Does anyone have any ideas why our Cooley Y-DNA matches men with the
surname Whitfield (or Whitefield) so closely? My only explanation is that
before surnames started being used in the British Isles about 1000 years
ago, the Cooleys and Whitfields were part of the same family. If so, this
gives us a solid clue as to where our Cooleys lived a 1000 years ago.
Below is an email I sent 4 years ago with attachments.
-Don
*************************************************
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Cooley <cool.hg.r1a_at_gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 4:42 PM
Subject: The Cooley - Whitfield Y-DNA Match Over 42 of 43 Markers
To: BlakeInt_at_aol.com, paladin46077_at_yahoo.com, loughmiller_at_gmail.com,
r.ernst_at_cooleysgardens.com, sandystanton_at_prodigy.net,
bobvickie200159_at_yahoo.com, day_at_eskimo.com, michael_at_newsummer.com,
leecooley_at_cpiadvisors.com, jackcooley_at_mac.com, Roldscot_at_aol.com
All:
As promised in earlier emails, find enclosed the details of the almost
perfect Cooley - Whitfield Y-DNA Match. As you can see over 43 Y-DNA
markers, Nick A. Whitfield of Oklahoma disagreed with my Y-DNA values only
at Marker 456, where Nick was 15 and I was 16. Also note that Nick has the
value 13 at marker 464b which is incredibly rare -- Cooleys up to now have
been the only men in haplogroup R1a to have a value of 13 at Marker 464b
instead of the usual 15. (Note that Lee Cooley is 15 here.) So I match Nick
Whitfield better that both Lee Cooley and Michael Frank Cooley. (And we
know Michael Frank Cooley and I are 5th cousins.)
I also match a Donnie Jack Whitefield from the state of Washington over 28
out of 29 Y-DNA markers. We disagree at Marker 458, where he is 16 and I'm
15.
We also match a Walt Whitfield perfectly over 12 markers as you've probably
already noticed since he tested at at FTDNA like us, instead of
Ancestry.com. (I don't know where Walt lives.)
I've sent Nick,Donnie & Walt emails, but none have responded yet. (The
email to Walt was 2 years ago!)
I think this close of a Y-DNA match is very significant. My conclusion is
that our Cooleys and the Whitfields / Whitefields came from the same area
of the British Isles.
I went to this website to compare surname maps:
http://www.publicprofiler.org/worldnames/Main.aspx . Using their surname
distribution maps, I found that the Whitefields are most common in
Scotland, the Whitfields are most common in northern England (the Newcastle
area). The Cooleys (according to this link) are most common in Ireland and
are found rarely (with our surname spelled exactly "Cooley") in Scotland,
whereas "Cooley" is found commonly throughout England.
I'm curious what you all think about these very close Cooley - Whitfiled /
Whitefield Y-DNA matches.
Best Wishes,
Don
P.S. I probably need not mention this, but there are NO Whitefields or
Whitfields to be found anywhere in the Netherlands -- yet another nail in
the coffin of the Dutch Cooley origin theory. But so far not a single
person of the dozen or so that I contacted who claim that our Cooleys had
Dutch roots on Ancestry.com has changed their pedigrees despite the Y-DNA
evidence! It is very, very hard to change bad pedigrees once they've been
in circulation for a long time. It is not what is true, it is what is said
or written the most often that is believed.
Received on Sun Nov 03 2013 - 15:12:19 MST