Gorman surname origins and early migrations

[Seán MacGorman Powell]

This topic is for any discussions of the historical origins of the Gorman/O'Gorman/MacGorman surname (or any variants), and the migration patterns of its various lineages.

I will periodically transfer information from this thread to a section on the Discussion page on the Gorman DNA Project, so please check there for more information:

http://www.worldfamilies.net/surnames/gorman/disc

[mgor12345]

I am in with 67 markers on FTDNA.  Now it is time to order the deep clade test.

Check out this thread for more info on it, especially the R1b-rs34276300+ which shows some promise of helping to further map historical origins.

http://tinyurl.com/3h8xz3

It is possible that all Irish Gormans come from one of various strains of Irish (Celtic, old-Irish, Viking, Norman, etc..)

By the way, the DNA forum this comes from is really compelling and is on the cutting edge of using DNA data.

[Seán MacGorman Powell]

I completely agree with Mgor12345, especially on these two points:

(1) That forum that he mentioned is probably the best, and most active, forum around to learn about genetic genealogy.  I'm a regular participant on that forum, and it's a good mix of people who are experts in the field, and beginners who are simply trying to learn more about the field.  It's a very friendly and helpful place for people to post questions, and you can feel confident that you'll get some authoritative replies.

(2) For those of you who have already tested the full 67 markers, a deep-clade test would be the next logical place to proceed.  While the 67-marker test can help tell you about your relatively recent ancestors (within the past few centuries), the deep-clade test will determine (or confirm) your haplogroup very specifically, and that information can be used to help trace your deep ancestry (on the order of thousands, or tens of thousands, of years ago).  That kind of thing could help tell us where the Gormans came from long before there were any such things as surnames, and from where our ancestors migrated into the British Isles.