Friday, May 30, 2008

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.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

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

Sunday, May 4, 2008

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.