Jim McKane, Lord of the Web...

Jim McKane and his lovely wife Suzanne. Jim is the webmaster of the Ulster Heritage DNA Project and the McCain DNA Project. In short, he makes the magic work, to use the over 50 year old speak.

There is much to Jim, he's climbed Kilimanjaro in Africa and has 13 grandchildren to date; doing his bit to make sure we McCains not only survive, but prevail! I am jealous as I only have two grandchildren.

Jim is one of our Canadian McKanes, we have quite a few in our group in Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Good people each and every one, eh...

This photo taken this year during Jim's seasonal migration to Arizona.


Barry R McCain

The Mississippi McCains

Two Mississippi McCains; Leslie GordonMcCain and son, Barry R McCain, circa 1958.

James & Esther Hamilton McKean

This photo is of the burial monument of Esther Hamilton McKean, Edith Annie McKean and James McKean and was sent to me by William Roulston, one of the organisers of the upcoming Ulster American History Symposium in Omagh, County Tyrone. The stone is located in StJohnstown, in east Donegal. It once again shows the close relationship between the Hamiltons and the McCains. I would say there are easily seven Hamilton McCain marriages, possibly more. The McCain name was often written as McKean in times past, but said 'Mac Cain.'

Barry R McCain

© 2008 McCain

The 1718 McKeens

John Cargill “Jack” MacKeen is a direct lineal descendant of settlers from the 1718 migration from Antrim to America, including both McKeen and Cargill lines. His immigrant ancestor, John McKeen, born 1700 in Ballymoney, Co. Antrim, arrived as a young man with his mother and siblings in Boston in August of 1718. This is a historically significant family in that it was the families of James and John McKeen, father of the above John McKeen, which were the motivating force behind the fleet of ships from Ulster that came into Boston harbour in late summer of 1718. Many historians site the event as the actually ‘beginning’ of the Ulster Migration to the New World. They established a migration paradigm, of many families coming together in a fleet of ships, and this pattern established the large Ulster presence in the New World.

When the McCain DNA Project began we did not know that the New England McKeens and McKeans were the same family as the New Brunswick McCains and Mississippi McCains, to our surprise the DNA testing revealed not only that they were the same family, but quite close kin as well. Jack McKeen was an early participant in the McCain DNA Project and because his McKeen family is so well documented his participation did much to further the research into the Mac Eáin family history.

Jack is now retired from the high tech field. Jack is a Trustee of New England Historic Genealogical Society, a member of Clan Donald USA and a member of the local historical society.



The picture below is the gravestone of that immigrant ancestor and his wife, Martha Cargill, in the Robie Street Cemetery in Truro, Nova Scotia. Both died on the same day, December 30, 1767.

LIVE McCains, Ole Miss Campus Fall 2007

Donovan McCain, Conar McCain perform on the Ole Miss Campus, Fall 2007, with Jesse Pinion on lead guitar. The song original, written by Donovan, notice the nice bass work by Conar, he's only 14, but already very good on bass guitar.




Video curtesy of Jamie Johnson

The McCain Clan

The McCains are a small Irish clan that were for a long time an enigma. We knew who they are and where they lived, but much of their history was a mystery. There are several reasons for this. In the north of Ireland there are two Gaelic names anglicised as McCain and several non-related families have used this anglicised surname and their respective histories are sometimes confused with one another. There is also the chaos of Ulster history. So, for these reasons, the McCains were largely missed by the historians’ sieve. It was left to the McCain descendants in the Diaspora to extract their own history, which they have done with much success by using primary source research and Y-chromosome DNA testing. The real history of McCain clan is at last being told.

The anglicised forms of the name include McCain, McCane, McKane, McKain, McKean, and McKeen. Confirming the Gaelic form of the name was difficult. While this may seem surprising, as noted previously there are at least two Gaelic names anglicised as McCain in Ulster. These names are Mac Catháin and Mac Eáin and to add to the complexity, these families were often living in the same districts. However, DNA research and a study of primary sources confirmed that the McCains originated from north Antrim east of the Bann River and were linked to the name Mac Eáin.


(right, a burial stone of a prominent McCain circa 1490s)

The McCains are a classic Gaelic patronymic clan. The Patriarch of the clan was named Eáin. Eáin was a popular form of Eóin in use in the Gaelic dialect of Argyll, the southern Isles, and parts of Ulster from the 15th Century onward, Eáin is a loan word to Gaelic from the Latin Ioannes via Aramaic and Hebrew y'hohanan, meaning 'Jehovah has favoured.'

An analysis of the DNA suggests this Patriarch lived circa 1350 to 1450 AD. DNA tests have also revealed that the Ulster McCains are related to several Gaelic families from mid-Argyll associated with historical Gallóglaigh kindreds. The Gallóglaigh were a hereditary professional military caste that played a major role in the history of Ireland circa 1225 AD to 1600 AD.


Irish Gallóglach wearing their unique conical helmet, an icon of their caste


McCains appear in the primary sources from the mid-1400s onward. They are mentioned in north Antrim by the 1500s and by the late 1600s a branch of them settled in east Donegal. They were part of the old Gaelic class yet some converted to the Presbyterian faith and took a leadership role in this community and yet other McCain families remained Catholic or Anglican.

From the late 1600s until the early 1800s the McCains were most numerous on the east side of the Bann valley, from Ballymoney north to Ballyrashane and Corbally, east to Dunluce and Dunseverick. The Donegal branch of the McCain family was located in the Finn Valley and around St Johnstown.

In 1718, groups of these McCains began to immigrate to the New World and they continued to throughout the 1700s, 1800s and 1900s. One family from this clan, the Ballymoney McKeans, were the progenitors of the 1718 Ulster Migration to the Colonies. The Ulster McCains families are now located throughout the United States, and are particularly numerous in the South. In Canada they are found in New Brunswick, Ontario, and Nova Scotia. One Donegal McCain family migrated to Scotland and the descendants now live outside Glasgow. In Ireland itself few remain and these are found around Coleraine, in Dublin, in east Donegal and northwest Tyrone.

The McCains are an energetic and successful clan and have distinguished themselves in many fields. They have produced frontiersmen, writers, historians, church leaders, musicians, sport champions, attorneys, doctors, entrepreneurs, business magnates, admirals, generals, and statesmen, and their saga continues.

The Clan McCain Website: http://maceain.ulsterheritage.com/

The Clan McCain Blog: http://maceain.blogspot.com/

Barry McCain © 2008

Congratulations Mac!

John McCain won the Texas Republican primary on Tuesday, 4 March and clinched the number of delegates needed to win his party's presidential nomination. Good to see the old Teoc McCain family doing so well and frankly, I think we shall need Senator McCain’s experience and wisdom in the coming years. Also a nod of thanks to Governor Huckabee for running a good and honourable campaign that kept important issues before our citizens, one hopes we will see him in a prominent position in the McCain Whitehouse. Well Done Mac.

Barry R McCain

Oxford Mississippi