Y-DNA - The McGuire Connection
Fox surname DNA testing
To determine the "deep ancestral roots" of those with the Fox surname, a DNA project was initiated several years ago at FamilyTreeDNA. Y-DNA is passed on from father to son exclusively.
Based on my tests of Y-DNA, my male line of Foxes of Lancashire are classified as R1b1 Haploid. That haploid group of humans migrated to Europe and then to the British Isles about 30,000 years ago. Future tests may be able to determine the geographic distribution of the Fox surname.
Y-DNA tracks the direct male line only. In
five or six generations, my Y-DNA may be shared by a few hundred of related
males (direct male descendants of mine or descendants of brothers).
The number of genetic genome cousins would be
thousands
Over a period of time … hundreds or thousands of
years, benign mutations occur.
These changes (Steps) are passed to future male
generations.
Geneticists can use these Markers to trace back
family lines to distant relatives and their locations. The fewer the steps
between one individual and another, the closer in time the relationship.
Family Tree DNA results after 8 years of evaluation
Nine highest matches are listed in order of closeness.
There is no doubt that it is the male McGuire
line that I’m descended from.
In addition, my Y-DNA does not correlate with the DNA of
those with the Fox surname.
Unlike our DNA, we can change our surname by adoption,
for personal or societal reasons or by passion – a love child.
The Fox family surname can be historically tracked back to George Fox abt. 1750
in Chorley, Lancashire.
Change to avoid English hatred of Irish?
Most likely it was changed by an Irish family whose
ancestor came over to England sometime before the 1700's.
The Irish fought the English for centuries and were
conquered and almost annihilated by Cromwell and the Great Famine.
If you lived in England and could escape being labeled
Irish ... you did so.
The other possibility is that a McGuire descended male
child was adopted into a Fox family ... or raised by a Fox family.
It is possible that a female in the Fox family had a
child by a male McGuire lover and raised him as a Fox.
So far, the evidence points to a change before George
Fox.