The following table lists individuals in the database who we know from documented records were born in Britain prior to around 1800 and who have founded lines of Shankland/Shanklin descent, but whose own ancestors are not known; thus potentially each is the "patriarch" of an independent Shankland/Shanklin family line. Our hypothesis is that at least some (and possibly most) of these lines will turn out - by DNA testing - to be related, even though the relationship pre-dates the earliest documentary evidence we have for them, possibly by many generations.

The information in the table shows, for each line, the arbitrary designation given to each family, the date and place of the earliest recorded event, the number of (Shankland) members of each line that we know of, and the distribution of this line as currently known.

Our current objective is to identify one or two suitable test candidates from each line, so that their DNA test results can be compared to the other DNA results we have, and such undocumented relationships can thus be identified.

We have already been able to identify several of these lines, from Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and USA, as a single family line whose DNA proves they are related but whose relationship pre-dates the records. The initial breakthrough was discovering that two American lines thought to be unrelated - the Irish / New York line and the Scottish / Delaware and Maryland line - were in fact the same. Since then, we have been able to identify other individuals from families in Scotland, England, and Wales as being part of this line, which has so far included about two-thirds of the DNA participants, including a Shanklin (as opposed to Shankland) family from the west of America. In this we have been helped by this particular haplotype having a very unusual pattern for three of the markers: in the general population only about 13 men in 10,000 have this combination of marker values, while out of 17 Shankland / Shanklin testers so far, 13 have shown this pattern.

Until recently, the DNA results then had tended to show most men fitting in to a single Shankland line which apparently originated in Scotland and Ireland and has migrated from there to other parts of the UK and the world. It began to look as though there was just one Shankland/Shanklin "great-family", to whom 60-70% of Shanklands/Shanklins were related, plus a number of non-matching individual results.

The most recent result, however, which does not match the "great family" DNA, does match one of the others! This is the first evidence we have that there are several apparently independent Shankland lines (as I had myself expected). I found this result, establishing that there are several distinct Shankland families, as exciting as the original breakthrough result which established that two families thought to be distinct were in fact related.

The DNA project continues, and we continue to look for new participants to help us find out more about our (related or independent) families. As new candidates come forward, and their DNA test results become known, we can fill in the results tables appropriately. Watch this space!

(Note that, to ensure confidentiality for our DNA contributors, the DNA test results are referred to not by the name of the contributor but by a code indicating which family line he comes from.)

Table 1: Shankland family lines

Family ID	Earliest doc ref		No. of Members	Distribution
	Date	Place
IRL-A / USA-NY	about 1660?	Ireland	230	NY, USA, then spreading to Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan. One of the main American lines, taking both the Shankland and Shanklin names. Some branches of this family line are not well known and as further information comes to hand the number of members may grow substantially as various sub-trees are absorbed.
IRL-B / USA-VA	about 1700?	Ireland	22	Virginia, spreading westwards. This came to light recently as an apparently distinct line from IRL-A but still deriving from Irish ancestors.
IRL-C	c.1741	Ireland, Tyrone	26	VA, USA, spreading to Ohio and Illinois. A very small family line but apparently independent of IRL-A. Events such as births and marriages for the first generation are recorded in both Ireland and Virginia.
IRL-D	c.1785	Ireland, Donegal	41	Canada and Australia. All three of the first generation emigrated, two to Canada and one to Australia.
SCT-A / USA-DE	about 1663?	Scotland	516	DE / MD, USA, then spreading across Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa. The earliest and largest American line, originally believed to be from Scotland but now more likely to be from Ireland. The first DNA results in this study reveal SCT-A and IRL-A to have had a common ancestor.
SCT-B	1695	Scotland, Kircudbrightshire	325	England, New Zealand, Australia, Canada. Some remain in Scotland. This line includes an entire branch which inherits its Shankland name from the son born to an unmarried Shankland female in 1827.
SCT-C	1734	Scotland, Dumfriesshire	281	England, South Africa, Canada. Although our earliest documented reference is in Dumfriesshire, most Scottish members of this family line appear to be in Ayrshire. One small branch went off to South Africa, another small branch to Canada; however, most members stayed in Scotland, with the usual drift towards Glasgow, and in England.
SCT-D	1765	Scotland, Dumfriesshire	162	England, Canada. Another line that stayed mainly in Scotland, except for one branch emigrating to Canada. In Scotland, most events are in Dumfriesshire, with Glasgow and Edinburgh also well represented. This is very likely to be a sub-branch of SCT-C; note, the earliest reference for it is about one generation later than the earliest reference for SCT-C.
SCT-E	1772	Scotland, Ayrshire	101	One branch of this family appears to have been well travelled - Trinidad, West Indies, British Guiana, South America, Canada. Other branches have stayed in Scotland or moved into England.
SCT-F	1774	Scotland, Ayrshire	47	Originating in Ayrshire but appears largely in the Edinburgh area. Some reference to England, South Africa, Canada, Ceylon.
SCT-G	1775	Scotland, Ayrshire	53	South Africa, Canada. A surprising number of our correspondents belong to this line.
SCT-H	1781	Scotland, Ayrshire	92	New Zealand and Australia. There was also a substantial move into England.
SCT-I	1793	Scotland, Ayrshire	92	Ayrshire and Glasgow, Scotland. No evidence of emigration at all.
SCT-J	1795	Scotland, Paisley	52	Quebec, Canada. Most members of the family are in Paisley, but one branch moved to Quebec, Canada. This is the only Shankland family I know of who do not have English as their first language!
SCT-K	1795	Scotland, Greenock	68	A distinguished family, most members of which now live in England.
SCT-L	1795	Scotland, Dumfriesshire	27	Northern England, London, and Canada.
WLS-A	1772	Wales, Carmarthenshire	160	England, Canada
WLS-B	1780	Wales, Glamorgan	20	Wales, England
WLS-C	1790	Wales, Carmarthenshire	22	Wales
WLS-D	1806	Wales, Glamorgan	50	Wales

Table 2a: DNA test candidates and results to date

This table shows the DNA test results so far (another new result for March 2007, for SCT-B:2), and compares each with the "modal" Shankland DNA, i.e. the exact match shown by the two testers IRL-A:2/NY:2 and SCT-A:2/DE:2, one each from the Irish / NewYork and the Scottish / Delaware and Maryland genealogical lines. Differences from this mode are highlighted in yellow.

I've also now included a line for the standard "Western Atlantic" haplotype, for easier comparison of Shankland DNA with the general population of Western Europe.

DNA testee ID	25-marker DNA results (red markers are susceptible to fast mutations)
	3 9 3	3 9 0	1 9	3 9 1	3 8 5 a	3 8 5 b	4 2 6	3 8 8	4 3 9	3 8 9 i	3 9 2	3 8 9 i i	4 5 8	4 5 9 a	4 5 9 b	4 5 5	4 5 4	4 4 7	4 3 7	4 4 8	4 4 9	4 6 4 a	4 6 4 b	4 6 4 c	4 6 4 d
"Western Atlantic"	13	24	14	11	11	14	12	12	12	13	13	29	17	9	10	11	11	25	15	19	29	15	15	17	17
IRL-A:1/ NY:1	13	23	14	11	11	14	12	12	11	13	13	28	17	7	10	11	11	25	15	19	31	15	16	17	18
IRL-A:2/ NY:2	13	23	14	11	11	14	12	12	12	13	13	28	17	7	10	11	11	25	15	19	31	15	16	17	18
SCT-A:2/ DE:2	13	23	14	11	11	14	12	12	12	13	13	28	17	7	10	11	11	25	15	19	31	15	16	17	18
SCT-A:1/ DE:1	13	23	14	10	11	14	12	12	12	13	13	28	17	7	10	11	11	25	15	19	31	15	16	17	18
WLS-D:1	13	23	14	11	11	14	12	12	12	13	13	28	17	7	10	11	11	25	15	19	31	15	16	18	18
SCT-E:1	13	23	14	11	11	14	12	12	11	13	13	28	17	7	10	11	11	25	15	19	31	15	15	16	18
IRL-B:1	13	24	14	11	9	14	12	12	12	13	13	28	17	7	10	11	11	25	15	19	32	15	16	17	18
SCT-B:1	13	23	14	10	11	14	12	17	12	13	13	28	17	7	10	11	11	25	15	19	30	15	16	18	18
SCT-B:2	13	23	14	11	11	14	12	12	12	13	13	28	17	7	10	11	11	25	15	19	30	15	16	18	18
SCT-L:1	12	24	14	10	11	14	12	12	11	13	13	29	17	9	10	11	11	25	15	19	30	15	15	17	17
SCT-C:1	12	24	14	10	11	14	12	12	11	13	13	29	17	9	9	11	11	25	15	19	30	15	15	17	17
WLS-A:1	13	23	14	10	11	15	12	12	12	13	13	29	17	10	10	11	11	25	14	19	29	15	15	16	16
SCT-G:1	13	24	14	10	12	14	12	12	11	14	13	30	17	9	10	11	11	25	15	19	30	14	15	16	17

Table 2b: DNA test candidates and results to date, compared

This table - organised rather like a mileage table - uses a highly simplified "difference count" to compare each DNA result with every other result. The counts shown are just the number of markers which differ; the extent of the difference is not considered. This is something of an over-simplification but the table still provides a quick guide to how DNA results differ from one another and from the Western-Atlantic type.

	West-Atl	IRL-A : 1	IRL-A : 2	SCT-A : 2	SCT-A : 1	WLS-D : 1	SCT-B : 2	SCT-E : 1	IRL-B : 1	SCT-B : 1	SCT-L : 1	SCT-C : 1	SCT-G : 1	WLS-A : 1
West-Atl		7	6	6	7	7	7	7	6	9	4	5	8	7
IRL-A:1	7		1	1	2	2	3	2	4	5	8	9	11	10
IRL-A:2	6	1		0	1	1	2	3	3	4	9	10	12	9
SCT-A:2	6	1	0		1	1	2	3	3	4	9	10	12	9
SCT-A:1	7	2	1	1		2	3	4	4	3	8	9	11	7
WLS-D:1	7	2	1	1	2		1	3	3	3	10	11	12	9
SCT-B:2	7	3	2	2	3	1		4	4	2	9	10	11	9
SCT-E:1	7	2	3	3	4	3	4		6	6	8	9	9	8
IRL-B:1	6	4	3	3	4	3	4	6		6	9	10	11	9
SCT-B:1	9	5	4	4	3	3	2	6	6		9	10	11	9
SCT-L:1	4	8	9	9	8	10	9	8	9	9		1	6	9
SCT-C:1	5	9	10	10	9	11	10	9	10	10	1		7	10
SCT-G:1	8	11	12	12	11	12	11	9	11	11	6	7		11
WLS-A:1	7	10	9	9	7	9	9	8	9	9	9	10	11

Table 3: Conclusions from DNA results in Table 2a

DNA testee ID	Comments and conclusions
IRL-A:1/ NY:1	NY:1 is a fifth cousin of NY:2, and the DNA shows a 24/25 marker match between two individuals whose relationship is known.
IRL-A:2/ NY:2	This result shows a 25/25 exact match between NY:2, from the New York line believed to originate from Ireland, and DE:2, from the Maryland/Delaware line believed to originate independently from Scotland. It proves that these two lines must have had a common ancestor. This result is being treated as the "standard" or "modal" DNA for comparison with other results.
SCT-A:2/ DE:2
SCT-A:1/ DE:1	Another 24/25 marker match between fifth cousins on the SCT-A / DE line. This results in a two-marker mismatch between DE:1 and NY:1, partly obscuring an undoubted close relationship between the two lines.
SCT-E:1	This is from a Scottish family and clearly shares a common ancestor with the NY and DE lines, with a 23/25 marker match to NY:1. This confirms the Scots-Irish, rather than Irish, origins of NY and DE.
IRL-B:1	Another unexpected result, from a Shanklin (rather than Shankland) family from the west of America who trace their ancestry back to early eighteenth-century Ireland. Their DNA not only confirms this but indicates that they are the same family line as NY and DE above.
WLS-D:1	This is one of two Welsh test results; in this case it is a 24/25 match with the "modal" Shankland haplotype, indicating a Scots-Irish/Irish origin for this Welsh line (which has an oral tradition of Irish descent).
WLS-A:1	In contrast, this test (from a different Welsh family line) apparently shows this Welsh line to be distinct from the Scottish and Irish Shanklands/Shanklins.
SCT-B:1	The first of these to test (SCT-B:1) gave a not particularly close match with four markers different from the mode, and one of those markers was "out" by 5 (an unusual result in itself). We decided to do a further test on SCT-B:1's cousin (as SCT-B:2), and the result was far closer to the Shankland mode, having just two markers each out by 1. Note that in both cases the "17-7-10" combination for markers 458/459a/459b was present, indicating a definite relationship since this combination is extremely rare in the general population.
SCT-B:2
SCT-L:1	A non-match: an apparently non-related Scottish (Dumfriesshire) line.
SCT-C:1	A close (24/25) match with SCT-L, which indicates that these two individuals form part of a Scottish Shankland family which is clearly independent of that represented by the New York and Delaware families (the so-called "modal" DNA result).
SCT-G:1	Another non-match, an independent, non-related Scottish (Ayrshire) line.

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Anne Shankland, June 2007