The Foulis Paternal line by Don Munro

We have found from the various posts and comments that, for different reasons, not all Munros can descend from the same line as our chief. For example, we know that surnames are relatively new and that, in the past, people without surnames and living on the Chief’s land under his protection took his name to become Munros although they were not blood relatives and so their descendants do not descend from the Foulis line. Many of us fall into this category but are no less Munros.

There have been many studies to show where the Munros came from, the most recent and most comprehensive being that by Malcolm Hamilton and Charles Munroe III and we have commented on that in an earlier post. Just about all theories take the road from Ireland to Scotland.

Modern technology in the form of DNA has caught up with genealogy so what does that tell us? We find that our ancestors came out of Africa thousands of years ago, in groups that took them all over the world to parts that became Russia, Spain, Sweden, etc. Our group descends in the male line from a hunter-gatherer population which arrived in Europe via the Balkans after the last ice age, was in Poland 8-11,000 years ago, and inhabited the British Isles during the Neolithic period. You might wonder how they managed to get across the English Channel – did they swim or build a fleet of boats? Nothing so complicated, they walked as there was no channel at that time, just a land bridge!! Our male line is now a small minority in the British and Irish population.

The conjectured journey of our paternal ancestral line from Africa to Scotland is shown in the diagram below. The numbers shown are successive SNPs going back thousands of years, and show where genetic variations occurred. The most recent, Y12073 and Y12059 (not shown) occurred about 650-800 years ago. So far, the last two have only been found in men descended from the founder of the Munro of Foulis male line (though not all called Munro) so are probably specific to it.

The Munro DNA Project was formed in late 2001 by a group of researchers with North Carolina Monroe/Munroe ancestry and brought to fruition by Margaret Bardin and DeAnn Monroe Steely aided and abetted by our DNA researchers, Colin Munro and Mark Monroe; genealogist Allen Alger, and CMA-USA board member, Charles Munroe have been of great help to the project over the years.

Colin and Mark with their DNA expertise have worked tirelessly, proving that the Foulis line did originate in Ireland and now connecting the Munro diaspora to the Foulis line and to the other lines from which they may have descended. They are working not only on the DNA of famous people like Pres. James Monroe and Marilyn Monroe but also on that of ordinary clanspeople like you and me. They are happy to answer any query you may have and would dearly love to have the DNA of more Munros to work on. Of special interest are those Munros who have managed to trace their family tree back to the Foulis line – their DNA can help those Munros who have hit that brick wall at about the year 1800. For those in the second category, DNA testing is what you need to take you back further than you could ever imagined! Margaret and DeAnn will give you all the information you need to join the Project, so why not contact them at  dsteely@yahoo.com or mbardin731@comcast.net