Some Early Jam?son History - a little background

Our particular Jam?son family, regardless of it's various spellings and translations,[1] has it's early identifiable history in Scotland. Although we don't exactly know where or when that was, it would have been at least since the middle ages, somewhere after the twelfth century, when surnames first began to be used, when our oldest direct male ancestor began using the surname Jam?son. Everything before that would undoubtedly be untraceable and only understood in a most general way.[2] Our first ancestor using that surname wouldn't have been the only one doing that, nor would he likely have been the first. What makes him unique and important, is he was our first Jam?son ancestor. Determining who that was and when or where, is about as good as we can ever expect to determine about our specific ancestral roots.

OUR MOST ANCIENT ANCESTORS

Modern genetic science however, is able to help us identify even earlier ancestors, those before the use of surnames, although only in a much more general way, from thousands of years ago. Although the categorical results are clear, there is some question of dating and the actual path of our eventual ancestral migration into the British Isles. Modern YDNA testing indicates our Jameson family would have belonged to a specific group of people, they themselves undoubtedly descended from others originally of the African continent, who can be found some 15,000 to 20,000 years ago in the Iberian Refugio (Spain), during the last ice age. Their subsequent migration patterns, after the ice finally began its slow retreat, would have been a northern movement through France and then on to a northeastern loop into what is now Germany and Denmark, then into all of Scandinavia. Eventually, some from this group migrated westward into the British Isles and Iceland. Some say our particular ancestor group didn't genetically format into it's present profile until about 3,000 to 5,000 years ago (3000-1500 BC), somewhere in northern Europe, probably Denmark.[3] Nevertheless, everyone pretty much agrees with the general migration patterns, as well as all other modern results.

It may be interesting to know that our family's proven general genetic group[4] is shared by at least two different known migrations into the British Isles, from the same ancient peoples. One from the massive and well known migration in the early fifth century, from the area of what is now Denmark and Germany into England, by a people known as Anglo-Saxons who are sometimes thought of as the "permanent invaders."[5] Our general genetic group is also the same as that from a later migration of Vikings westward into Scotland. In addition it can also be said that our general genetic group, can also be found amongst the Normans who came to Britain in the tenth century, probably Franco forebears of those who ended up migrating eastward from ancient times, or Vikings who could be found in Normandy at the time the Normans invaded England.

Given our particular family's genetic make up and because we are widely thought to be from Scotland, we would have probably been of Nordic forefathers, through Viking conquests and migrations, possibly dating back as far as the seventh or eighth century. Our patriarchal genetic profile appears to substantiate this. We do not know when or where they may have first arrived. However, it would be safe to say they were definitely there before the use of surnames in the twelfth or thirteenth century. Long enough ago to now be considered as an integral and structural part of that ethnicity.

SCOTLAND

Although there were those with the Jam?son surname in any number of likely Scottish regions, the connection to any of these and our known Jameson families has been difficult to make. Because we are trying to determine our direct Jam?son ancestors, and maybe their cousins, genetic research works really well. Particularly Y-Chromosome genetic research. Each Jam?son male contains the same data fingerprint (DNA profile) as his father (and therefore his cousins, etc.) from way, way back, way before we were ever called Jam?sons.

So far, We have discovered two Jam?son families in Scotland with a Y-DNA fingerprint (profile) similar enough to our profile, suggesting they and our families are related by a common ancestor, probably from an earlier ancestor in Scotland since the time surnames began. None of these identified families can show any specific or direct connection to each other.

One of these families was located in the far north eastern part of Aberdeenshire in the late eighteenth century and the other in the Alloa area of Clackmannanshire, near the river Forth, in the early eighteenth century. This possible connection with the Alloa family is reinforced by the discovery of documents[10] from late seventeenth century Ulster, Ireland, where members of what we believe were our family ancestors using an uncommon spelling of our surname found in those same Alloa families and others in the north east parts of Scotland including Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee.[11]

Regardless of where, it is very possible that our Jam?sons were members of a Scottish clan during the time they lived there. Almost everyone was a member of a clan as this "rule by clan" was generally accepted as a way of life in Scotland during those times, although less so in the Lowlands by the end of the 17th century. There were many clans in the areas where we are thought to be from, including: Stewarts, Campbells, MacNabs, MacLarens, Grahams, etc. Although no known clan affiliation exists with our Jam?son families, the Jamieson surname is often associated with Clan Stewart and especially one of it's main branches, Clan Stuart of Bute, from the Island of Bute, of which the surname Jameson is often specifically listed as a sept. Jameson was also a well known sept of the Clan Gunn from the far northeastern part of Scotland, to which many Jam?son families consider their heritage. However no known connection exists between the Jam?sons of Clan Gunn and any of our Jam?son families. The Jam?son families in the Lowlands border areas would also be thought of as clans, although in a less traditional way. Here too we know of no direct connections with any of our Jam?son families. More details about clans and our family here.

ENGLAND and IRELAND

There are many Jam?sons who left Scotland early on, for other parts of the world. That includes some who moved to other parts of the British Isles, particularly England and Ireland. Most notably amongst these are one part of our Jam?son family who could be found in early Ulster, Ireland, before the end of the seventeenth century, predating any of our family we actually know about in Scotland itself. From what we can tell, these Jam?sons were all in the Antrim and Londonderry areas of Ulster. Most traditions have it that these Jameson had emigrated, from Argyllshire (Argyll), in the middle western part of Scotland, not far from the northern part of Ireland where they can then be found as early as the mid or latter 1600's.[6] In those days Argyll was a fairly large region of western Scotland and included several nearby islands. It is however possible that the traditions of an Argyll homeland are not accurate[7] and there are persuasive arguments to support this. Foremost and well documented is that the Ulster migration of that period (1600-1700), was generally accomplished by Lowlands Scots. Indeed various Ulster Plantation mandates and charters excluded those from the Highlands of which Argyll is specifically mentioned.[8] It is also known that Ulster immigration from the western coastal area of Lowlands Scotland, immediately south of Argyllshire was widespread and common. Significant here was Ayrshire a region known to have many families with the surname Jam?son. The similarity between the names Argyllshire and Aryshire should not go unnoticed and one can speculate if they were perhaps somehow intertwined, transposed or mistaken during the two centuries of handed down oral tradition about the original homeland. It is also possible the Jam?sons in Ulster came from the troublesome Middle Marches area of the Scottish/English border region where Jameson families were also known to exist.[9] It is also entirely possible that the Jam?sons in Ulster were from totally different region in Scotland, perhaps even the north eastern area of Scotland where other Jam?sons, known to have similar genetic similarities can be found.

Other IMPORTANT EMIGRATIONS

Apart from the obvious and widespread migrations of the early nineteenth century, there were other well known earlier emigrations from Scotland and other parts of the British Isles, that were likely to have included Jam?son families belonging to our general family. A well know example of this would be the early eighteenth century migrations of of the Ulster Jam?sons to New England, in America. There were undoubtedly others, perhaps to Australia and maybe South Africa, that we just don't yet know about. By the nineteenth century however, there were many more Jam?sons moving out of Scotland and other parts of Great Briton, ending up at least in Canada and probably in many other parts of the world. Enough so, that it would be safe to probably say that by now there are more of our Jam?son families outside of Scotland, then are actually still living in Scotland.