Explore the Family Name Brigham

Possible origins of the surname Brigham

Your DNA provides clues about where your recent ancestors may have lived. Having many distant relatives in the same location suggests that you may all share common ancestry there. Locations with many distant relatives can also be places where people have migrated recently, such as large cities. If a large number of individuals who share your surname have distant relatives in a specific area, it could indicate a connection between your surname and that location, stemming from either recent ancestral ties or migration.

Based on 23andMe data, people with last name Brigham have recent ancestry locations in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Ireland.

What Brigham haplogroups can tell you

Haplogroups are genetic population groups that share a common ancestor on either your paternal or maternal line. These paternal and maternal haplogroups shed light on your genetic ancestry and help tell the story of your family.

The top paternal haplogroup of people with the surname Brigham is N-Y4706, which is predominantly found among people with European ancestry. Haplogroup N-Y4706 is descended from haplogroup N-M231. Other common haplogroups include N-M178 and R-Z195, which are predominantly found among people with European and European ancestry. Other surnames with similar common haplogroups are: Madrigal, Nottingham, Edmonson, Edmundson, Norvell, Normand, Nordin, Ehlert, Ehrhardt, Norcross.

The most common maternal haplogroups of people with Brigham surname are: H1, H, V. These most commonly trace back to individuals of European ancestry.

Your paternal lineage may be linked to men with indigenous Siberian ancestry

Haplogroup N-M178 is the most common paternal lineage in people of indigenous Siberian descent, but it probably only arrived in Siberia within the last 3,000 years. By the time members of N-M178 arrived in Siberia from Mongolia and northern China, other humans had probably been there for tens of thousands of years. In fact, research suggests that modern humans have been in Siberia near the Altai Mountains for 40,000 years, mostly as hunter-gatherers. The original inhabitants of Siberia probably migrated from Central Asia, not long after the original human exodus from Africa 50,000-70,000 years ago.

Your maternal lineage may be linked to Marie Antoinette

Because it is so dominant in the general European population, haplogroup H also appears quite frequently in the continent's royal houses. Marie Antoinette, an Austrian Hapsburg who married into the French royal family, inherited the haplogroup from her maternal ancestors. So did Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, whose recorded genealogy traces his female line to Bavaria. Scientists also discovered that famed 16th century astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus traced his maternal lineages to haplogroup H.