The Manx DNA Project (Teare and Cross sides)

For my Manx family: an extensive DNA project is being conducted on the Isle of Man, giving new insight into the origins of several uniquely Manx surnames. "Teare" and "Cottier" are both on the list, though nothing conclusive has been published yet about these names. You can follow the project on this blog, "Manx Research": http://manxresearch.wordpress.com/ .

Our Saint Patrick Connection (Teare Side, Cross Side)

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, family! I have not been able to write in quite some time, and may not pick it up for awhile. However this project is still alive and I hope to be back to writing sooner rather than later!

For a quick break in my hiatus, here is our Manx connection to Saint Patrick, in honor of his saints day: 

Saint Patrick is credited with bringing Christianity to the Isle of Man in the 5th century. According to legend, he was returning to Ireland from Liverpool and stopped over in what is now Peel. He was so disgusted by the use of pagan magic on the Isle that he apparently remained for three years, converting many and establishing the Celtic Church at Peel (the ruins of this church are still visible at Peel Castle, which is situated on what is called Saint Patrick's Island). By the time he left, Christianity had taken over as the dominant religion on the Isle, which Saint Patrick had fully toured during his stay. 

Today there are two Parish churches that bear Saint Patrick's name: one at Patrick, and the other at Jurby, where our Teare relatives are buried. 

So wear your green with pride today- and not just for Michigan State's victory! 

The Cottier Surname (Cross Side)

This is my second post on the origin of Manx surnames within our family. Today I'll be looking at the Cottier name (the maiden name of Alice Noble's grandmother).

The Cottier name (Americanized to Cotcher) is of Old Norse descent (proof that there is Viking blood within me!). In A. W. Moore's The Surnames and Place Names of the Isle of Man, he states that "Cottier" is to be pronounced "Cotchier", making the spelling change in the US less surprising. It is said to be a contraction of "MacOttarr"- Ottarr's son. Ottar is old Norse for "Twilight Sword", according to Moore.  

There is documentation of that name, or the Anglo-Saxon "Ohthere" as far back as the 11th century. In the 1098 Chronicon Manniae, it is said that a battle between two groups of Manxmen left the Earl Other, leader of the Northern Manxmen, slain. 

Even names of Old Norse origin were given the prefix "Mac", and this was the case with the variant forms MacOttir, MacOttar, MacOttarr, and later MacCottier. The form "Cotter" was most common through the 17th century, when "Cottier" overtook it. According to Manx legend, two French Huguenot families by the name of Cottier settled on the Isle of Man in the late 16th century in Lezayre. In this case, "Cottier" would have most likely been an Anglicized form of the French surname, "Gauthier".

If this story is true, this may have influenced the "Cotter" name's evolution on the Isle, however it is worth noting that "MacCottier" was recorded before then. 

Our Cottier family was from Marown Parish. I searched the Manorial Roll from 1511 and found record of John McOtter and his son William. They were living in "Trolby"- literally "Farm of Trolls". It comes from the Scandanavian "Trolla-byr". According to the Manx notebook: There is a little stream here running down through the glen which one might well imagine as being the supposed abode of 'trolls,' or goblins.

This may or may not be a family connection, but it is still cool to see that there is a long history of Cottiers in Marown Parish. The location described above is located in what is now Crosby. See below for a link to Google Maps.  

Cottiers were coming to the US in the first part of the 19th century, settling almost exclusively in New York and Ohio. By the 1920s Cottier families could be found in over 30 states, though Ohio retained the largest single population. Obviously, some made it to the superior state to the North, and from that our family line can be traced! 

WHERE TO GO: Marown Parish, Isle of Man and Trollaby Lane. Click here for a Google Map.

Click here for Trollaby Farm. 

Family Line @ A Glance: Cross-->Cotcher-->Cottier 

Tracing the Teare Name (Teare Side)

I grew up hearing many stories about the Teare name and its origin. However, once I began  my research, I found that much of what I had heard was inconsistent with what I was reading. So I dowloaded e-books onto my Kindle that discussed Manx surnames and started my detective work!

The Teare name was born on the Isle of Man, but is of celtic origin (as are 65% of Manx surnames, another 35% being of Scandio-Celtic origin). There are two main categories of surnames on the Isle of Man: those derived from the personal name of an ancestor (typically originating from early Christian tradition), and those derived from trades and occupations. It is not very common that Manx names be derived from place origin.

It is contracted from Mac-an-t’Saoir, “the carpenter’s son”. One of the oldest recordings of this name is in the year 990 A.D. (Ciaran Mac-an-tsair). Now it has been said that:

“By Mac and O

You’ll always know

True Irishmen, they say;

But if they lack

Both O and Mac

No Irishman are they.”

This poem seems to sum up the history of the Teare name, which despite its celtic origins has become distinctly Manx. According to A. W. Moore, “The geographical separation of the Isle of Man...caused the Manx dialect to become, in course of time, materially differentiated from the Irish speech with which it was originally identical. From the same cause, many of the originally Irish surnames of the Island have undergone a degree of phonetic corruption that covers them with a disguise which can only be penetrated by a recourse to early documents. The prefix Mac has, in many cases, fallen away altogether; in other cases it is represented only by its final consonant” (ex: MacAllister-->Callister). There also wasn’t much movement even within the Island, let alone outside of it. The Teare name stayed rooted firmly in one small area until the 19th century.

Moore’s connection of the celtic surnames with Ireland surprised me. I had grown up hearing that the name “Teare” came from the Scottish surname “MacIntyre”, and that there was a tendency on the Isle of Man to drop the “Mac” from names. That’s true, in a sense, but it cannot be assumed that we are linked to the Scots. Even so, can we really claim to be Irish?

Maybe. The relationship between the Irish and the Scottish MacIntyres, which remains unclear, is still based on the idea of one being the “son of a carpenter”. According to Dr. Edward MacLysaght, the late 20th century authority on Irish genealogy, the MacIntyres who are of native Irish descent are originally Macateers: “Macateer (Mac an t’saor, saor, craftsman), [is] an Ulster name for which the Scottish MacIntyre, of similar derivation, is widely substituted.” He adds that “Ballymacateer is a place-name in Co. Armagh, which is its homeland.” (*Hm, doesn’t Ballymacateer sound an awful lot like Ballateare, in the Isle of Man?! More on that later.). Ulster and the former church town of Ballymacateer are both located in Northern Ireland, along the Lough (lake) Neag. This is significant: In R. L Thomson's Manx Personal Names and General Vocaulary, he shows that many of the early celtic surnames on the Isle have ties to that region in Northern Ireland. So while we have somewhat of a connection to the name MacIntyre, it does not seem that our name is derived from the Scottish clan.

I had heard another legend that my surname was derived from the Old Norse god of law, Tyr. In my research, I could not find any evidence to back up this supposed Viking connection to the Teare name. I did come across some interesting facts, however. Manx genealogist A. W. Moore states that the Teare name is much commoner in the north of the Island than the south, being very common in Jurby and Ballaugh, common in Andreas, Bride, and Lezayre. He also states that the Vikings were most prevalent in Jurby, Ballaugh, and Bride- just like the Teare name. He explains that, thanks to the low sandy coastline in that area, it was easiest for the Vikings to run their flat-bottomed ships on shore. Thus, names of Scandinavian origin are more common in that area, though they only constitute 35% of Manx surnames.

However, reference books place the name unanimously under the “Celtic” grouping, thanks mostly to their ability to trace its development (Mac-an-t-saor→ Macateer→ MacIntyre/MacTyre→ McTeare/McTerre/MacTere→ Teare/Tear/Tere). Interestingly enough, a Viking burial boat was discovered in Ballateare (literally “Teare farm”), south of Jurby. Maybe an old Teare neighbor!

So where does that leave us? Given how small the Isle of Man is, we probably have in us some traces of all the island’s settlers and invaders. As for the surname? Since last names were not very common until the late 15th or 16th centuries, it is hard to say for sure. We may have more in common with our Irish brothers than I’d thought! The English took over for good in 1405, and many surnames were established and anglicized at the time. Also, Irish immigration to the island at that time increased. Parish records become common in the 16th century, and there is a "Teare" recorded at Ballaugh in 1599. The rest is history, I guess!  

County Armagh in Northern Ireland

WHERE TO GO:

Ballateare, Isle of Man: Click here for a map.

Ballymacateer and Ulster, Northern Ireland: Click here for the google maps view.

The Cottier Family (Cross Side)

This line begins with Alice Cross Noble's grandmother, Kitty.

Glen Cross's mother was Catherine (Kitty) Cotcher, "Cotcher" being the Americanized spelling of "Cottier". She died in childbirth and not much was known about her. The Michigan Census has her residence as West Bloomfield, Oakland County.

Her parents were James Cotcher, the son of Manx immigrants, and Louisa Simpson, the daughter of an Irish immigrant. James Cotcher was born in the 1830s in New York to John Cottier (Cotcher) and Isabella Looney Cottier. After marrying, John and Isabella most likely took advantage of a government deal (a 10 pound ticket to the US) and journeyed to New York before joining other Manx families in Michigan.

The Cottiers and the Looneys are northern Manx families. I'll begin with the Cottier side.

John Cottier (our immigrant ancestor), was son to John Cottier Sr, born July 16, 1769 in Marown Parish. I am not certain of John Cottier Sr.'s wife's information, but I suspect based on my research of Parish records that he moved to Maghold and wed Catherine Callow in 1798 (remember, Kitty's real name was Catherine, and this would be her great-grandmother. Plus the dates all add up!). His parents were Alexander Cottier and Anne Kelly Cottier. Both of these surnames are very prominent on the Isle, even today. Alexander died and was buried May 14, 1814 in the old Marown Parish churchyard. Though there is record of his burial, there is no record of a tombstone (not uncommon- many were buried without a marker). The church has not been in use since 1859, but volunteers maintain it and it is open to the public. At present, I have no information on Anne other than her maiden name and her marriage to Alexander. They were both most likely born and raised in Marown (pronounced Muh-ROWN, as in 'down) Parish.

Sheep friends we met while hiking up to the Marown Parish church.

Now for the Looneys (there are some in every family!):

The Looneys were from the seaside village of Maughold, which to this day is hardly anything more than farms, a beautifully maintained historic church, and nice sea views. Isabella was born to Robert Looney and Jane Creer Looney (Creer being another old Manx name). Robert and Jane married at the Maghold church in 1802, and Isabella was born later that year. Jane was buried at the Maghold church in 1858, though records show that the family had moved to Ramsey sometime before then. I have no burial record for Robert at this time. Interestingly enough, many Looneys did immigrate to the US, and a large number settled in South Carolina! You may also see this name spelled as Lodney (a change that occured after arrival in the US).

The church at Maughold was established by the 12th century!

WHERE TO GO:

The Old Marown Parish Church Graveyard (Trust me, rent a car instead of attempting the walk like we did!).

The Old Maughold Parish Church (feauting 6th century crosses!).

FAMILY LINE @ A GLANCE: Cross-->Cotcher/Cottier

The Elder Teares (Teare Side)

Our immigrant ancestor was Thomas Teare (John Teare's Great Grandfather), born about 1791 in Jurby, Isle of Man. I found his baptismal record at the Manx Museum, dated July 3rd, 1791. Since baptisms did not occur until they were convenient, I do not have his actual date of birth. His parents, as stated on the record, were Thomas Teare Sr. and Elizabeth Garrett Teare. As the parents were older at the time of his birth, I suspect that this may have been a second marriage. Another possibility is that Thomas Jr. had been preceded by sisters, since the first boy is typically named after the father. Thomas Jr., after coming to the US, lived in Clinton County, MI where he was buried in 1866. 

Most of the following information was taken from the recorded inscription on Thomas Sr. and Elizabeth's gravestone. At the time that this was recorded, some of the inscription was already unreadable, but what did remain looks like this: 

THOMAS TEARE of --/ December the 22nd 18--/ a faithful--/ a loving husband --/ ---/---/but hope in Heaven to meet again. Also ELIZABETH TEARE alias Garrett who died June 1st 18(10) aged (69).  

The next couple buried at this spot is John and Ann Teare, Thomas Sr.'s parents, who died respectively in 1788 and 1804. I have a baptismal record for this John (who I'll call John III), baptized May 19th 1706, parents listed as John Teare (II). and Grace Radcliffe Teare. John Teare II died rather young, in 1716, and is also buried at this spot.I have no death record for Grace. 

John Teare I,  the father, is also buried at this spot. and died in 1700. 

I believe, based on baptismal records, that his father may have been William Teare. However, this is simply my best guess based on date estimates and parish records. 

I also suspect that there is some wrong information on the typed tombstone inscription. Remember, this was being done by someone at a time when the inscription was already becoming illegible (which it almost totally is today). I'm not sure about our Thomas being born to a 50 year old mother (though of course it is possible, it seems to be pushing it to me). The woman at the museum seemed less shocked by it than I was. Either way, it is confirmed by Parish baptismal records to be the same couple who gave birth to our immigrant ancestor, Thomas Teare Jr!

WHERE TO GO: 

Duplain Cemetery in Clinton Township, MI is home to our immigrant ancestor, Thomas Teare. 

The family burial spot on the Isle of Man is located at St. Patrick's Jurby Church, #63.