Cousin Sam at 57 Markers

Cousin Sam and I match exactly at 12 and 25 markers and now we match on 36/37 markers. That one step mutation on marker 35, DYS 442, is characteristic on the MacAuley line in the Maguire Clan. We now match at 56/57 markers tested and expect the final ten marker results by March 25th. We are on course to being closely aligned with the Maguire chiefly line, although, only the primary and junior Maguire lines have actually been chiefs or princes in Fermanagh.

McCowns and MacAuleys?

Cousin Sam, who is descended from Eli, the younger brother of my great grandfather, William, just received his Y-DNA results at 25 and 37 of 67 markers. We match exactly at 12 and 25 markers and at 36/37 markers. The one marker value difference is on DYS 442 where he has a value of 13 and I have a value of 12. Of all of the Maguire related families descended from Donn Carrach Maguire, only one of two MacAuley lines has that same mutation at DYS 442. Now, we hope to learn if this mutation will help in finding our deep family history.

McCown, McKeown, Johnston, Johnson

In answer to one of my postings on the www.genforum.genealogy.com McCown Surname Bulletin Board, in 2002, one respondent mentioned the account of Bissett moving to Antrim from Scotland and adopting the surname McKeown. It seems that some Irish McCowns changed their names to McKeown. Over time, and possibly in the British effort to eradicate Gaelic names, some of the McKeowns changed their surnames to Johnston or Johnson. Many more chose Johnston than Johnson.

The reason that this comes as a revelation to me at this late date, is that I now have a 61/67 Y-DNA match with a Johnston(e). At first I assumed that this was a Scottish match, first because I thought the name was Scottish and second, because this match's earliest known ancestor was born in Dumfriesshire Scotland in 1805. Barry McCain pointed out that it was also an Irish surname and occurred frequently in Fermanagh Co., Ulster. Barry also pointed out that many Irish moved to Scotland during the Industrial Revolution for job opportunities. This in turn could explain how an Irish Johnston(e) happened to be born in Scotland in an area rife with Johnston(e)s of the Scottish border clan, in that it was in southern Scotland that the Industrial Revolution had most effect.

It sounds as though McKeown, Johnston(e) and Johnson surnames may all have to be considered in our genealogy. I was doing a Google search on the McKeown name and one of the results that came up was the aforementioned 2002 posting to Genforum.

My Y-DNA Results

The McCown surname is Mac Eoghain in Gaelic and on the Ulster Heritage DNA Results page (www.ulsterheritage.com) you will find a heading for Mac Eoghain---but not all McCowns are shown under that heading. The majority of the 25 tested have their results shown under that heading. Most of those are descended from Francis McCown, John McCown or George McCown who are all believed to descend from Alexamder McCown, a Presbyterian minister.

You will find two or three others listed under the haplogroup heading R1b1b2 or R1b1b2a1b. The remaining two are shown under the heading Mag Uidhir II (Maguire II). That is one of two places that you can read my 67 marker test results. The other is at www.ysearch.org under User ID G2K6P

These two outcasts are a cousin descended from a younger brother (Eli) of my great grandfather (William). My best match to date is a McManus at 62/67 markers. We project to a 99.95% probability of having a common ancestor 33 generations ago. Using a 50 to 70% probability, we shoud have a Most Recent Common Ancestor within the 13 most recent generations.

Ancestral Origins Revisited

FTDNA has recently provided the information that countries of origin shown on the subject report are meaningful if at least 2% of those tested in that country are a match and very meaningful at 4%. Since there are vast differences in the populations and the percentage tested between countries, I believe that such differences must be taken into account. No country rose to the level of two percent at 12/12 matches, however, at 11/12 matches these levels are of interest: England 3.8%, Wales 6.6%, France (Alsace) 4.9%, Iceland 4.4%, Ireland (including N.I.) 4.5% and Scotland 5.2%. At one step mutation, these are all very strong. Scotland, Wales,Iceland and France (Alsace) are proportionally much stronger in relation to Ireland than I would have supposed.

An anomaly is just how haplogroups and haplotypes affect the outcome of the report in terms of matches. FTDNA has also said that the matches shown on my personal results page include all haplogroups that begin with R1b1. Since mine is R1b1b2 and many others are R1b1b2a1b or greater, that leaves open the question as to which matches are truly matches.

Credit Where Credit is Due

The information on the Dec. 8, 2008 posting regarding Thomas and W. L. McCowan are from "History of Wheeling City and Ohio County, West Virginia and Representative Citizens," by
Hon. Gibson Lamb Cranmer, 1902. Typed by Laurie Birks Dean, Page 487. See http://www.lindapages.com/wags-ohio/bio-mccowan.txt.

Ulster McCowan

Thomas McCowan was a weaver by trade in Duncannon, County Tyrone, Ireland. He was the first of his family line to come to America. One of his descendents was Prof. W. L. McCowan who served as principal of West Liberty State Normal School and was born Dec. 13, 1867, at Moss Run, Ohio.

This family does not appear to be related to mine, but the time frame matches that of my GGGF, Lawrence McCown, and both Lawrence McCown and Thomas McCowan had sons in 1818. Both families show marriages with families surnamed Dye. I am pleased when someone with a similar surname can trace their origins, down to their occupation in Ireland. Thomas could well be of Scotch-Irish descent, in that Duncannon, Tyrone, Co., Northern Ireland, is near Antrim, and both counties were active early during the Great Plantation of Ireland