The goal is to map all MacTighernans both genetically and geographically. The Gaelic name of MacTighernan is used for all of us regardless of our spelling. As of the date above the 137 MacTighernans fall into 20 separate DNA groups, Eleven of which have only 1 MacTighernan. Those in the above chart with the same color are in the same DNA Group. The 137 testers live in 13 countries on 5 continents at the time of testing. You can see the total DNA testers in the above chart with the baselines of the 3 main DNA groups being bigger nodes than the others. The T Group, T3 Group and the T2 Group are referred to as main only because at this point in time 101 of the 137 MacTighernans tested fall in these 3 groups, 48 in the T Group, 21 in the T3 Group, and 32 in the T2 Group leaving 34 McTighernans in other DNA groups that are not genetically related.  None of the 20 distinct DNA Groups of MacTighernans relate to any other DNA Groups. MacTighernans in 12 groups of the 20 are by themselves in their own DNA group. Regardless of numerical size, all 20 DNA Groups are of equal standing. 

Although 89 of the 137 originate from Co Leitrim, no one DNA group comes from just one county. Therefore as of now the origins of us all are spread over Cos Leitrim, Sligo, Roscommon and Cavan with Gus, David (CN), Greg & Hugh being the exceptions. Gus', Terry's, Michael-NJ's & MichaelS' verbal family history says Scotland was their family's origin and David (CN) verbal family history states that his family comes from the Killarney Lakes region in Co  Kerry.  James' family history says Co. Mayo was the family's origin. Michael (CN) & Hugh's family history says Co Cork was their origin. The origin of almost all MacTighernans is from the 450 sq. mile small green area on the map at left that falls in the area from N 53.48.35 to N 54.19.50 degrees to W 7.06.20 to W 8.43.48 degrees. Besides the  MacTighernans, Philip O'Rorke who is The O'Ruairc of Bréifne and the O'Conor Don are also shown in the above chart. The O'Rorke family DNA test web site is at http://www.familytreedna.com/public/roark/.  The O'Conor DNA web site is http://www.worldfamilies.net/surnames/c/conner/disc.html. The Genetic and Geographic orgins maps of all 137 MacTighernans testers are at this web site:   http://mctiernan.com/McTmaps.htm

If you have at least a match of 24/25 or 23/25 meaning a 1 or 2 mutation event difference to the baseline of a specific DNA group you still genetically relate to them and the probability of a close relationship is good, however the results show mutations and more time has elapsed between the common ancestor for yourself and the others in your DNA group baseline. With a 3 mutation event difference, [22/25] you do not relate and are genetically outside of your closest DNA group.

The general DNA rule is that if you have 3 mutations or rather 3 event mutation differences off the closest baseline you would not genetically relate and would form your own separate DNA group. Even though both Gene and Scott (AU) have 3 mutations off the T Group baseline, Gene is positioned in the T Group as his 3 mutations are all in one locus whereas Scott (AU)'s 3 mutations are scattered over 3 different loci thereby forming his own DNA Group, Ta. Gene's mutation is thought by the lab to be a radical mutation being 3 mutations different than the baseline but only in locus # 1. Gene matches the T Group baseline in loci 24 / 25. Locus or loci equals category / marker.  While JohnL is a 22 / 25 match to the T3d group baseline he is a cousin to Thady and a cousin to Sean in the baseline, so JohnL is positioned in the T3d group.  MichaelS is a 22 / 25 match to the T Group baseline but he does match Michael-NJ 24 / 25 and Bob-CN & David-CN 23 /25 so he too is in the T DNA Group.

Dan-W and Roy Rice match the T2 Group baseline 22 / 25 and normally would form their own separate DNA group but because they both matches Jim-P in the T2 Group 24 out of  25 I have listed Dan-W and Roy Rice in the T2 DNA Group.

The below is no more than a guess that shows the correlated structure of our 20 DNA groups as they mutated down through time. Surnames came into use about 1140 and the MacTighernan lines below may descend from 7 different progenitors that lived over 2000 years ago or 70 generations back in time in the BC era. Remember all mutations are random and Y chromosome mutations occur once on average every 500 generations per locus [category / marker].

The remaining DNA question in our bunch is if one of us is off a specific baseline by 3 or 4 mutations or rather event mutations which implies that you are in a whole separate and distinct DNA group not genetically related to that group's baseline or your common ancestor is well beyond 2000 years or 70 generations back in time then that leaves the question of how we all ended up with identical surnames, if surnames only began in the mid 1100s. My guess is that way back in time before surnames came into use there existed in or around Cos Leitrim, Sligo, Roscommon or Cavan a tribe or clan whose leader was called Tiernan or MacTighernan. In Gaelic, Tiernan means Lord and MacTighernan means "son of Lord". When surnames first started all the male warriors might have just taken the chief's name for themselves which might be a reasonable explanation or guess as to how we all ended up in 20 different and distinct genetic groups from one small area of Connacht, Ireland all with the same surname. or close variant

MacTighernan DNA groups tested to date. A score of 25 out of 25 markers is a perfect match and all the perfect matches form that group's baseline.  23 or 24 out of 25 puts you in the same DNA group				Location of MacTighernan tester at time of test		Identified MacTighernans
DNA Group	Perfect Match ( in baseline of each group)	Total in Group		USA	57	214
T	27	48		Ireland	28	41
Ta	4	4		England	23	63
T2	20	33		Canada	8	11
T2a	2	2		Australia	5	36
T3	11	21		Indonesia	2	2
T3a	8	9		Zimbabwe	1	1
T3c	2	4		Iraq	1	1
T3d	2	4		Scotland	5	80
Tb, Tc, Td, Te, Tf, Tg, T3b, T3e, T4, T5, T6 & T7	1 in each of the 12 groups	12		Northern Ireland	4	18
				New Zealand	1	5
				South Africa	1	1
				Spain	1	1
				Wales		4
				Japan		1
Total		137		Switzerland		1
				Thiland, Vietnam & Belgium		3
				Total	137	487

All MacTighernans but Warren who were tested fall into the larger general DNA population group called the Haplogroup R1b1 which is the most common haplogroup in European populations. It is believed to have expanded throughout Europe as humans re-colonized after the last glacial maximum 10-12 thousand years ago. This lineage is also the haplogroup containing the Atlantic modal haplotype.  Warren falls into the Q Haplogroup.

Since the Haplogroups are the branches and the Haplotypes are the leaves of the tree, if any of the MacTighernans were to belong to different branches, no matter how close their Y chromosome DNA test results were, the individuals are not related. With the exception of Warren, all MacTighernans, The O'Ruairc and the O'Conor Don are in the same Haplogroup therefore on the same branch.

This is the newer chart used now by the Family Tree DNA lab for haplogroup categories

Where the MacTighernans fall in each Haplogroup		DNA Group	total
R1b1a2	All testers are in this group except the ones below	All but below	93
R-Z18491	Michael &	T Group	2
R1b1a2a1a1b4b	Leo	T3 Group	4
R1b1a2a1a1b4	All in the T and T3 Groups	T & T3 Group	37
Q-M242	Warren	T4	1
R1b1a2	The O'Ruairc: Philip O'Rorke
R1b1a2a1a1b4b	The O'Conor Don: Cathal Crovderg O'Conor
Total			137

MacTighernan Testers County or Country of Origin
DNA Group	Leitrim	Sligo	Kerry	Ros- common	Cavan	Mayo	Cork	Long- ford	Scotland	Unknown	Total
T	33		1	1	1		2		1	9	48
Ta	2					1				1	4
Tb	1										1
Tc										1	1
Td	1										1
Te										1	1
Tf	1										1
Tg	1										1
T2	23	2		1						7	33
T2a	2										2
T3	12	5			2					2	21
T3a	6	2								1	9
T3b									1		1
T3c	2			1	1						4
T3d	4										4
T3e	1										1
T4										1	1
T5										1	1
T6										1	1
T7										1	1
Total	89	9	1	3	4	1	2	0	2	26	137
TBR	1									4	5
Transferred										1	1
in process at lab

R1b1a2 probably appeared during Maykop culture. It was an advanced Neolithic culture of farmers and herders, and one of the very first to develop metalworking, and therefore metal weapons. Stuck between two seas and the Caucasus, they imaginably traded actively around the Black Sea, notably with the other R1b people from northern Anatolia (those that didn't cross the Caucasus and might be the ancestors of the Hittites).

R1b1a2 is thought to have arrived in central and western Europe around 2300 BCE, by going up the Danube from the Black Sea coast. This corresponds to an archeological vacuum in the old Maykop homeland, so the migration must have been on a massive scale, maybe due to pressure from other (R1a) Indo-European people from the north. There might have been several consecutive waves across the Black Sea to the Danube, but the largest one between 2500 BCE (end of the Maykop culture) and 2300 BCE (beginning of the Unetice culture).

In fact, southern Germany and Austria taken together have the highest ity of R1b in Europe. Besides S21, the three major first level subclades of R1b1a2a1b (L21, S28, M167) are found in this area at reasonable frequencies to envisage a spread from the Unetice to Hallstatt homeland to the rest of western Europe.

The site is http://www.eupedia.com/europe/origins_haplogroups_europe.shtml click on the R1b and look at the English version

Excluding the DNA testers and their families, there are less than 400 additional MacTighernans identified living in Ireland and the 4 major immigration countries, USA, Australia, Canada and England. See http://mctiernan.com/dnatest.htm for MacTighernan breakdown by country.

Waiting for test kits to be returned TBR:    SeanP, JohnB, Alan Mitchell & Nick-MI with Mike-LA's scores being transffered

In process waiting for the lab results TBD:     

The Great MacTighernan Mysteries,  http://mctiernan.com/10mysteries.htm

Our DNA raw scores, townlands of origin, DNA matches and ancestor lines for all 20 Groups are at http://mctiernan.com/dnatest.htm

A photo of the MacTighernans at the March 13, 2004 & March 15, 2003 Co Leitrim Society dinner in NYC http://mctiernan.com/NYCphoto.htm

The Rules of the DNA test and a good explanation as to what they indicate are at this web site; http://mctiernan.com/dnarules.htm

This https://owlcation.com/stem/Irish-Blood-Genetic-Identity web site and the other gives a very good view of the wider Irish DNA studies for 1750 Irish families, http://www.familytreedna.com/public/IrelandHeritage

To run the tree sequence use: median joining with myPH.ych to  myPH.out to draw 

If you are a male McTernan / McTiernan / MacTiernan and want to participate in this family DNA study please let me know.  If you own a bank then I would hope you would pay for the test.  If  like many of us you are wondering who might pay the bills this month then I would pay the cost of the test as this is my only hobby.