriages from 1845 to 1958 and deaths from 1864 to 1958. I've done a quick search to establish the distribution of the variant spellings in the Irish records. The total number of birth, marriage and death events for each spelling are as follows:

Cruise 2982
Cruse 107
Crews 12
Cruce 14
Cruwys 4
Crewes 1

It does not seem to be possible at present to search separately for births, marriages and deaths. The four Cruwyses in the Irish indexes are all in my own family tree. I have not yet had the chance to explore any of the other Irish lines.

The surname in Ireland, as in England, has a very long history. It seems likely that the name arrived in Ireland following the Anglo-Norman invasion in 1169. The earliest reference to the surname I have found in the Irish records relates to a Philippum de Cruce of Dublin who is mentioned in the Patent Rolls in 1229. A Miles de Cruys is noted as holding lands in the manor of Balimaglassan in County Meath in the Patent Rolls in 1277 and 1279. Cruys seems to have been the predominant spelling in the medieval period, whereas today the Cruise spelling is the one most commonly found in Ireland. The family has given its name to a small parish in County Meath which is known as Cruisetown. Another branch seems to have settled in Dublin. The chief seat of the family was at Naul, and the ruins of their castle can apparently still be seen today.

In order to keep the one-name study to a manageable size I have deliberately excluded the variant spelling Cruise because of the numbers involved both in Ireland and America. I do however have some Cruises in the DNA project, and I have acquired a few Irish records in the last few years so I am always pleased to hear from anyone researching the surname Cruise. My hope is that one day someone might be interested in taking on Cruise as a separate one-name study!