Ok here are my questions to the DNA experts and the answer
I have worked on a Callison family tree for about 20 years.
The family came to this country pre 1740 reportedly from
County Armagh, Ireland. However, many in the family say
the family is originally Scandinavian because of the SON
on the end of the name
The two are not mutually exclusive. Many Irish lines are of Scandinavian
origin. The gallowglaighs (foreign warriors) were basically Vikings.
(At one point Dublin was the largest Viking city in the world.) Many
names, such as Kellogg, Kalloch, McCulloch, and place names such as Galway
originated from the word gallowglaigh.
I haven't paid particular attention to haplotypes in Ireland, except for a
few that probably came from Normandy, but you'd probably find a pattern of
'Scandinavian' types attributable to this.
If we got a direct line male tested would it confuse of
simplify the problem.
Unknown. As I said above, finding a 'Scandinavian' haplotype would not by
any means rule out the possibility that the line had come to this country by
way of Ireland
Also the history is that James is related to Anthony
(known to be from County Armagh) but we don't know how
-- early 1700's. James had about 8 grandsons from two
different sons but we don't know which sons had which
grandsons. These grandsons born in the 1770-1790
time period.
1. I know that DNA testing from lines from James and
Anthony would show if there was any connection but
wonder if it would help with developing the relationship
-- possibly brothers
2. What does anyone think of the chances of separating
the grandsons into two different family lines with about
150-170 years between then and the males now being
tested. Take care all. Marilyn
Not very likely. You _might_ get lucky and have a one-step mutation
between the brothers that would allow you to figure out who belonged to
which line, but the odds are very much against it. You could probably
pick out whether somebody was descended from the common ancestor or not
but that's probably as closely as you could resolve things. I've got just
one marker difference with a distant cousin (9th) whose MRCA (most recent
common ancestor) with me on that line was in the 1650s, so the resolving power
just isn't that good.
You're welcome to get somebody tested, and the people here will jump in and
offer evaluations of what the numbers mean, but there aren't going to be any
guarantees that it will resolve any of your questions.
Glen