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.