Copelands & Their Y DNA, Part 2

How DNA and Genealogy Has Delineated Which Copeland Family Group We Belong To

With the advancement of DNA and its massive contribution to the world of genealogy, the journey into our family’s past has taken a new groundbreaking direction. With this breakthrough DNA can now be applied to the study of genealogy in a big way! Large numbers of Copeland men have agreed to test their Y DNA and now we can break down the results into several different Copeland family origins. These results have changed our genealogical beliefs and perceptions into who our ancestors were.

The study of DNA and how we can apply it to ancestral studies has been a learning process for us nonscientific genealogists. Most of us were unfamiliar with the basic scientific principles of DNA and how to apply those principles to the field of genealogy. However, once we began to understand the basic concepts of DNA and the tools designed to help us apply what we had learned, it was a step worth taking.

Viking Migration into Scotland and Northern England

Now, let’s get back to the history of our Viking ancestors.

The Vikings first began their invasion of Scotland in 794. However, the first wave of mass Viking migration occurred around 888, when King Harold of Norway defeated an unruly faction of northern clans who then abandoned their homeland. In search of a new place to live, they migrated to the Orkney Islands in the north of Scotland under the leadership of their chief, Earl Sigurd. This settlement was permitted by the Scottish king and the kings of the Isle of Man, who allowed the Viking exiles to make their homes in the Orkney and Shetland Islands in return for a payment of 20,000 shillings.

The Boernicians

Those of the family named Copeland are believed to be descended originally from the Boernicians. This ancient founding race of the north were a mixture of Scottish Picts, Angles and Vikings.

The history of the Boernician people reached a turning point in the 13th century. The dramatic escalation of clan warfare brought chiefs from both the English and the Scottish sides of the border to meet at Carlisle in 1246. At this meeting the chiefs cooperated in drafting a new and unique set of laws for the entire borderland territory.

Boernicians’ territory ranged from Edinburgh in the north, to the North Riding of Yorkshire in England. From 400 A. D. to 900 A. D., their territory was overrun first by the Ancient Britons, then by the Angles from the south, and finally by the Vikings, Picts and Dalriadans from the north. By 1000 A.D., however, the race had formed into identifiable Clans and families, perhaps some of the first evidence of the family structure in Britain.

Emerging from these clan names is the surname Copeland. The origin of the name Copeland could be from the district of Copeland in what is now Cumberland County, England. In the year 1160, William de Copland was listed as one of the witnesses to the gift of Dundas to Relias. Sir Richard de Copeland fought in the first Magna Carta war in 1215 and saw his daughter taken hostage by King John of England. John de Copland was the hero of the Battle of Neville’s Cross in 1346, when he took the King of Scotland, David II prisoner. The Copeland name found its way to the Orkneys in 1455. Today, one of our closest Y DNA matches, is with an Orkney Isle man with the surname Copeland.

By 1587, numerous Border Clans had been condemned by an Act of Scottish Parliament for lawlessness and by 1603 James VI. After the unification of the crowns of Scotland and England in 1603, James VI of Scotland attempted to break up the unruly border clans by dispersing banishing them throughout England, Scotland, Ireland and the American colonies.

We can trace our Boernician Copeland ancestors back to those very borders of England and Scotland. They were considered part of the Boernician people who inhabited the border lands between England and Scotland and eventually became one of the ancient clans of the Scottish English borderlands. Considered to be the ancient founding peoples of the north, the Boernicians inhabited the tract of rugged territory that stretches from Carlisle in the west to Berwick in the east.

Despite the border that separated the Scottish families of the north from the English families of the south, many of the clans remained united, by territory and interest, across the border. Most felt little allegiance to either Scotland or England.

The ever-changing division of the border between Scotland and England became a superficial division of the ancient territories of the local families. The Clans to the north of the border became Scottish after about the year 1000, and to the south they became English. However, they would continue to be united clans and powers unto themselves, owing little allegiance to either Scotland or England, having territories and interests on both sides of the border.

Conflict between these aggressive families became so great that in 1246 A.D., six Chiefs from the Scottish side and six Chiefs from the English side met at Carlisle and produced a set of laws for all the border territory. These were unlike any laws that had existed in England or Scotland, or anywhere else in the world. Many of the descendants of this border area have enjoyed the distinction of claiming to be descended from cattle and horse thieves, little realizing this was the way of life amongst the border people for generations.