Colonial American Fitzpatrick Settlers Part I: Making Sense of One Line

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Before the turn of the 17th century the settlement of Irish in the Americas lacked permanence. Soon after, Irish came to North America and the Caribbean in a steady flow, and by the mid 18th century a flood of Irish and Scotch-Irish had settled in the Americas. The reasons for that settlement were many and varied, as were the geographic origins and lineages of those Fitzpatricks among the influx. This article provides a review of the forces that pushed and pulled Irish and Scotch-Irish to the Americas. By way of example, a single Fitzpatrick line demonstrates how messy traditional genealogy of early Colonial American Fitzpatricks can get. That messiness is due in no small part to the cut and paste functionality at websites such as ancestry.com. But by careful review of authentic historical records, caution with speculative associations, and the power of Y-DNA analysis, it is possible to untangle the mess and bring back some much-needed clarity. In this article, the example used is that of the well-known colonial-settler William Fitzpatrick (born ca. 1690 AD), of Albemarle County, Virginia, who arrived in North American ca. 1728. Two living ancestors of William have been found to share a common ancestry from ca. 1650 AD — both bear a genetic mutation (FT15113) specific to William's line; this enables the ready identification of male descendants of William.