Descent from Ragnvald Mørejarl
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Disclaimer: Genealogy-wise, this is WILD SPECULATION. Proof of paternity through 25 generations, right through the middle ages, is so hard to document that it's completely foolish to attach credibility to it.
This is a page of HYPOTHESIZING - "if what we speculate is all true, is there some way we could devise a test that would confirm the hypothesis - or deny it if it is false?"
Contents
Background
Ragnvald Mørejarl, Harald Hårfagre's henchman, is at an interesting juncture in the genealogical tree.
His father-line reaches back to Fornjot, the ancient giant of Finland.
The man Snorre claims as his son, Ganger-Rolf, called Rollo in Normadie, is a founding father of lots of European dynasties - but his descent is disputed; some claim he was a Dane. The Explicio foundation has taken on an effort to DNA-test some of his descendants.
This page looks at the other side: What possible male-line descendants do we have who were NOT descendants of Ganger-Rolf?
Tooling
HistoryLink's "descendant chart" with Y-chromosome only can give us 15 generations a shot. Some samples:
- Ganger-Rolf's descendants (you have to set # of generations and Y-only manually)
- Eiliv Torsteinson
- Arne Kåreson Vidreim
Then it's just a matter of picking out the branches of the star that reach the furthest and explore them further.
A weakness of this tool is that conflicts are not shown. The lines identified need to be walked manually to check for conflicts, which may lead to different results when walking the line up from when we walk the line down. (Of course, this is only the first step in checking the trace against sources!)
Ragnvald's other sons
Brothers of Ganger-Rolf:
- Ivar (Snorre) - no known children
- Tore Teiande (Snorre) - 154 male descendants in the first 15 generations. All living descendants go through Eiliv Torsteinsson (985-1050).
- Gutum (known only from Dudo of Saint-Quentin) - since he's on the "Rollo" side of documentation, not explored here.
Half-brothers:
- Hallad - one listed son, he has no male descendants.
- Turf-Einar - 34 male descendants, last one died around 1131 (jarls of Orkney)
- Hrollaug - 3 sons, 1 of which is listed with a male descendant, but no 3rd generation. This may be worth exploring further - Landnamabok should have more to say about this line.
Thus it seems that according to what we now have on Geni, a living male line has to go through Tore Teiande and Eiliv Torsteinsson.
Eiliv Torsteinsson
One of [1]'s sons had male heirs listed, and some descendants that go to generation 15:
- Orm Eilivson, Opplandsjarl, four surviving branches that diverge early:
The two first branches go through Gaut på Ænes, a well known figure in Norwegian geneaology. All his male descendants seem to have died before 1500, with Tymme Tymmesen, in 1480, being the last.
His great grandson Dag (who was for a while listed as his son) carries responsibility for the Hvitstein and Vidreim branches:
- Dag Eilivson Bratsberg, two surviving branches, going through the Kane family:
(Dag Eilivson had two candidate fathers: Eiliv Ormsson born ca 1050 and undocumented, and Eiliv Torsteinsson. One is the grandfather of the other. The sources linked in his profile give no references for his father, and the chronology looks wrong, so I've made him the great grandson of Eiliv Torsteinsson rather than his son.)
Ivar Iversen Hvitstein
Undocumented, birth calculated to be between 1445 and 1505.
204 male descendants, many of them living.
This person is also completely empty of sources, which is not a good sign.
Conclusion
If Ragnvald Mørejarl has male descendants that are listed on Geni, and if all the lines are correct, an Y-DNA test of any male-line descendant of Ivar Iversen Hvitstein should give the answer to the question of "what was Ragnvald Mørejarl's haplogroup".
If there's a single error in the thousand-year span between Ragnvald and Ivar, a test will prove nothing.
If we want to find other male-line descendants of Ragnvald, we need more evidence.
