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Ah, 4b2, we crossed replies!

It's funny that you should mention the Y-DNA test, as it was the results of a very distant cousin (confirmed through research and DNA matches) of mine's Y-DNA test that kicked off the research in question. Namely with two cases of this rather specific surname appearing amid a block of the other, more expected surnames from a common ancestor.

A few days ago I got my results back from AncestryDNA and one small thing that surprised me was that doing the origin trick showed me that I have one tiny segment (0.05%) that Ancestry has labelled internally as 'Jewish Peoples of Europe', though shows up as 'unassigned' in my official results due to falling below the percentage threshold.

Now, I'm fully aware that such an incredibly miniscule segment could very well be noise, or a mis-reading, but as there's some amount of circumstantial evidence in my own research (and that of other people I'm working with), that suggests it might be legitimate, I'm at least looking into the possibility.

Just as an example, I have one match (12cm) whose tree contains an English family line with a distinct surname I've been researching quite extensively in Ireland. Their tree goes back to an individual b. c1608 who they claim adopted the surname and was originally a member of the Sephardic 'Crypto-Jewish' community of converso emigrants from Portugal (the strong Portuguese connection is another thing of note in the research regarding the Irish family). They sadly don't have an attached source for this claim, so I don't know if it's a family story or an attested piece of history. I'll be contacting said match in a couple of days to see if they're up for sharing info.

When looking at where I match with this person in a chromosome browser, they don't share this particular segment of unassigned DNA in question - but someone who is a shared match between the two of us does. Going through their shared matches finds more people who share the same segment; I have at least ten after a day's searching. Said segments often even sharing the same start and end points. GEDmatch usually puts the estimated most recent common ancestor about seven generations out.

Now as someone new to diving this deeply into DNA I want to ask: am I potentially on to something meaningful here, or is it a wild goose chase? Is finding so many people with the same segment of shared DNA something of note, or with such a small segment could it just be random chance at work?

Thanks in advance for your answers!

Thanks for the replies everyone, I'll probably be posting a longer response to the thread in the next couple of days or so, but just quickly: I can help you out Rick, with regards to the parents of Stafford Dinnen's wife Bridget O'Neill. The actual paper Catholic record gives the parents of both bride and groom (see attached snippet). Michael Dinnen and Elizabeth Downing for Stafford, Bernard O'Neill and Martha Cassidy for Bridget.

Hi all,

I'm posting to see if anyone has any more information relating to the Reverend James Mackel, parish priest of Ardtrea (b. c1756 - d. c1832).

He was buried in Ballyeglish Old Graveyard (sometimes referred to locally as simply 'Eglish') a very ancient burial ground that was used by all denominations, about 1km south west of the Loup cross roads. Rev. Mackel was apparently a man with a very holy reputation; so much so in fact, that local people apparently used to take handfuls of soil from his grave to try and cure ailments. Eventually, so much soil was taken that the Reverend was almost uncovered and local priests had to put a ban on the practice.

I happen to be a descendant of Mackles (the usual spelling in our tree) from the local area, some of whom lived in the Loup, and I was fascinated by the story. I was wondering if it could be discovered precisely where he placed among the local Mackle families. 

What I know about the Rev. Mackel so far is that according to his memorial he died on the 4th of March 1832 at the age of 76. At that point he had apparently been parish priest of Ardtrea for 'upwards of 40 years'.

I found the following death notice in the Belfast Newsletter of 11 Mar 1831. The death date is off by a year and a couple of days, but the rest of the details would seem to match. The 1832 date comes from a tombstone transcription; many of the tombstones in Ballyeglish are very worn or damaged, so there's possibly a mistranscription at play.

The Rev. James Mackel P.P. of Ardtrea. This venerable and highly gifted Ecclesiastic expired on the 2d inst. at his house in Ballynagarve near Magherafelt at the advanced age of 76 years, upwards of 40 of which he was priest of this, his native parish.

This is all I have on him so far. Obviously with Irish history this far back, records can be very piecemeal, but I was thinking with someone seemingly so well known locally, there might be other fragments of information floating around.

Thanks in advance for any help or information!

Hey Rick, good to hear from you again. Mike is indeed my preferred name, so feel free to run with that!

It's funny that you mention Michelle, as we've only just recently established contact via Ancestry! I think it might be the first time in something like 150 years that members of the O'Neill/Carmichael and Dinnen branches of the 'Stafford' families have been in touch. Which I find pleasing as the to families seemed to have been fairly close at one point.

I've been looking into the initial Griffiths land valuation based on what I now know about the local 'Stafford' families and there's definitely a clear cluster of them in Upper Dreenan. I've created a map which highlights some interesting land patterns between the Dinnens and some of the other 'Stafford' and Downing families of the local area. It's too big to upload here, so let me know if you'd like me to email it through to you!