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Reading the "Dalton
America
Y-DNA Charts"
Relationship among Daltons of the Virginia
Piedmont
Ancestors of the Piedmont Daltons
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Relationship Among Daltons of the
Virginia Piedmont
The tests we have gathered to this point
indicate that there were indeed close
relationships among the Daltons gathered on the
Virginia Piedmont. The Daltons who left the
Piedmont and passed through Pittsylvania and
Bedford Counties in Virginia show close
relationship to those they left behind and to each
other. They also are closely related to
Samuel Dalton who settled just south of those
counties on the Mayo River in Rockingham County,
North Carolina.
The exception to this pattern are the tests
gathered from the descendants of David Dalton who
moved his family to Rutherford County, North
Carolina. That group shows a different
pattern of Y-DNA, distant enough to cast doubt on
their close relationship to the other Daltons.
Ancestors of the
Piedmont Daltons
To this date, Y-DNA results have not connected
the Daltons of the Virginia Piedmont with others
who can be traced to an earlier period in
Virginia. But tests that can be documented
to link with those earlier Daltons are
scarce. It is doubtful that sufficient tests
have been gathered to settle this issue.
Tests do indicate, however, that the Daltons from
the Virginia Piedmont descend from those of that
surname who lived in Ireland. This
relationship is most evident in the large number
of Irish surnames that appear on 12 and 25 marker
matches for our members. Further proof of
this origin is found in a research article
published in the American Journal of Human
Genetics. Researchers at Trinity
University of Dublin found that a striking
percentage of men in Ireland (and quite a few in
Scotland) share the same Y chromosome. With
further investigation they concluded that the
5th-century warlord known as "Niall of the Nine
Hostages" may be the ancestor of one in 12
Irishmen. Niall established a dynasty of powerful
chieftains that dominated the island for six
centuries. Brian McEvoy, one of the team at
Trinity, explained that in Niall's domain, "as in
other polygamous societies, the siring of
offspring was related to power and prestige." The
Trinity team notes that one of the O’Neill dynasty
chieftains who died in 1423 had 18 sons with
nearly a dozen women and claimed 59 grandsons.
Thus, the culture of the day spread Niall’s DNA
widely. Many of the Daltons in our study are
descendants of Niall. To determine if this
includes you look for the "Niall of the Nine
Hostages" icon on your FTDNA dashboard.
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