Solving a 30,000 Year-Old Jig Saw Puzzle

One family’s quest to trace its roots across three continents and 30,000 years.

Sarasota, Florida (PRWEB) May 29, 2006 -- When Jim Mulvihill decided to track the genealogy of his family back to Ireland he had no idea where the adventure would take him. Starting in northern New Jersey, he traced his family back across the Atlantic to County Roscommon in Connaght Province of central Ireland. This search, from the first record of the adoption of the gaelic name MaoilMhichil as a surname in the north of County Roscommon, to the present day distribution of the anglicized Mulvihills, and it’s variants, to most of the counties of Ireland encompasses a period of over 1600 years!

And it didn’t end there. Recent genetic analysis of Y-chromosomes from a cross-section of Irish men confirmed that the Irish retain the purest form of the haplotypes representing the most ancient Europeans. Those people originated about 60,000 years ago in the Near East, and arrived in Ireland well before 2000 BCE. The Connaght Irish retain 98 percent of this genetic marker, more even than the mysterious Basques of Spain and France, who retain 89 percent. Ireland was generally the last stop on the migration path across Europe. Because of that, and the relative isolation of the island, they retain the characteristics of ancient peoples most faithfully.

During the 1,600-year period under the name MaoilMhichil and its variants, approximately 50 generations of descendants have carried one of the derivative names. By 1416, the Mulvihills had been driven from Roscommon by the O’Connor Clan. A number of them began to further anglicize their name to Mulville, Melville, and even Mitchell, in an attempt to protect their rights and property in an increasingly English-dominated environment. They were never numerous. Probably at no time prior to 1800 did their numbers exceed 4,000, and were probably less than 1000 in 1687. Their population in Ireland today is about 2000, with nearly 6,000 spread throughout the world. Of course, there are more than twice those numbers who no longer bear the surname, but can trace their Mulvihill lineage back through their maternal line.

As Jim Mulvihill probed deeper into his family history, he made contact with dozens of other Mulvihills living in America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. He started making trips to Ireland, visiting his hometown, making acquaintances of Mulvihills there and conducting further research on the family. The group coalesced into the resurgent Clan Mulvihill, under the impetus of Father Cathal Stanley of Abbey, Loughrea, and a core of local Mulvihill historians.

In February 2006, official clan status was granted to the Mulvihill family of Ireland. The announcement came from Father Stanley, current Historian and Chairperson for the Clan. The ancient clan system ceased to exist hundreds of years ago for most Irish families, including the Mulvihills. Within the last fifty years, a modern clan movement has emerged. More and more families are applying for recognition under the new system, especially in the last fifteen years.

As the circle of people connected to the original clan grew larger, reaching around the world, they agreed to hold a family reunion in Strokestown, Ireland, near their ancestral tribal lands. This year, on July 7-9, the clan will hold its second reunion with scores of Mulvihills from three continents making the trip to meet their extended family members.

Additional information may be found at http://www.mulvihill.net and then click on Geneaology.

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