Haplogroup Origins
This subgroup is Haplogroup I1, of Scandinavian/Anglo-Saxon origins. It's hard to distinguish between Norse, Danish and Anglo-Saxon Y-DNA marker patterns, though an academic researcher in this area has looked over our group and offers this: "L22 negative (us) was what was expected. So far L22+ is confined to I1-Norse clades while L22- is confined to I1-AS clades. Finding the boundary might pinpoint the L22+ founder. Your result just strengthens the non-Scandinavian [i.e., Anglo-Saxon] leanings of the ancestry. But this is always complicated by the fact that a bunch of I1-AS got to Scandinavia as well as the I1-Norse being created there... Looks like a German source brought to the British Isles."
Genetic Distances Between Participants
Now that Bowe, Bowes and Crowley have all tested 67 markers, it's clear that Crowley does relate to this Bowe and Bowes. Looking at the genetic distances between these three, since the time that surnames came into use (about 900 A.D. in Ireland, and 1167 A.D. in England), it's likely that Crowley's line had once been Bowe/s and along the way became Crowley. This is also suggested by the fact that, so far, while this Crowley matches Bowe/s, he does not match any of the over 70 other Crowleys in the Crowley Clan study at FTDNA. This indicates some sort of "non-paternity" event, such as an orphan taken in by another family (this was not uncommon when parents more often died young), an affair, or some other situation. As mentioned in 2) below, "the Crowley line would have changed surnames since about 1600."
It's also clear that Bowe and Bowes are the most closely related pair of the three (meaning their most recent common ancestor lived closest in time to today), Bowe and Crowley are the next most closely related, and Bowes and Crowley come next. For example:
1) Bowes and Bowe have a 91% chance their most recent common ancestor lived since the year 1700. (The earliest definitive paper trail record of these lines is the birth of Michael Bowe/s in Kilkenny, probably somewhere around Kilkenny City (he was married in that city in 1820), about the year 1790. There is some indication he could have been from Tullaroan Parish, otherwise known as "Grace," at the time of his marriage, but there are no surviving birth records from that parish to prove it. There are records going back to about 1738 that could be this line, but it's not yet proven.)
2) Bowe and Crowley have a 75% chance their most recent common ancestor lived since the year 1700, and a 91% chance since 1600. The Crowley line would have changed surnames since about 1600.
3) Bowes and Crowley have a 24% chance their most recent common ancestor lived since the year 1700, a 51% chance since 1600, a 75% chance since 1500, and an 88% chance since 1400.
Meanwhile, Pearse's paper trail history is in England, though perhaps one of them came to Ireland along the way. It's still hard to say where Pearse fits and if at all since he's only tested 37 markers. If Pearse should decide to test up to 67 markers, we can see if and how his line influences interpretation of possible events. Like Crowley's situation, Pearse does not match anyone in the Pearse DNA study. Did both Crowley and the Bowe/s lines once have the name Pearse? Or was the common ancestor with Pearse from before the Pearse line took their surname?
In this subgroup, Pearse's markers are the closest to the group model haplotype.
Discussion
NB: We have no proof that the following noted associations illustrate the origins of this subgroup. All we can do at this point is theorize, and other scenarios are possible. The further these participants can pursue their paper trails, and the more people join the DNA study who match this subgroup, the more information we'll have to go on. This scenario is included here in part because one aim of the DNA Project is to determine which, if any, modern lines conform to explanations of our surname origins in Ireland. There is another subgroup that does not match this group which hypothesizes a different connection with O'Buadhaigh of the Corca Laoidhe. Possibly, either one or neither of these is true, but not both since the genetic markers are different. Only one genetic Bowe/s line, if any, would have descended from the individual O'Buadhaigh, but since people joined the sept and took the name who were not related, more than one genetic line could have ancient ties to the sept. The fun continues!
it's interesting to note that while Bowe and Bowes hail from Kilkenny and surrounds, Crowley's most recent known location is Cork in the 1800s. This could indicate that these Kilkenny Bowe/s line(s) at some point lived in the Cork area. Cork is also where the O'Buadhaigh sept is said to originate among the Corca Laoidhe, and the Bowe and Bowes surnames, along with Bogue, are said to be anglicizations of this Gaelic O'Buadhaigh. Interestingly, on a map showing the location of the principal Gaelic septs from 1300-1600, O'Bogue and O'Crowley are located less than 10 miles apart in the Corca Laoidhe country.
Red oval is O'Bogue, Orange rectangle is O'Crowley [1]
Yet the haplogroup for this subgroup is Scandinavian, so if this subgroup were to have genetic roots with O'Buadhaigh, it would mean some Viking intermixed with native Gaelic "back when." In fact, about 15-20 miles east of where the O'Buadhaigh/O'Bogue sept is located we find Rosscarbery, a once ancient ecclesiastical center that was raided by Vikings:
Although there is notice of a raid on Ross by the Norsemen of Dublin in 840 by the compiler of the unreliable 'Codagh Gaedhel re Gailibh', the first active reference to the monastery is in the Annals of Inisfallen which records that the Norse chief, Gofrey, son of Imar 'went by sea westwards and took the hostages of the South of Ireland by sea to Ros Ailithir' [Ross Carbery] in 924. They further record in 990, the son of Imar, the Danish leader, left Waterford, and then followed the destruction of Ross of the Pilgrim by the foreigners [the Norse], and the taking prisoner of the Fear Leighinn [professor], Mac Coise Dobráin who was later ransomed by Brian Boru at Inis Cathaigh. [2]
The Vikings did intermarry with the Gaels in Ireland [get cites], in the least at elite social levels, though that is unlikely to have occurred here since Vikings didn't settle this location (there was, however, a strong Viking settlement in Cork city). It's more plausible, though impossible to prove in this case, that Viking raids routinely included some "spoils of war" that could account for intermixing here. Additionally, the Danes held Irish hostages and slaves within the walls of Cork city, later freed by local Irish. No doubt some intermixing could have occurred in an environment like that.
Finally, the Coppinger's Court mansion at Rowry, Rosscarbery, was built by the Coppinger family, "an old Viking family who remained in the Cork area" and came to Rosscarbery among "the Elizabethan and Cromellian families who settled in the district." [3] An 1884 Coppinger family history records (without citation) that "the Coppingers of Ballyvolane [Cork] were among those old Burgher families of Danish origin who were once all powerful within the walls of Cork," and later suggests the surname evolved from the Danish "Copenher." [4] It's not clear in the sources how this family is both "an old Viking family who remained in the Cork area" and among the "Elizabethan and Cromwellian families who settled in the district." I have solicited this family for DNA studies to rule in or out a possible connection, but have not received a reply.
1. MacLysaght, Edward. The Surnames of Ireland. Irish Academic Press Ltd.: Dublin. 1980, Map. "Prepared by [MacLysaght ] and drawn and lettered by Nora O'Shea, one time heraldic artist to the Office of Arms, Dublin Castle."
2. "History Rosscarbery West Cork Ireland," The Rosscarbery Web Site Committee.
3. Ibid.
4. Copinger, Walter Arthur, Ed. History of the Copingers or Coppingers of the County of Cork, Ireland, and the Counties of Suffolk and kent, England. 1884.