The Genetic History of Wales A

B Ellis & A J Grierson

b)

7.1% R-PF5191: Descendants of the Royal

5.9%
Introduction Dunoding
Family of Powys?
Penllyn An unusually high number of men found in Merionethshire,
Since the Y chromosome can avoid
Denbighshire and Montgomeryshire carry an R-PF5191+ Y
recombination, it can be passed down the 14.8%
chromosome. The surnames of some of these men indicate
genealogical tree that links paternal
that the are conceivably descended from the Powys Royal
lineages. Two distinct genetic clusters Merionydd Family, once headed by the medieval King of Gwynedd and
have recently been discovered during
Powys, Bleddyn ap Cynfyn.
sampling of around 900 males from
modern Welsh populations. By Bleddyn ap
Cynfyn
combining document based genealogy
with Y-SNP analysis, the genetic However, this is fairly tenuous evidence. We hypothesised that
relatedness of males of these clusters if R-PF5191 was carried by Bleddyn,
can be determined. In some cases, then we would expect to find men with this Maredudd
Cadwgon

individual lineages can be traced to a Y chromosome in Merionydd, the cantref

number of medieval patriarchs. These where the Nannau estate can be found. Madog Gruffudd Iorwerth
Goch
flares in the genetic landscape offer By analysing 27 samples from Madog

insights into the medieval history of Merionydd, we identified 4 samples Gruffudd

Einion &
Cynwrig
Owain
Madog Goch of
Brogyntyn Kynaston
Wales. bearing the PF5191 SNP, putting the
Maelor Efell Mawddwy

Cadwgon of
frequency of PF5191 in Merionydd at Nannau
Powys
14.8%, double that of the other cantrefs. Wenwynwyn

This supports our hypothesis and demonstrates the Fig.2 Geneological tree of the Powys royal
family. The Nannau branch being analysed is
confinement of the marker to the region of the Nannau estate. highlighted in green.

Genghis Khan a)
This concept can be illustrated by the
Y-chromosome lineage found in ~8%
of men in Central Asia thought to be
descended from Genghis Khan [1].
This phylogenetic predominance in I-Z138 Cluster in North East
Asia arose through social selection
driven by the infamous behavior of Wales
the men of the Mongol empire, For the genetic cluster in Denbighshire,
resulting in a surfeit of wives and defined by the Z138+ haplogroup, it is more
children. difficult to define a founding father, but
published clues suggest a large group of
descendants of Tudor Trevor who resided in
Bromfield [2]. Through whole Y chromosome
sequencing of several Z138+ Welsh men,
Research Questions several novel candidate SNPs were identified
and PCR primers designed for each. By
Can we refine the phylogenetic genotyping all the Z138+ samples, we derived
tree of a cluster of haplogroup I- a new phylogenetic tree that will allow us to
Z138 men in North East Wales? investigate potential links to Tudor Trevor
Testing the hypothesis that a once DNA samples from known descendants
diffuse group of men in have been obtained under informed consent.
haplogroup R-PF5191 found
principally in Merionethshire are Fig.1a) old counties of Wales upon which the
analyses are based. Marked is the site of the I-Z138
likely to be descended from cluster and Nannau of Merionethshire b)
Frequencies of R-PF5191 in the different cantrefs
Bleddyn ap Cynfyn (died 1075), of Merionethshire.
known asKing of the Britons in
the Welsh Chronicles.
Fig.3 The refined phylogenetic
tree based on SNPs identified
from whole Y chromosome
sequencing

Acknowledgements
I am indebted to those who volunteered Conclusion
DNA samples. Light has been shone on the descent groups detected at the population level in Wales,
through a combination of historical records and genetics. We have mirrored the
migration of a powerful medieval family across Wales and pinpointed modern
descendants of Bleddyn, King of Powys to the region of settlement of his son
References Cadwgon, over 900 years ago. The refinement of the genetic architecture of the cluster
1. Zerjal, X. (2003). The Genetic Legacy of the Mongols. Am J Hum Genet, 72, pp.717- in Denbighshire has been accomplished, though tracing to medieval patriarchs will be
721.
2. Ellis, T. (1924). The first extent of Bromfield and Yale, A.D. 1315. 1st ed. London: more difficult owing to a lack of known descendants. However our work sets a
Issued by the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. framework for further analyses.