A Ramsey resident is investigating the origins of six Manx family names, which he believes could trace back to a Manx king.

Christopher Keig, a 31-year-old business analyst, is basing his study on the surnames Oates, Cormodes, Curpheys and Cretneys, as well as the ’northern’ Keigs and Caines.

Since beginning his DNA project in 2016 he has discovered that all six Manx families descend from a single man of Norwegian Viking origin.

He said: ’This is significant as out of the roughly 135 unique Manx families based on surname and DNA only 30 are of direct Viking descent.

’For six out of 30 families, or 20% of the Manx Viking population, to descend from a single common ancestor, it would indicate that person was likely very powerful and in all likelihood a king.’

He has an inkling that the individual could be Godred Crovan, a Norse-Gaelic ruler known as King Orry who became king of Mann during the 1070s.

The king’s descendants ruled the island and isles for nearly 200 years.

Christopher added that historical records show the kings having had many wives and concubines.

’If we take all of this into consideration we can come to a reasonable and logical conclusion that the Manx kings would naturally have a large number of direct male descendants still living in the Isle of Man,’ he said.

Christopher’s project began following an ’identity crisis’ at the age of 20.

’I started to think about what it really was to be Manx and wanted to learn more about my ancestry and where my Manx forebears came from,’ he said.

’This led to me doing a Y-DNA test with FamilyTreeDNA.com about 2009.

’To my surprise, I discovered my paternal line was of Viking, not Celtic origin.

’I began to venture outside of just my own Keig family and began researching the family tree of every Keig in the world I could find to connect us all together.’

To confirm whether his theory is correct, he is asking for more male descendants of the mentioned families to undertake Y-DNA testing with FamilyTreeDNA.com (FTDNA) based in Texas and share their results with him.

Evidence

These would then be compared to the remains of two kings held in the Manx Museum.

’If I am right about my theory, and the evidence so far gives me a significant chance of being right, then I’ll be the first researcher I believe to ever find the living, direct male descendants of Viking kings,’ he explained.

For more information about the research contact Christopher by emailing [email protected]