This is the official blog of the St Clair DNA Study
Look around the web and you'll find a lot of information about the Sinclair family. Much of what you'll find is based on the lore of the movie Da Vinci Code. That work of fiction caused a great deal of difficulty among those in our family who'd rather believe myth than fact.
The St Clair DNA study deals with facts
DNA doesn't lie but, by itself, it cannot tell the entire truth. DNA is a string of numbers. Without genealogy, linguistics, the testing of ancient bones, or archaeology DNA remains a string of numbers, subject to the half-truths or outright lies of those who would invent for themselves a more romantic history.
The St Clair DNA study has shown that our family has (as of now) 12 distinct lineages who do not share a common ancestor for a very long time. Some of our lineages don't share a common ancestor for at least 2,300 years. Others don't share one for 4,000 years. Some don't connect to the rest for about 50,000 years. But this is to be expected of a family who derived their name from a place.
As an article on the St Clair DNA Study shows, there were many places in France with the name Saint-Clair - nearly 30, scattered throughout France. Anyone who owned land might have styled themselves "de Sancto Claro," or "of St Clair." This simply meant they were living on land called St. Clair. Later, these place names were adopted as surnames.
The St Clair DNA Study has shown that our Norman ancestors weren't as attached to their second names as we are today
This article by Steve St. Clair explores surname connections in DNA and in medieval English and Norman records. Certain families inter-married before the time that surnames became fixed in stone. The Ashley / St. Clair connection is a perfect example. As is the de Vaux / St. Clair connection. There are many more illustrated in this 24-page paper.
If you carry a surname of the Saint-Clair famly - St Clair, Sinclair, Sinceler, Sinkler, etc. - then we recommend you read up on the origins of our family and our surname. These days, everyone focuses entirely too much on our history in Scotland. We had a much stronger influence on events in medieval England than we ever had in Scotland.
Enjoy our DNA study.
Kind Regards,
Steve St. Clair Regular thoughts and updates about the Sinclair DNA study are posted on Tumblr. Learn more about our Sinclair family DNA study at our main website. Click Here. Check out the YouTube channel where we post frequent videos to better explain the complexities of our Sinclair DNA SNPs.
