My Burns/Byrne/Beirne DNA project now has 16 people in our Northwest Cluster. Seven of us have been "advanced tested" and have a haplogroup (R1b1c7) that includes fifth century Niall of the Nine Hostages, of Donegal fame, and may go back several thousand years earlier. The others have to be R1b1c7 as well. That means the paternal ancestors of us 16 have been in the northwest all that time and did arrive in any of the alleged invasions.
The problenm is that while one of us believes his ancestors came from Kilcar, Donegal, neither he nor anyone else can prove a Donegal tie. Two of us definitely are of Sligo ancestry, and another (Beirne) has a good paper trail to Roscommon. The other 12 have no knowledge of where in Ireland their ancestors came from. I think we all come together back in Donegal--somme centuries ago, some quite recently.
We really need some Donegal Byrne or Burns (phonetics are not important) to join us in this search for our ancestry so that we can compare our DNA with his.If any of you reading this know a Donegal male with one of those surnames who is genealogically minded, please place me in contact with him.
thanks,
Paul Burns