Daughtering Out.
From my last post, When Research Collides: McElmoyle and Templeton: “While trying to find possible DNA matches for one of my hardest family surnames—McElmoyle—I often scour the DNA databases, looking for my McElmoyle cousins, but I always come up empty. Today, I am searching for the married names of the women who are my half-aunts and the married names of their daughters. Searching the DNA databases requires that I know possible surnames.”
Looking for Surnames
Primary Surnames
When looking for matches at various DNA companies, you’ll want to have all possible surnames and spelling variants ready to search using the companies’ match search features. You can use the “include similar surnames” toggle box (this one at Ancestry to have the site expand your search automatically, but I prefer to enter each variation myself. In this case, I have no idea what the site considers a variant. Do you really think it’s going to find something like Mac Giolla Mhaoil?
Primary Surnames
- McElmoyle
- MacElmeel
- MacIlmoyle
- Mcelmoyl
- McIlmoil
- McIlmail
- McIlmale
- McElmeel
- McImeel
- Macklemile
- Mac Giolla Mhaoil – Irish/Gaelic – son of the shorn/tonsured one
- Mac Giolla Mhichi – Irish/Gaelic – son of the servant of Michael
This list was developed after speaking at Genetic Genealogy Ireland in Dublin, where a surname specialist from a university in Dublin was ensconced in a stall. Her eyes lit up when I asked about the surname McElmoyle: “Oooo, you know that means ‘the tonsured one,’ right?”
No, no I did not.
Primary Secondary Surname List
I combed through sources, trees, and Gauldens (my McElmoyles married into my Gauldens, so all my close Gaulden cousins are also McElmoyles). I looked into my 2x great-grandfather’s first marriage to Mary S. Chambers, their daughters, and granddaughters. Eventually, I had to use some forensic genealogy—where a genealogist seeks living descendants—to create a Secondary Primary Surname List.
- Gaulden
- Harris
- VanCantfort
- Voderberg
- Fox
- Chambers
- Pardue
- Davidson
- Reeder
- Oswald
- Hannah
- Boedeker
A Good List To Start
Now that I think I have a solid list of surnames, it’s time to visit the DNA companies to see what I can find among my autosomal DNA matches. I’ll start with Family Tree DNA, since they have Surname DNA Group Projects as well as autosomal match lists to scrutinize and evaluate.
Tonsure
“Tonsure (/ˈtɒnʃər/) is the practice of cutting or shaving some or all of the hair on the scalp as a sign of religious devotion or humility. The term originates from the Latin word tonsura (meaning “clipping” or “shearing”[1]) and referred to a specific practice in medieval Catholicism, abandoned by papal order in 1972. Tonsure, in its earliest Greek and Roman origin, was used as a sign or signifier for slavery.[2][3] Tonsure can also refer to the secular practice of shaving all or part of the scalp to show support or sympathy, or to designate mourning. Current usage more generally refers to cutting or shaving for monks, devotees, or mystics of any religion as a symbol of their renunciation of worldly fashion and esteem.” WikiPedia
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