Welcome to the Y-DNA surname project for Bronte, Brunty, O'Proinntigh, O'Pronntaigh, O'Pronty, O'Prontye, O'Prounty, Prenty, Prentice, Printy, Prontoch, Prunto, Pruntoch and last but certainly not least Prunty. I will use "Prunty" when talking about all surnames collectively unless I state otherwise. The Pruntys have been documented in Ireland and Scotland as far back as the 16th century. Four members, representing two Prunty, one Printy & one Prentice family in the project are of the R-M269 Haplogroup. Which is not a line recently related to my own. but for the moment seems to be the most common origin for the Prunty Clan or Clans. The R Haoplogroup is most common in ireland and would mean a totaly diferent origin of that prunty line than my own. My personal haplogroup has turned out to be I-L22 which is not the most abundant haplogroup of the natives of the Emerald and British isles. It is actually Norse and with the most recent common ancestor of that particular haplogroup appearing in South Denmark / North Germany 3,000 years ago. More Prunty participants are needed to discover if all the Pruntys are indeed descendant from natives of the Emerald and British isles or Scandinavian vikings, Angles, Saxons, Normans or elsewhere in more recent history. There are many theories about our ancestry, all of which I'm sure we'd love to hear. I've included some which I know of and reflected a little on them and some on-going research within the project. I will never discard a theory which lacks 'proof' as a lack of proof is not disproof and Murphy's law ensures endless possibilities but DNA and historical evidence will give more weight to our most likely journey in the end, which incidentally we are still on. Descendants of all Pruntys especially the 16th century Pruntys who left Ireland and Scotland for the British colonies, Australia and the Carolinas, John & David Prunty the 1798 founders of Pruntytown, West Virginia, Pat Prunty who arrived in San Francisco California in 1852, Peter Prunty who settled in Philadelphis Pa. in 1856 not to mention the close cousins of the Brontës who are revered across the world for their literary accomplishments and after whom Haworth, West Yorkshire in England is known as Brontës Country and a heritage trail called "the prunty to Brontë trail" in Banbridge County Down is named; this project aims to have a reconnect the family.