Evolvement of DeArmond spelling

 Much like our Universe, the DeArmond surnames evolved from chaos.

As with many human cultures, the history of Ireland was often a story of one family clan in brutal deadly conflict with another for territory, cattle and slaves, or pitched battle between large brotherhoods of clans. Then in the 8th century A.D. began the long struggle to throw off the power of the Viking invaders which was achieved in the 11th century. In the 13th century the Norman conquerors of England came to the Isle and conflict ensued again with often devastating consequences for the Irish but with much cost to the British also.

The northern Province of Ulster was the last part of Ireland to be subdued. To insure subjugation of the rebellious Irish, British King James established the Plantation of Ulster about 1610 and encouraged primarily lowland Scots and northern English Borderers to resettle there. The Scots and Borderers (Reivers) were often as combative as the Irish but were also skilled in land reclamation and development.

By the start of the 17th century the clan of O'Duibhdhiorma, inhabiting the eastern Inishowen Peninsula of Donegal, had long been under the rule of the O'Dohertys. In 1608, the British crushed the revolt of the Prince of Inishowen, Cahir O'Doherty. The First documented records of the British attempt to Anglicize the spelling of the Gaelic surname of Duibhdhiorma appear during this period. The most phonetically similar versions were Dooyearma, Dooyiorma or Dughierma. However, the practice of substituting the common Irish given name of Diermond (or Dermond) soon became the accepted norm. Diermond was in turn an Anglicization of Gaelic Diarmuid or Diarmait (pronounced Der-mood or Der-mit). Numerous variants of Diermond were recorded throughout Ireland ever since English became spoken there. Common spelling examples were: Dyormott, Dermond, Dermott, Dermid, Dyermitt and eventually Dearmond, Dearment, Dearmitt, etc. These surnames are found also in several other counties of Ireland during the 17th century but in most cases do not originate with clan O'Duibhdhiorma. For instance, Line G, Dearmont of Maryland and Virginia is indigenous to Munster Province in southeast Ireland.

1846 published map of Irish clans and surnames from the 11th century to the end of the 16th century, using O'Dooyarma as a phonetic Anglicization for the clan of O'Duibhdhiorma..

When the Irish spoke among themselves in their native Gaelic language they always used Ua Duibhdhiorma, which phonetically sounded like O'Dooyearma or O'Dooyarma. It is apparent that over time the Anglicized Diermond/Dyermond variants and O'Duibhdhiorma Gaelic pronunciations had somewhat of a cross current spelling and speech influence upon one another. Duibhdhiorma became pronounced Dee-er-ma, Dee-ar-mah or Dee-yar-ma.

In Ulster about 1725, Ulster Scots became discontent with English Anglican Church influence in putting severe legal restrictions on their Presbyterian faith and with the ending of rent controls on tenant farming. The Scots began a 50 year long emigration from Ulster primarily to at first Pennsylvania. This left indebted landlords desperate to fill tenant farming vacancies. Law allowed them to hire native Irish who were willing to convert from Catholicism. Those Irish who converted to the Gaelic language friendly Presbyterian church became inter married with the Ulster Scots and soon joined the continuing emigration from Ulster while using an Anglicized variant of Diermond when speaking in English and Duibhdhiorma when using Gaelic.

Screenshots taken from the 1748 will of James, Line A.

In the 18th century American Colonies, the most common immigrant spelling of the surname was recorded as Dermond which was pronounced as Der-mond, although it is noteworthy that Deyermond was used by whoever inscribed the 1748 will of James (Line A). Then gradually around 1800, Dearmond became more common, still pronounced with the first syllable break following the letter "r". Anecdotal evidence indicates that the Gaelic pronunciation was still being used among many American settler families well into the 19th century. The clearest examples of this are revealed with the following U.S. census records:

The 1850 census record for John Cook Dearment and son John are inscribed as John D Armah. The Gaelic pronunciation is used, but the census taker appears to have erroneously thought he was hearing a French surname and spelled it in a pseudo French manner. Today most of the Crawford County descendants spell their surname as DeArment.

The early 19th century census records for my own family of Indiana Co. PA. showing my immigrant ancestor William Dearment in 1820 along with James Derment. In 1840, my 2x great grandfather Henry and brother John are listed by a Gaelic pronunciation but a pseudo French spelling as D Armee, while his mother (Widow) and brother Isaac are listed with an Anglicized Dearmott and Dearmett, and brother Jacob as Dermott, indicating the first syllable break was following the letter r. Today most Indiana County descendants use Deyarmin while DeArmey and Deyarmie are more rare.

The genesis of the nearly universal myth that the surname variants are of French origin began following the celebrated return tour of America by the famed Marquis de Lafayette in 1825. The meme made it's way back to the Belfast area of Ireland where a late 19th century city directory lists several imaginative pseudo French spellings. This curious ruse was pointed out by Catholic Father Patrick Woulfe in his 1906/1926 editions of "Irish names and surnames", shown below.

The religious and cultural animosity between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland continues to smolder just below the surface within certain demographic factions. This has led to descendants of the once Catholic O'Duibhdhiorma, who converted primary to the Calvinist Presbyterian faith, readily absorbing and expanding upon the myth of Calvinist French Huguenot origin for their derived surname variants, with Deyermond being the most notable.

Understanding how in America after 1825, the anglicized Dear-mxxx syllable separation became the pseudo French De-Ar-mxxx, is most likely explained by assuming the Irish Gaelic De-ar-ma or De-yar-ma verbal tradition was retained by many families well into the 19th century.

Duermit and McDermid

Interesting examples of surname variants descended from clan O'Duibhdhiorma are found among my very close Y DNA STR matches at FtDNA.com. The surnames Duermit and McDermid are absent from "DeArmond Families of America" (1954) by Roscoe C. "d'Armand" in spite of Roscoe's recognition of a wide variety of surname variants. Both test kits are matched to me by one repeat count difference (37/1).

I created this overlay of several pages of my Y  DNA matches at Ftdna.com to show the variety of surname variants derived from paternal descent from the Irish clan of O'Duibhdhiorma whose male line descendants all share the common Y DNA  SNP marker FGC4113.

Duermit of Ohio

The single progenitor of the American surname of Duermit, found mainly in southern Ohio, seems to have been an Irishman who immigrated to Ohio sometime in the decade following the 1840's Potato Famine. His male line descendant Y DNA STR counts are very closely matched to the mainstream O'Duibhdhiorma descendants whose immigrant ancestors from Inishowen, County Donegal, converted to the Presbyterian religion in order to fill vacant tenant farming positions throughout Ulster.

In contrast, the immigrant Duermit married a Catholic woman supposedly from Eniskillen in County Fermanagh, and he was finally laid to rest in a Catholic church cemetery. Perhaps because of his later association with Catholicism, and similarity of his name to McDermott, some of his descendants apparently believe he was from County Roscommon where the indigenous Mac Diarmada was Anglicized to McDermott.  His descendant Y DNA does not match descendants of those O'Duibhdhiorma Catholic ancestors who were forcibly removed to Connaught Province in the 17th century, where Roscommon is located, and who also used  McDermott and McDearmond variations. His descendant Y DNA has even far greater genetic distance from the indigenous Mac Diarmada of Roscommon. Therefore, it is more probable that he emigrated directly from County Donegal, first by way of Liverpool which was an important point of embarkation for voyage to America and where he is named on a ship's manifest near the end of the 1840s Potato Famine.

The presence of the letter "u" in the spelling of Duermit, I believe helps to support my theory that the Gaelic Duibh-dhiorma had auditory influence upon the Anglicized Diarmait variants and vice-versa. Duibh is a Gaelic intensive adjective word generally referring to black or very dark hair and is pronounced "doove". When used as a prefix to a name, the "bh" sound is dropped (elision). A vocal synthesis of the Gaelic "Du(ibh)" and Anglicized "(d)ermit" would have likely produced Duermit.

McDermid of Glasgow, Scotland

McDermid is a surname variant which is found among descendants of the clan who migrated to Scotland to find industrial and shipyard work in the early 19th century. The Gaelic patronymic "O" (grandson of) was discarded in favor of "Mc" (son of). This occurred with several other Irish surnames also, but was most notable among Duibhdhiorma descendants in the environs of Londonderry, just south of Inishowen, and in Connaught Province in central west Ireland where many Irish were forcibly removed to in the 17th century. The most commonly used surname substitutions were McDermott or McDearmond. I would surmise that many Irish dropped the "O" for discrimination reasons in favor of "Mc" because, primarily in Ulster, it was widely but erroneously assumed that "Mc" was strictly a Scottish surname prefix (ref. O'Donovan; 1861). The Gaels of the Western Isles and Highlands of Scotland had discarded the "O" prefix many centuries before. 

  




 

DeArmond Variants Y DNA results

The male Y chromosome

Shown just above is a list I compiled from my Y DNA matches pages at Family Tree DNA (ftdna.com). The list reveals the variety of surname spellings used by paternal line descendants of the native Irish clan of O'Duibhdhiorma. The surnames are listed in order of testing date match. The surnames are aligned vertically so that the "rm" consonant pair in each name is aligned with the other surnames. The Irish given name of Diarmaid/Diarmait was substituted for Duibhdhiorma (Doo[ve]-yearma) by Anglo-Irish recording officials who in turn anglicized the substitutions into a plethora of variations, however the current colloquial Gaelic language pronunciation (in County Donegal) of Duibhdhiorma (Dee-Yarma or Dee-Arma) still echoes its influence in some of the surnames.

The pseudo "French" appearance of some surnames became fashionable following the celebrated 1825 return tour of America by the Marquis de Lafayette. It was not uncommon for first language Gaelic speakers to interchangeably use either an O' or Mc patronymic prefix. It was incorrectly assumed by English only speakers that O' was Irish and Mc was strictly Scottish.

Short Tandem Repeat test or STR Level/ (12,25,37,67 or 111) indicates the marker test level of the match and /GD (Genetic Distance) means the total difference of the repeat count at that level. GD can be misleading however especially at lower marker test levels. That is why SNP testing is so important to insure accuracy.  Book Line is the documented immigrant ancestor listed by Roscoe C."d'Armand" in his work. SNP tested indicates whether separate testing was done for terminal Single Nucleotide Polymorphism FGC4113 which is inclusive of all clan paternal  line descendants. FGC7929 is a more recently discovered SNP present in an undetermined percentage of descendants who have not tested for it.

                                         Details concerning my Y DNA matches

Match #1 McDearmond: This was my first Y match at ftdna.com, which caused me to suspect a clan relationship. William Dearmond was the immigrant ancestor for this descendant. Little is known about him other than he died in 1799 in Georgia and was a native of Ireland. There is no SNP testing done by the Y descendant, yet the 37 marker STR chart shown just below strongly suggests that he would be positive for FGC4113 if tested.

Sample STR 37 marker chart of descendants of Clan O'Duibhdhiorma revealing distinct repeat count difference on four markers. It was possibly related to forcible 17th century removals from homeland of Inishowen in northern County Donegal to other counties of Ireland where a variety of unrelated local surnames were often assumed.

Match #2 McDermott: This match solidified for certain in my mind that terminal SNP FGC4113 encompassed the descendants of Clan O'Duibhdiorma, since we both tested positive for it. Tom McDermott's ancestor John McDermott emigrated from County Sligo to America during the 1840s Potato Famine. John's ancestors were likely forcibly removed from Inishowen in the late 1650s to make land available for British veterans who had crushed the mid 17th century Irish revolt.

Match #3 D'Armond: This was the first Y DNA test match of a documented descendant of James, Line A who was also Roscoe C. "d'Armand's" immigrant ancestor. This was scientific proof of the fallacy of Roscoe's story of paternal line descent from 17th century French Huguenot nobility who found refuge in England and Northern Ireland. He is listed as Kit #238163 on the James, Line A family tree chart shown below.

Match #4 Deyarmin: This match is my 4th cousin. We are both descendants of immigrant ancestor William Dearment of Donegal, Ireland. He immigrated to the United States about 1798 and may have fled Ireland after participation in the failed revolt of the United Irishmen. He died in 1836 in Indiana County, Pennsylvania and was the progenitor of descendants using the surnames Deyarmin, Deyarmie and DeArmey.

Match #5 DeArmond: This match brought Michael, Line D into the growing list of clan descendants. Line D descendants have included a U.S. Congressman from Missouri who tragically lost his life trying to save his grandson in a house fire. It also includes three successive generations of military generals and a corporate CEO.

Match #6 D'Armond: This was my 2nd match to a James, Line A descendant. He allowed his name to be shown as William R. D'Armond of Baton Rouge, La. He is a retired attorney and Harvard Law graduate who questioned me in depth about my sources of information and proof for my conclusions, I benefitted in the end and re-thought some mistaken assumptions I had previously made. He is listed as Kit #479363 on the James, Line A family tree chart shown just below. 

Chart showing descendances from James, Line A of Roscoe C. (book author) along with his three cousins who have all tested positive for Y DNA SNP FGC4113 at ftdna.com. It is purely of native Irish origin.

Match #7 Deyarmie: This is my son, who is a perfect match to me at the 37 marker STR level.

Match #8 DeArmond: This was my third match to a descendant of James Line A, shown above on the James, Line A family tree as Kit 829151.

Match #9 DeArment: This match is of great interest to me because he is a Y DNA descendant of John Cook Dearment who came to the U.S. about the time of the failed 1798 Revolt of the United Irishmen. He settled in Crawford County, Pennsylvania. My own immigrant ancestor William Dearment came to the U.S. during this time also.

Match #10 McDermid: This match represents some Clan migration to Glasgow, Scotland to obtain employment in ship building and industry during the early 19th century and then emigration to North America and Australia in the latter part of the century. 

Match #11 DeYarman: This match from Iowa is a representative descendant of an ancestor from a diverse group of immigrant men that Roscoe C. labeled as Line J and attributed to be sons of a Hugh Deyarmont of County Down, Ireland. After much searching through Irish records, I can find no conclusive evidence of any O'Duibhdhiorma anglicized variants in County Down before the mid 19th century. The immigrant men who were mentioned were in America by the 18th century. Apparently not until the 19th century did O'Duibhdhiorma emigration to North America from Irish counties other than Donegal occur.

Match #12 Duermit: This surname spelling which is found primary in southern Ohio, derives from a Hugh Duermit who arrived in New York aboard the Fidelia on 8 December, 1851 from Liverpool which was a major port of departure for impoverished Irish fleeing the Potato Famine. 

Match #13 McDermott: This descendant's immigrant ancestor, William McDermott, served in the British Army during the Revolutionary War. He deserted and joined the New Jersey Militia instead.

No Match: Dearmont: This descendant of whom Roscoe C. "d'Armand" designated as Line G of Maryland, did not test positive for FGC4113. Instead he was positive for R-Z16437. This SNP is associated with other test kit results tracing their immigrant ancestor to Munster Province in the southwest of Ireland. The Pender Census of 1659 reveals isolated pockets of anglicized variants of the Irish forename of Diamait/Diarmid in central and southwest Ireland. The same names were substituted for the O'Duibhdhiorma of Donegal. Although no documented evidence supports it, it is possible that the immigrant ancestor was a penal laborer who was transported to Maryland to work on the tobacco plantations.

Why is DeArmond supposedly French?

Roscoe C. "d'Armand", author of "DeArmond" families of America" (1954) wrote on page 3 of his introduction, a sentence concerning how the surname genre did not appear as being "French" initially in North American records, which standing alone by itself is at least accurate. He writes' "By 1800 the name was being spelled Dearmond, and later DeArmond". He doesn't specify any particular time frame that "later" occurred.  In the rest of the paragraph he seems to suggest that each of hundreds of distantly related cousins, long ago separated by several generations and having no awareness of each others' existence, and sharing only a variety of spellings and pronunciations of an odd surname, collectively felt an instinctual yearning to express their ancestral noble French heritage. He suggests they attempted to achieve this by spelling their surnames in a manner that resulted in a variety of affected "French" spelling alterations, with DeArmond being the most common.

Even those who believe in the metaphysical ability of the human mind must be unsatisfied with such an explanation. More realistically, some specific conditions and historic events must have played a role in how this puzzling meme occurred during the first half of the 19th century. And more specifically explain why was an Anglicized Irish surname that was generally pronounced Der-mond when the immigrant surname men reached American shores, changed to De-Ar-mond. Dearmond and several other related variants were noted in the Oxford U. Press publication, "Dictionary of American Family Names" (2003) shown below, stating that Dearmond et.al derive from Dermond, which was a reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic O'Duibhdhiorma.

Below I have assembled a series of facts, which can be easily cross checked, that the reader can review and then reach their own conclusions or not about how the today's nearly universally accepted myth of DeArmond French Huguenot origin began.

Fact #1 ,1824-5 Tour of America by Lafayette 

                 June 17, 1825, Lafayette lays the cornerstone of the Bunker Hill monument

Gilbert du Motier, better known as the Marquis de Lafayette, has been a cultural icon in America from our nation's conception to present day. Although his bravery in combat was unquestioned, and he incurred a leg wound at Brandywine, and he eventually acquired a degree of expertise in military leadership, his main value to the American Revolution was his political connections in France through his wife's family, helping to bring France into the war of independence against Britain, and his close association with General Washington. While Admiral DeGrasse and General Rochambeau achieved masterful naval and military successes, and thousands of French soldiers and sailors died in the cause for American independence, they are mostly forgotten while the name of Lafayette lives on in a multitude of school, park and place names throughout America.

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Depiction of the September 28, 1824 parade of Lafayette through Philadelphia attended by massive cheering crowds of spectators hoping to get a glimpse of him.

In August 1824, Lafayette returned from France to the United States to begin a U.S. government sponsored tour of American cities with the intent to inspire patriotic fervor in time for the country's 50th anniversary. In the larger cities cheering crowds of thousands gathered to gain a glimpse of him, and at every stop in his travels about the nation he was welcomed warmly. The tour finally ended in September 1825, and he was transported back to France by an American naval frigate. The heightened American Francophilia fervor lasted long after his visit well until WW1, when General Pershing gave a speech in France after the first American troops arrived, and proclaimed: "Lafayette, nous voila!".

Drawing from Roscoe's book I found one of his earliest 19th century record mentions of use of "DeArmond". On page 36, footnote 4, a Robert DeArmond et.al., had a Knox County court judgement rendered against them to pay the State Bank of Tennessee $1427 on April 8, 1826. Up to that date, all documentation records throughout his book show only Dearmond or the like used up to and including the 1820 census records, then following the mid 1820s many entries are spelled DeArmond, DeArment, DeYarmon, DeArmit, etc. Roscoe's interpretation of the mostly illegible deathbed 1748 signature of James, Line A  as spelling out D'Armond was purely his wishful imagination. Lafayette had visited Nashville, Tennessee less than a year earlier and was honored by the city and met with Andrew Jackson. Four days later the Ohio river steamship carrying him to Louisville, Kentucky sank. Lafayette was safe but lost his money and travel possessions.

Fact #2, Irish Catholic immigration to America in the 19th century.

Later 19th century Irish workers digging a canal. During the Erie canal construction in the 1820s. Men were lodged in crowded surplus army tents during intolerable summer heat and winter cold with poor food and hygiene and with rampant deadly disease killing thousands, but at least two more men were willing to fill the dead man's shoes for each that died. 

During this same time period prior to the 1840s Potato Famine, thousands of Irish immigrants came to North America. They were mostly men who were willing to work for low pay in often wretched and deadly conditions, primarily building transportation infrastructure. Their labor contracts usually always included a ration of whiskey which they were fond of. English prejudice against the Irish dates back to the early Plantagenet kings when an observer described the Irish as eating cattle meat solely because they were too lazy to cultivate crops and were animal like themselves. The Reformation and the bloody rebellions of the Catholic Irish against the British Protestants in Ireland, intensified British general disdain for the Irish. The tradition of prejudice toward the Irish traveled to the colonies and became institutionalized among American Protestants in the 1820s when Irish Catholic immigration began to increase.and then became a flood of entire impoverished families driven by hunger from the Potato famine in the 1840s.

Above: Defamatory illustration which was comparable to other published cartoons and writing found in 19th century English language printed material that discriminated against the native Catholic Irish. The illustration declared in effect that the Irish were of the same inferior origin as other sub human races. In contrast, Northern Europeans and the British  were among the superior races. In truth modern DNA science reveals most English are far more closer genetically to the Irish than to the Germanic and Scandinavian races. Furthermore, all modern day humans trace their genetic ancestry eventually back to Africa.

In contrast to the unflattering portrayal of the native Irish in the illustration above, a shipwrecked officer (Capitan Francisco de Cuellar) from the Spanish Armada (1588), who sheltered from the English (who executed most survivors) for months among the native Irish, wrote to the King of Spain: "The men are large and energetic with handsome features, and the women are exceedingly beautiful.". For more detail and illustrations about de Cuellar's experiences among the Irish, see my post "Lords of An Bredach", May 16, 2017

Because of  the inherent prejudice and discrimination against Irish Catholics at that time, many native Irish surnames were altered to disguise their Gaelic origin, or an English equivalent translation was used. Rev. Patrick Woulfe wrote in his 1906 book, Gaelic edition, "Irish Names and Surnames" how several Irish surnames were changed to appear French, such as D'Ermott for O'Duibhdhiorma. An excerpt from the 1926 English translation edition is shown below.

Fact # 3, Most of the surname immigrant ancestors were also still somewhat fluent in Gaelic.

In 1603, when the British finally achieved control of all of Ireland, including the northern region which was called Ulster, Anglo-Irish recording officials would commonly substitute names that were familiar to them instead of the strange Irish Gaelic surnames. The first British attempt to transliterate the Inishowen surname of O'Duibhdhiorma was Dooyearma, but then they chose to substitute Diermond, Dermond, Dyermott, Dermott, etc., and Dearmond. These were in turn Anglicizations of the Gaelic given name of Diarmuid, which was pronounced "Der-mid or Der-mott".

Section of 1846 published map of Irish clans and surnames where the Anglicized phonetic transliteration of the Gaelic O'Duibhdhiorma is given as O'Dooyarma. 

Early 19th century Irish language and cultural scholar, John O'Donovan wrote in effect that in spite of the natives of Inishowen using Diarmuid variations when speaking in English, they always used O'Duibhdhiorma when speaking Irish. In a 1974 book about Inishowen Catholic history, and authored by Brian Bonner, (Where Aileach Guards"), noted: "The older generation still refers to the bearers of this historic surname as the "Dee-erma". However official records were kept using English and here we note the discrepancy between Gaelic and English pronunciations which gives some clue as to how the syllable shift occurred between Der-mond or Dear-mond to De-Armond!

During the prior 18th century, the tenant farming Ulster Scots, many of whom were Gaelic speakers, began a 50 year long wave of emigration to North America. This opened tenant farming work for native Irish, but was only allowed by law if they converted to a Protestant faith. Those native Irish who did convert, did so primarily to the Ulster Scot's Gaelic language friendly Presbyterianism. They eventually intermarried and became part of the continuing Presbyterian Scot-Irish emigration to North America while using their Anglicized Irish surnames when speaking English.

An observer of the troops of the American Revolutionary army, wrote that more than half were "Irish", which was the term used at that time for the former Ulster Scots. He also wrote that about half of them spoke "Irish" (Gaelic). Given these factors, we can surmise that  Gaelic was still occasionally used in the "Scotch-Irish" communities of North America in the late 18th century and into the first half of the 19th among many families.

Fact #4, Clear evidence is recorded showing that the duality of Inishowen bi-lingual surname pronunciation occurred well into the 19th century in North America.

Shown above is part of the 1850 U.S. census from Crawford County PA, listing early DeArment family ancestors as "D Armah". It appears that the census taker phonetically heard the then current Irish Gaelic pronunciation "Dee-erma" or "Dee-yarma", and recorded it as a surname that he assumed to be French. In prior and later records, the name is spelled variously as Dearmont, Dearmon, Dearment and finally as DeArment.

To the south in Indiana County, PA in 1820, my paternal 3x great grandfather is recorded as William Dearment. In 1840, two of his sons, including my 2x great grandfather Henry and one brother were listed as "D'Armee", while the rest of his family is recorded with various Anglicized spellings as Dearmott, Dermott and Dearmett.

It is apparent that for the syllable shift between Dear-mxxx and De-armxxx to have occurred and for the surnames to have come to mistakenly be considered to be of French origin, the American families must have continued using both the Gaelic and Anglicized versions of their surnames well after1825. The Anglicized versions then began to adopt the syllable separation of the Gaelic version to allow their perceived origin to be French.

Extract from the 1748 will of James, Line A showing how the preparer inscribed Deyermond.

Understanding how the "y" surname versions evolved is a bit more complex. Duibh Dhiorma is pronounced as Doo-Yearma which influences the anglicized Dyermond (Diermond) to become Dey-Ermond or De-Yermond. Deyermond is inscribed by the preparer for the 1748 will of James, Line A. Today most of his Y DNA descendants spell their name DeArmond or D'Armond. Alexander Deyarmond and his wife Letitia nee Barnhill emigrated to Nova Scotia in 1767. On the 1766 Protestant Householders List for Leck Parish, County Donegal, he is listed as Alex Diermond. Today, many if not most Nova Scotia surname descendants either pronounce or spell the surname as DeYarmond or DeyArmond and cite their paternal ancestry as French Huguenot. They consider their surname to be a variant of DeArmond, as do many also in the U.S.

Fact #5, The Presbyterian Church of the Ulster Scots, even today in America and Northern Ireland still holds deep reverence for the 17th century French Huguenot refugees.

The founder of the Presbyterian church of Scotland, John Knox, spent an early period of his life in exile in Geneva as friends with Jean Calvin, a French exile who founded the Calvinist Reform movement that took hold in much of France and parts of Europe and the British Isles. Knox was strongly influenced by Calvin's ideas when he returned to Scotland to begin a new religious sect, organized with presbyter governing principles championed by Calvin, that would be eventually become the state religion of Scotland. The Presbyterian faith was taken to Ulster during the 17th century Plantation era and was often referred to as the "French church", "Calvinists", "non- conformists" or "dissenters" by Anglicans who detested it's presence.

The late 17th century Huguenots who found refuge in Ireland were at first hosted by the Anglican church. They soon realized their Calvinist traditions were better suited to the Presbyterian faith and many changed attendance to it's churches instead. Most Presbyterian ministers today will give at least one sermon dedicated to the Huguenot experience from time to time. Although only marginally related, some Presbyterian churches in America would sponsor a DeMolay boys club which held a raucous initiation skit portraying the persecution of the French Knights Templar leader Jacques DeMolay before a Catholic court of inquisition. Although the early Presbyterian Church in America lost many of it's flock to the better resourced and more numerous Methodist and Baptist churches, the Church is still usually identified with Scottish and Scot-Irish descendants and still honors the French Huguenots who sought refuge in Lisburn, southwest of Belfast, and contributed their business and artisan skills to greatly enhance the manufacture of Irish linen.

Conclusion:

Did the DeArmond French origin myth begin with the 1824-5 visit of Lafayette to America? Did census takers and other government recording officials, after Lafayette's visit, assume that the Irish Gaelic pronunciations that they were occasionally hearing informants tell them, represented a "French" surname and enhanced the spellings to make them appear so? Did the shame of being associated with the newly immigrant Catholic Irish, influence surname bearers to go along with the French misinterpretation? Was this at first merely a family joke that grew legs of own and in succeeding generations become a basic tenet of family oral traditions? Was this why the Anglicized spelling versions came to be pronounced and spelled in an affected "French" manner also? Did the Presbyterian Church's early association with and honoring of Calvinism and the legacy of the French Huguenot refugees lay the groundwork for why so many different families, isolated from each other generations before, easily accepted belief in the myth of French Huguenot origin?

Perhaps there are more accurate answers, but these are certainly points to ponder.





  

DeArmond nobility of Chateauvieux?

The foreground area in the above photo is part of the Commune of Chateauvieux (equivalent to a rural U.S. township rather than a single village), located on a piedmont plateau in the French Alps, just south of the city of Gap.

Chateauvieux is familiar to generations of amateur family genealogists who have read "DeArmond Families of America" (1954) by Roscoe Carlisle "d'Armand". There are several locations throughout France referred to as Chateauvieux. Search engine map and photo correlation to nearby Venterol, France confirms that the location subject of this post without doubt includes the scenic view in the above photo. According to the opening pages of his book, the many variations of the DeArmond surname found in North America trace their origin back to the British Isles and once noble French Huguenot refugees. Roscoe conjectured that his proposed refugees during the late 17th century had made their way by supposed means and routes to London from their homes in the Dauphine or Haute Alps region where his referred to Chateauvieux is located in southeast France.

In fact, many thousands of Protestants (Huguenots) from much of France did indeed flee to neighboring Protestant countries during that time period. They did so to escape from mobs of Catholics intent on torturing and murdering the Calvinist Protestants after French king Louis XIV blindly responded to the urging of his pious converted Catholic second wife Madame de Maintenon who wished merely for Protestants to convert as she had done, not realizing the upheaval and suffering her influence would cause. In 1685 Louis unwisely revoked the Edict of Nantes religious peace treaty of 1598. This caused France to lose a vital segment of population, thereby weakening it's economic strength in Europe, felt even to present day. Roscoe was able to obtain copies of genealogies and an armorial coat of arms for the noble family known as d'Armand de Chateauvieux, whose Protestant male members he postulated to be the progenitors of the various DeArmond surname variant immigrant lines to North America that he listed in his work.

Right: Roscoe Carlisle "d'Armand". Left: Coat of Arms of d'Armand which Roscoe purported to represent the DeArmond family crest.

The nobility of France were primarily of Germanic ancestry stemming from invasions of Teutonic tribes after the collapse of the Roman empire. The name Armand, which is both a common given name and surname in Latin Europe, derives from the Germanic name of Heri-mann or Herman meaning "army man". The patronymic prefix d' or de means "of " or "from", and once signified status of nobility in pre-revolutionary France. Chateauvieux is actually two words meaning "old castle" with the adjective reversed in English. Roscoe proudly included several pages of genealogy records concerning members of the d'Armand de Chateauvieux extended family, with those who were Calvinist Protestants having to flee France after 1685. Here we first begin to notice the sketchy anomalies in Roscoe's narrative.

Huguenot refugee routes and population estimates for various areas accepting the Huguenots. Chateauvieux was located nearest to Grenoble shown on the map. Only possible piecemeal and no direct representation of refugee travel from this area to England is indicated. Musee virtual de Protestantisme Francais.

From the map just above, it appears that Roscoe's story line that the d'Armand refugee families would have taken the long arduous and dangerous journey from southeast France to London would have been highly unlikely for Huguenots from the Alps piedmont region or even later via Switzerland and then Holland. Chateauvieux was located in an area of predominately Protestant population as were many regions of southern France, known for the ill fated late medieval Albigensian Catharism movement. The infamous quote "Kill them all, let God sort them out!"(as to who is Cathar or Catholic) originates from a Catholic bishop's order in 1209 to slaughter several thousand surviving inhabitants of a French Mediterranean coastal city after being sacked by a crusader army. The Chateauvieux region of 1685 did not necessitate the immediate urgency to flee the country for survival as critically as in northern areas of France where most of the Huguenot refugees of England fled from to save their lives or escape persecution.

Sketch of French Protestant church on London's Threadneedle street. The church was demolished in 1840. About 1700, French Huguenot refugees represented about 5% of the population of London, most being skilled artisans or businessmen, helping to boost the British economy.

Roscoe's belief that d'Armand families of Chateauvieux found refuge in London and were members of the Protestant "French Church" on Threadneedle street is based on a very thin assumption. On page 15 he proposed that the father of the Armand brothers, listed as Espirit Armand,"was perhaps a younger son of Georges d'Armand de Chateauvieux of Venterol, France" (6 km from Chateauvieux). I have failed to discern where Roscoe specifies a citation reference that can be found to support this critical alleged birth location at Venterol. Without valid documentation to support this contention, his entire noble French Huguenot origin story is merely his wishful supposition. In his North American research, he scrupulously researched and noted sources, but in recounting his old world record research, he was subject to flights of childlike fantasy.  He cites several marriages and baptisms of the Armand family listed in the Threadneedle street church records. The registers of the French Church of Threadneedle street are extensive, covering nearly two centuries and are included in several volumes. They are very unwieldy to peruse on line. I was hoping to find justification for Roscoe's assumption of connection to the Chateauvieux area, but decided the effort to search the registers was not worth my time or interest.

Roscoe used a series of illogical and unfeasible logistical, social-economic and timeline  circumstances to support his fantasized contention of the Armands of London's Threadneedle street being one and the same as the early DeArmond surname variants found in 18th century northern Ireland. To preclude his own doubts about having any connection at all to the French Huguenots, he imagined the possibility of a Presbyterian minister led group emigration to America from England  instead of Ireland, that included Roscoe's ancestor. This was done in order to suggest his own surname line spelling was not corrupted by association with Irish names. The early DeArmond surname variant immigrants, including Roscoe's ancestor were exclusively Catholics who converted to the Presbyterian Church in order to lawfully take vacant tenant farming work. Presbyterianism was a Scottish and Ulster Scot religion not usually found or practiced widely in England. The English Anglicans considered Presbyterianism to be a "dissenter" or "non-conformist" religion and passed restrictive laws against it. This would later contribute to the rough and ready American Presbyterian Scots-Irish being the major patriot combatants in the revolution which was referred to as an "Irish war" by many British military officers. In his fairy tale version of history, Roscoe blindly ignored these critical historical factors or simply was ignorant of them.

My primary reason however, for discontinuing the effort to follow Roscoe's contention of an ancestral connection of the London Armand family to Chateauvieux, France, is answered in the following tree chart of Y chromosome DNA tested results of three descendants of Roscoe's own immigrant ancestor James, whom he designated as Line A. All three are positive for a Y DNA SNP FGC4113. This SNP is indicative of paternal line descent only from the native Irish clan of O'Duibhdhiorma, who for at least the past 1500 years have been indigenous inhabitants of the eastern Inishowen peninsula of northern Donegal, Ireland.

Y chromosome DNA tree chart of three descendants of James Line A who tested positive for Y DNA SNP FGC4113, indicating strictly a native Irish ancestry for James paternal line ancestors. The Y chromosome pedigree traces back to indigenous habitation in northwest Ireland centuries before a semblance of a French language began to emerge in western Europe.

R-M222 and Subclades Y DNA Project results chart screenshot at ftdna.com. FGC4113 is blocked in blue. The three test kits of descendants of James, Line A are shown listed. Click on image to enlarge. Included in the screenshot are additional related results demonstrating purely Gaelic origins. 

Lords of An Breadach

Kinnagoe Bay at the northern extent of the ancient kingdom of An Breadach, the ancestral homeland of the male Y chromosome DNA mutation marker SNP FGC4113, carried in body cells of all paternal line male (surname) descendants of the native Irish clan of O'Duibhdhiorma.

The Seanchloe type font rendition of the clan name above (Ui Duibh Dhiormaigh) uses the plural indicator suffix -maigh, but uses the Anglicized patronymic prefix O instead of the Gaelic plural Ui meaning all males of the clan (sept) who are paternally descendant of the clan progenitor Duibh Dhiorma

Just who were the people who originally carried this name down through the many centuries of turmoil in Irish history using several varying spelling forms, then for some to take up the Presbyterian religion and eventually become the DeArmond surname variant descendants of North America? This post deals with the early beginning of the native Irish clan of O'Duibhdhiorma (surname of clan chieftain and each male of the clan).

Section of 1846 published map of Irish surnames and clans from the 11th to the late 16th century. O'Dooyarma was an Anglicized phonetic transliteration of Ua Duibhdhiorma whereas Diermond was merely a substitution with a common Anglicization of the Gaelic given name of Diarmaid. The title Lord (Tighearna) was the clan chieftain's rank among other clans chieftains within the brotherhood of clans known as the Cenel Eoghain, all paternally descended from Prince Eoghain and King Niall (of the nine hostages). 

The surname appears rather late in the Irish monastery annals commonly referred to as The Four Masters. Not until 1043 A.D. is notation made of the death of one of the successive clan chieftains. Some historians surmise this may be related to the defeat of Viking power in Ireland and certain native Irish clans seizing the opportunity to establish home rule over former Viking controlled lands. I once accepted that theory until I came across a map showing where the Vikings held power, and northwest Ireland was not included. Perhaps because Inishowen was long the ancient stronghold of the powerful Cenel Eoghain ruling clans and their chieftains, relative stability existed throughout the Peninsula compared to adjoining areas. In any case, the clan of O'Duibhdhiorma most certainly existed centuries long before 1043. The genealogies in the annals note that the O'Duibhdhiorma paternally descend from Feilim, a son of Prince Eoghain (Owen) who was a son of Niall Noigiallach (of the Nine Hostages), 5th century High King of Ireland. Mention is made of members of the clan participating in and sometimes meeting death during horseback cattle raids and large pitched battles throughout the northern Province of Ulster.

Due to a practice of Celtic clan chieftains adhering to a centuries old tradition of serial monogamy, the male Y chromosome DNA mutation marker FGC4113 appears in every undisturbed paternal line (surname) male Duibhdhiorma clan descendant. The marker is located on a Y DNA tree branch of related markers that essentially confirm the accuracy of the ancient genealogies in the annals.

A streamlined version of the genealogy from monastery annals of the Northern Ui Neill paternally related family of clans of northwest Ireland dating back to first half of the millennium after Christ.

In the mid 14th century, Irish poet Sean O'Dubhagain (John O'Dugan) wrote the following stanza included in an extended poem about many of the clans of Ireland at the time.

The text is in Irish Gaelic using the highly stylized Seanchloe letters which correspond to the Roman alphabet. The rhyming of the lines is lost in translation to English. A translation of the verse by Irish scholar John O'Donovan (d.1861) follows below. I utilized my own minor modifications to provide a more commonly understood American English meaning.

Lord of An Breadach

O'Duibhdhiorma of high pride,
Chief of ever noble Breadach,
Well has it found the strength of its ancients,
The noblest clan of the race of Owen,
A tribe which has prospered without peace,
In Breadach lived the clan chieftain.

The line, "A tribe which has prospered without peace" refers to the clan homeland of An Breadach being a sought after prize, of first: the larger O'Donnell clan, then the Normans, then again a larger Irish clan (O'Doherty) and finally almost two centuries after the above poem was composed, the British in 1602 and succeeding rebellions in the mid 17th century and late 18th century and beyond.. Through all this turmoil in it's long history, the Y DNA marker FGC4113 endured among the male line clan descendants.

A surviving historical observation was made about the native Irish by a shipwrecked officer (Capitan Francisco de Cuellar) from the Spanish Armada (1588). After months evading the British and receiving assistance from the Irish, he made his way to a ship bound for Holland. In the following year, he sent a letter to the King of Spain. He described the native Irish as follows: "The men are large and energetic with handsome features while the women are exceedingly beautiful".   

Above left: a portrait of Spanish Armada ship captain de Cuellar. Above right: frontispiece of a modern published English translation of his letter to the Spanish king.

Above left: map depicting de Cuellar's escape route from his stranded ship in Sligo northeast to Derry and his departure by ship to Holland. His embarkation point was a few miles due east of the eastern Inishowen Peninsula, home to the clan of O'Duibhdhiorma. Above right: a 16th century illustration depicting native Irish, typical of the people that sheltered de Cuellar from the British.

Decline of the noblest Clan

Located at the far northern tip of Ireland, the peninsula known as Inishowen or Isle of Eoghain, had long been the center of the Tir Eoghain or land of Owen, with the McLaughlins having their seat of power as kings of the Cenel Eoghain at their hill fortress of  the Grianan of Aileach (see below). The O'Duibhdhiorma were situated as lords of their subsidiary Cenel Eoghain kingdom of An Breadach.

The Cenel Eoghain were a powerful family of usually allied Irish clans noted for their hereditary paternal descent from Prince Eoghain, son of Niall Noigiallach, a 5th century A.D. high king of Ireland. Although the successive chieftains of the clan of Ui Duibh Dhiormaigh held one of the two Gaelic titles of Tighearna (English equivalent of Lord) among the hierarchy of the chieftains of the Cenel Eoghain clans, they were never powerful enough nor had the hereditary right of acendency to leadership of the Race of Owen. That position fell to one of the two larger clans known as the McLaughlin and the ONeill, both closely related to each other, but nevertheless always ready to battle one another for the right of kingship of the Cenel if military and political advantage offered opportunity.

Reconstruction of the ancient ring fortress the Grianan of Aileach where for centuries, the ruling clans of the Cenel Eoghain maintained their center of power over the subsidiary clans of the race of Owen and much of northwest Ireland.

By the 13th century A.D., the McLaughlins had long been the rulers of the Cenel Eoghain, but the O'Neills struck a temporary truce and military alliance with the encroaching Cenel Chonaill who were descendants of Prince Eoghain's brother. The O'Neill were interested in eastward expansion into Ulster and were willing to concede Inishowen to the Cenel Chonaill. In 1241, the out numbered McLaughlin were slaughtered at the battle of Caim Eirge with survivors retreating into the north of Inishowen. The powerful O'Donnell clan of the Cenel Chonaill became the rulers of Inishowen and the O'Duibhdhiorma lost their right of Tighearna or lordship of eastern Inishowen.

Illustrations from the 16th century Book of de Burgos, which dealt with the history of the famed Anglo Norman Burke family of Ireland.

Control of Inishowen by the Cenel Chonaill and the O'Donnells was to be short lived, however. The English king granted authority over all of Ulster to the crown supporting head of the powerful de Burgos Hiberno Norman family of central Ireland. The Normans invaded Inishowen and established military control of the peninsula. They allowed the indigenous Irish including the O'Duibhdhiorma to run their affairs as they wished as long as the Norman garrison of Inishowen was provisioned with food and labor manpower. Their main use of the labor pool of native Irish was to help construct a fortified castle at the neck of Lough Foyle.

Ruins of Northburg or Green Castle. Built by the 13th century Normans under the de Burgos, on the far eastern extent of Inishowen.  Located with advantage to monitor ship entry into Lough Foyle.

The Normans themselves became victims of an invasion in 1315 by a Scottish army led by the brother of Robert Bruce, king of Scotland. This was preceded by Bruce's victory over the English at Bannockburn in 1314. Obstensively, the Bruces wanted to form a Celtic alliance with the Irish to defeat the Anglo Normans who had ruled England since the battle of Hastings in 1066. The Bruces also wanted to hunt down surviving members of the House of Balliol who sought refuge in Ireland and could possibly usurp rule of Scotland from the Bruces.

Initially the Scots ran rampant through Ireland while alienating many native Irish with their plundering and murder of anyone opposing them. In 1316, the Scottish army marched through eastern Inishowen to capture Green Castle. However the plague weakened Scots were finally defeated at the battle of Farquart in 1318 by combined forces of Hiberno Normans and native Irish. Green Castle and Inishowen reverted to control of the de Burgos family. However, within a few years a bloody feud developed within the de Burgos family and the Normans abandoned all of Inishowen

Skull and reconstruction of the face of Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland who briefly visited his brother's military expedition in Ireland. Evidence of a mild form of leprosy on the skull lends to substantiate the long held rumors of his illness.

With the abrupt departure of the Normans from Inishowen, the O'Duibhdhiorma were now too weakened and outnumbered to assert control of their former kingdom of An Breadach. The large O'Doherty clans of the Cenel Chonaill saw opportunity and swarmed into Inishowen to become the new lords of the peninsula. The O'Duibhdhiorma were left with nothing except their proud surname and a role of servitude to the now conquering O'Doherty clans and their chieftains.

The last contemporary historical comment about the O'Duibhdhiorma was in a topographical poem written by John O'Dugan before 1372, who wrote that they were the "noblest clan of the race of Owen" and that they had "prospered without peace", evidently referring to the numerous times their homeland was invaded by outsiders. After that, historical accounts of Irish history become for the most part silent as to their presence. Most modern Irish history writers appear to assume that the male bloodline of the clan simply became extinct, if they bother to mention the clan at all.

Nevertheless, The male Y chromosome DNA SNP marker FGC4113 indicating O'Duibhdhiorma paternal line heredity does still exist in many thousands of male surname variation descendants, not only in Ireland and the British Isles, but throughout North America. However, for most DeArmond surname variant descendants whose ancestors converted to Protestant religions, there hangs a dark cloak of ignorance of their once native Catholic Irish surname origin. This has occurred in Ireland also because many O'Duibhdhiorma Catholics who migrated or were forcibly removed in the 17th century to distant areas of the Isle, readily borrowed other Irish or anglicized surnames and over generations forgot their paternal ancestral heritage. Generally, only in Inishowen and the vicinity of (London)Derry do many Catholic Irish (usually using McDermott) today acknowledge or know of their O'Duibhdhiorma surname ancestry. 

How the clan survived extinction

Cover screenshot of recent paperback edition of the 1954 DeArmond book listing those variants Roscoe considered most common, but excludes many other similar variations of spellings found in North America that stem from the same source. 

Any amateur genealogist who researches the DeArmond surname variants of America to any depth, becomes aware of the magnitude of the related variations and vast number of paternal line descendants in North America. For a relatively moderate size native Irish clan that seems to be all but forgotten and ignored, or considered to have become extinct by many modern authors and historians of Irish history, the number of male paternal line descendants in the world today who carry the Y chromosome DNA of the clan's ancient hereditary chieftains, must exceed at least tens of thousands. To quote the 14th century Irish poet John O'Dugan about the O'Duibhdhiorma: "The noblest clan of the race of Owen. A tribe that has prospered without peace". Therefore how did the clan paternal Y chromosome DNA marker SNP FGC4113 continue to survive through centuries of adversity and be found today with so much abundance?

The surprising uniformity of individual Gaelic clan male Y DNA suggested by the patronymic prefixes of Mac, Mc (son of) or Ua, O' (grandson or descendant of) used by all males of a clan was achieved by the tradition of serial monogamy practiced by clan chieftains. He would successively marry women from neighboring clans for less than 5 years and then send each back to her parents without her sons. Thereby upon his death, the most powerful and popular of his sons was chosen as the next chieftain, insuring only one male Y chromosome haplotype would dominate within the clan. This tradition is corroborated in Y DNA SNP tree charts that remarkably correspond to the monastery genealogies of Gaelic clan heredity back to at least to the 5th century A.D.

I would surmise that the Protestant variants of North America likely comprise a third or less of the total number of men on the earth who carry the Y chromosome DNA SNP marker FGC4113 which signifies paternal line descent from the original male progenitor of the native Irish clan of O'Duibhdhiorma whose hereditary chieftains were once Tighearna or lords of the small kingdom of An Breadach which comprised the eastern third of the Inishowen peninsula of County Donegal, Ireland. Many other members of the clan who migrated to or were forcibly removed to near and far regions of Ireland remained Catholic and borrowed other common Irish names such as McDermott, McDearmond, Byrne, Lennon or Bellew which was actually an Anglo/Norman Catholic surname of a distinguished family of County Galway.

By the 14th century, events had left the clan of O'Duibhdhiorma isolated from it's brother clans of the Cenel Eoghain. They were now subservient to the Cenel Conaill and the populous O'Doherty clans. They learned to accept O'Doherty domination and acted in concert with their overlords, in some cases acting as jailers of the political prisoners of the O'Doherty clans or taking part in the failed rebellion of Cahir O'Doherty against the British.

In the late 16th century, British efforts to dominate Ulster were renewed with eventual success after the defeat of the Irish and their Spanish allies at the battle of Kinsale in 1602. Ulster Irish were left without their traditional leadership after the O'Donnell and O'Neill earls fled by ship to Europe in 1607. By 1608, the sole remaining Irish leader was the youthful Anglophile Prince of Inishowen, Cahir O'Doherty who hoped to receive an appointment to the English royal court in London. However he became disillusioned when newly appointed British governor George Paulet allowed Cahir's land to be gradually confiscated by British landholders who had contempt for the Irish Catholics. After his complaints were ignored and he was treated in an exceedingly ill manner by Paulet and the British authorities in Dublin, Cahir grew increasingly angered and vengeful. He allowed himself to be unwisely persuaded to attack and burn Londonderry. Cahir's men killed Paulet and abused the British women they captured. Because of Cahir's immature and irresponsible leadership, the rebellion was unsupported by many Ulster Irish chieftains and their followers, except mainly for men from Inishowen including the clan of O'Duibhdhiorma, Their names can be seen on the surviving lists of pardons granted to remaining rebels of Cahir's army that were not executed or deported to serve as involuntary conscripts in the Swedish army.

Within a few weeks strong British forces countered the rebellion and Cahir was killed by a musket ball in a skirmish. His head was severed and taken to Dublin and impaled on a spike as a warning to the Irish not to resist British authority. Ironically a court in Dublin finally upheld Cahir's right to have his land restored to him, but word did not reach him in time to avoid his rash actions. Inishowen became completely controlled militarily by the British who realized it was the best location from which to subdue the remainder of Ulster. The descendants of the once proud O'Duibhdhiorma clan were reduced to pastoral indigents with no land to call their own except the remote inland hills of that third of the peninsula that their ancestors once ruled. British Protestant mal treatment and persecution of the native Catholic Irish led to the inevitable uprisings that occurred throughout Ireland in 1641. Because of strong British military presence on Inishowen, the peninsula remained pacified and peaceful throughout the next eleven years that brought much death and destruction throughout most of the rest of Ireland.

Left: Phelim O'Neill, one of the Irish gentry leaders of the 1641 rebellion, unfavorably characterized in an English print propaganda sketch. Right: Oliver Cromwell, honored in England, but despised in Ireland and Scotland for his religious zealotry and brutal suppression of rebellions in both countries.

Left: Complete English control of print media in the 17th century allowed them to publish hundreds of illustrations of fiendish atrocities reputedly committed by Irish rebels. Right: Not till the 19th century were the Irish in turn able to publish their own illustrations of atrocities committed by Oliver Cromwell and his vengeful "New Model Army" which devastated much of Ireland.

For a time during the 1640s period of the rebellion, the native Irish achieved a degree of autonomy and independence from England. Then about 1650, England's Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell led his New Model Army on a reconquest of Ireland, leaving a genocidal swath of death and destruction wherever he or his lieutenants led their army. The clan of O'Duibhdhiorma, who were forced to live under strict military subjugation in their homeland of Inishowen, were in one respect fortunate to be spared the brutality of British suppression of the 1641-52 Irish rebellion.

According to John O'Donovan (1861), after the end of the mid century turmoil, many native Irish Catholics migrated or were forcibly removed from Inishowen south to the province of Connachta . Y chromosome DNA testing results for SNP FGC4113 suggest this must have certainly been the source for many Catholic O'Duibhdhiorma Y DNA results found in Sligo and Galway and other counties of Ireland.

Modern photo of Moville (Magh Bhile) which once lay at the heart of An Breadach of eastern Inishowen, the ancient homeland of the clan of O'Duibhdhiorma.

This diaspora from Inishowen is evident also in two different census taken between 1659 and 1665. A privately funded census was taken beginning after the 1652 "Act for the settlement of Ireland" and completed in 1659 by the English with intent to annex the land and remove Irish inhabitants in order to provide land to reward Cromwell's soldiers. Classifying Irish, Scot and English was often erroneous based on how difficult it was for the Anglo-Irish recording officials to understand a person's speech. Many of the Ulster Scots were monoglot Gaelic speakers, as were most native Irish, therefore Scots were sometimes recorded as Irish. The O'Dermond surname was recorded 35 times in Inishowen Barony. Evidently this represented heads of households for the existing clan population in eastern Inishowen.

In 1665, a Hearth money role tax census was taken. The census was broken down by parishes making a total tally of O'Dermond and variants uncertain, but perhaps only about a dozen adult male individuals were recorded within the Barony of Inishowen. There certainly appears to be a significant decrease in population. This abrupt decrease was likely the result of the afore mentioned forced exodus south to Connachta Province. "To Hell or Connachta" became a commonly used phrase in Ireland at the time that survives today. Those native Irish who were employed as tenant farmers, servants or needed occupations were allowed to remain in their indigenous counties.

I must resort to conjecture when attempting to determine when a second major exodus occurred from Inishowen by those O'Duibhdhiorma who sought employment as tenant farmers in other areas of Protestant Ulster. Due to discriminatory laws also passed by the English Anglicans (Episcopal) against the Non Conformist Presbyterians and the sunset of rent control laws, a fifty year exodus of Ulster Scots ensued beginning about 1725, with most emigrating to North America and primarily Pennsylvania. This left often heavily indebted landlords without tenant farmers to provide rental income. Consequently the landholders were willing to hire native Irish as long as they complied with the law and converted to Protestant religions.  These native Irish would become the Presbyterian converts and gradually integrate themselves as part of the continuing Ulster Scot (Scotch-Irish) migration to North America.

From the Ysearch.org Y chromosome DNA STR/SNP FGC4113 chart shown below, the Protestant converted families (orange tint) appear to have been relatively closely related and separated somewhat from the known FGC4113 Catholics (green tint, I included only a sampling of all Catholic positive results). This separation appears to have occurred at least a century before most of the Protestant O'Duibhdhiorma began their emigration to North America in the mid 18th century.

Ysearch.org (no longer available) Y chromosome DNA data base comparisons of 37 STR marker results of men (Catholic: green tint, Protestant: orange tint) known to have tested positive (McDearmond excepted but likely to be positive) for SNP FGC4113 which is inclusive of the paternal line Y chromosome DNA of clan O'Duibhdhiorma.

The clan survives today not in the once traditional Celtic manner of a close knit community with all males of the clan sharing the same bloodline of the clan's hereditary chieftains (Y chromosome DNA), but in the Y DNA SNP marker FGC4113 that exists in surprising abundance throughout much of the English speaking world.