About us
Origins of the “Galloway Surname”
The most common surname meaning used is from the Dictionary of American Family Names (2013, Oxford University Press) and reads as follows:
Galloway Name Meaning: Scottish: regional name from Galloway in southwestern Scotland, named as ‘place of the foreign Gaels’, from Gaelic gall ‘foreigner’ + Gaidheal ‘Gael’. From the 8th century or before it was a province of Anglian Northumbria. In the 9th century it was settled by mixed Gaelic-Norse inhabitants from the Hebrides and Isle of Man.
Some sources indicate it was used as a surname as early as the 13th Century. Records of Galloways arriving in America date back to the 17th Century. Variations include Galloway, Gallaway, Galway, Gallway, Gallowey, Galloay, Gallawaye, and Galloweigh, among others.
Today, Galloways are spread around the world, with the largest number residing in the United States (see http://forebears.io/surnames/galloway#meaning for worldwide distribution of the surname in 2014).
History of the Galloway DNA Surname Project.
The Galloway DNA project has been in existence for a number of years with a primary focus on yDNA testing, which traces a direct paternal surname line. Like many FTDNA projects, in recent years with the expansion of autosomal DNA (atDNA) testing, more and more Galloway descendants through non-direct paternal lineages have joined the project. As of July 2016, there were 55 project members, of whom 30 have yDNA tests (some are not Galloway paternal lines), and the balance have atDNA/family finder tests. AtDNA testing is available to both male and female descendants, although the results are often less conclusive than yDNA tests, given the random nature of atDNA inheritance patterns. Nevertheless, given the much greater number of Galloway descendants who can take an atDNA test, the project will include a focus on both types of tests, to the extent possible.
Although currently only the yDNA test results are posted on the results pages of the project, we welcome anyone who has taken an FTDNA test (yDNA, Family Finder, or mtDNA) who has a Galloway in their lineage. Project members who have taken a Family Finder test at FTDNA, can use advanced search tools on their personal FTDNA pages to find other project members who share atDNA. If you have taken an atDNA test at another company, consider transferring the results to FTDNA in order to join the Galloway Project.
Genetic DNA is a powerful tool to identify common ancestors, along with traditional “paper” trail genealogy. Family Pedigrees are critical to finding common ancestors, and project members are encouraged to share most distant Galloway ancestor. The project was originally hosted by worldfamilies.net. That website was deactivated in May 2018.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact the project administrator. Updated July 2016
UPDATE: July 2017
The Galloway DNA project has now grown from 55 members in July 2016 to 74 members by July 2017; the number of yDNA-chromosome tests in the project has also grown from 30 to 40, although not all yDNA chromosome tests are from male Galloway surname kits. Some yDNA chromosome test kits represent males who descend from female Galloway lines and have joined through their family finder/autosomal dna tests. Many of the project members have taken only a family finder/autosomal test or both a yDNA and family finder/autosomal dna test. Although previously there were no yDNA chromosome matches at 37 or above level, we now have two clusters of project members who match, Halogroup 1- group A (two members) and Halogroup R1b- group A (four members) to create subgroups in these areas. There are also a number of family finder/autosomal dna matches within the project, but FTDNA projects currently do not have tools to display these results although individual project members are able to identify matches within the FTDNA projects through advanced search tools. If you have any questions or are interested in joining the Galloway DNA project, please feel free to contact the administrator.
UPDATE: July 2018
The Galloway Surname Project now has 89 members, up from 55 in 2016. Two yDNA clusters of male descendants have formed and some members have found atDNA matches within the project. As noted earlier, the Galloway Surname Project was originally hosted at WorldFamilies.org, which ended its activities in May 2018. The WorldFamilies websites provided for members to post Patriarchs of their families along with lineages. So that this information is not lost, the following is a list of Galloway Patriarchs listed at WorldFamilies.org. This is NOT a complete list of Patriarchs of members of the Galloway project, but represents only those previously posted on the WorldFamilies website. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact the project administrator.
*Samuel Galloway, b. Scotland 1675(?) m. Elizabeth Graham
*James Galloway, b c1720-25 m. Catherine Pollard
*William Galloway, b.1745, d. 1809 Beaufort Co., NC m Martha Patty Crofton
*William Galloway, b c1763 NC, d c1851 NC m Sarah ‘Harriet’ Essary
*Thomas Galloway, b. 1783 VA m. Nancy Mathews
*John Galloway, b. 1820 PA, m. Sarah Pore
*William Galloway b. c 1845-1861, Hull, Yorkshire, England m. Elizabeth Boyd
*James Galloway d bef 1878 m Ann Bonner
*Charles Edward Galloway, b. 1851, Nassagaweya m Josephine Eaton
*Matthew Gallaway (Galloway) b. 1759 NC, d. 1824, Oglethorpe GA, m (1) ..Beaver, (2)Mary East
UPDATE: February 2021. See results tab for more information. The project has grown to 114 members, more than double the number in 2016.
UPDATE: December 2022. The Galloway project continues to grow and now has 137 members.