Saturday, July 15, 2017

McCain Family DNA Update 15 July 2017

Gaelic Lord, Dunadd AD1014
There has been a lot of water under the bridge, the DNA bridge that is, since the first McCain DNA match was back in late August of 2003.  Since that time, through a collective effort of many McCain family researchers, we have located our cousins in Ireland, several of us have been over to visit them, and... we have uncovered our family history and our point of origin as 'the McCains' dating back to AD 1290s.  In short, our McCain DNA project have been successful.  

Now to some updates:  one of the interesting facts we discovered is that we share the same paternal ancestry and a cluster of families all from what is now the parish of Kilmichael Glassary, which is located in mid Argyll.  One of these families is well known in Scottish history, the Mac Ailpín family.  Their lore, the primary sources, etc., say they descend from the famous figure of Coinneach Mac Ailpín, King of the Picts.  He is also called the first King of Scots.  

There is much lore an some scholarly disagreements on the nature and facts surrounding Coinneach Mac Ailpín, but there is also a body of factual data on the man.  He was a Gael and king of Dál Riata and inherited the throne of Pictland through his Pictish mother.  The Picts, for those not familiar with north British history, were a group of indigenous Celtic tribes that lived in what is now mid and northern Scotland.  

From the Y chromosome DNA results, it appears he and his sons established a group of ruling families in mid and northern Argyll.  The McCains and McAlpins are just two families of the group, there are several more all with lore and DNA results that connect them to mid Argyll, the Dunadd area, and SNP results point to a date to shared ancestor being circa mid to late AD 800s.   Now the McCains are connected by clan to Clann Lachlainn of Cowal, that is that is from whom they held rights to their lands in Glassary.  The lines of descent are lost to the fog of history and we are only slowly extracting data as the DNA results come in. 

It is possible and it appears that Coinneach Mac Ailpín functioned much like Niall of the Nine Hostages, in that he establish a dynasty and many families actually descend from him.   Niall of the Nine Hostages and his descendants are a much larger group and range from western Ulster, across the province, and then into the Scottish Lowlands.  In the case of Coinneach Mac Ailpín, it is more regionalised to mid and north Argyll, until the 1500s, when there was a migration of many families to western Ulster.   

Other news:  the McCains, i.e. clann Mhic Eain, are also descendants of the Indo-European tribes that migrated into western Europe from the Pontic Caspian Steepe.  The dating of the time frame of this migration has firmed up due to new techniques in extracting viable Y chromosome data from skeletal remains.  Tests on these remains from the Balkans west to Ireland, tell us when and how this migration took place.  Our people reached what is now Ireland circa 2000 BC, or around 4,100 years before present.  This new data supports the historian paradigm of Dr Koch and Dr Cunliffe and their 'Celtic From the West' concept. In short, Celtic language and people have been in Ireland, Scotland, Britain, etc., much longer than the old theories projected.  I will post more on this later as it is a fascinating field of study and their is so much new data out.  

Our McCains in the McCain DNA Project are now doing advanced SNP tests. With these tests we can determine the date of branches of our family and even locate unique haplotypes for each branch.  This allows future researchers to test of a particular haplotype to confirm a connections to a particular family and even to date that connection.    


8 comments:

Unknown said...

I am a decent of the McCain Clan
I have a family tree book. This is how I know .

Unknown said...

I can be reached at karenochsner011@gmail.com. I tried to find out years,ago if I was a distant related to Senator John Mc Cain. As my family is from Mississippi.

Unknown said...

Hi my name Eric McCain i would love to find out more about my history my email is ericmmccain39@gmail.com if i could help by giving dna i would be more than happy sincerly Eric McCain

Barry R McCain said...

Senator John McCain is in the same family. We have a good number of Mississippi origin McCains in our DNA project, who are cousins, to the Senator. They are all a DNA match to each other and our family. These McCains all descend from two brothers, Alexander and Hugh McKean circa 1720, Donegal Township, PA Colony. The biography of this McCain family is called 'Finding the McCains' and is available on Amazon. The book is based on DNA test results and primary source data in Ireland and Scotland.

Karen Tracy McCain Barney of Hammond, Indiana. said...

Hello,my name is Karen Tracy McCain Barney. My grandfather was Willie Calvin McCain of Mississippi. Very interesting, thank you for the hard work.

Unknown said...

Barry , I am from Alexander's side. So we are distant cousins. Here is my email. Karenochsner012@gmail.com. My Grandmother on my father's side was Besty McCain. I have a book my other distant cousin wrote. It us titled Seven Generations of the family of Alexander Hamiton Mc,cain 1786 -1874 and his,eige Naomi Neely Mcain. South Carolina , Georgia ,Alabama and Mississippi. I would love to get any up dates . I have some history dating back to the 13 century with John the bold.

Unknown said...

I bought your book. It is a good read. I thought we were related but , I am of the Glencoe Massacre McCains. I thought I found a distant relative but no I didnt.

Unknown said...

Not sure if Om doing this correctly. I bought your book and found out we are not related. I am of the Glencoe Massacre McCains. I thought I found a distant relative but , not to happen. :(