| Preface | Archeobiography | Autobiography |
I am male[1]: which is to say, ‘I’ am stunted in my development: a stalled female.
As if in compensation, in patriarchal societies, ‘I’ get to keep my name (and (allegedly) pass it on) on marriage.
Today, ‘I’ am conventionally labelled Bolland. Patriarchal, indexical. Nailed.
But, signs are always slippery with respect to the signifier let alone the signified. Our Bolands became Bollands – a transcription error – 150 years ago.
But Boland, in any case, was Bolan when it first arrived in Scotland from the West of Ireland in the 1830s and Bolan was, in fact, Ó Beólláin back in Sligo, mangled into English and deracinated from its immediate Connacht roots.[2]
Online, my much-removed cousins debate whether these Ó Beólláins descend from Beollán mac Ciarmaic, King of the Lake of the Goats or from Helgi Bjolan Kettillson[3], the Gal-Gael King of Mann. Helgi, brother of Aud the Deep-minded, was an early settler of Iceland. He is reputed to have moved on from Mann after some ‘set-backs’. [4]
Since my closest ‘ancient’ DNA match is a Gal Gael Viking buried on Iceland around 935 years ago[5], this speculation is not entirely implausible.
Helgi’s son, by Kaðlin Hrólfsdóttir Møre de Normandie, was Ciarmac Ó Beólláin – so perhaps we can have it both ways. And there are those intriguing avatars buried by the Bishop Seat in Kiltashean 650 years ago: Kiltashean is in Roscommon but that’s not a kick in the shirt from Sligo.
Etymologically, Beólláin is believed to be related to ‘beul’=mouth. But maybe ‘bjol’=ball.
Helgi the Prince or Helgi the Mouth? Helgi the Poet or Helgi Bigbaws?
My lineage quickly splits from the Capetian kings and the Dukes of Normandy. They go their way: ‘our’ label sticks in the West of Ireland.
Ó Beólláins settled into septs in Clare and Sligo, a hypothesis supported (a little) by the Kiltashean burials and a remote DNA match to a member of the Burgh/ Burgos dynasty- the contested and contesting Anglo-Norman rulers of Sligo from the 12th Century.
A branch of Ó Beólláins hijacked religion and followed Colum Cille to Scotland as co-arbs[6] of St. Maelrubha at Applecross in Ross-shire.[7].
We are ordinary folk – in both nature and nurture.[8]
In the early modern period[9], ‘we’ switch from forensic to documentary evidence. Tithes and rental rolls, military service records, birth and death certificates. Not much narrative yet. No one recorded ‘our’ names unless ‘we’ were worth something to them.
During that interval, the ordinary folk we are included:
| mt-DNA | Y-DNA |
| Catherine McKay – Farmer Ishabeal McLeod – Farmer Christina McLeod – Maid of all Work Isabella Niccol – Housewife Mary McFadyen Elliott – Shopgirl, Millgirl, Market Gardener | Cathal Ó Beólláin– Farmer & Labourer Phillip Bolan – Labourer Charles Boland – Engine Keeper James Easdon Bolland – Yarn Dyer Charles Bolland – Sanitary Ware Inspector John Bolland – Plumber |
But this asserted lineage ignores the autosomal contributions of McPhees, Niccols, Easdons, Jacksons, Forresters, Cossars, Burnes, McQueens, Porteuses, Thomesones, Pattersones, Mungalls, Ferguses, McFadyens, Steins, Connells, Kiddies, Bonners, Armours, McDades, Elvens, Dochertys, Fureys, Ovens, McGuillans, Prentices, Yuills, Galloways.
Each and all of ‘us’ converging, more or less, on the sinkhole of the Inverclyde conurbation. But their journeys were eventful ones.
| Preface | Archeobiography | Autobiography |
Notes
[1] “In human embryos, the SRY gene encodes a unique transcription factor that activates a testis-forming pathway at about week seven of development. Before this time, the embryonic gonad is “indifferent,” meaning that it is capable of developing into either a testis or an ovary. Likewise, the early embryo has two systems of ducts, Wolffian and Müllerian ducts, which are capable of developing into the male and female reproductive tracts, respectively. Once the SRY gene product stimulates the indifferent gonad to develop into a testis, the testis begins producing two hormones, testosterone and anti-Müllerian hormone, or AMH. Testosterone and one of its derivatives, dihydrotestosterone, induce formation of other organs in the male reproductive system, while AMH causes the degeneration of the Müllerian duct. In females, who do not contain the SRY protein, the ovary-forming pathway is activated by a different set of proteins. The fully developed ovary then produces oestrogen, which triggers development of the uterus, oviducts, and cervix from the Müllerian duct”.[8]
[2] Genealogical research and family myth concur that the name picked up an extra ‘L’ after its arrival in Scotland, leading to decades of embarrassed clarification of pronunciation: “Bolland as in Poland NOT as in Bollard”
[3] This theory greatly popularised when Helgi’s father, Kettil (Flatnose) Bjornson, featured as a character in Vikings
[6] There, another opportunity for aristocratic heritage eludes us. Ó Beólláin remains the surname of the Earls of Ross from around 1200 CE until the death of Uilleam Ó Beólláin III, Earl of Ross in 1372 when his daughter, Euphemia I, Countess of Ross married Sir Walter Leslie.
[6] Even that distantly related Merovingian noble was ordinary in his way. I am much more sceptical of the link to Louis XVII of the House of Bourbon. Either way he is nameless, unrecorded except as a specimen. NS6 since you ask