McCain's Corner: The McCain DNA Project Update March 2020

The McCain family DNA project began in the late summer of 2003. When we began the McCain DNA project many of us had been working on our family history for many decades. For me, the search began in the 1960s. I was born in Mississippi and grew up in north Louisiana. I lived on McCain Drive, near Monroe, Louisiana. I had many McCain cousins, some famous, such as admirals and historians, etc. I was interested in the family history at an early age, around ten years old, the moment I realised my surname was not English, that it was Gaelic. That started the long odyssey to locate our family's origin and learn their history.

Before we started the McCain DNA Project our family history was a mess. We had many cousins, that we knew, but often we did not know how we were related. We had some data, such as naming patterns, oral histories, etc. I wanted more, I wanted the facts.

Even our McCain origin myth was a mess. Some accounts claimed we were members of the famous Clann Dhónaill, through the Glencoe McCains, while others said we were the famous Ó Catháin clan of County Derry, Ireland. The true story of our family was lost in time, in a dim fog of the past. The McCain DNA Project was started and with it came the DNA test results. The real McCain family history was revealed through the brutal reality of genetics.

Our first two participants were myself and Joe McKane from Ballwatt, County Antrim, Ireland. Jim and I submitted our DNA samples and waited patiently for the results. These came in an email from Family Tree DNA Ltd, the company our project uses. The emails read, 'You have a match.' And that was the start of how we discover our real history.

From that initial DNA match we were able to methodically progress in extracting that history. There were many surprises and pseudo history uncovered. We learned we were not the Clann Dhónaill McCains and also discovered that we were not the Ó Catháin family of County Derry either. We did confirm that we had branches in New England, in Canada, and that allowed us to understand how each branch arrived in the New World and the various dates of their immigration from Ireland.

Our McCain cousins in Ireland

We confirmed we had many cousins from Canada, most located in New Brunswick, Ontario, and Nova Scotia. We located and confirmed kinship to McCains, McKeens, McKeans, McKanes, from New England and Pennsylvania. We located and confirmed kinship with a small army of McCains across the South, from North Carolina, to South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas... and confirmed kinship with other branches in Indiana, Arizona, and California. (note Mac Eáin is anglicised in many ways, McCane, McCain, McKane, McKean, McKeen, etc.)

The DNA results allowed us to locate geographic areas, or points of origin, of the McCains. Two places emerged of significance; in Donegal, the Porthall, St Johnston, and the Finn Valley area. The second location was the parish of Kilmichael Glassary in mid Argyll, in the Scottish Highlands. From there, I was able to locate 'our' McCains in the primary sources. We are the Mac Eáin family that originated in Kilmichael Glassary, and moved en masse to the Porthall area of Donegal in 1569.


location of McCain DNA connections in Argyll

By 2017 new DNA techniques have greatly enhanced the methods of DNA research. The use of higher level SNP test (single nucleotide polymorphism) allows much more data to be extracted from our Y chromosome DNA tests. The mutation rates for SNPs are more stable and happen at a predictable rate. The geneticists are finding new SNPs that allow one to research with great precision the time frame of the DNA matches through observing the discovered SNP mutation between branches of the same family.

One interesting development that the DNA results revealed is that our McCains share the same paternal DNA as the Mac Ailpín family, also of Kilmichael Glassary parish in mid Argyll. We do not know the details of how these families began to use two different surnames. We only know they are genetically the same family and we can place them living together and interacting with each other in the records. Research on this is ongoing at this time. Gaelic surnames were not fixed, and it was normal for one branch to take another surname. Also, the reader should keep in mind that this data is specifically for the Mac Eáin family that originated in Kilmichael, and ditto with the Mac Ailpín family from there. There are dozens of McCain families across Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, but here we are only speaking of the kinship group that is the Kilmichael Glassary McCains. This is true also with the Mac Ailpín family of Kilmichael Glassary.

To date, among the participants of the McCain DNA Project, we have not located any Scottish origin McCains. Those McCains that were born in Scotland all have roots in Donegal. It appears when the McCains left Kilmichael Glassary, they all left for Ireland. Of interest, many of the Kilmichael Glassary Mac Ailpín families also left for Ireland. We know the McCains were Redshanks, a paid soldier much in use in the 1500s. Our McCains came to Donegal with other Highland Gaels from mid Argyll as part of a military buildup to assist the Ó Dónaill clan of Donegal. This story is complex, but the details are in the book Finding the McCains.

The link to the: McCain DNA Project. We are still testing and encourage McCain males to participate in the projects. We use the 111 level Y chromosome test. We also encourage our participants to consider doing the higher level SNP tests.

A few photos of our cousins...