Family Finder Update

A representative of FTDNA says that the price of the combined 37 marker Y-DNA test and the Family
Finder Test is $438 regardless of whether done via a Surname Group or not. It is the price to all comers. Still, it is strange that they show two different prices on their website without explanation, one at $458 and one at $438 for the exact same combination of tests.

They may have lowered the price to stimulate growth of the genetic data base. The data base needs to grow quickly to encourage more people to sign up for the test.

New Information on Family Finder Test

The FTDNA Family Finder Test now includes the ability, and the cost, to combine a 37 marker Y-DNA
test and the Family Finder Test in a single purchase and a new DNA kit. See the site:
http://www.familytreedna.com/, at the site see Family Tree DNA News in the upper right side of the page and read about the new features of the
brand new technology that should expand the world wide data base much more quickly.

I have requested that FTDNA clarify if the combined 37 marker Y-DNA test already includes the Surname discount in the price of the test but will not have an answer from them until next week.

See this the website at http://www.ancestryireland.com/dna/?page_id=7 to view the latest findings regarding the combination surnames of Maguire McOwen or McOwen Maguire. For whatever reason, which I fail to grasp, Blogspot will not allow me to show more than one enclosed link.

More Testing?

In an effort to find unknown cousins, I am considering using FTDNA Family Finder. This could be useful if our earliest known ancestor had brothers or uncles of which we are unaware or if he had been adopted, we might find his adoptive parents and his true bloodline as well. This is intended to help us get around our earliest known ancestor because we know his descendants very well but we don't have a clue as to the name of his father whether natural or adoptive. That name could well be some variation of one of the Maguire Clan family names or it could be our McCown surname.

I have invited those with various Maguire clan surnames who are close matches with me to also take the Family Finder test. That could possibly give us more specific detail on where our McCowns lived before moving to South Carolina. I am torn between knowing whether this is in the best interest of those that I have invited or even in my best interest because in the Family Finder test, it seems as though only surnames that have actually been in the direct bloodline will do.

You may recall that I have mentioned that some of the Irish use two surnames, one is the surname of the man's father and one he adds which includes his father's given name. For example, Edmond McOwen Magwire is clearly a Maguire but to distinguish himself from other Maguires he takes his father's given name Owen and adds the Mc prefix so that it reads Edmond McOwen Magwire or Edmond son of Owen Magwire. Shane O'Neill's son also chose this course and chose to call himself MacShane although he was born O'Neill.

The History of Enniskillen

This blog has mentioned Fermanagh's troubles in 1640-42. Now you can read or even download much of the history of Enniskillen by doing a Google search for "The History of Enniskillen and Manors in County Fermanagh" by W. Copeland Trimble.

This tells in dreadful detail the story of the Maguire and O'Neill uprisings that resulted the slaughter of many and the executions of some. That is only a few pages of the book, thank goodness. On the grounds that I have no more right to be ashamed of my ancestors' than they have to be ashamed of me (we each have ample cause for shame) and for the same reason I cannot apologize for them for that would be shear presumption on my part. 1640 was the time of the overthrow of Charles I of England and by 1635 most of the Great Plantation of Ireland by Protestant English and Scots had been completed except in Fermanagh.

The native Irish had their lands taken from them by force so that the English could also deprive them of their Roman Catholic faith and their Gaelic language and surnames. You may recall a book by Robert Ruark called "Something of Value". It tells in detail what happens when you take away a people's religion and social structure if it is not replaced with Something of Value.

The English came not to convert the Irish to a better faith or to improve their lot but to eliminate them as a political threat. The horrors of religious warfare was a great calamity for both the Irish and Scots Irish. It is easy after reading this to understand why both were such formidable Indian fighters in America. They had honed their skills on each other in Ulster.

More on HIgh Crimes and Misdemeanors

I intended this to include the entire "rest of the story" about the murder of Arthur Champion "by Redmomd McOwin Maguire and others". It turns out that there were about 99 others involved, thus proving that either Arthur was one very tough nut or that
he was very unpopular. The story can be found by using a Google search for mcowen maguire which should yield a result called the "History of the Two Ulster manors of
Finagh, in the county of Tyrone and Fermanagh".

It is in a Google Book and so cannot be copied here. It is very worth while reading because it shows just how strong the animosity was between the Catholic Magures and the Protestants of whatever name at this point in history. Believe it or not, it also shows some restraint in the behavior of the Maguires, unlike some other incidents where men, women and children were murdered. (as we all know, murders and other attrocities were committed by both Catholics and Protestants.)

William Roulston of the Ulster Historical Foundation found the basis of the story in original documents, and Dick McCown completes the story by giving us the lead to the Google Book. It is a very powerful story of a very troubled time in the history of Ulster.