P1G: Coffey Geography

COFFEY FAMILIES: DNA AND IRISH ORIGINS

By Fred Coffey

Some time ago I became aware of a web page www.irishorigenes.com, owned by a biotechnologist Dr. Tyrone Bowes. His proposal was to “Use Your DNA to Rediscover Your Irish Heritage”. I’ve read some mixed reviews about the quality of his scholarship, but his project has a couple of interesting databases to draw upon and shows some nice maps. Here’s what his “Surname Database” has to offer about our “Coffey” name:

Note his map is based on census data (mostly the 1911 census), and thus is showing where people lived at that point in time. I will be using several of his maps like this one in various sections of this web page.

Those of you who have read the books written by Marvin D. Coffey in the 1980’s and early 1990’s will recall that his discussion of “Ancient Origins” also postulated 3 main septs: (1) was to the south, in the Munster district, around County Cork, which would also encompass Kerry and Tipperary. (2) was around Westmeath in the middle, and (3) was to the north.

For the latter, Marvin was focused on counties Galway and Roscommon, where many Irish lost their lands in the 17^th century. But also in the north is County Down, which is near Belfast in Northern Ireland. On Dr. Bowes map, Down seems to be the only Northern Ireland county with a large Coffey population.

I did engage Dr. Bowes to prepare a report on the Coffey Surname, and also asked him to offer comments on several questions related to this web page. Some of his comments will be reflected in the documents you are now reading. And you can read his full report “The Coffey Surname in Ireland” at:

www.coffey.ws/FamilyTree/DNA/CoffeySurnameReportbyBowes.pdf

 Here is a slightly modified version of one of the charts from his report. It is based on census reports for “Head of Household Farmers” in 1911. And to the right I have shown a map of Irish counties, for perspective:

His chart is focused on “Head of Household Farmers”, because those who own land (farmers) are more likely to have ancient ties to their land, and thus their presence in significant numbers may indicate an ancient homeland. Also note I have added county outlines for Cork and Kilkenny; This will facilitate some of the discussion that follows:

Next, let’s look at locations for which we actually have one or more y-DNA tests, taken by Coffey Project members who report their family origin in that area:

In the above, a “Group” is for members who have a significant number of matches to others within the group, and who report the same general geographic origin. Each group is separately discussed under the category “Major Groups” back on the entry page. The “number” entries on this map represent individual (or sometimes up to 2 people) tests, which match no other person or group. Let me talk about some of these areas in the context of Dr. Bowes maps. Let’s go counter-clockwise, starting with Munster:

MUNSTER: Dr. Bowes believes there may actually be three distinct Munster Coffey clusters, in Kerry, North Tipperary, and Waterford. He notes that for Kerry most are concentrated on the Inveragh peninsula, to the extreme southwest. As mentioned, he was primarily looking at “farmers”. But it is interesting to note where, in Munster, the total population of “Coffey” might be found per the 1911 Census: The total Coffey individuals was 2092 (ignoring any spelling variations), and the breakdown is Kerry (811), Tipperary (320), Cork (302), Waterford (274), Limerick (244), and Clare (141).

Bowes believes that there were relatively few Coffey Farmers originally from Cork, and that many of the ones found there may be explained by migration from Inveragh to cities in neighboring Cork. Traditionally, the oldest son in a family would inherit the land, and the other brothers might have to go elsewhere to make their way. I looked at the male Heads of Household in Cork in the 1911 census. There were indeed relatively few farmers, and most of the Heads had other diverse occupations. Of the 67 family heads, 7 were born in Kerry, 3 in Limerick, and 2 in Tipperary.

In terms of Coffey DNA test participants, we have quite a few who do claim they came from Cork. But Cork seems to have a diverse population, many originally coming from elsewhere.

Our Coffey DNA Project does have a significant DNA-matched group I call “Munster”. But for the most part, those tested people are relatively recent immigrants to America, and they do not have any depth to their known genealogy. I can’t put them together well enough to support Bowes theory about “three distinct Munster Coffey clusters”. I suspect there is only ONE, with origins on or near the Inveragh peninsula. Over perhaps a few hundred years, the people displaced from Inveragh, as the land always goes to the oldest son, have migrated to Cork and other nearby counties. And over time the population has become diverse, now including people with the Coffey name but other DNA, and people with Coffey DNA and other surnames.

This is EXACTLY what has happened within America, starting with a single immigrant (Edward Coffey) who arrived prior to 1699. Edward now has thousands of living descendants. But within the 150 years after his arrival, there were THREE genetically distinct lines created that got his Coffey name but non-Edward DNA, plus EIGHT lines that got the Edward DNA, but non-Coffey surnames. Plus, we can now also prove FOUR lines with DNA related to Edward that originated back in Ireland. If someone were to start today, doing y-DNA testing of Coffey-related men in America without knowing this history, he would see something that looks exactly like the mixtures we now see in Munster.

Dr. Bowes writes “…science has demonstrated that only 50% of individuals with a particular Irish surname will be related to their surnames founding ancestor, the other 50% of people will have an association that has arisen as a result of what are called ‘non-paternal events,’ usually a result of adoptions or infidelity.“ This fits well with both the Munster group, and with the Coffey experience in America. (Depending on circumstances, however, the offspring may still have Coffey DNA – they just missed on the Y chromosome!)

TIPPERARY/KILKENNY: Dr. Bowes does identify Tipperary as a separate homeland. Our “Tipperary/Kilkenny” group actually has 4 y-DNA tests, on two different and separate independent Coffey male lines. And each of these lines has significant number of “non-Coffey” matches. It is possible that one of these comes from the “North Tipperary” group postulated by Dr. Bowes, but absent considerably more testing and discovery of other “Coffey” matches, we may never know.

COFFEY/KEOGH GROUP: Dr. Bowes “Coffey” map is quite blank in the Kilkenny/Wexford area. I looked at the census detail, and in 1911 Kilkenny only had 22 people with the Coffey name. And the only “farmer” family there was 3 brothers living in the same house; And THEY were all born in Waterford! Similarly, Wexford only had 5 people with the Coffey name. Neither county is an obvious long-standing Coffey homeland.

However, we have now come to the conclusion that the largest group of Coffeys in America, the Edward group (and the related Peter group) are NOT actually from one of the ancient Coffey clans in Ireland! While these Coffeys have been distinct and separate for at least 350 years, they ultimately go back to “Keogh/Kehoe/Kaho” origins, likely from the County Wexford area. Dr. Bowes offers a map that confirms that a major “Kehoe” homeland is Wexford, with significant presence in Kilkenny and Tipperary:

I have a complicated paper on the topic, see

www.coffey.ws/FamilyTree/DNA/Origins-CoffeyKeoghFamilies.pdf

MEATH/WESTMEATH/ROSCOMMON COFFEY GROUP: Dr. Bowes believes that Westmeath might be a Coffey homeland, and our y-DNA testing confirms this is probably true. 

There’s also another reason to firmly believe that our group has strong roots in the Meath/Westmeath area. They have genetic DNA matches to 36 different Egan/Keegan names, and Dr. Bowes identifies the neighboring counties of Roscommon and Offaly as being the genetic homeland of the Egan Clan. Also interesting is that while Coffey/Egan/Keegan are clearly related, there is a lot of genetic diversity within both groups. To me, this suggests that they have all been in this region for a VERY long time, and the y-DNA has had time to gradually evolve in varied directions.

(Interestingly, Dr. Bowes offers viewers samples of five “Case Studies” he has done, and one of those is “Egan – A Case Study” that he did for a good friend Dr. Colin Gerard Egan. And I can see Colin has an exact 12-marker match to one of our “County Meath” Coffey men. However Colin’s relationship has to be fairly distant, since it drops out at 25- and 37-marker levels. There are other Egan/Keegan men who match “Coffey” at up to 63 out of 67 markers, and that suggests an extremely solid relationship. Bowes postulates that there are two related Egan Clans, and I think “Coffey” may be closer to the one most distantly related to Colin.)

COUNTY DOWN: There’s another geographic area of tentative interest: Dr. Bowes mentions one Coffey genetic homeland county as “possibly Down”, which is in today’s Northern Ireland. Otherwise Northern Ireland has few “Coffey” residents. At one time I put some effort into analysis of County Down, because it had been speculated that Edward may have left Ireland because of some connection to the land confiscations in Northern Ireland. I now doubt that Edward has a connection to County Down; His genetic roots seem to be in the Wexford area.

I am still interested in County Down, and there is a separate paper on that topic.