Welcome to the Scrapbook pages for the McCarthy Surname Study, which analyses the Y-DNA of men named McCarthy or a spelling variant or agnomen associated with this name. The files made available below support the main Study website at: https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/mccarthy-surname-study/about
Our McCarthy Surname Study books
We have published (via Amazon) Kindle and paperback versions of two books entitled Tracing Your McCarthy Family Tree.
Book 1 is for complete beginners but takes research up to and including the ordering a Y-DNA test. It includes a chapter on tracing your ancient ancestry.
Book 2, which is subtitled Using Y-DNA, explains the essential nuts and bolts of Y-DNA testing and many of the techniques we use in analysing and presenting our members’ data. There are also chapters on the development of the Study and recalling our 2013 and 2017 ‘Gatherings’.
All proceeds will be reinvested in the McCarthy Surname Study (and, where appropriate, the R Z16526 and Subclades Project) funds for the furtherance of the study of M(a)cCarthy ancestry. To minimise printing costs and maximise royalties the paperback versions have been published in black and white. However this colour version of the double helix diagram on page 2 of Book 2 will better enable readers to follow the narrative.
The books may be purchased in local currency from Amazon publishing sites in USA, U.K., Canada, Australia, France, Brazil etc.. Book 1 is available here if purchasing in USA and here if purchasing from Amazon U.K, while Book 2 can be found here and here respectively.
Our Posters
If you are considering testing please click on either of these posters.
here if you reside in Britain and Ireland
here for anywhere else in the world
Y-DNA Phylogenetic Trees
These trees show the genetic relationship between McCarthys in various branches of the overall Y (male)-tree of mankind illustrated in Fig. 1 below. The designations R-L21 Group A, B, C etc. are specific to the McCarthy Study and have no significance beyond this. Non-McCarthy Y-DNA testers are identified where their presence on trees may give clues as to McCarthy members’ origins or, in R-L21 Group B only, their own paternal ancestry lies in the eponymous Cárthach and / or the early McCarthy dynasties. The R-L21 Group B tree is a subset of that belonging to the R-Z16526 and Subclades Project, the whole of which is also provided here for convenience. This Z16526 tree thus traces the paternal ancestry of Cárthach.
| Haplogroup E1b1b1 | SNP E-M35.1 (E1b1b1) | 2024 May 15 |
| Haplogroup I1 | SNP I-M253 (I1) | 2024 Jan 14 |
| Haplogroup I2a1 | SNP I-L470 (I2a1) | 2026 Jul 30 |
| Haplogroup of R-DF27 | SNP R-DF27 | 2024 May 31 |
| Haplogroup of R-U106 | SNP R-U106 | 2024 Apr 13 |
| Haplogroup of R-U152 | SNP R-U152 | 2022 Jun 07 |
| R-L21 Group A and Irish Type II (also on behalf of the R1b-CTS4466 Plus Project) | SNP R-S1115 (Irish Type) | 2026 Aug 08 |
| Age Guide for R-L21 Group A and Irish Type II tree | Irish Type II Tree Mutation Block Age Guide | 2026 Aug 08 |
| Haplogroup of R-Z16526 (on behalf of the R Z16526 and Subclades Project) | SNP R-Z16526 (leading to ZS4606) | 2026 Jun 21 |
| R-L21 Group B (continuing from Sheet 3 of the R-Z16526 tree) | SNP R-ZS4606 | 2026 Aug 13 |
| Age Guide for R-Z16526 tree (including McCarthy R-L21 Group B subset) | R-Z16526 Tree Mutation Block Age Guide | 2026 Aug 13 |
| R-L21 Group C | SNP R-M222 (Irish Type I) | 2024 Jun 01 |
| R-L21 Group D | SNP R-L513 | 2024 Jan 07 |
| R-L21 Group E | SNP R-Z255 | 2024 May 28 |
| R-L21 Group F | SNP R-Z253 (including Irish Type III) | 2026 Jul 29 |
| R-L21 Group G | SNP R-CTS3386 | 2026 Aug 13 |
| R-L21 Groups H, I, J and N | SNPs R-FGC35995, R-Z251, R-S1051 and R-FGC10046 | 2026 Aug 20 |
| R-L21 Groups K, L and P | SNPs R-DF5, R-Z3000 and R-Z16294 | 2024 May 24 |
Project Charts and Diagrams
| Figure 1 | From Africa to McCarthy | 2020 Dec 30 |
| Figure 2 | Development of principal McCarthy Septs | 2024 Jan 03 |
| Figure 3 | Breakdown of McCarthys by haplogroup | 2025 May 20 |
| Figure 4 | McCarthy Ancestral Haplotypes | 2022 Aug 05 |
| Figure 4a | Y-DNA111 Mutation Frequencies | 2021 Jan 02 |
| Figure 5 | McCarthy Sept names and Agnomina in use in the past few centuries | 2020 Sep 28 |
Pedigree Library
This is the new home for our members’ pedigrees, formally located on our WorldFamilies site (which was closed down by the site operators in May 2018).
| McCarthy Surname Study Pedigree Library | 2018 Aug 13 |
Bibliography
Some book and manuscript references relating to McCarthy ancestry. Many are freely available to download.
| Reading list | 2023 Jan 28 |
Scholarly Articles, Presentations etc.
| The Rise of Meic Carthaig and the Political Geography of Desmumu. by Paul MacCotter | Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, 2006 | 2006 |
| The McCarthy family tree by R.C.McCarthy | The story of the MacCarthys of Ardcanaght. | 2012 |
| MacCarthy Gathering Posters | Posters for the MacCarthy Gathering to celebrate The Homecoming of the Daniel MacCarthy Glas Archive, Dunmanway, Co. Cork, 26-28 May 2017. | 2017 May 31 |
| The Genetic Identification of McCarthys | Slide show for Tribe101 presentation | 2022 Oct 04 |
| Charles Mac Carthy in the Archives of Bilbao by Oisín Breatnach | Sources in the Archives of Bilbao giving a 17th/18th family history spanning four generations, with suspected MacCarthy Reagh origins (study ongoing). | 2017 Jul |
| Freke Estate (Cork) Survey of 1787/88 curated by Pádraig Mac Cárthaigh | Link to Pádraig’s curation of the survey of the estate of Sir John Freke of Castle Freke, near Rosscarbery, Co Cork by the noted 18th-century Dublin land surveyor Thomas Sherrard. | 2019 Jun 05 |
| Dunmanway Castle originally created by Fintan Mac Carthy | Link to Wikipedia article on one of two castles which were homes to the MacCarthy Norsa (an Fhorsa) family. | 2020 Jul |
| Daniel Mac Carthy Glas originally created by Fintan Mac Carthy | Link to Wikipedia article on Daniel Mac Carthy Glas. | 2020 Aug |
| Phylogenetic alignments with genealogies of descent from Ailill Ólom by N.D.McCarthy | A comparison of Irish Type II (McCarthy R-L21 Group A) phylogeny with ancient genealogical texts pertaining to first millennium ancestries. | 2021 Apr 14 |
| Mac Carthy Genealogies from An Leabhar Muimhneach | Translation of Mac Carthy Genealogies from Tadhg Ó Donnchadha’s An Leabhar Muimhneach (The Book of Munster) | 2023 Jan 28 |
The McCarthy Surname (Y-DNA) Study Scrapbook 
