Cast a Wider Net?

Since William McCown of York Co., South Carolina is shown as McCown in the
1790 census, as McCoun in the 1800 census and as McQuown in the 1810 census,
it seems as though I will either have to look for his descendants as McCown, McCoun or McQuown.

Meanwhile census reports in my own line show the name as McCown, McCowen
and McKeown.  I can either search all of the above spellings or simply look for McCown and it's spelling variants.  So far, sentiment seems to be to simply look for McCown.

A Potential Break in our Stone Wall

My brother, Dick, had a series of postings with Jackson Weller on a surname bulletin board.  Jackson

says that he is descended from William McCown of York Co., South Carolina from the 1790 US

Census and that said William was the father of our great great grandfather, Lawrence McCown.

Jackson is descended from Leander McCown who in turn was a son of Lawrence McCown along

with my great grandfather, William McCown, Eli McCown and Granville McCown.  If Jackson

has a male relative in the McCown line, I hope to persuade him to take the FTDNA Y-DNA test

because that would prove or disprove our relationship to William of York County and with Jackson.

These postings were in 2000 and 2001 so the room for uncertainty is great, but as previously noted,

hope springs eternal.

Amended Highest Match in the McGuire Surname

Tom is indeed my closest and highest match within the McGuire surname at
67 markers, but Joseph D. McGuire is my highest match within the McGuire
surname at 101/111 markers.  Not all of the McGuire, McManus, McMahon,
MacAuley surname have been tested at 111 markers, and I believe that when and if
Tom is also tested to 111 markers, that he will be about one step closer match than is
Joseph since that is how they are matched at 67 markers.  There may be more 111 marker matches for me when more of the clan have been tested to 111 markers.

Updates and In Memorium to my brother, Dick

My only brother, Dick McCown, died last Thursday morning.  Dick was the instigator of our interest
in the genealogy of our McCown line.  He did all of our documentary research and prepared our family tree including all of the branches through marriage.  In addition, he suggested that we invest in the
FTDNA test and we split the cost.  When the first 25 marker results rolled in, they were almost entirely
Irish.  That was a huge surprise because then, we had thought of ourselves as being Scots.  When the
37 marker results rolled in, it became apparent that we were not only Irish, but of the Ulster Sept of
Maguire, which is one of the few clans of the blood wherein all members from the chief to the lowliest laborer have the same blood.

My highest and closest match with the McGuire surname is Tom and Tom's deep subclade test results
have been received.  We had hoped that his deep clade P66 would be positive, but alas, it was negative.  Had it been positive, his line would probably have been closely related to ours.

There are many with Maguire blood yet to be tested and hope springs eternal and, hopefully, we look forward to that missing link.

SNP L69 Important McCown/Maguire Link?

This just in from our news desk. A number of the members of the Airgialla Mag Uidhir group have been tested for SNP L69 (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) and have consistently turned up as SNP L69+. This is beginning to look like an SNP that may define Maguire roots going back to 950-1,000AD. Jim McKown and I are both L69+. In addition, two more members are awaiting their L69 test result and three are awaiting their deep subclade results. These latter three will have to test for L69 separately. The encouraging thing here is that I wasn't expecting my test result until Nov. 23 and it just came in today. My highest Maguire match is still awaiting his deep subclade results and perhaps they will be in soon since things at the FTDNA lab seem to be happening faster than expected. This match had to be retested but I am confident that the retest of his deep clades will be successful.

Some Miscellanous Musings

First, I would like to welcome blog follower No. 17 to the blog and I believe his name is McEwen. McCown, McKown and McEwen are all derived from Eoghainn, pronounced as Owen. Until about 1600AD, Eoghainn and Eoin were both used for the Hebrew name, John. At about that time, Eoin was used exclusively and Eoghainn began to be used for Eugene or well born. I believe the change only involved new surnames and was not retroactive. I have been keeping up on release of Windows 8. So far,it appears that IE 10 will be embedded in the Windows operating system so that changes to one affect the other. It is anticipated that Internet Explorer 10 will not accept plug-ins such as blogs or flash and thus it could not only change how we use FTDNA in viewing the Haplogroup Tree but also whether blogs will become a thing of the past as a result of all of the new "social" applications. Still, there is many a slip twixt the cup and the lip, so things may change considerably before the launch of Windows 8and IE 10. Previously, you have read that my best and closest match within the Maguire surname is being tested for deep subclades and those results are not in as yet. My hope is that he will also be positive on deep clade P66 and thus be of the Maguire line which is also connected to the McCown/McKown line. Now a new Y-DNA test is underway and it is believed that the test subject is likely to be a match for both of us. Brad McGuire informs me that my best McGuire match also would match Donn Carrach Maguire, first Maguire Prince of Fermanagh at 66/67 markers. I will surely report to you if my best Maguire match to date turns out to be P66+---but, of course, it will have to wait until I stop celebrating that good news.

Fellow Traveler

Scott McCown commented on the previous blog about the warrior connection of those
related to Francis McCown. As it happens, Scott is very active in the Church of Christ as was I until I moved out here in the wilderness and now attend a community church. We are not related to each other in the flesh but certainly are in the Spirit.

My grandmother made sure that her kids and their kids were members of the Church of Christ as well, to the best of her ability. I sing the song of prayer preparation each Sunday morning and frequently use Great Songs of the Church as a source of the hymns that I sing. I also use songs from that book but sometimes need them in a lower key signature and so then select that lower key from a Methodist, Presbyterian or Seventh Day Adventist Hymnal.

I didn't mean to get sidetracked from the Scots or Irish Theme but I am tickled pink
to have Scott following the blog. I know for a fact that some of the followers of this blog are Christians as well and they can probably relate to my celebrating in this fashion.

We are still waiting for the deep subclade test results for my closest match within
the McGuire surname and hope it may yield a source of the McGuire/McCown/McKown connecton. That would be shown if this match tests positive on SNP P66. So far, only Jim McKown and I have tested positive on P66 of those with Maguire DNA.

McCown Surname Group

FTDNA's McCown Surname Group has more than thirty members. The Ulster Heritage Group has divided most of those members into Mac Eoghain, Mac EoghainI and Mac Eoghain II.

Leonard McCown is administrator and Chris McCown is co-administrator of the surname group. Still, not all McCown/McKown named people are in any of those groups. In
addition, at least one of the McCowns and a McKown all of the Ewings (in Mac Eoghain I) appear to be in the haplogroup commonly referred to as Northwest Irish or Niall of the Nine Hostages and therefor related to the O'Connors and the O'Neills. A couple of others of the surname are simply categorized by haplogroup and three of us are
in the Mag Uidhir II (Maguire II) Group on the Ulser Heritage Group website.

Most of those in the Mac Eoghain group are descended from Alexander McCown and his six sons who immigrated to Pensylvania from Antrim about 1715. The larger group is descended from Francis and John McCown, who by DNA are closely related to the six sons group.

Some of these lived some time in County Tyrone before moving to America and it isn't clear, but is believed that they were originally of Scottish descent.

Leonard McCown has been told by Barry McCain, administrator of the Ulster Heritage
Group that he is descended, through Francis, from an Argyll Galloglais family.
These Galloglais were specially trained and armed warriors who hired out to various
chiefs in both Scotland and Ireland and many of those who served in Ireland remained there as early as 1450.

All of this is to make it clear that McCown is both Scots and Irish.

Et tu, King Tut?

I have enclosed the link as a follow-up to McCown, Maguire and King Tut. I still
recommend using a search engine and the search term Half of European men share King
Tut's DNA because there are several other sites offering different points of view.

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-king-tut-european-men-dna.html

McCown, Maguire and King Tut

Hey! The newspapers exagerate to get readership all the time. Actually, according to an article by Alice Baghdjian/ Reuters-Mon, Aug 1, 2011, half the men in Europe
and 70% of those in the British Isles have the same R1b1a2 haplogroup as does King Tut. If you can't wait, then use your favorite search engine and use the search
term Half of European men share King Tut's DNA.

A very high percentage of men in northern Ireland, not just that part in the UK called Northern Ireland have that DNA. This also true of western Scotland, Argyll and the islands off the west coast of Scotland, and the Isle of Man.

I needed to update the blog before it expired, besides, it gives us something to talk about.

Flash in the Pan or Much Ado about Nothing

It seems my previous post was wildly optimistic. The lady mentioned and I are not
related in the McManus line even a little bit, and no relationship with her McCown
line can be proven because of a lack of any surviving males to take a DNA test in her
line.

McManus/McCown Connection in South Carolina, 1775

This just in from our news room. An email has been received from a lady descended
from both McManus and McCown. She even had my FTDNA Kit no.. This could be a very
productive lead for her lines as well as mine, especially, mine since we have no known history before 1792 in South Carolina or anywhere else except for the vital
Y-DNA results.

Since McManus is one of the principle families in the Maguire clan this may give us a clue just where McKown/McCown fits in with the overall Maguire clan scheme of things.
It has the potential of being a genealogical break through for both of us.

I am waiting for more information from her such as if she has suitable Y-DNA male
test candidates for both McManus and McCown. She has already mentioned two specific counties in South Carolina in 1775 and my hope is that that will give a toe hold to my
brother Dick to exploit and share our research with hers.

This is the first potential breakthrough we have had to the parents and grandparents
of our great great grandfather, Lawrence McCown and better yet, it should be
supported by both conventional research and DNA. I hope to have more in the next
posting.

New Leads and More Results

On the subject of results, I need to correct my 67 marker result with Jim McKown
from 101/111 to 105/111 and add Joseph D. McGuire at 101/111 markers. Also, I
am confirmed as L513 positive in keeping with the rest of the Maguire group who have been tested.

The fair Coane and her husband have turned up some interesting leads. The word
Edeganny comes up in two Maguires and one McOwen. The fair Coane's husband has found that the root word in Gaelic from which it derives is Deacon. I am not familiar with church practice in the 1600's but in these cases, it is not always placed at the front of the name.

For example we have a Maguire with Edganny at the beginning of the name and his son, Rory McEdeganny Maguire and Owen McOwen Edeganny.

All three of these appear on the same page in the records of Fermanagh and Tyrone.
Meanwhile, Patrick MacAuley, has found that a similar sounding root (at least to a
non-Gaelic speaker) sounds much like the root which is rendered as Deacon, but in this case, comes from an accolade to Hugh Maguire, a Maguire chief and refers to his
generosity as in Hugh the Generous.

Now the chore is to somehow connect McCown/McOwen to Maguire to either of those leads.

More Testing is in Progress

Since the previous post, several more 111 marker level results have been reported.
In addition, both Jim McKown and I have been tested for SNP L513. Jim is L513+ and my results are "pending". On Mike Walsh's R-L21 1113 Combo DNA Results, Mike shows
Jim and I as P66+ as tested and L513+(by default). Since my 111 marker test result shows that I am a genetic distance of one more than is allowed by FTDNA
in their match criteria, my only current match at 111 markers is Jim at 101/111
markers.

This reminds me of a progress report written my an engineering manager who said "
the project is slightly off course but making good progress." But, hope and the blog
spring eternal so perhaps there will be something to report in the next posting.

Although Jim and I definitely have a Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) at about
the year 1661 AD, his line appears to be some generations older than mine. I have
no rational comment to make on that.

Maguire Land Grant in the Carolinas

The fair Coane reports having seen a reference to the subject grant in the Clogher Record. She says that one of the more recent members of the Maguire chiefly line received a grant and that he, in turn, invited others from County Fermanagh and other
parts of Ulster to come and settle the land. This of course, could conceivably lead
to some clues as to the identity of my line's earliest ancestor in America. That,
boys and girls would be quite a success, because most Americans of Irish descent have
little or no chance of discovering their roots both in America and in Ulster, especally in South Carolina in these early times. I have felt that brother Dick and I have been trying to build a suspension bridge from information in the colonies to records in Ulster, with the help of DNA. The problem is that no matter how fine a bridge we build it will not support itself without firm foundations at both ends and we don't have foundations at either end as yet.

The fair Coane and husband are going to Ireland to attend a family wedding and will also visit the records in Dublin. Hopefully, they will turn up something on the Maguire land grant in the Carolinas. Both the fair Coane and her husband remember
having read the artilce, but at the time, were not researching the Maguires---never
mind helping the McCowns so it has been a difficult search. Good friends, such as
these, are truly a genealogical god send.

On the DNA front, Brad McGuire got his 68-111 marker results but they are now under review because of the result of 0 or null value on one marker that appears to be in
error. Also, the FTDNA lab is overloaded with new tests and debugging results from
some of the earliest results of the Y111 test. For that reason, Brad's Walking the
Y test in which his entire Y chromosome is tested for all of the SNP's that can be found, is delayed by the current lab overload. Both Jim McKown and I have received our Y111 test results with no apparent errors and hope all of our marker results
survive what ever debugging is required.

Wishful Thinking?

Jim McKown and I are 65/67 and 105/111 matches. FTDNA now says that our most recent common ancestor lived 14 generations ago. Using FTDNA's standard calculation of 25 years per generation, that would mean that we had most recent common ancestor in 1661AD. Perhaps this will provide a clue as to which of the Maguires with John, Owen or MacOwen among their names could be our ancestor.

I recently was contacted by Elaine Keown whose family settled near Abbeville, South
Carolina in 1770. Brother Dick says that he has exhausted the record search for our
gggf Lawrence's parents. There were few written records among the Scotch-Irish and
Irish and everyone else who lived anywhere but in a major settlement having ever had
written records in South Carolina. Add disasters such as court house fires, the War of 1812 and the Civil War and it is a marvel that any records survive from before 1790 in the hinterlands.

Even in Virginia, the only written record of Lawrence's marriage in 1815 is that kept by the Sinking Spring Presbyterian Church, Abingdon, VA.

The Second ot Two Declared McCowns

Our 14th follower is Alex McCown and I would particularly like to hear from him so
we can compare family histories or just see what I can do to interest other McCown/McKowns in the blog.

In a search of the newly released free public access site for genealogy searches in
Northern Ireland, I did a search to see if I could find a mention of someone who could
be an ancestor of my great great grandfather, Lawrence, somewhere in South Carolina.
That search turned up an Alexander McCown who owned 400 acres of land in South Carolina in about 1750. My brother, Dick, had located the same information in his own research, but so far, we have no other information with which we could relate
with him.

One interesting aspect to our ongoing DNA tests is that both Jim McKown and I are SNP P66+, and by extension, my cousin, Sam is as well. Why do I make such a claim without
Sam having his deep subclades tested? Because we match on 66/67 markers and can document our family histories as well and last but not least, the one marker on which we do not match cannot keep him from being P66+ as well.

Sequel to Cabbages and Kings

All of my marker results from 68-111 have now been posted. I regret that I may
have sounded self satisfied in the previous posting. Actually, I had hoped that the
Italian sample and I were both exact matches on the five marker mentioned. That might have lent some hope that the sample came from a descendant of Cuchonnacht
Maguire who died in Genoa, Italy in 1608, and was a hero and a Maguire chief in his
own right. The total genetic distance between my results and the Italian sample is
a GD=12, with exact matches on only two of the five markers. Since the only other
Maguire tested for the five markers is an exact match with me, it looks as though,
pending the availability of the results of the rest of the Maguire DNA folks tested to 111 markers, that my results will be consistent with the other Maguire results.







T

Of Cabbages and Kings

This just in from our news desk! The Italian DNA sample appears to be fading in the stretch. Of five markers for which he has been tested but I was not, he is a mismatch with the Maguires on DYS 462 by a GD=1 and on DYS 463 by a GD=11. So far,
the only other member with Maguire II DNA is Flouronelle Maguire who matches me exactly on the markers for which he has been tested to date above 67 markers including DYS 462 and 463. All of my results for markers 68 through 102 have been posted. The final nine may be posted sometime next week.

Of Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax

Mike Walsh, of the 11-13 Combo Group, says that there is no chance of the donor of
the DNA sample in Italy being retested. My impression is, that the donor is not be able to be retested. When I referred to the donor as "the Italian", that in itself was not accurate in that what is known is that the sample was collected in Italy and that is that.

The good news is that Mike Walsh indicated that the five STR's that Jim McKown and I have not had tested, may likely be part of the new Y-111 marker level. That would offer the possibility of us matching the donor in Italy on those five markers and that in turn might give more credence to the donor having Maguire DNA.

To Speak of Many Things

I don't yet have more information on SNP L513 and won't until I find out more from one of the FTDNA group administrators.  I mentioned an Italian with the P66+ SNP and that there were differences in our test results. He was tested by Ethno-Ancestry and the group administrator needs his results on DYS 617,
406S1 and 640. Meanwhile, Jim McKown and I were not tested on markers that the Italian was: Dys461,462, 463, 434, and 435.

I have asked the administrator if this means that the Italian should be tested by FTDNA on threee markers or that Jim and I should be tested by Ethno-Ancestry on five markers. Neither approach sounds feasible to me.  In fact, the Italian, if interested, should be retested to 67 markers by FTDNA because there is a good chance that he may be descended from Cuchonnaght Maguire who died in Genoa, Italy,
in 1608. I hope for all our sakes that he is as interested in his ancestral surname as he is in his ethnicity.

I mentioned two postings ago about three McCowns being classified as Ua Flaithbeartaigh although we don't match each other above 12 markers. It turns out that while the above name in Gaelic was applied to an historical O'Flaherty or O'Lafferty, that there was also a Maguire in the chiefly line with the given name of Flaithbeartaigh, so that name could conceivably apply to McCowns of Maguire descent.

The Time has Come the Walrus Said

Many things are happening that look like a strengthening of the connection between my McCown line and the rest of the Maguires.  The P66+ SNP that both Jim McKown and I have, has been found in our
Ulster results and in one Italian result.  The Italian result may be related to Cuchonnacht Maguire who died in Genoa, Italy in August 1608 as well as to the Flight of the Earls which included O'Neills, O'Connors and Maguires among others.  The Flight of the Earls took place on Sept. 14, 1607.

The problem with the Italian P66+ is that we don't match him on five markers and he has not been tested to 67 markers which Mike Walsh of the R-1 L21 11-13 Combo Group would like him to take.

This in turn, leads to the possible need for Jim and I to take the L513 test.  I will address that in the next posting to this blog since I don't have more information on it.  Meanwhile, I for one, am greatly encouraged.  And this just in, 9 of 16 members of Brad McGuire's Airgialla Mag Uidhir Group have already signed up for the 67 toY-111 marker test introduction which is currently offered at a bargain price.

Ua Flaithbheartaigh

There is an FTDNA Cenel Eoghain Group.  Eoghain, pronounced Owen means John.  In this case, the Eoghain was an O'Neill king and a county in Northern Ireland bears his name.  It is Tir Owen or Tyrone, which means Land of Owen.

The group, at the moment has three members named McCown or McCone and notice no "an" or "en" is required because it is still O(w)ne.  The DNA of these three McCowns is not the same above 11/12 markers and in the Cenel Eoghain Group all three are listed under Ua Flaithbheartaigh which could be rendered in English as the Sept of O'Flaherty or O'Lafferty.  Their power was greatly reduced in the 12th century by battles with the MacBrians and the O'Connors.

The Ua Flaithbheartaigh lived in Connaught, roughly in Donegal.  I don't know that this one label can cover all McCowns, but I am glad that Donegal was included in our tour of Northern Ireland last
September.

Jim McKown and I have signed up for the FTDNA 67-Y111 marker test introduction.  This is new technology and is expected to greatly improve the accuracy of the Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor (TMRCA).  Jim and I hope that it will pin point just how long ago our Most Recent Common
ancestor lived.  Of course, we also hope it will also illuminate our link to the Maguire Clan and to that end, hope that many of our 67 marker matches also upgrade to that test.

Serendipity

An internet genealogical contact is in the unfortunate situation of not having a male in the surname line
to take the Y-DNA test on her behalf---until a moment of serendipity occurred and such a male has already been tested and his test results are on display.  Her family's coat of arms has an O'Neill crest above it and the person tested has the Niall of the Nine Hostages haplotype.
 
I had been trying to find some McCowns scattered about an FTDNA project and that surname was there.
This contact has done a lot of diligent research both here and in Ulster and has access to some records that most of the rest of us don't.  Still, after giving up hope for help via DNA, it was found by chance.

She has been a great help to me providing information and advice that may ultimately unlock the Ulster
history of my McCown line.  I will take serendipity over hard work any old time.

Quest for a Small Group

The latest word from FTDNA regarding SNP P66+ and marker DYF399X is that although Jim McKown and I, both being P66+ could be tested for marker DYF399X.  We have been encouraged to
put together a small group to also be tested because that will give the interpreters more sight angles at the results and could, perhaps, identify how long ago P66+ came into our family line.  My hope is that it will not only do that but also show others with Maguire DNA who may be related to us.

Barry McCain, administrator of the FTDNA Ulster Heritage Group, believes that our McCown/McKown connection with the Maguire DNA came about sometime in the 1600's AD.  Barry
also sent a list of five or six other men that he has identified at 67 markers to William Roulston to study and if possible, find if they, indeed, did live near to each other, were Protestant and had other relatedness among the families.

All of this may sound like we are trying to avoid FTDNA's recently developed test that has the capability to identify cousins going back five generations.  That is not the case, because that test was not offered when Barry first contacted William Roulston, Jim McKown had not been tested at all, and few people other than John McEwan had even heard of P66+ or DYF399X.  John had as far back as at least 2005 and has written about it.

The FTDNA test for cousins is more far reaching and costs much more than what we plan to do.  What we are trying to do could be money down the drain or a spectaculor success---with a wee bit o' the luck of the Irish.

New Haplogroup Explained

Brad McGuire and Pat Meguire both are group administrators and both replied to my emails regarding the change in haplogroup.

It is not a mistake and represents new sub branches to established trees.  More to follow as the smoke clears.

Faster Than a Speeding Bullet, Wilder than the Evening News

FTDNA has just changed the haplogroups of a whole passel of men without blinking an eye.  The change involves all of the men whose haplogroups have been tested in the Ulster Heritage Group Mag Uidhir I and Mag Uidhir II.  It generally changed many more men than that because R1b1b2a1b5 is one of the most common haplogroups on the west coast of Scotland, the western Isles and Northern Ireland.

It changed for all of those mentioned above from R1b1b2a1b5 to R1b1a2a1a1b4, which you will all agree is one heck of a change.  Jim McKown and I have a letter c suffix following the 4.  This haplogroup change may be another lab goof or a posting goof, because the underlying SNP results did not change a whit.  It may be because their chief scientist at the Houston lab has left on vacation, that the people at the con have made a mistake.  Whatever, I have contacted FTDNA and should receive an reply
next week.  One other possibility is that FTDNA is initiating the change to the most recent NIST standards.  When FTDNA replies, I will print the answer here.

Big Surprise of the Day!

Thomas Kranh of FTDNA has just replied to my email from this morning. He has retested my
P66- SNP and, begorrah!, it is now P66+ and my haplogroup, which was R1b1b2a1b5 now has a
c suffix after the 5. I hope Jim McKown enjoyed being the sole proprietor of that haplogroup
because he now has to share it with me and probably cousin Sam as well.

Retest Status Revisited

Since Feb. 21st has come and gone and I have had no update from FTDNA regarding the retesting
of my P66- SNP result. I just sent an email to Thomas Krahn asking if it was safe to assume
that my test samples had been retested and no change found. I hope to receive an answer to this next week.

My FTDNA Home Page where I view my matches has been partially obscured since either last Friday or Saturday. This happens periodically for no reason that FTDNA has ever bothered to
explain. Specifically, the last match at every level from 12 markers through 67 markers on every group of which I am a member is covered with a horizontal bar that blocks the view of just who those matches are. I complained about this via "Contact Us" and as usual, have received no response, and worse yet, the problem has not been corrected.

I mention this to see if any of you have encountered this as well or if it is personal between me and FTDNA.

Three to Five Weeks, Oh My!

FTDNA replied to my email that the retesting for P66+ and the analysis of the result
should be completed in three to five weeks from Jan. 24th. and that should put it
about Feb. 21st. We should know by then, or shortly thereafter, whether or not
Jim McKown's result on that Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP)is simply unstable
or has reverted to some previous norm. I am expecting good things, but regardless,
I am confident that we are related, although it might be back as far as the 1600's
that our Most Recent Common Ancestor(MRCA)fathered two sons and that is probably
where our lines grew a bit farther apart.

Haplogroup Answers from the Experts

If you have read my last two postings, you may be aware that Jim McKown came up with a whole new haplogroup of which he may be the sole member. It is based on him
being positive for SNP P66+. I could tell you what the letters SNP refer to, but
beyond that I haven't a clue. Meanwhile, FTDNA responded to my email by saying that
P66+ is a very unstable SNP and may revert to the ancestral line. I also got a reply
from one of the principle analysts in the FTDNA Lab. and he says that they reviewed
Jim's P66+ twice, from two DNA samples and it is still P66+.

He goes on to say that they will review my P66- as well. It will be interesting to
see the result. Also, I would think that they would have to review the P66- results
of the other seven men with strong Maguire DNA. That is because these SNP's go back thousands of years and I would think that all of the men in the Ulster Heritage Group
Mag Uidhir II classification would have very similar deep ancestry as well. As you can see, I am out of my depth here and so, unlike politicians, I will sit down and shut up.

More From FTDNA

For those of you who have been tested by FTDNA, it appears to me that there will be
no substantial downside to the changes being made. They now say that you may copy
your existing matches if you want to, but then goes on to say BUT WE DON'T SEE WHY
YOU WOULD WANT TO.

Also, all of the matches at 33/37 and 60/67 and better will still be there so I see
no reason now to print out a copy of existing matches.

Meanwhile, there should be a substantial upside to the improvement in the FTDNA
Tip Tool which calculates the percentage probability of having a most common ancestor with any of your matches. They call this calculation the Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor (TMRCA). Two administrators, Barry McCain, of the Ulster Heritage Group and Joseph V. Dononhoe, of the Breifne Clans Project, have long regarded the FTDNA calculation to be unnecessarily conservative. They have been using probabilities of 55% to 85% as being all that is needed to determine
the number of generations to the Most Recent Common Ancestor(MRCA.

FTDNA's Changes to Improve TMRCA

FTDNA has a warning of pending changes when you click on your personal results page
and then click on Matches. These changes have now been sent to the project or group
admiistrators. The only thing required of those tested by FTDNA to date is to print
and save their matches so they can be reconciled with the new changes.

Apparently all of the genealogical DNA companies are having to conform to a new standard so that they all compare the same short tandem repeats (STR's). Of more
interest and concern to us is that these changes will make for a much more accurate
standard for Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor calculations. It is expected to
to affect about 10% of the membership. They haven't let on to the members, at this
point which 10% will be affected. It is very important to stay attuned to measages
from the administrators so you will know if you are affected.

I am in sort of a fringe position since I have more matches with the families in or close to the Maguire Clan and thus could wind up more in or more out as a result.
The TMRCA change is long overdue and the road is longer and more tortuos than I expected.

I expect a better appreciation from all of this as to just what my ancestry is.
That is the reason for having taken the tests and no matter how the cookie crumbles
Iam what I am and that's all I am---whatever that may be.