There are currently two areas in Scotland where our Park/e/s Group 008 Y-DNA has been found. 

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One is in Dumfriesshire, on the lower west coast of Scotland just above the English/Scottish border.

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The other area is in Aberdeenshire, on the northeast coast of Scotland, including the towns/villages of Crimond, Lonmay, and Strichen (see map on this page). 

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Research in the coming weeks will endeavor to gather more information about any Park/e/s individuals and families in these areas that may be related to the known genetic Park/e/s families we already know about. This should enable us to find and contact more descendants for DNA testing, thus confirming and extending our knowledge of any Park/e/s families with ties to this area. 

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There are other Park/e/s families in this part of Aberdeenshire, including some with ties to New Deer and Old Deer, and future research will endeavor to discover whether they are genetically related to our Group 008.

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There are several Y-DNA tests in progress which may help us better determine how and when several Park/e/s lineages in Aberdeenshire, Dumfriesshire, as well as some in Westmorland, England connect to each other, and ultimately, to the County Armagh, Northern Ireland Parkses and eventually to the North American lines in Canada and the United States. 

 

With enough targeted test participants, we may be able to pinpoint the area of earliest origins of our genetic Park/e/s family. Given our broad Y-DNA haplogroup designation of I-M253, popularly known as one of the "Viking DNA" haplogroups, the location would need to be consistent with the early history of Viking settlements in this part of the world starting around 800 CE. Initial reading suggests far less early settlement in the north east of Scotland, including Aberdeenshire, while there were early Viking settlements on the Isle of Man and in nearby Galloway (Dumfries and Galloway region). So, the likelihood is that our Y-DNA existed in this part of Scotland quite early on, and was present at the time surnames were commonly adopted by "common folk" by 1400 CE. Stay tuned as we continue to do research, combined with more DNA findings!