R-S1051 Project

George Chandler is an independent scholar and genetic genealogy researcher.  He is the administrator of the R-S1051 Project which is with Family Tree DNA.  The families in the Mid Argyll Kinship group are in the R-S1051 haplogroup and are encouraged to also participate in George's project.  The families with the R-S1051 all share the same paternal ancestor.  Many of the families are from the mid Argyll area have a TMRCA that dates to 800AD to 1500AD.  Some of the families in the R-S1051 group go much further back to the TMRCA, dating to Bronze Age Iberia.  There are several Portuguese and Spanish families in the group that are the very distant cousins of the Mid Argyll Group families.

Link to George Chandler's research:  R-S1051 Project 

Below is the introduction to George Chandler's R-S1051 Project.


Recently many new SNP's have been discovered for this unique haplogroup which is located below DF13.

The majority of this family group have 5 main Patriarch SNP's (S1051, FGC9655, FGC9661, FGC9658 and FGC9657). The current age estimate for these Patriarch SNP's is approximately 3,200 to 4,500 years old and likely originated within what is known as the Bell Beaker culture. When examining other haplogroups of a similar age the S1051 people are very few by comparison.

Evidence suggests that the geographic origin of this family group could have been from what is now modern Scotland.
https://www.familytreedna.com/public/R-S1051/default.aspx?section=results
 S1051 Project SNP results spreadsheet page 1 of 2.  
 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1E1iiiFeUgXGA-Trg_whSqbK_sTZI5csja4dRFWZ5-bE/edit?usp=sharing 
S1051 Project SNP results spreadsheet page 2 of 2 - FGC17906+
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YsOmg_EaoSh3QVKn9u_216ZtN3nI8LO5-NRA5Oscg4s/edit?usp=sharing

On the above spreadsheet links I've placed "SNP dates" which are an approximation as these mutation rates can vary. So far on average there is 1 Sanger SNP verified per 139 years so it's important to stress that these dates could change slightly as more research needs to be completed. There are instances like the single defining McCeney SNP which likely exceeds 200 years since it's mutation and other examples which were fewer than 139 years. Other factors to consider are the number of SNP's captured from the various sequencing types and the number of raw SNP's which are culled due to reliability issues. The age estimate 139 years per SNP was calculated by using known genealogy, full Y testing, Sanger verification, STR calculations and averaging the number of raw SNP's located below DF13. It's also important to understand that chronology of many of the SNP's (including the 5 main oldest ones) are still unknown.
For those in the Mid Argyle FGC17906 Group - they will find this valuable book written by Barry McCain interesting and worth the purchase.

http://www.amazon.com/Finding-McCains-Scots-Irish-Odyssey/dp/0985587644/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1425241505&sr=1-1&keywords=Finding+the+McCains
The following link is to a 64 page paper written by Ronald Henderson that I recently discovered online. Although some concepts found within may stir debate within the historical or scientific community I believe it was well written and worth adding to project page.

http://www.thesonsofscotland.co.uk/Rex%20Pictorum.pdf

Finding the McCains

 (this book explores the connections of the McCain family to Ailean Mac Eáin Riabhach, Taoiseach of Glassary circa 1436-1470)

Finding the McCains

 

Finding the McCains, is an account of a man’s 40 year odyssey to find the McCain family in Ireland.  Senator John McCain and his cousin, novelist Elizabeth Spencer, both include a short history of the McCain family in their respective memoirs Faith of our Fathers and Landscapes of the Heart.  Their history is a romantic tale of Highland Scots who supported Mary Queen of Scots and who fled to Ireland after her downfall in 1568.  The search for the McCains became a mystery story with clues, false turns, many adventures, and then ultimate success through Y chromosome DNA testing.  In 2008 the McCains were reunited with their family that remained in Ireland, after 289 years of separation.

 

 

The McCain history includes people and events familiar to readers of Irish and Scottish history; Redshanks, Iníon Dubh, Mary Queen of Scots, the Earls of Argyll, the Ulster Migration, and the Scots-Irish, are all part of this family’s history.  Faint memories of this past were told for generations in Mississippi and as the research progressed the facts behind these memories were uncovered.

 

The Y chromosome DNA results revealed that the McCains of Mississippi, which include Senator John McCain’s family, are the same family of Wallace and Harrison McCain, the founders of Canada’s McCain Foods, one of the most successful corporations in the world.  They are also the same family as James McKeen who organized the 1718 fleet that began the great Ulster Migration to the English Colonies.  All these families are paternally related and they all descend from one Gaelic man named Mac Eáin that lived in Kilmichael Glassary parish, in mid Argyll, in the Scottish Highlands, in the 1400s.

 

The book tells of the author’s many trips to Ireland in search of his distant cousins there.  There are anecdotal stories, some humorous and others involving “famous” people; such as, Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty, Mary Coughlan (Irish Tainste or vice president), Cindy McCain (wife of Senator McCain), Seán Mac Stiofáin (1970s head of the IRA) , Alan Heusaff (WW II German officer in Dublin who later became president of the Celtic League), and Muhammad Ali.  There is even an encounter with a Bean Sí (faerie woman) on the windy cold hill of megalithic stone ruins at Loch an Craoibh.  All presented from the perspective of a native Mississippian. 

 

Another theme in the book is the Scots-Irish.  Contemporary histories about the Scots-Irish present stereotyped and romanticized accounts of this dynamic group.  Finding the McCains reveals a more complex history and shows the cultural conflation common in Scots-Irish popular history.

 

Finding the McCains is an excellent read for all interested in Irish and Scottish history and is an how-to guide for those interested in how-to guide for those who would like to use genetic genealogy to locate their family in the old country and recover lost family history.

 

To purchase from Amazon: Finding the McCains

To purchase from Ulster Heritage directly send US $20 (postage paid) to:

Ulster Heritage

PO Box 884

Oxford MS 38655

USA 

The Scots-Irish: Native Tribes of Britain

The Scots-Irish: Native Tribes of Britain: The majority of the Scots-Irish are descendants of the native Celtic tribes of north Britain.  Here is a link to an article on the BBC Histo...

DNA Project Update

We have two sub groups that have developed in the Mid Argyll Kinship Group.  The DNA locus 485 has a value of 13 for all the Mac Eáin origin surnames and a value of 16 for the rest of the men in the project.  The norm for the R-L21 haplogroup is in fact 15.   So, both sub groups within the Mid Argylll Kinship Group, i.e. the R-L21 9919 A-1 group to use geneticist jargon, have a 485 different than the norm.  This is a valuable research factor.

This mutation of the Mac Eáin sub group may have happened circa 1450 to 1550.  Pure speculation.  It may be 'the' marker of families that descend from Donnchaidh Mór Mac Eáin, as his family used the surname McCain beginning in the late 1400s.

The Viking Britons

Link to a fascinating article by Scottish historian Tim Clarkson.  Most students of Irish and Scottish history are very familiar with the Gall Ghaeil, but Tim Clarkson has proposed that there was also a Gall Bhreathanaigh.   Gall Ghaeil means the foreign Gaels and Gall Bhreathanaigh means the foreign Britons, as in the Celtic people that lived in Scotland.  This is linked to McCain history and our DNA results.  When I have more time I will post an explanation.  This article specifically about Clan Galbriath, but relative to the McCains.

The story here:  The Viking Britons

z9919 A-1

There is another DNA project that is researching our group it is the z9919 project. Our Mid Argyll Kinship group is a part of this study, we are designated z9919 A-1 in their nomenclature. 

The z9919 cluster is a relatively large genetic cluster with at least 300 members so far, well-known for their characteristic 459=9-9, YCA=19-19 pattern (double 9s at the 459 marker, and double 19s at the YCAII marker).

 

For those interesting this is the 9919 and RecLOH Project under Family Tree.  I joined as it will help with our project as well.  I see some interesting data developing around this haplogroup.  I think we are dealing with an indigenous Celtic tribal group located initially in central Scotland, from the Firth of Clyde east to Dundee area. 

 

I will post news on this as it comes in.

Burial Slab of Donnchadh Ruadh Mac Allein

 

The burial slab of Donnchadh Mór Mac Allein Mhic Lachlainn. Better known in history as Donnchadh Mac Eain, or in English, Duncan McCain.   He was active from the late 1460s until circa 1514.  He was a son of Ailean Mac Eáin Riabhach.  Ailean was given a charter to a large holding of land in Glassary in 1436 by his cousin and the overall Taoiseach of Clann Lachlainn, Eáin Mac Lachlainn.  The exact nature of the kinship between Ailean and Eáin is not known, the term cousin had a very broad meaning in the Gaelic world in the fifteenth century.  While the kinship connection is a mystery, there is no doubt of the clan affiliation.  Ailean held his lands through Eáin Mac Lachlainn and his descendants continued this practice in both the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.