There are many ancient tales regarding the origins of the Cumming Clan. The name first arrived on these shores with the Norman conquest of England in 1066 but the first Comyn about whom there is little dispute was William Cumin, Justiciar of Scotland. The Scottish Comyn dynasty descended from his nephew, and so Comyn power in Scotland appears to begin in the middle of the twelfth century with William. Over the next century the extended family gained power and influence, particularly in the north-east of Scotland. It is said that by the middle of the thirteenth century there was one lord, four earls and thirty-two belted knights by the name of Comyn. However, following their support for the ill-fated Baliol cause, the family lost their high position amongst the Scottish nobles and faded into relative obscurity, although branches of the family continued to do well. The best known of these today is the family of Altyre.
Surnames only started to become established in Scotland, even amongst the nobility, from around 1150. These early surnames were Anglo-Norman and came from England. It is a mistake to think that all people of the same surname must be related. In those early times it would undoubtedly have been the case that ordinary folk took the name of their lord to demonstrate that they gave him their loyalty. It is not difficult to imagine:
1) two brothers, living under different lords, taking different surnames.
Their descendants today would share a common genetic ancestry but would have no idea of the connection.
2) two unrelated men, serving the same lord, with both taking his name.
Their descendants today might imagine a connection because of their shared name, but there would be none.
Genealogy and DNA
1) There always comes a point when written records cannot be found. Perhaps they never existed, or it may be that they have been lost.
2) If there was an occasion when a child was born to an unknown father, the biological descent cannot be followed.
It may even mean that the traditional paper-based research is wrong, and it may also be impossible to tell whether this is the case.
However, in recent years, developments in DNA testing mean that these issues in traditional genealogy can, perhaps, be overcome.
There are three main types of DNA test (each of which consist of a simple saliva swab, and the need to sign a consent form):
1) Automsomal DNA (atDNA) considers every line of ancestry going back 6-8 generations. [Ancestry]
2) Y-DNA considers the paternal line from son to father to grandfather, all the way back. [Family Tree DNA]
3) Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) considers the maternal line from child to mother to grandmother, all the way back. [Family Tree DNA]
In each case, it's best to use the company (shown in square brackets) which has the largest database so that one has the best chance of matches being found.
Given that this page is about the male Cumming line going back around one millennium, the Y-DNA test is the only one which is useful for our purposes.
FTDNA offer two types of Y-DNA test which compare markers on the Y-chromosome; markers are points on the Y-chromosome which change slowly as they are passed from father to son, and on down the generations. The technical explanations are quite complex, so for now it is perhaps enough to distinguish between them as follows:
1) The simplest initial tests read just 37 (Y37) and 111 (Y111) selected markers.
They are good for showing that two men may be related, and excellent at proving that two men are definitely not related.
2) There is a more advanced test called the Big Y-700 which reads many more markers along the Y-chromosome, and also analyses those markers in a more detailed way.
This test helps us to prove whether two men are related in any meaningful way, and also to estimate when the most recent common ancestor of two related men may have lived.
The Big Y-700 test is by far the most useful, although it is the most expensive.
Remember that a Y-DNA test can only be done by males, as only males carry a Y-chromosome.
However, many female family historians get involved with Y-DNA testing by asking their male relatives to test.
The Cumming Y-DNA Surname Project
FTDNA also provide the web-based infrastructure for the Cumming Surname Project. This enables the volunteer project co-ordinators (John Cleary and Timothy Cummings) to collate testers into genetic groups. The group considered below is known by the name Cumming of Moray, Scotland - each particpant has a Kit Number which helps to anonymise the results, meaning that each individual can remain as private (or not) as they wish. The only exception to this is that each member is asked to provide an email address by which any matches can make contact. This is part of what FTDNA currently have for the group being considered here:
As can be seen, the various individuals who these results belong to have
fullprivacy. The surname given is that of the tester, whilst the short piece of
biographical detail relates to their earliest known ancestor. The country
refers to the county of origin, so far as is known.
The dates at the bottom indicate how far back names are known on each line; this has been achieved by melding the DNA results with traditional genealogy.
The single grey line indicates a probable descent through a female line.
With the exception of 1782, dates are all approximate. FTDNA assigns the most likely median date, but also provides error bars. For instance, the man shown here as born c.1150 is actually given by FTDNA as born between and c.850 and c.1380. There are reasons to believe that this can be treated as c.1150 to c.1300.
With one exception, all the males who took part in testing have the surname Cumming (or a variant of it). The exception can almost certainly be explained by the horrors of slavery, which some Cummings of Moray played a significant part in.
The fact that this group have the same surname and that we have a common ancestor c.1150 surely could not have come about unless that ancestor was known by the name of Cumming. In addition, it seems likely that he was a man of north-east Scotland, given that each of Presley, Craigmiln, Auchry and Pittulie are between Inverness and Aberdeen. Further analysis by John Cleary indicates that he was probably of ancient Scottish descent, rather than Norman. It may be that he was one of the thirty-two belted knights referred to above, and that he took the name because of his allegiance to the Comyn lordship.
This page has been constructed in the hope of encouraging other Cumming men to take a Y-DNA test with FTDNA.
It may be that one of the group has contacted you and pointed you towards this page; if so, it is only because we believe that there is a decent prospect of you fitting somewhere into the pedigree above. It would be fantastic to have you join us in this project.
Please contact William if you'd like to know more. Alternatively, contact John Cleary or Timothy Cummings using the details here.
If you're interested in reading more widely about the Cumming family of Scotland then you should read these articles by John Cleary:
The Cummings of Altyre and the search for an ancient genealogy: 'It hath been the unvaried tradition of the country' (published November 2022)
The Cummings of Altyre and the search for an ancient genealogy, Part 2: 'Truth has here lain in the bottom of a well' (published November 2023)
Slaves and Highlanders, by David Alston, is essential reading for anyone who wishes to grapple with the leading involvement of Scottish families (not least the Cummings of Craigmiln) in slavery in the Caribbean. Alston's website of the same name is a treasure trove of additional research.