Tuesday, May 23, 2023
Robinson Possible History Connecting Wales and Ireland
Nadene Goldfoot
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My grandfather, Frank Hugh Robinson of Portland, Oregon had mentioned that his people came from Wales. In doing genealogy of the family since I've had a computer, I haven't run across any of my sources coming from anyplace other than England. Where did he pick up such ideas as Wales? He had left home at about the age of 16 as an angry teen. His father, Abiathar Smith Robinson had not allowed him to save his horse on a Sunday that was out in the field with the bull. Evidently his horse was killed by the bull and he left home. That happened when they lived Wenona, Illinois. Abiathar had been born in Vermont; possibly Royalton or Tunbridge, Vermont.
At 1:00 am just a few minutes ago as I lay in bed wide awake, I thought of that and realized I had never checked out Wales and Robinsons. We had already done the Big Y DNA test with Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) and Big Y Haplogroup Test, and discovered that we had Irish roots.
So I just typed in a few words and look what I discovered:
"Wales and Ireland are not only geographically close – within 300 miles (482 km) of each other – but they share a special bond as Celtic siblings. Over the centuries, the two countries have inspired each other, helped each other, and provided opportunities for collaboration and growth. Here, we look at some of the bonds between the two countries.
The languages of Wales and Ireland belong to the same family; they are both classed as living Celtic languages, along with Breton and Scottish Gaelic. In Wales and Ireland, it's normal for schoolchildren to be taught their native language as part of the curriculum. Figures from Ireland’s 2016 Census show that 1.7 per cent of the population speak Irish Gaelic every day. In Wales, it’s 16.3 per cent of the population speaking Welsh every day.
Who were the Celts? Celtic literary tradition begins with Old Irish texts around the 8th century AD. Elements of Celtic mythology are recorded in early Irish and early Welsh literature. Most written evidence of the early Celts comes from Greco-Roman writers, who often grouped the Celts as barbarian tribes. They followed an ancient Celtic religion overseen by druids.
The Celts were often in conflict with the Romans, such as in the Roman–Gallic wars, the Celtiberian Wars, the conquest of Gaul and conquest of Britain. By the 1st century AD, most Celtic territories had become part of the Roman Empire. By c. 500, due to Romanisation and the migration of Germanic tribes, Celtic culture had mostly become restricted to Ireland, western and northern Britain, and Brittany. Between the 5th and 8th centuries, the Celtic-speaking communities in these Atlantic regions emerged as a reasonably cohesive cultural entity. They had a common linguistic, religious and artistic heritage that distinguished them from surrounding cultures.
While both languages originate from the same source, the written and spoken forms are different. A Welsh speaker would find it hard to understand Irish Gaelic. The alphabets are slightly different too - the Irish alphabet uses 18 letters, while the Welsh alphabet has 29.
Despite these differences, both countries are committed to keeping their Celtic languages alive through educational policy, cultural events, literature, and music.
Going back in history in 1282, the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd led to the conquest of the Principality of Wales by King Edward I of England; since then, the heir apparent to the English monarch has borne the title "Prince of Wales". The Welsh launched several revolts against English rule, the last significant one being that led by Owain Glyndŵr in the early 15th century. In the 16th century Henry VIII, himself of Welsh extraction as a great-grandson of Owen Tudor, passed the Laws in Wales Acts aiming to fully incorporate Wales into the Kingdom of England.
Stephen Oppenheimer (born 1947) is a British paediatrician, geneticist, and writer. He is a graduate of Balliol College, Oxford and an honorary fellow of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Oppenheimer trained in medicine at Oxford and London universities, qualifying in 1971. From 1972 he worked as a clinical paediatrician, mainly in Malaysia, Nepal and Papua New Guinea. He carried out and published clinical research in the areas of nutrition, infectious disease (including malaria), and genetics, focussing on the interactions between nutrition, genetics and infection, in particular iron nutrition, thalassaemia and malaria. From 1979 he moved into medical research and teaching, with positions at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Oxford University, a research centre in Kilifi, Kenya, and the Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang.
Stephen Oppenheimer, son of David Oppenheimer, is a medical geneticist at the University of Oxford, says the historians’ account is wrong in almost every detail. In Dr. Oppenheimer’s reconstruction of events, the principal ancestors of today’s British and Irish populations arrived from Spain about 16,000 years ago, speaking a language related to Basque.
The British Isles were unpopulated then, wiped clean of people by glaciers that had smothered northern Europe for about 4,000 years and forced the former inhabitants into southern refuges in Spain and Italy. When the climate warmed and the glaciers retreated, people moved back north.
In all, about three-quarters of the ancestors of today’s British and Irish populations arrived between 15,000 and 7,500 years ago, when rising sea levels finally divided Britain and Ireland from the Continent and from one another, Dr. Oppenheimer calculates in a new book, “The Origins of the British: A Genetic Detective Story” (Carroll & Graf, 2006).
As for subsequent invaders, Ireland received the fewest; the invaders’ DNA makes up about 12 percent of the Irish gene pool, Dr. Oppenheimer estimates, but it accounts for 20 percent of the gene pool in Wales, 30 percent in Scotland, and about one-third in eastern and southern England.
Dr. Oppenheimer said genes “have no bearing on cultural history.” There is no significant genetic difference between the people of Northern Ireland, yet they have been fighting with each other for 400 years, he said.
The earliest appearance of Robinson in the records is of a John Robynson who was listed in the Court Rolls of the Manor of Wakefied for 1324.
Another early bearer of the surname was Katerina Robinson in 1540 (Sutterton, Lincolnshire). A carver and gilder named Wolf Robinson who lived in Boston, Lincolnshire, was listed in the 1893 UK Jewish Directory.
In 1881, farming was the most common occupation amongst Robinson family members, followed by coal mining and agricultural labouring as the top 3 reported jobs worked by Robinson.
In 1891, the surname was widespread across England and Wales with 103,211 occurrences and a further 1,000 in Scotland. Lincolnshire was a top county with 3,965 occurrences in particular in the districts of Anderby and Alkborough. Further south, in the county of Kent, there were 1,798 occurrences.
Notable people
David Robinson OBE (1927-2017), A British journalist, author and teacher. He had a degree in Geography and an MSc in which he wrote a thesis on the coastal evolution of northeast Lincolnshire. David went on to become resident tutor of the University of Nottinghamshire for North Lincolnshire. He also served editorial roles with ‘Lincolnshire Life’ and ‘Natural World’ magazine. He was awarded an OBE for services to journalism and the community of Lincolnshire. In 2007 with a collection of papers on historical and geographical themes, titled “All Things Lincolnshire: An Anthology in Honour of David Robinson”.
SOURCES:
1881, 1891 Census
Dictionary of American Family Homes, P Hanks OUP 2003
Homes of Family Names in Great Britain, H.B. Guppy, London 1890
The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, P.Hanks, Coats, McClure OUP 2016
1860 Lower, Mark A Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom, London: J.R Smith. Public Domain
Resource:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEL7nCM5itg
https://www.wales.com/about/culture/links-between-wales-and-ireland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Wales
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/05/science/05cnd-brits.html
https://www.anthro.ox.ac.uk/people/professor-stephen-oppenheimer
Labels: Celts, Dr. Stephen Oppenheimer, Great Britain, Irish, Wales, YouTube
Monday, April 05, 2021
Our Deep Ancestry Back 900 Years Connecting English Robinson to Irish Fitzpatricks
Nadene Goldfoot
Grandpa Frank Hugh Robinson said his people came from Wales, but he was just a kid of 16 when he had left home, and could have had his memories confused. He told us that his ancestors weren't on the Mayflower of 1620 but the ship after that one. Do you know who was on the next ship which could have been the fleet that came over from England in 1630? It was Isaac Robinson, son of the Preacher, John Robinson who sent all the Pilgrims over to this new country of America. John had stayed with his flock in Holland. His son came over and helped to establish Robinsons all over New England. Other Robinsons came over, too, and one of them might have been our ancestor. We need more Robinsons to test their DNA. Now I find that our deep ancestry from the Big Y test shows a connection to the Irish Fitzpatricks.
One thing I had previously discovered was that our Robinsons were Normans. Who were they? Norman, member of those Vikings, or Norsemen, who settled in northern France (or the Frankish kingdom), together with their descendants. The Normans founded the duchy of Normandy and sent out expeditions of conquest and colonization to southern Italy and Sicily and to England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.
Oh my gosh, Grandpa Frank was right! In spring of 1169, a small band of Normans set sail from South Wales bound for Ireland, landing in May of that same year. This was a watershed moment in Ireland’s history, marking the beginning of direct English, then British, involvement in Irish affairs – so much so that the Norman invasion of Ireland might even be considered a deep root of Britain’s ‘Irish Problem’. Robert FitzStephen’s arrival in Ireland at Bannow on 1 May 1169 was highlighted with his burning his own boats. It was a gesture of commitment to the ensuing conquest.
From the 12th century onwards, a group of Normans (which could include our Robinson line) invaded and settled in Gaelic Ireland. These settlers later became known as Norman Irish or Hiberno-Normans. They originated mainly among Anglo-Norman from England and Cambro-Norman families in Wales, who were loyal to the Kingdom of England, and the English state supported their claims to territory in the various realms then comprising Ireland.
During the High Middle Ages and Late Middle Ages the Hiberno-Normans constituted a feudal aristocracy and merchant oligarchy, known as the Lordship of Ireland. In Ireland, the Normans were also closely associated with the Gregorian Reform of the Catholic Church in Ireland. Over time the descendants of the 12th-century Norman settlers spread throughout Ireland and around the world, as part of the Irish diaspora; they ceased, in most cases, to identify as Norman, Cambro-Norman or Anglo-Norman.
The dominance of the Norman Irish declined during the 17th century, after a new English Protestant elite settled in Ireland during the Tudor period. Some of the Norman Irish—often known as The Old English—had become Gaelicised by merging culturally and intermarrying with the Gaels, under the denominator of "Irish Catholic". Conversely, some Hiberno-Normans assimilated into the new English Protestant elite, as the Anglo-Irish. Our Grandpa was a protestant.
Some of the most prominent Norman families were the FitzMaurices, FitzGeralds, Burkes, Butlers and Wall family. One of the most common Irish surnames, Walsh, derives from the Normans based in Wales who arrived in Ireland as part of this group.
Fitzpatrick originated in Ireland and is unique in that it is the only native Gaelic name with the prefix Fitz. ... In the 12th century, the Normans invaded Ireland and many powerful families were forced to give up their land. The name Mac Giolla Phádraig became Anglicised to Fitzpatrick.
All other names with the prefix Fitz are of Norman origin, and in these cases the Fitz means ‘the bastard son of’.
The prolonged English Tudor conquest of Ireland lasting from 1534 to 1603 was when Henry VIII proclaimed himself King of Ireland in 1541 to facilitate the project. Ireland became a potential battleground in the wars between Catholic Counter-Reformation and Protestant Reformation Europe. Henry allowed the Fitzpatricks to keep much of their territory and in 1541, Brian Fitzpatrick was given the title Baron Upper Ossory, a position that came with a seat in the Irish House of Lords. The Fitzpatricks held their position of relative power in Ireland under the British rule for around a century, until they lost most of their territory due to their support of James II. When the dynasty was destroyed, members of the Fitzpatrick family spread across Ireland and integrated into communities all across the country.
England's attempts to either conquer or assimilate both the Hiberno-Norman lordships and the Gaelic territories into the Kingdom of Ireland provided the impetus for ongoing warfare, notable examples being the 1st Desmond Rebellion, the 2nd Desmond Rebellion and the Nine Years War. This period was marked by the Crown policies of, at first, surrender and regrant, and later, plantation, involving the arrival of thousands of English and Scottish Protestant settlers, and the displacement of both the Hiberno-Normans (or Old English as they were known by then) and the native Catholic landholders. Gaelic Ireland was finally defeated at the battle of Kinsale in 1601 which marked the collapse of the Gaelic system and the beginning of Ireland's history as part of the British Empire.
Dr. Mike Fitzpatrick has found that "This DNA evidence points to the probable Norman roots of the most documented of all Fitzpatrick septs, challenging the long held beliefs they descend from the ancient Giolla Phádraig dynasts. Alternative theories, that Ossory Fitzpatrick may have Viking or 'isolated Irish-Gael' origins are not implausible but lack evidence, since ancestors of A1488 appear neither Viking nor Irish, rather their origins are in Wales, England and Scotland. The recently uncovered clerical lineages of Mac Giolla Phádraig Osraí form part of the conversation in the article, Mac Giolla Phádraig Osraí 1384-1534 AD, Part II, it is considered certain that many A1488 Fitzpatricks descend from clerics, such as William Mac Giolla Phádraig or John MacCostigan (alias Mac Giolla Phádraig), who has close associations with Norman frontier families such as the Butlers, Purcells, and Archdekins."
The big Y test done with Family Tree DNA shows that we are connected through our Robinson family line of my mother's male line of Robinson to the Irish Fitzpatrick line. The oral history was that Grandpa family way back had come from Wales and had taken not the Mayflower to get here but the ship after that. Grandpa had run away from home at about the age of 15 because of an over-zealous father who wouldn't let him move his horse out of the pasture that the bull had invaded and this took place on a Sunday. Evidently the horse was harmed or killed. So, Grandpa Frank Hugh Robinson born in Wenona, Marshall, Illinois with a father from Royalton, Windsor, Vermont and thereabouts, all my DNA testing is due to my questions about Mom's family. Who knew that they started off someplace in Ireland? Our Y title is R-FT111213, now much longer than the R-L21 before the Big Y DNA test or the original test showing R1b1a2a1a1b4. I do believe that our ggrandfather, Abiathar Smith Robinson's father had to have been Amos Robinson IV of Royalton, Vermont and mother to have been his wife, Lois Safford, also of Royalton. Due to a lack of a paper trail, I've never been sure about it. I still could be wrong. I need more Robinson DNA from other Robinson men.
Incidentally, towns and cities of South Wales-possibly our origins before Ireland:
- Cardiff (Glamorgan) - the capital of Wales. southern end
- Newport (Monmouthshire) - Wales' third-largest city.
- Swansea (Glamorgan) - Wales' city by the sea and second-largest urban center - spectacular sandy beaches.
- St Davids (Pembrokeshire) - Britain's smallest city and home to Wales' most important cathedral.
- Now here's the corker. Great grandfather Abiathar Smith Robinson b: 1829 married Julia Ann Tuller of Royalton, Vermont and was the great grandson of Amos Benton Robinson (1734) and Deborah Hyde (1734). Deborah Hyde was connected to Anne Hyde (b:1637) who married King James Ii of England in 1660.
Resource:
https://wwwrobinsongenealogy.blogspot.com/2019/12/possible-connection-of-clans-between.html
https://wwwrobinsongenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/11/connecting-to-king-james-ii-and-his.html
https://www.military-history.org/feature/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-norman-conquest-of-ireland.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ireland#:~:text=On%201%20January%201801%2C%20in,the%20Acts%20of%20Union%201800.
https://ireland-calling.com/irish-names-fitzpatrick/#:~:text=It%20originated%20in%20Ireland%20and,name%20with%20the%20prefix%20Fitz.&text=In%20the%2012th%20century%2C%20the,Ph%C3%A1draig%20became%20Anglicised%20to%20Fitzpatrick.
https://www.fitzpatrickclan.org/
Labels: Fitzpatrick, Frank Hugh Robinson, Henry VIII, Irish, Normans, Robinson
Tuesday, December 10, 2019
Possible Connection of Clans Between Our Robinson Line and Irish Fitzpatrick Line
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| Mildred Elizabeth Goldfoot nee Robinson Daughter of Frank Hugh Robinson, son of Abiathar Smith Robinson married to Julia Ann Tuller of Royalton, Windsor, Vermont. |
My mother was Mildred Elizabeth Robinson before marrying my father, Morris Goldfoot. I started our family genealogy and discovered that Robinson was the 16th most popular surname in the USA. There was even a President Mary Therese Winifred Robinson nee Bourke of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, an independent woman married to Nicholas Robinson. The USA was populated first by Pastor John Robinson's flock in Holland, who he sent over on the Mayflower. There are Jewish Robinsons and Black Robinsons. I had to get my only male first cousin Robinson DNA tested. I had found out that our great grandfather Robinson was from Vermont. New England was loaded with Robinsons. Who was our ggrandfather and where did this line come from? We eventually discovered that the Y haplogroup line of our male Robinsons was first called R1b1a2a1a1b4, then changed to R-L21. We had very few dna matches showing some kind of dna relationship. What a shock after finding so many Robinsons in the past.
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| My Robinson cousin with his wife |
Recently I was contacted by the head of the Fitzpatrick clan on Family Tree DNA about my male 1st cousin Robinson. He had some interesting connections to the Fitzpatrick clan. The update is that they are sponsoring the Big Y DNA Test for my cousin to see if their theory is correct. What they are looking for is evidence leading to their own ancient clan connections. This goes way way back. So I dug out my book once again, Saxons, Vikings, and Celts by Bryan Sykes, the author of THE SEVEN DAUGHTERS OF EVE which tells about the original 7 women bearing 7 mitrochronial lines of us women.
An important event in the British Isles which affected their future Y dna of the population was the "Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland beginning in the 12th century." We have to go back in time much farther to discover that families were into family clans, and not villages, towns or cities then.
Egypt's history goes back at least 15,000 years. Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt was born in 1391 BCE and died at the age of 120 in 1271 BCE. I discovered that men in Ireland living in clans were there around 7,300 years ago, or about 5,300 BCE.
The clans existing in he British Isles were Oisin, Wodan, Sigurd, Eshu and Re. Our interest most likely is Oisin. Each one was started by one man, like Abraham started his presumed Y haplogroup of J1 in the Middle East, the Israelites. Oisin is pronounced as Osheen.
"The vast majority of Irish Y-chromosomes are members of just one clan, the clan of Oisin." Author Bryan Sykes gives us this name as part of his research, for clans have to have names and there is no written record of such other than stories. In Irish history Oisin was the son of the hero of another of the Irish mythical cycles, FIN mac CUMHAILL, also known as Finn mac Cool.
1. The SE part of Leinster has 73 % of Y -chromosomes in the clan of Oisin.
2. The NE part of Ulster has 81% of Oisin.
3. The SW part of Munster has 95% in Oisin.
4. The NW part of Connacht has 98% in Oisin.
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| The invasion of Ireland by the Anglo Normans The Norman invasion was a watershed in the history of Ireland, marking the beginning of more than 800 years of direct English and, later, British involvement in Ireland. |
11-24-13-13-12-14-12-12-10-16
This is the quintessential Oisin Y-chromosome and huge numbers of Irish men carry it.
12-21-14-11-11-14-12-12-12-13-13-29
This is the 1st 12 alleles of my cousin's DNA test. Though we're not a match in this sense, there are segments like the 14 and following two 12s that match that Fitzpatrick might be interested in. However, in the BIG Y test, there are dna segments that I have not seen that they are anxious to find and compare with their DNA.
My cousin's new kit is being mailed today to FTDNA for testing. In about 6 weeks we should have some results.
Today I received information from Academia's paper by Dr. Joe Flood on this same subject only going back even farther. What I can read is this:
Saxons, Vikings, and Celts-the genetic roots of Britain and Ireland by Bryan Sykes
Mike Fitzpatrick
Labels: Anglo Norman Invasion, BIG Y Test, clans, Fitzpatrick, Irish, Robinson
