The Burial Stone of Duncan McCain circa 1510

burial stone of Donnchadh Mac Eáin

 

James McKane of Wiarton, Ontario, has commissioned this magnificent art work, which is a facsimile of the burial stone of Donnchadh Rua Mac Ailein, who was one of the first men in our family that used the McCain surname.  In the primary sources in Argyll he is always called by the surname McCain.  He lived circa 1540 to 1510.   He was a Thane in Kilmichael Glassary and made his home at Dun na Muc, which is very close to Dunadd, in mid Argyll. 

 

The inscription is in Latin and reads Thane Hic Iacit Duncanus Roy M'Allen with the clan affiliation written on the top of Lachlan.  This inscription is the literal genealogy of Donnchadh Rua and references his father Ailean.

 

The family as a group began being known by the surname McCain as early as the late 1300s.  In the existing written records the name shows up by the early 1400s just prior to Donnchadh Rua's father becoming the Thane of Glassary.  The reason they were known as the McCains goes back to a complex series of events related to the family in the 1300s.  Eoghan Mac Eáin held the lands in the early 1300s, his descendants officially forfeited the lands in 1346.... but we know from the primary sources they remained on them. Later, continuing in the complex Gaelic political affairs of the day, several descendants of Eoghan Mac Eáin, received grants to the lands in 1436 from the Taoiseach of Clann Lachlainn.  On of these was the Ailean Mac Eáin,  father of our Donnchadh Rua. It was during this time that this family began to be knows as the McCains in the Argyll records.

More information on these early McCains is found in the book Finding the McCains.

 

This art work is 8.5" x 16" and suitable for hanging on your wall or placed on a mantel or bookcase.  It is a clay casting hand carved and made by Jon Sanborn of Laveen, AZ. 

 

This is a must have for all McCains of course, but also to all Highland Scots interesting in the history of Argyll. 

To purchase contact James McKane

The History of the McCains

Mongavlin Castle, Donegal, where the McCains settled in Ireland

 

Amazon is running a sale on Finding the McCains, A Scots Irish Odyssey this week for the excellent price of $14.60.  The book is a biography of the McCain family of Dunamuck, mid Argyll, Scotland.

This is a good time for those who have not yet purchased the book to do so.  There are many histories circulating on the internet and in publish books on the history of this family, but unfortunately most are in error in all the basics.   Finding the McCains, A Scots Irish Odyssey is the result of ten years of extensive Y-DNA testing and the Latin, Gaelic, and Lallans, primary sources from mid Argyll. 

 

 

'Finding the McCains,' is an account of one Mississippi McCain’s 40 year odyssey to find his family in Ireland. Senator John McCain and his cousin, novelist Elizabeth Spencer, both include a short history of the Mississippi McCain family in their respective memoirs 'Faith of our Fathers' and 'Landscapes of the Heart.' This 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 story. Faint memories of this past were told for generations in Mississippi and as the research progressed the facts behind these memories were uncovered.

 

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 also a genetic genealogy how-to guide for people of Irish and Scottish ancestry.

 

 

Link:  Finding the McCains

The MacAlpins and the McCains

Note to all the Clann Mac Eain folk, this is very interesting and on-going research in our origins pre 1000 AD.  We share paternal ancestry with the Mac Ailpín family from the Loch Awe area.  It is possible they are the descendants of Coinneach Mac Ailpín, King of Picts, first King of Scotland.  This research is being done by an independent historian, George Chandler.  I am still working on the McCains circa 1400 to 1700 in Argyll myself.  The Mac Ailpín family was not a Highland clan per se, they were more just a family with a history.  If these mid Argyll Mac Ailpíns do turn out to be descendants of Coinneach Mac Ailpín, it will make a lot of Highland Scottish history fall into place.



Kilmichael Glassary Parish, Mid Argyll

The Mid Argyll Kinship DNA Project is a genetic genealogy research project on a group of families that share the same paternal ancestry, primarily from the parish of Kilmichael Glassary in mid Argyll.  Two of the families in the group are the MacAlpins (Mac Ailpín) and MacCains (Mac Eáin).  The chronology of the common male ancestor of these two mid Argyll families is currently under study.  Members of both families are doing the "Big Y" DNA test.  The BIG Y is a direct paternal lineage test and explores deep ancestral links.  It tests both thousands of known branch markers and millions of places where there may be new branch markers.  Both the Mac Ailpín and Mac Eáin families share SNP FGC19435 and the projected chronology to the TMRCA is circa 500AD.  The basic question is, are these MacAlpin families connected to the historical king from mid-Argyll, Coinneach Mac Ailpín (810 AD – 858 AD).  Coinneach Mac Ailpín was the first king of Scotland and founder of a dynasty which ruled Scotland for much of the medieval period.  This would mean the entire Mid Argyll Kinship group descends paternally from this old Dal Riada family.

The MacCains go back to a pivotal figure of Giolla Chríost who was a lord in Kilmichael Glassary in the 1200s.  He had three sons. One of these sons, Giolla Padraig, was the progenitor of the Cowal Clann Lachlainn.  His other two sons, Giolla Easpuig and Eoghann, had lands in Kilmichael Glassary in mid Argyll.  The descendants of Giolla Easpuig and Eoghann eventually lost their lands in Glassary to the Scrymgeour family.  In the late-1200s, Giolla Easpuig’s line failed to produce a male heir and their lands went to Ralf of Dundee by marriage. The lands of Eoghann were held by his son named Eáin, which passed to his sons by the 1340s.   In 1346, the Scottish Crown forfeited the Glassary lands of Eáin’s sons to Gilbert of Glassary, who was a grandson of Ralf of Dundee.  So by the late 1300s, Gilbert of Glassary had acquired, technically that is, much of the lands of the descendants of Giolla Easpuig and Eoghann, the two sons Giolla Chríost.  However, Gilbert of Glassary produced no male heir and in the 1370s all of these lands went to Alexander Scrymgeour, who had married Agnes, the daughter and heiress of Gilbert of Glassary.

How much control the Scrymgeour family had over the lands that had belonged to Giolla Easpuig and Eoghann Mac Giolla Chríost is questionable.  At this time, Glassary was the epicenter of the Redshanks society. Redshanks were a warrior class in high demand as mercenaries in Scotland, Ireland, and Europe.  They were a law unto themselves. They were supported by the tenants of the lord, a practice called “sorning.”  One sixteenth-century Scottish observer complained that the Glassary Redshanks were, “wild men who cannot be coerced or punished by secular judge or power.”^[1]  The local lore says, and it is probably correct, that the descendants of Eáin son of Eoghann Mac Giolla Chríost took the “clan” surname of their cousins, the Mac Lachlainns of Cowal, and remained on their lands in Glassary.  It is also remembered that the Scrymgeours, quite wisely, made no changes and did not require rents, per se.  Given the remoteness of mid Argyll and the warlike nature of the local Gaels, the Scrymgeours showed wisdom.  The status of land possession in Glassary becomes clearer when a “McCain” family appears there in the 1430s and we are told they are of Clann Lachlainn.

In 1432, a John M’Ean (Eáin Mac Eáin) appears in the Glassary writs selling a tract of land at Kilmun in Cowal to John Scrymgeour, son of Alexander.  In the writs, we are told John M’Ean’s uncle is Giolla Easpuig Mac Eáin, showing us they both were known by the same surname.^[2]  Then four years later, in 1436, Ailean Mac Eáin received a grant to extensive lands in Glassary which included many of the lands that had been held by Giolla Easpuig and Eoghann, the two sons of Giolla Chríost.  Ailean Mac Eáin’s son, Dunnchadh Rua, is also listed as “McCain” in the 1400s.  In other words, a McCain family appears on the scene in the 1430s in control of the lands held by Giolla Chríost’s two sons in Glassary.  Alastair Campbell of Airds, the Officer of Arms of Scotland and historian, noticed the appearance in Glassary of these McCains in his book The History of Clan Campbell.  When writing about the sale of land by John M’Ean to Sir John Scrymgeour he noted, “the lands of Kilmun presumably held by the MacIans or MaKanes, whoever they may have been.”^[3]  Mac Phail, the editor of the The Highland Papers, also noticed this McCain group and observed they were probably descendants of Giolla Easpuig Mac Giolla Chríost.^[4]   I would agree with this observation, but suspect they were the descendants of Eáin the son of Eoghann Mac Giolla Chríost. This is why they were known in Gaelic as the Mac Eáin family.  The salient point is that, from the early 1430s onward, there was a McCain family and Ailean Mac Eáin and his son Dunnchadh Rua were part of this family and they were connected to the Scrymgeour family through multiple marriages and land transactions.

Much of the history can be deduced from the lands themselves.  Several of the Glassary lands that Eoghann and his brother Giolla Easpuig held are the same ones granted to Ailean Mac Eáin in 1436 and later held by his sons.  Put into a historical context, the 1400s were a golden age for the local Gaelic powers in mid Argyll and Eáin Mac Lachlainn’s (Taoiseach of Clann Lachlainn) grant to Ailean Mac Eáin reflects this.  There may have been official land resignations, but the reality was Clann Lachlainn still retained control of much of their ancestral lands in Glassary and the 1436 grant confirms this.

By the late 1500s, McCain was fixed as a surname. This was almost certainly done to distinguish them as the line of Ailean Mac Eáin.  This use of the surname was noticed by local historian Herbert Campbell in the 1922, volume 38 edition of The Genealogist.  As he put it, “it is practically sure that two of the three Johns nicknamed ‘reoch’ belonged to the Dunadd line, so that it looks as though the family were playing with the nickname.”^[5]  “John Reoch” was Campbell’s way of anglicizing Eáin Riabhach.  He was correct. The name was being used more at that time.  An example of what Herbert Campbell meant is seen in the name of Giolla Easpuig Mac Eáin Riabhach Mhic Dhonnchaidh Rua Mhic Lachlainn, who appears in the Lamont Papers in 1612.  This derbhfine name would be Archibald McCain in today’s English.  In 1570, Alexander M’Ean of Glassary held the lands at Bormolloch.   Bormolloch is the farmstead to the immediate east of Creag an Tairbh.  Significantly, Alexander M’Ean is listed in the Scrymgeour family records showing yet another connection between these two families.^[6]  One Campbell tacsman listed in the year 1603 is “John M’Donald V’Ean, alias M’Loauchlan.”^[7]  In Gaelic, his name was Eáin Mac Dónaill Mhic Eáin.  The “alias M’Loauchlan” means also known as Mac Lachlainn.  In 1705, another example of the multiple surname use is recorded in the Argyll justiciary records, with “Duncan Vc Lauchlane alias McEan.”^[8]  These are examples of a clerk feeling the need to clarify a McCain’s clan affiliation.

The Mid Argyll MacAlpins are more difficult to locate in the primary sources in the 1400s, but in the 1500s they appear and are linked to the Ailean Mac Eáin family.  On 6 May 1573 John McDonche VcAlpine (Eáin Mac Donnchaidh Mhic Ailpín) was a witness to a sasine given by Alexander Scrymgeour at Kirnan, Kilmichael Glassary parish.  Alexander Scrymgeour was father of James Scrymgeour who was married to Aifric Nic Dhonnchaidh Rua (a descendent of Donnchadh Rua Mac Eáin).   This established a connection in the primary sources between the Mac Ailpín and Mac Eáin families.  Next we have, on 4 January 1608, in the Poltalloch Writs recorded at Inveraray castle, the Earl of Argyll addressed a precept of clare constat to Duncan McAlpine (Donnchadh Mac Ailpín) in Garbhallt.^[9]  Garbhallt was part of Donnchadh Rua Mac Eáin's lands.  By the 1600s, there are many Mac Ailpín families that show up in the records, often living in the same settlements as the McCains other descendants of Ailean Mac Eáin. The MacAlpin families that participated in the DNA test were from the Loch Ederline area, which is on the southern end of Loch Awe within minutes of both Garbhallt and Bormolloch.

While the research is still on going, the DNA results of the mid Argyll Mac Ailpín family suggests they may be the historical Mac Ailpín family and their paternal line provided other clan progenitors in mid Argyll. The ancestral origins results for the family shows connections to central Scotland and no deep connections to Ireland, which  points to an indigenous Cumbric or Pict progenitor of this family.  News and research updates of the mid Argyll Mac Ailpín families will be posted on the Mid Argyll Group’s blog page.

---

 

[1] Heather Frances James, Medieval Rural Settlement, a study of Mid-Argyll, Scotland, (PhD thesis, University of Glasgow) 124.

 

[2] JRN MacPhail, 175.

 

[3] Alastair Campbell, The History of Clan Campbell, Volume I, From Origins to Flodden, (Edinburg, Edinburg University Press, 2000) 127.

 

[4] MacPhail, 225,226.

 

[5] Harwood,”Poltalloch Writs”, 71.

 

[6]  J Maitland Thomson, ed., Inventory of Documents Relating to the Scrymgeour Family Estates 1611 (Edinburgh: J Skinner and Company, 1912), 24.

 

[7] Innes, Parochiales, 165. Taken from the Brendalbane Charters.

 

[8] John Cameron, ed., The Justiciary Records of Argyll and the Isles 1664-1705, Volume 1(Edinburgh, The Stair Society), 75.

 

[9] Ibid., 142.

 

Finding the McCains

 

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 

McCain Deep Ancestry

There are several DNA projects researching the deep ancestry of the Mid Argyll Kinship Group to which the McCains belong.  This kinship group share paternal ancestry and is indigenous to central Scotland and includes several families from mid Argyll; some of the surnames in the group are, Mac Ailpín (McAlpin), Mac Artair (McArthur), Mac Eanruig (Henry), Mac Eain (McCain), Mac Donaill (McDonald), Mac Donnchaidh (Duncan), Mac an Leagha (McLea), Mag Aoidh (Gay) along with several names that are harder to discern their original Gaelic form, Machlan (possibly Mac Lachlainn), Gray (probably from the nickname Glas, meaning "grey."  Most of these surnames are not clan surnames, but rather surnames taken in the 1400s through the 1500s, from traditional Gaelic patronymics.

The group shows no deep ancestry in Ireland and outside of Scotland it has more DNA matches in Wales, which suggests a Cumbric origin for the kinship group.  Cumbric is a term for the indigenous Celtic people that were native to much of Scotland and historically spoke the Cymreag language.  The Cumbric population of Scotland became Gaelic speaking in the early medieval period. Cymreag is a P-Celtic language, whereas Gaelic is a Q-Celtic language. As Scotland was formed into a country as we know it in the modern sense, the Cumbric population, became Gaelic speaking.

Cumbric ancestry in Argyll is not unusual. Several Gaelic clans in Argyll have lore that claim Cumbric ancestry.  Three prominent ones are Clann Chaimbeul (the Campbells), Clann Eanruig (the Henrys), and Clann Neachtáin (the MacNaughtons).  

The group has a unique Y chromosome DNA haplogroup designated as R-S1051.  They are also called the 9919 A-1 group, so called because of loci, 459 = 9-9, the YCA II = 19-19, and 640 = 12.  Their 485 locus is also unusual and runs from 485 = 13, or 485 = 16 (the norm for R-L21 is 15).

The Y-Chromosome projects researching this group are:

Mid Argyll Group

http://www.familytreedna.com/public/MidArgyllKinshipGroup/

9919andMultiRecLOH	http://www.familytreedna.com/public/RecLOH/
R-S1051	http://www.familytreedna.com/public/R-S1051/

McCain families in Scotland 1432-1610

Map of the McCain families in Scotland circa 1432 through early 1600s. 

The McCains in Ireland

The map shows locations of the McCain families in Ireland in the 1800s.  The families represented here have participated in the DNA project and have been confirmed as 'our' McCains.  The blue areas represent higher concentrations.

McCain Lands in Scotland.

This map a bit blurry as I had to enlarge it, sorry about that, but... it shows well the lands of the McCains in Scotland.  The green areas on either side of Loch Fyne labeled MacLachlan belonged to  Clann Lachlainn.  The lands on the west side of the loch are in Glassary.  Above them you see the lands held by the Scrymgeour family.  There were many marriages between the McCains and Scrymgeours in the 1500s. Fortunately, the records are well preserved in mid Argyll so most of them are recorded. Now an interesting sidebar is the Scrymgeour family is know in Gaelic as the Mac Eáin family.  Our family also used that surname.  There is no paternal DNA link that has turned up so I really do not know the details.  Our McCains took their surname from Ailean Mac Eáin Riabhach and theirs took their surname from a 'John' Scymgeour of note.  In the many land records you can tell the two families were close and were often represented together in lands being handed down. 

Argyll Lord 1000 AD

Argyll Lord Circa 1000 AD  (c) Ulster Heritage

Above is clan member Donovan McCain in the dress of a Gaelic lord in mid Argyll circa 1000 AD.  The clothes and arms are period authentic and made from materials used in Argyll at that time.  Basic dress is the Léine, the linen shirt which came down to the knee and a Brat, the woolen cloak in the shape of a rectangle.  The helm is a one piece construction which was state of the art in that time and is a facsimile of a surviving helm in a museum; the chain mail shirt typical of that day for the well funded warrior.  The sword, which is fully functional, is a Norse style, reflecting the unique Gall Ghaeil culture that existed in mid Argyll at that time. The Gaels in mid Argyll borrowed both shipbuilding and arms technology from the Vikings and became in essence Gaelic Vikings.

Duncan Mor McCain's Sword

I have received several inquires about the symbols on the burial slab of Donnchadh Mór Mac Eáin, anglicised Duncan Mor McCain; I post an answer here in case more people are curious about the slab.  Prominent on the slab is a Scottish style broad sword, or claidheamh (said Clay).  There is also ornamental leaves that appear to be vines and several lions, all done in the late medieval Celtic style.

The sword is the most prominent motif by far.  In Scotland, especially in the west Highlands, this symbol on a burial slab denoted a military family, one of noble birth, or a family from the gentry of that district.  Donnchadh Mór we know functioned as a bailiff for the Earl of Argyll and his family and extended family were captains in service of the Earl of Argyll, hence the sword. 

Scottish Gaelic swords had a very unique design to them, which is shown on Donnchadh Mór's burial slab. The hilts were angled, toward the blade side and the pommels of a designed favoured by Gaels.

modern reproduction of a Argyll sword


The Earls of Argyll, who were the chiefs of Clann Chaimbeul, made their fortune supplying Highland Scots, called Redshanks in the 1500s, to Irish Gaelic lords.  The demand for Redshanks was strong in sixteenth century as the Irish Lords, such as the Ó Dónaill, the Ó Neill, needed these stout soldiers in their long wars against the Elizabethan English. Redshanks were expensive to hire and gold and silver poured into the House of Caimbeul.  It is very likely that the migration of McCains from Argyll to their initial settlement in the Laggan district of east Donegal, was in the role of Redshank captains.

The Laggans Redshanks

 For those McCains interested in the why and how we migrated to Ulster from the Scottish Highlands, there is a new title available from the Ulster Heritage website.  It is a short, 70 page, account of the Argyll Redshank migration to east Donegal in the sixteenth century.  The book has illustrations and a complete list of the Portlough precinct (in the Laggan district) muster rolls for 1630, which includes the man known as William McKean the Soldier.  

A description of the book:

A Short History of the Laggan Redshanks, 1569-1630, is the story of the Highland Scots, called Redshanks, which settled in east Donegal in the sixteenth century.  The story has many interesting elements which include Clan Campbell and their dynamic leader, Gaelic sexual intrigues, English Machiavellian manoeuvres, Iníon Dubh, and the Redshanks themselves. 

The Redshank settlement in the Laggan took place in the tumultuous years that were dominated by Elizabethan English attempts to bring Ulster firmly under the control of the Crown.  The initial wave of Redshanks came to the Laggan with Iníon Dubh (Fionnuala Nic Dhónaill) after she married Aodh Mac Manus Ó Dónaill in 1569.  The Redshanks were vital players in the affairs of those times and indeed it was their military skills that delayed the conquest of Ulster until the beginning of the next century.  They remained in service of the O'Donnell clan until the Gaelic military collapse after the Battle of Kinsale in 1602.

After Kinsale they remained in the Laggan, but as the Plantation scheme was implemented, they had new lords, the Lennox Stewarts, and the Cunninghams of Ayrshire.  The Laggan Redshanks were unique within the Gaelic world, because they were drawn from clan Campbell and their allies.  The Campbell clan under the leadership of the fifth Earl of Argyll were early converts to the Reformed Faith.  While part of the traditional Gaelic world, the Laggan Redshanks' Protestant faith allowed them to fit into the post Plantation Ulster Scots community in the Laggan.

Many of the Ulster settlers to Colonial America that became the Scots-Irish, were the descendants of the Redshanks from the Laggan.  The Highland Scottish element in the Scots-Irish is a commonly overlooked aspect of the Ulster Migration.  Even more descendants of the Laggan Redshanks migrated to New Brunswick and Ontario Canada in the nineteenth century. 

The Highland Scottish settlement in the Laggan is an integral part of the shared traditions and links between Ulster and Scotland and an important, though little known, aspect of Ulster's long history.

The book is in a Pdf download format, which I believe will also work on the Ipad.  There will be a Kindle version coming out later in the summer.    

To purchase use this link:  A Short History of the Laggan Redshanks, 1569-1630.

Clan Donald and the McCains

I have been absent from posting and other duties of late due to my mother being in hospice and passing away; slowly things are returning to normal and I will take a moment to answer a persistent question that shows up in my email weekly.  

The question...  Are The McCains Connected to Clan Donald?

Well, this is an easy one to answer as Joe McKane and I discovered the facts the first few months of the McCain DNA Project.  The answer is No.  That is a different McCain family, the DNA results were very conclusive.  The Clan Donald McCains are in no way related to us.  The Clan Donald McCains are in fact Norse in origin and we are typical Gaels.  One can tell this by the DNA Haplogroup which shows up in the test.

Our McCains are connected to a Mac Lachlainn family of Dunadd in mid Argyll.  They are a historical family that began using the surname Mac Eáin circa 1450 AD.  Mac Eáin is anglicised phonetically as McCain, McKane, McKean, McKeen, McKane, etc. 

We did find the Clan Donald McCains in the test.  Their are two branches, one from Ardnamurchan and one from Glencoe were both were located and both participated in our DNA test.  They match each other (as they should), but do not match our mid Argyll McCains.  Our mid Argyll McCains are the Mac Eáin family of Kilmichael Glassary and were a  very distinguished group, but lessor known than the Clan Donald McCains. 

That is the bare naked science of it.  It is there in our paternal DNA and the results can be views on several website which have posted the results. 

1607 McCain

Redshank circa 1607

Photo is of Irish archaeologist and actor, Dave Swift, in a recent BBC production portraying a Scottish Redshank in Ulster.  There are eye witness accounts of the Redshanks in west Ulster dressed in the iconic kilt, or féileadh mór.  This is how one of our McCains would have looked at this time. The sword is the Highland style two handed sword called a claíomh mór.  The coat of mail was still in wide use with Redshanks and the helmet is a morion, usually of German or Spanish manufacture. 

William McCain the Soldier 1630

Mongavlin Castle;  copyright 2012 James McKane

Above is a recent photo of Mongavlin Castle, near Porthall, Donegal.  It is here that the first McCain appears in the written records in Ireland.  His name in English was William McCain the Soldier.  His name is in the 1630 muster roll and is written in a phonetic rendering of his name in Gaelic which was Illime mcKaine.   He is unique in that memory of him was kept alive by our McKeen branches in New England and Nova Scotia.  For the record, he was a swordsman.  Mongavlin Castle was the residence of Fionnuala Ní Dhónaill, better known in Irish history as Iníon Dubh, until 1610.  Many of the families that Iníon Dubh brought to Mongavlin were from mid Argyll.  Photo courtesy of Jim McKane of Wiarton, Ontario, Canada.

McCain Family DNA Research Update

A short update for all our McCain families.  First, thank you to all the McCain gents that upgraded their DNA kits to the 111 markers.   This has been a great help in getting a much better idea of the chronology of our shared common ancestor.  We use the geneticists DNA logarithms to do the analysis.  Additionally, as the geneticists make progress in their research these logarithms are more precise.  

All the McCains that have tested go back to one family living circa mid 1600s.  This includes the New England and Nova Scotian McKeens, the Marsh Creek McCains, the north Antrim McKanes, and the east Donegal McKeans.  We now have a much better idea of where we were living from 1400s to the 1650s.  This came via a lot of reading of the primary sources in Argyll and east Donegal.  The DNA and traditional research go hand in hand.

As some people might have heard, I did finally 'find' the elusive Willam McKean the soldier that is part of the oral history of the New England McKeens.  He is the earliest McCain I can find paper records on, and he was indeed a soldier.  He was an adult male in 1630, so his birth date would be around 1595 to 1605, give or take a few years.   Whether or not he was born in Donegal or moved there I do not know, I suspect he was born in Donegal and his family came to Donegal from Argyll in one of the groups of men sent there by Giolla Easpuig Caimbeul, the 5th Earl of Argyll, or by the 6th Earl of Argyll.  All that will be explained in the book Finding the McCains. 

Hope every one has a prosperous New Year, and I will post updates as news comes in.

McCain Clan Research March 2010

The research on the McCain 'clan' is still ongoing and new data is being discovered. At present, the research is concentrating on land records, charters, man-rents, etc., from the Caimbeul and Scrymgeour families in mid Argyll. The McCain family can be followed through these records from circa early anno domini 1400s into the late 1500s. The exact date groups of McCains left mid Argyll from Ireland is not known, but the records do suggest that this happened circa 1570.

Many of the mid Argyll families have very elaborate late medieval Gaelic pedigrees, however, most of these genealogies were fabricated to elevate the status of a family. This was common, not only with Gaelic families, but this trend went on in England, France, Spain, etc. For this reason the McCain research is concentration of historical McCains and currently is not looking into the pre late 1300s ancestry of the group. The Recent Ancestral Origins of the McCains indicate that they were native to mid Argyll and there are no striking kinships to any families outside this area. This strongly suggest they were indigenous to mid Argyll.

Many McCains have asked about Gaelic clan affiliations; the nature of society and politics in mid Argyll circa 1450 to 1600 was one of great change and the consolidation of the Camibeul family's control over this area. Most of the McCain lands were 'resigned' over to the Earls of Argyll, who in-turn was also the taoiseach (chief) of the Caimbeul clan. This happened to most of the families in this area, not just to the McCains. The Caimbeul family in turn had interests in east Donegal and sent many families from mid Argyll to east Donegal circa 1570s into the 1590s and the McCains were very likely in this migration.

McCain Clan Research 2009

In 2009 there has been some amazing, even stunning, information about the McCain clan revealed both with primary source finds and new Y chromosome DNA matches. There is a growing group of Gaelic families in the McCain Clan kinship group. Some of the surnames the McCain Clan share a paternal kinship with are Mac an Leatha, Mac Donnchadh, Mac Ailpín, and Mac Eanruig. All of these surnames are from the mid Argyll area. The DNA results have focused and led the research.

Research in the primary sources have turned up information about the flow of events surrounding the movement of mid Argyll Highlanders into eastern Donegal circa 1570 into the 1590s, which is when the McCains left mid Argyll for Ireland. Several McCain family oral histories, such as the well known 'William the soldier' lore of the McKeens in New England and eastern Canada, and the association of the McCains with the players and events surrounding Mary Queen of Scots, have collaborating circumstantial facts that have been located in the primary sources. Information on the very early connection between the Hamiltons and McCains has also been uncovered. Early next year I will be posting more information on 2009's discoveries.

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