Part 2 – The Big Breakthough in Sproule DNA, the Timeline

 We had discovered a mutation, BY105178, in the DNA of 4 of our Sproule DNA project members. Other project members did not have this mutation. The 4 who had the BY105178 mutation were:

1. Fred Jun.
2. Ben
3. George
4. Tommy

One of the folk who carried this mutation, Fred Jun, was descended from Charles Sproule of Upper Grennan. So at at some stage along that family line from Fred Jun back through his ancestors,  a male Sproule child had been born with a slight difference in his DNA, this BY105178 mutation. This child in turn passed this on to his own children. But when was that, when was this child born into this family? Fred Sproule was born on 28 May 1926, in Monaghan, Ireland, and we know that Fred was born with this mutation. That tells us straight away that the BY105178 mutation definitely arose in Ireland.

Now, if we look at another of the folk with this mutation, Ben, we can learn more. Ben’s family tree goes back to Nova Scotia, Canada in the mid 1700s, to a couple, Robert and Sarah Sproule. I always check these trees, and there seemed to be a dodgy assumption right there in this one. Robert and Sarah Sproule, living in Annapolis, Nova Scotia, were supposed to have been married in Middlesex County, Massachusetts! How can anyone possibly make the assumption that this is the same couple, that Robert and Sarah Sproule in Massachusetts are the same people as Robert and Sarah Sproule in Nova Scotia? But Robert and Sarah, bless their little cotton socks, were wise enough to call one of their children Elliot. We would find an Elliot Sproule wherever he went.

So Robert Sproule and Sarah Whitcomb were definitely married on 15 November 1745 in Massachusetts. Robert had been born in Ireland, so he must have been born around 1710ish. Robert Sproule of Nova Scotia was born with the BY105178 mutation. Now Robert was not the originator of the mutation, since he had left Ireland, and the mutation continued in Ireland. So Robert's father had to have had this mutation too. So now we know two things about this mutation:

1.       The mutation arose in Ireland

2.       It arose in Ireland before 1700 

Now, let’s look at the family of of Fred. If we go back from Fred Jun. to before the year 1700, we arrive at Cornet Andrew Spreull himself - 

We now have identified a mutation that will link a person to the family of Cornet Andrew Spreull who died in the 1730s.

If you have this mutation in your DNA, you are definitely a descendant of Cornet Andrew, or like Ben, you are a descendant of a very close relative - from his brother or perhaps one generation before Cornet Andrew. If you do not have this mutation, you are definitely not a descendant of Cornet Andrew or his immediate family.

For this reason, I have called this mutation,  the Cornet Andrew Mutation.

We know from a deed in 1719 that Cornet Andrew had at least 7 sons. We know 4 of these sons very well, they include:

• Andrew, James and Charles Sproule, who inherited the Grennan Lands
• Joseph Sproule, who inherited the Curraghamulkin land

Now we have a tool, the Cornet Andrew Mutation, to identify these Cornet Andrew descendants.

This is where life got very exciting - for when I looked at Tommy, another one of the four people who carried the Cornet Andrew Mutation, we were able to achieve so much more.

Part 1 – The Big Breakthough in Sproule DNA

Part 3 – The Big Breakthough in Sproule DNA, Using the Mutation