By comparison of the dozen or more Y-DNA test results of the descendants of John Jacob of South River Maryland a distinctive 37-marker family haplotype was discernible by 2006.   However the various public Y-DNA databases contained no matches to other persons or families. All of the initial matches appeared to occur between persons whose lineage traced back to John of Maryland.  The surname project began in 2003 but it was not possible in the first nine years thereof to use the study to confirm or deny the various claims as to John’s ancestry.  That has changed recently as matches from “unrelated” persons and families with known origins began to occur.  The first hint occurred in 2007 with a match to an “unrelated” person from another family who did not indicate the origin of their ancestor. However in 2012 a match was found to a person claiming Scottish ancestry.  Since then more matches occurred including several to persons claiming European Y-DNA ancestry.  We are now beginning to see the probable ancestry of John Jacob:  Scots-Irish.

Based on Y-DNA test results the following families are related to our Maryland Jacob family with the closest relations ordered first:

        Anderson (unknown origin having a genetic distance of 0)

        Connell (Scottish with a genetic distance of 1)

        Kemp (Irish having a genetic distance of 5)

        Small (Irish having a genetic distance of 9)

        Taylor (unknown origin having a genetic distance of 10)

        Adams (Irish having a genetic distance of 11)

        Bennett (English with a genetic distance of 12)

        Cummings (Scottish and Irish having a genetic distance of 13)

The Scots-Irish relationship is evident.  Furthermore the Jacob haplotype is similar to the R1a1a1 haplotypes of descendants of the Viking settlers of the Western Isles of Scotland.  Our ancestral origins are assuredly Viking.  Of major importance is the particular DYS 447 allele value of 21.  It is not only common to the Jacob family and the eight other families, but it does not appear in any of the test results of Scandinavian R1a Haplogroup families.  This indicates that the DYS 447 mutation occurred with the common ancestor of the nine related families after migration to the British Isles, perhaps in the 10^th Century soon after Viking settlement there – but where?  Vikings settlements on the mainland were not nearly as permanent or prodigious as the settlement of the Western Isles.  In fact the Kingdom of the Isles formed there in the 9^th Century and existed until the 13^th Century under vassalage to the Crown of Norway.  Where does this lead us if we are still searching for John Jacob’s origin?  Where was he born in 1631 and where did he leave from to come to Maryland?  These questions remain unanswered although we now have a better idea where to look.

17^th Century British migration patterns are complex and influenced by three major factors.  First was the British policy throughout the century to control Ireland by settling English and Scottish “planters” there.  Second was the economic incentive in the early part of the century for investors to settle “adventurers” in the New World to produce sugar.  It was trade in Barbados sugar that made Great Britain wealthy.  Third was the “English” Civil War that was fought across the British Isles and on two continents.  The first factor explains the term Scots-Irish.  The significance of the second factor is that two-thirds of British migrants in that period departed for Barbados – not New England or the Chesapeake as most believe.  The third factor is important for the conflict prompted migration to the new world for political and religious reasons.  That is important to our ancestral study for John’s arrival in Maryland in 1660 suggests that he was ultimately on the losing side of that upheaval and a transportee or refugee therefrom.  However we are not sure.

If John was a Scots-Irish transportee in 1660 he could have departed for Maryland from a number of wide ranging places.  The violent conflict between the indigenous Irish and the British planters forced many Scottish settlers to abandon their Irish land for prospects in the New World.  Oliver Cromwell dispatched General Robert Venables to the West Indies in 1655 with thousands of troops mustered from Britain and Barbados to capture Spanish holdings in the Caribbean.  They failed to take Hispaniola but captured Jamaica which was left occupied by the invading force.  Over time many of the occupying soldiers left Jamaica to settle Virginia and Maryland.  Many other Parliamentary soldiers in Britain were paid in Irish lands but lost them with the Restoration in 1660.  Barbados again figured prominently as the rapid expansion of slavery there mid-century forced the vast number of small planters to leave the island bound for Virginia and Maryland.  John Jacob may have been born in Scotland, Ireland, or even Barbados.  We don’t know although we now know more.

I must thank every person who has contributed to this surname project and study.  It has and continues to serve its stated purpose of better identifying our ancestor.  To my knowledge the results were unexpected and as such demonstrate how useful the study is.  Most claims about his ancestry were that he was descendant of the Jacob family of Dover – a claim that was dubious at best and contradicted at numerous points by the record.  Another claim was that he was Welsh and our study does not support that either.  To be clear we still do not know John’s ancestry but we have a better picture where to look: Scots-Irish.

Christopher L. Jacobs