The Gaels of Kilteasheen

On the south-eastern shore of Lough Key in Roscommon, at a place remembered as the Bishop's Seat, a Gaelic ecclesiastical community buried its dead for some six centuries. Excavations recovered well over a hundred skeletons from the medieval graveyard of Kilteasheen: farmers, clergy and families of the kingdom of Moylurg, whose MacDermot kings held the island castle on the Rock of Lough Key just across the water. The site became famous when two eighth-century men were found buried with large stones wedged in their mouths, a rite archaeologists read as fear of the restless dead. These genomes, sequenced as Ireland's reference in a landmark study of the medieval Isles, speak for the ordinary Gaelic Ireland of saints, cattle-lords and lake monasteries.

The genome-wide data behind this entry was published in The Anglo-Saxon migration and the formation of the early English gene pool.

Every Ancestry Map includes the free Notable Matches lens: your coordinates are compared to every sequenced member of every catalog entry, and the distance to the closest member is reported, a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional space the Distance lens uses. Because these are a small group of real individuals, not a population average, distances naturally run larger than population distances. That is expected, not a poor result. And one thing is never claimed: a small distance means similar ancestry composition, not that the Gaels of Kilteasheen are your ancestor. See how it looks in the live demo or read about Ancestry Map, the full Global25 report.

• 01

  Who were the Gaels of Kilteasheen?

  The Gaels of Kilteasheen (c. 700-1300 CE, Kilteasheen, Lough Key, Ireland) are one of the Iconic discoveries entries in our Notable Matches catalog, represented by 12 sequenced ancient genomes published in the study "The Anglo-Saxon migration and the formation of the early English gene pool".

• 02

  What does "matching" the Gaels of Kilteasheen mean?

  Your Global25 coordinates are compared to the entry's sequenced members and the distance to the closest one is reported, a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional reference space the Distance lens uses. A notable entry is one person or one small burial group, not a population average, so distances naturally run larger than population distances.

• 03

  Are they my ancestor?

  No, and no DNA test can show that. A small distance means your genome sits near theirs in a shared reference space: similar ancestry composition, not descent. Ancestrify never claims a notable individual is your ancestor or relative.

• 04

  How do I see my own distance to the Gaels of Kilteasheen?

  Notable Matches is a free lens on every Ancestry Map, never sold separately. Order Ancestry Map, our Global25 analysis (29.99 EUR), and your report ranks your coordinates against the full catalog, with a portrait, dossier and map for every entry. The public demo shows the lens with example data.

The catalog holds every published entry across three tiers. Browse the full Notable Matches directory. Nearby entries:

• The Medieval Docleansc. 800-1100 CE

• The Tiwanaku of the Akapanac. 870-1150 CE

• The Muslims of Segestac. 870-1170 CE

• The Christians of Sigtunac. 900-1050 CE

• The Taíno Woman of Preacher's Cavec. 950 CE

• The Vikingsc. 750-1050 CE

• The Settlers of Icelandc. 870-1100 CE

• The Hungarian Conquerors10th century CE

• The Ancient Puerto Ricansc. 550-1350 CE

• The Guanchesc. 300-1500 CE

• The Norse of Greenlandc. 950-1400 CE

• The Ceramic Age Islanders of Hispaniolac. 250-1500 CE