MacCarthys who were once Hingertys.....

Earlier this year we were invited to contribute Hingerty YDNA results to the Munster Irish Project on FTDNA given that our little clan was originally located in that part of Ireland.

Two Australian and one USA Hingerty testers joined the Munster Irish project at FTDNA.

One of the Admins of the Munster Project, Nigel McCarthy had a particular interest in researching the relationship between O'hlongardail/Hingerty/Harrington lines and the McCarthys and asked if he could focus on that particular relationship. 

(To see this website click here)

Nigel has compared our Hingerty YDNA results to those in the MacCarthy project and in phylogenetic trees on the MacCarthy website and in emails, he has shared his insights into the relationship between the Ohlongardails and one line of the MacCarthys.

In an email he explained that, " The two principal dynasties in early 2nd millennium Munster were the O'Briens of Thormond and the MacCarthys of Desmond, though they were not all conquering. O'Sullivans held vast tracts in Kerry, while O'Mahonys and O'Donoghues were prolific in spreading their names." 

....And then we also had our little clan, the Ohlongardails living alongside these larger, more powerful clans. 

(For more information on the various clans that were in Munster -Thormond and Desmond- click the link to see the following  Wikipedia article )

(Side note: Surnames were adopted in Ireland 800 to 1000 years ago i.e in the 10th and 11th Centuries. We often identify lines by the surnames of their descendants, but we cannot be absolutely confident when the use of that name as a surname began.)

Nigel has explained that it has been estimated that only approximately 30% of males who carry the MacCarthy surname today are direct male descendants of MacCarthy men back in the days of the clans. 

Of the remaining 70% of males who carry the MacCarthy surname today, a few are recent name changes (possible illegitimacies) and the others were name changes which occurred over the first five or six centuries of the second millennium.

One line of MacCarthys (referred to as Group E in the MacCarthy study) is part of this 70%. 

YDNA has shown that this line of MacCarthys would have originally been an O'hlongardail/Hingerty/Harrington line (sharing a common ancestor back around 1160) which later adopted the MacCarthy name and broke away from a Harrington line around 1490.

(This is only a section of the Group E tree- To see the full phylogenetic tree for Group E produced by the MacCarthy YDNA Project click  here, then enlarge the text and navigate down to the relevant branch/es.)

Some possible reasons for such a name change could have been:

* Change surname to show loyalty to a powerful clan leader and thus attract his protection

* Illegitimacy

* Adoption

* Widow with male children remarried and the children adopted their step father's surname

* Change surname as condition of a Will or of a marriage or dowry arrangement..........

We will never know why back in the 1400s an O'hlongadail became a MacCarthy- but YDNA shows us that it did happen.

We thank Nigel MacCarthy of the Munster Irish and MacCarthy YDNA projects for his interest in incorporating O'hlongardail YDNA into his MacCarthy study and look forward to further discoveries in relation to other Munster clans made in the future.

We thank the nine Hingerty males who have tested to date and to those who joined the Munster Irish project.

YDNA really is the test that just keeps on giving. 

It is helping us to work out how the four remaining Hingerty lines are related to each other as well as linking us back to our clan history. 

The more male Hingertys who test, the more we will find out!

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