Friday, June 25, 2010

DNA Updates

It looks as though Bill McCown, who is descended from William McCown, Rebel Scottish prisoner, deported from England to Port Oxford, Maryland in 1747/48, is about to sign up for the Y-DNA 67 marker test. This should be very interesting for Scottish McCowns or even Irish McCowns.

Also, a test kit for the 37 marker test is on it's way to Bob McKown. Bob believes that his family
immigrated from Antrim. In my opinion, that may indicate that he has DNA in common with Francis and John McCown and also with Alexander McCown and his six sons of Pennsylvania.

Also, Robert Maguire has just upgraded his order to 67 markers as well. His family is from Tempo, Fermanagh where one of his ancestor's was a tailor.

All of these men will be encouraged to join the FTDNA Ulster Heritage Group of some 1,500 members.
If you, the reader, expect to take either the 37 or 67 marker Y-DNA test, do it now while prices are at an all time low, but be sure to do it through a surname group to get the best price.

Friday, June 4, 2010

A New Cousin in the Lawrence McCown Line

My brother, Dick, found him as a result of a search using Bing under the search term "Lawrence McCown". This cousin is named Clark McCown and is descended from Lawrence McCown's third son,
Leander. We now have descendants of three of the four sons of Lawrence McCown and the fourth and last son died without issue as far as we know.

His family moved from Kentucky to Louisiana many years ago. He is being urged to take the Y-DNA
test to confirm that he matches cousin Sam (descended from 2nd son Eli) and me. A tip of the hat is due to Leonard McCown, administrator of the McCown Surname Group because he thought that we would be his most likely match.

Even though we likely all descend from the same common ancestor, born somewhere in South Carolina ca 1790-92, sometimes distant cousins can shed new light on the family via DNA mutations. That
was true of Sam's results because he has a mutation that is common to only one of two lines of MacAuley Maguires out of the entire Maguire Clan. Perhaps Clark's results will also turn up an interesting mutation that is of genealogical value as well. As you can see, I have recovered from
my last post in good order.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

No Takers

Having wasted several posts to this blog on the Family Finder Test and finding no evidence of
interest, I assume that everyone who reads this blog already knows everything they want to know about their own families. If so, they are much more fortunate than I, because I know full well who my great great grandfather was based on his answers to census reports and a record of his marriage in January 1815 and records as to the birth of his first two sons, one in December 1815 and one in 1818 and the birth and death dates of his other sons.

Still, we do not have a clue as to the identity of his father or mother. To get that information is the reason I took the FTDNA Y-DNA test to 67 markers, and the deep subclade test to R1b1b2a1b5 and continue to flog this blog. I am as completely in the dark as to my earliest known ancestor's father's name as I was before loading all that treasure on DNA labs. I belong to way too many FTDNA Surname Groups just to be able to find all of my matches since only one is in the McCown Surname Group and he is a known cousin.

I think it might be just as productive to fill my mouth with rocks and shout at the ocean or just wait until one of you readers enlighten me as to the identity of my earliest known ancestor's father. Please start now.