Drysdale - a Douglas sept

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Comment by Ronald Drysdale on December 18, 2025 at 17:08

Hi William,

The death cert. is quite a useful source and I'll upload it to Familysearch.

It seems as though the Graham family already has quite a well developed tree there:

If I get some time I'll chase the Drysdale line back for a few further generations

Best regards

Comment by William Douglas on December 18, 2025 at 16:30

I have been given sight of a bundle of papers regarding the McLean family which included these:

Comment by William Douglas on November 26, 2025 at 19:28

Name variations:
Draysdal, Draysdale, Draysdel, Draysdell, Draysdil, Draysdile, Draysdul, Draysdyle, Drisdal, Drisdale, Drisdele, Drisdelle, Drisdil, Drisdile, Drisdul, Drisdyle, Drisedal, Drisedale, Drisedil, Drisedile, Drisedul, Drisedyle, Dryfesdal, Dryfesdale, Dryfesdil, Dryfesdile, Dryfesdul, Dryfesdyle, Dryisdal, Dryisdale, Dryisdel, Dryisdell, Dryisdil, Dryisdile, Dryisdul, Dryisdyle, Drysdal, Drysdale, Drysdel, Drysdell, Drysdil, Drysdile, Drysdul, Drysdyle,

Comment by Ronald Drysdale on October 28, 2025 at 21:54

Hi William,

You are probably right about that and I don't know of any documented male Drysdales showing male Douglas ancestry.

Meanwhile, I haven't tested mine and don't intend to.

In today's society, such data is not secure and if sold on or otherwise disseminated to unscrupulous third parties - who knows what "they" can do with it.

But I agree, from a genealogical sense, it would be interesting to see what DNA testing across a wide spectrum of Drysdale families would reveal.

Best regards

  

Comment by William Douglas on October 28, 2025 at 20:03

My deduction on DNA research is that not enough Drysdales have tested their DNA.

But this certainly not my area of expertise!

Comment by Ronald Drysdale on October 28, 2025 at 17:08

Taking note of Mark's Query on Bing's AI in the previous post, I put a similar query to Google:

"clans douglas drysdale dna genealogy"

Quote:

Based on genealogical and DNA evidence, the Scottish surname Drysdale is considered a sept of Clan Douglas, with historical origins predating this association. DNA projects can help descendants confirm and investigate their specific connections to either the Douglas lineage or other Drysdale families.

Drysdale origins: A sept of Douglas
The relationship between the Drysdale and Douglas names is complex, with both traditional accounts and DNA data shedding light on their shared history.

Drysdale's connection to Douglas: Traditional accounts state that some Drysdales are descended from three Douglas brothers who, in 1503, were exiled from Dryfesdale in Dumfriesshire after a conflict. They resettled in Fife, adopting the Drysdale name.

Drysdale's earlier origin: The name Drysdale (originally Dryfesdale) was in use before the 1503 event. The name is locational, deriving from the Dryfe Water valley in Dumfriesshire, where a church was dedicated as early as 1116. This suggests that not all Drysdale lines originate from the Douglas brothers.

Sept relationship: Because of these various origins, the Clan Douglas Society of North America (CDSNA) classifies Drysdale as a sept, or an allied family, of Clan Douglas. This classification acknowledges a historical association rather than assuming all Drysdales are direct paternal descendants of the Douglas clan.

DNA evidence for Douglas and Drysdale
Genetic genealogy projects have helped confirm and distinguish between different Douglas and Drysdale lines.

Douglas DNA Project: The Douglas Archives run an ongoing DNA project that uses Y-DNA testing to explore the different lineages within the clan. By comparing the Y-DNA (passed from father to son) of modern descendants to known historical lines, they can confirm connections to different branches, such as the Earls of Drumlanrig/Queensberry and the Earls of Morton.

Multiple lineages: DNA testing has shown that the Douglas clan is composed of several distinct Y-DNA lineages. For example, some proven lines, such as the Drumlanrig/Queensberry/Morton Douglases, belong to the R1a haplogroup. Other lineages have different haplogroups, such as E3b, suggesting multiple historical origins for families bearing the Douglas surname.

Identifying specific branches: The Douglas DNA project has successfully distinguished between different branches. For example, by testing descendants of Domini Douglas and the Earls of Morton, researchers proved that their Y-DNA profiles do not match. This confirmed that Domini was likely not a paternal descendant of the same line as the Earls of Morton, a finding consistent with his mother being Irish.

How to use DNA for genealogy
For those with Douglas or Drysdale ancestry, DNA testing can provide valuable genealogical insights.

Y-DNA testing: A male Drysdale or Douglas can take a Y-DNA test to trace his direct paternal line. The results can then be compared to the larger Douglas DNA project database to see if he matches any of the documented Douglas lineages. A non-match could suggest the line descends from an earlier Dryfesdale family or another unassociated line.

.........etc.

Unquote

Best regards

Comment by William Douglas on June 16, 2025 at 11:33

I have just been down the wrong rabbit hole, but still an interesting excursion:
https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/P9BR-SK1 
Douglas and Drysdale in Northumberland.

Comment by William Douglas on April 24, 2025 at 8:35

For reference@
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drysdale,_Victoria 

Comment by William Douglas on March 25, 2025 at 17:04

Arms of Thomas Drysdale: Argent a saltire and chief azure, four crosses moline gules in the cantons.

Thomas Drysdale was Lyon Depute of The Court of the Lord Lyon, or Lyon Court in 1627
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Lyon_King_of_Arms 

Comment by Ronald Drysdale on March 1, 2025 at 0:15

Hi William

Up until about the year 1600 the two respective family lines are defined/limited by available source material and the fact that there were very few Drysdales around at that time.

Thereafter the growth in the numbers of descendants is exponential and quickly arrives at many thousands of relatives - including many 100s of Drysdales - some lines are obviously unsourced & suspect but the majority are generally OK
- Note also that there are many people who have not been entered in the FS world tree. 

My genealogy program crashes by the time it gets to about the 12th generation of descendants from the Douglas brothers and the same thing happens at the 14th generation of descendants of the Tillicoultry Drysdales.

I haven't worked out yet if there is any program that can limit family lines to male descendants (Drysdales) only.

On the last Familysearch download I did - for Drysdales from Tillicoultry circa 1410 - after about 15 hours of download and about 30,000 names, (up until 1895 & 14 Generations) the program gave up.

Similarly on the last Familysearch download I did - for Douglas/Drysdales of Dollar circa 1448 - after about 10 hours of download and about 13,500 names (up until 1895 & 12 Generations) the program gave up.

Note although starting at a later date the Douglas/Drysdale names list seemed to be expanding quicker.

Of course the easy alternative is to trace each individuals family line on the FamilySearch tree back to the root

Root person in Tillicoultry - Drysdale ID number G2S7-JYJ
Root person for Dollar - Thomas Douglas ID number YMP4C-15Y

There are other ways but the limiting factors are the download times from FS and the vast numbers of persons in the later generations (the software - Ancestral Quest - and my PC seem to have trouble with big numbers)

Still a work in progress

Best regards

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