St Clair Sinclair DNA Affinity Project

Esselega held Stoke Trister in 1166 (KR-1, p. 686)

By Domesday Book (1086), Bretel St Clair was an important land holder in Southwest England. Two of his grandson’s had different last names because they lived on different land. Esselaga was the Latinized version of Ashley.

This gives me a tremendous tool to determine which of our lineages alive today connect to Bretel St Clair and others of the surname alive in Domesday era England.For example: if we find one of our Saint-Clair lineages showing SNP-proven matches within a Norman timeframe with someone alive today named Ashley, then it’s extremely likely we’re looking at descendants of Bretel.

The lineage we call Ancestral Sinclairs of Orkney & Caithness have a proven paternal connection to the Cumming/Comyn family c. 1119 A.D. Our Herdmanston Lineage has a proven paternal connection to the Forrester family c. 1541 A.D. Both these surnames fit within the narrative of the Saint-Clair family as written in legitimate records of that timeframe.

On this page we will track our work on possible affinity surnames from the Saint-Clair Narrative page as we test them for connections. When we prove an affinity family connection within a timeframe and geography that fits with the Saint-Clair Narrative, then we’ll point it out here and on the appropriate Lineage page.