The Mid Argyll MacAlpins, a DNA study

The Mid Argyll MacAlpins



Kilmichael Glassary Parish, Mid Argyll

The Mid Argyll Kinship DNA Project is a genetic genealogy research project on a group of families that share the same paternal ancestry, primarily from the parish of Kilmichael Glassary in mid Argyll.  Two of the families in the group are the MacAlpins (Mac Ailpín) and MacCains (Mac Eáin).  The chronology of the common male ancestor of these two mid Argyll families is currently under study.  Members of both families are doing the "Big Y" DNA test.  The BIG Y is a direct paternal lineage test and explores deep ancestral links.  It tests both thousands of known branch markers and millions of places where there may be new branch markers.  Both the Mac Ailpín and Mac Eáin families share SNP FGC19435 and the projected chronology to the TMRCA is circa 500AD.  The basic question is, are these MacAlpin families connected to the historical king from mid-Argyll, Coinneach Mac Ailpín (810 AD – 858 AD).  Coinneach Mac Ailpín was the first king of Scotland and founder of a dynasty which ruled Scotland for much of the medieval period.  This would mean the entire Mid Argyll Kinship group descends paternally from this old Dal Riada family.

The MacCains go back to a pivotal figure of Giolla Chríost who was a lord in Kilmichael Glassary in the 1200s.  He had three sons. One of these sons, Giolla Padraig, was the progenitor of the Cowal Clann Lachlainn.  His other two sons, Giolla Easpuig and Eoghann, had lands in Kilmichael Glassary in mid Argyll.  The descendants of Giolla Easpuig and Eoghann eventually lost their lands in Glassary to the Scrymgeour family.  In the late-1200s, Giolla Easpuig’s line failed to produce a male heir and their lands went to Ralf of Dundee by marriage. The lands of Eoghann were held by his son named Eáin, which passed to his sons by the 1340s.   In 1346, the Scottish Crown forfeited the Glassary lands of Eáin’s sons to Gilbert of Glassary, who was a grandson of Ralf of Dundee.  So by the late 1300s, Gilbert of Glassary had acquired, technically that is, much of the lands of the descendants of Giolla Easpuig and Eoghann, the two sons Giolla Chríost.  However, Gilbert of Glassary produced no male heir and in the 1370s all of these lands went to Alexander Scrymgeour, who had married Agnes, the daughter and heiress of Gilbert of Glassary.

How much control the Scrymgeour family had over the lands that had belonged to Giolla Easpuig and Eoghann Mac Giolla Chríost is questionable.  At this time, Glassary was the epicenter of the Redshanks society. Redshanks were a warrior class in high demand as mercenaries in Scotland, Ireland, and Europe.  They were a law unto themselves. They were supported by the tenants of the lord, a practice called “sorning.”  One sixteenth-century Scottish observer complained that the Glassary Redshanks were, “wild men who cannot be coerced or punished by secular judge or power.”^[1]  The local lore says, and it is probably correct, that the descendants of Eáin son of Eoghann Mac Giolla Chríost took the “clan” surname of their cousins, the Mac Lachlainns of Cowal, and remained on their lands in Glassary.  It is also remembered that the Scrymgeours, quite wisely, made no changes and did not require rents, per se.  Given the remoteness of mid Argyll and the warlike nature of the local Gaels, the Scrymgeours showed wisdom.  The status of land possession in Glassary becomes clearer when a “McCain” family appears there in the 1430s and we are told they are of Clann Lachlainn.

In 1432, a John M’Ean (Eáin Mac Eáin) appears in the Glassary writs selling a tract of land at Kilmun in Cowal to John Scrymgeour, son of Alexander.  In the writs, we are told John M’Ean’s uncle is Giolla Easpuig Mac Eáin, showing us they both were known by the same surname.^[2]  Then four years later, in 1436, Ailean Mac Eáin received a grant to extensive lands in Glassary which included many of the lands that had been held by Giolla Easpuig and Eoghann, the two sons of Giolla Chríost.  Ailean Mac Eáin’s son, Dunnchadh Rua, is also listed as “McCain” in the 1400s.  In other words, a McCain family appears on the scene in the 1430s in control of the lands held by Giolla Chríost’s two sons in Glassary.  Alastair Campbell of Airds, the Officer of Arms of Scotland and historian, noticed the appearance in Glassary of these McCains in his book The History of Clan Campbell.  When writing about the sale of land by John M’Ean to Sir John Scrymgeour he noted, “the lands of Kilmun presumably held by the MacIans or MaKanes, whoever they may have been.”^[3]  Mac Phail, the editor of the The Highland Papers, also noticed this McCain group and observed they were probably descendants of Giolla Easpuig Mac Giolla Chríost.^[4]   I would agree with this observation, but suspect they were the descendants of Eáin the son of Eoghann Mac Giolla Chríost. This is why they were known in Gaelic as the Mac Eáin family.  The salient point is that, from the early 1430s onward, there was a McCain family and Ailean Mac Eáin and his son Dunnchadh Rua were part of this family and they were connected to the Scrymgeour family through multiple marriages and land transactions.

Much of the history can be deduced from the lands themselves.  Several of the Glassary lands that Eoghann and his brother Giolla Easpuig held are the same ones granted to Ailean Mac Eáin in 1436 and later held by his sons.  Put into a historical context, the 1400s were a golden age for the local Gaelic powers in mid Argyll and Eáin Mac Lachlainn’s (Taoiseach of Clann Lachlainn) grant to Ailean Mac Eáin reflects this.  There may have been official land resignations, but the reality was Clann Lachlainn still retained control of much of their ancestral lands in Glassary and the 1436 grant confirms this.

By the late 1500s, McCain was fixed as a surname. This was almost certainly done to distinguish them as the line of Ailean Mac Eáin.  This use of the surname was noticed by local historian Herbert Campbell in the 1922, volume 38 edition of The Genealogist.  As he put it, “it is practically sure that two of the three Johns nicknamed ‘reoch’ belonged to the Dunadd line, so that it looks as though the family were playing with the nickname.”^[5]  “John Reoch” was Campbell’s way of anglicizing Eáin Riabhach.  He was correct. The name was being used more at that time.  An example of what Herbert Campbell meant is seen in the name of Giolla Easpuig Mac Eáin Riabhach Mhic Dhonnchaidh Rua Mhic Lachlainn, who appears in the Lamont Papers in 1612.  This derbhfine name would be Archibald McCain in today’s English.  In 1570, Alexander M’Ean of Glassary held the lands at Bormolloch.   Bormolloch is the farmstead to the immediate east of Creag an Tairbh.  Significantly, Alexander M’Ean is listed in the Scrymgeour family records showing yet another connection between these two families.^[6]  One Campbell tacsman listed in the year 1603 is “John M’Donald V’Ean, alias M’Loauchlan.”^[7]  In Gaelic, his name was Eáin Mac Dónaill Mhic Eáin.  The “alias M’Loauchlan” means also known as Mac Lachlainn.  In 1705, another example of the multiple surname use is recorded in the Argyll justiciary records, with “Duncan Vc Lauchlane alias McEan.”^[8]  These are examples of a clerk feeling the need to clarify a McCain’s clan affiliation.

The Mid Argyll MacAlpins are more difficult to locate in the primary sources in the 1400s, but in the 1500s they appear and are linked to the Ailean Mac Eáin family.  On 6 May 1573 John McDonche VcAlpine (Eáin Mac Donnchaidh Mhic Ailpín) was a witness to a sasine given by Alexander Scrymgeour at Kirnan, Kilmichael Glassary parish.  Alexander Scrymgeour was father of James Scrymgeour who was married to Aifric Nic Dhonnchaidh Rua (a descendent of Donnchadh Rua Mac Eáin).   This established a connection in the primary sources between the Mac Ailpín and Mac Eáin families.  Next we have, on 4 January 1608, in the Poltalloch Writs recorded at Inveraray castle, the Earl of Argyll addressed a precept of clare constat to Duncan McAlpine (Donnchadh Mac Ailpín) in Garbhallt.^[9]  Garbhallt was part of Donnchadh Rua Mac Eáin's lands.  By the 1600s, there are many Mac Ailpín families that show up in the records, often living in the same settlements as the McCains other descendants of Ailean Mac Eáin. The MacAlpin families that participated in the DNA test were from the Loch Ederline area, which is on the southern end of Loch Awe within minutes of both Garbhallt and Bormolloch.

While the research is still on going, the DNA results of the mid Argyll Mac Ailpín family suggests they may be the historical Mac Ailpín family and their paternal line provided other clan progenitors in mid Argyll. The ancestral origins results for the family shows connections to central Scotland and no deep connections to Ireland, which  points to an indigenous Cumbric or Pict progenitor of this family.  News and research updates of the mid Argyll Mac Ailpín families will be posted on the Mid Argyll Group’s blog page.

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[1] Heather Frances James, Medieval Rural Settlement, a study of Mid-Argyll, Scotland, (PhD thesis, University of Glasgow) 124.

 

[2] JRN MacPhail, 175.

 

[3] Alastair Campbell, The History of Clan Campbell, Volume I, From Origins to Flodden, (Edinburg, Edinburg University Press, 2000) 127.

 

[4] MacPhail, 225,226.

 

[5] Harwood,”Poltalloch Writs”, 71.

 

[6]  J Maitland Thomson, ed., Inventory of Documents Relating to the Scrymgeour Family Estates 1611 (Edinburgh: J Skinner and Company, 1912), 24.

 

[7] Innes, Parochiales, 165. Taken from the Brendalbane Charters.

 

[8] John Cameron, ed., The Justiciary Records of Argyll and the Isles 1664-1705, Volume 1(Edinburgh, The Stair Society), 75.

 

[9] Ibid., 142.

 

Finding the McCains On Sale This Week

Amazon has put Finding the McCains on sale for the next few days, so this is a very good time to purchase.  It has Irish history, Scottish history, Highlanders, Mary Queen of Scots, the brave Iníon Dubh, and Phil Robertson in it.  Not too many books contain that combination.  It is a memoir full of entertaining stories of forty years of travel in Ireland, Scotland, and the UK... and it is Mystery, solved through forensics.  And it is a good old fashioned read.

'Finding the McCains,' is an account of one Mississippi McCain’s 40 year odyssey to find his family in Ireland. Senator John McCain and his cousin, novelist Elizabeth Spencer, both include a short history of the Mississippi McCain family in their respective memoirs 'Faith of our Fathers' and 'Landscapes of the Heart.' This history is a romantic tale of Highland Scots who supported Mary Queen of Scots and who fled to Ireland after her downfall in 1568. The search for the McCains became a mystery story with clues, false turns, many adventures, and then ultimate success through Y chromosome DNA testing. In 2008 the McCains were reunited with their family that remained in Ireland, after 289 years of separation.

The McCain history includes people and events familiar to readers of Irish and Scottish history; Redshanks, Iníon Dubh, Mary Queen of Scots, the Earls of Argyll, the Ulster Migration, and the Scots-Irish, are all part of this family’s story. Faint memories of this past were told for generations in Mississippi and as the research progressed the facts behind these memories were uncovered. Another theme in the book is the Scots-Irish. Contemporary histories about the Scots-Irish present stereotyped and romanticized accounts of this dynamic group. 'Finding the McCains' reveals a more complex history and shows the cultural conflation common in Scots-Irish popular history. 'Finding the McCains' is also a genetic genealogy how-to guide for people of Irish and Scottish ancestry.




Barry R McCain with Austin Rock on top of Loughcrew
 

Purchase:   FINDING THE MCCAINS

DNA Match Group & Derbhfine Names

If your Y-DNA match group has developed a strong geographic pattern this will allow you to research the primary sources of that location.  The records in many areas in the north of Ireland, Argyll, the southern Hebrides, are remarkably intact, and if is very possible to find your ancestor listed in them and extract a genealogy from the traditional Gaelic method of recording surnames.

Keeping with the Gaelic custom a surname often appears in a format that carried short genealogy in them based on the derbhfine (said jerub-finn-ah).  The derbhfine name contained four generations of the man’s family back to his paternal great grandfather.  The derbhfine gradually gave way to a three generation format called a gelfine.

This naming practice was important in the Gaelic world because their society was one of caste and heredity.  Gaelic society needed to know not only your name, but the names of your father, grandfather, and great grandfather.  It provided the information needed to explain who a man was and the lands and rights of his family within his district and society.  An example of Gaelic surnames from this time: a man named Dónall Mac Ailein Mhic Eáin had a son named Lachlan who took the name Lachlan Mac Dónaill Mhic Ailein Mhic Eáin.  His surname is Mac Dónaill and the Mhic Ailein tells you who his grandfather was.

The use of clan surnames was not universal and was a form often found only on legal documents written by government officials.^[1]  Clan surnames were used more by the oldest sons of landed families and these names functioned as a title as well as a name.  However, by following the derfbhfine name you can accurately track your ancestor’s family back for many generations.

This does take some skill and at least some knowledge of Gaelic is required. The records are written in Gaelic, phonetic Gaelic (usually done by a Lallans speaking clerk), Latin, Lallans, and Lallan’s influenced English.  For an example we will look at the descendants of a historical Argyll man, Donnchadh Rua Mac Ailín Mhic Eáin Riabhach of Dunamuck. 

Here is an example of a derbhfine surname of one of his descendants in a primary source:  “On 14 January of that year (1612), Archibald M’Eane reoch Vc Donchie roy Vc Lachlane was made principal to Walter Lamont son of John Lamont of Anaskeog.”  The Cautioners listed were Giolla Easpuig Mac Dónaill Mhic Dhonnchaidh Rua Mhic Lachlainn and Lachlan Mac Dónaill Mhic Dhonnchaidh Rua Mhic Lachlainn.^[2]  If we take the name of the principal we have “Archibald M’Eane reoch Vc Donchie roy Vc Lachlane” which allows us to identify this man back to his grandfather and connect him to Donnchadh Rua Mac Ailín Mhic Eáin Riabhach of Dunamuck.  In Gaelic his name is “Giolla Easpuig Mac Eáin Riabhach Mhic Dhonnchaid Rua Mhic Loclainn.”  Translated into English: “Archibald son of brindled John grandson of Red Duncan of the clan Lachlainn. Of interest, the clerk wrote the last name in this derbhfine as a clan surname rather than by his actual great-grandfather’s surname which was Ailean    This was done because his grandfather, Ailean Mac Eáin Riabhach, was the Taoiseach of Clann Lachlainn in Glassary.  The two Cautioners listed are of the same family and both carry “Mhic Dhonnchaidh Rua” in their names and the House of Dunamuch tag which positively identifies these men.  The derbhfine surnames and Dunamuch House name allows us to  connect the principal and the Cautioners to the historical figure Donnchadh Rua Mac Ailín Mhic Eáin Riabhach who was the Taoiseach of House Dunamuck, a sept of Clann Lachlainn in Glassary who ruled there from 1460s into the early 1500s.

Here is an example using the same family of the Gelfine format surname: Donnchadh Rua Mac Ailín’s oldest son and heir was Lachlann Mac Donnchaidh Rua.  He appears in the Poltalloch Writs on 20 October 1547 in connection with a precept of clare constat.^[3]  His name is written “Lachlan McDonche VcAllan of Dunemuck.”  The use of the House name of Dunamuch and the gelfine name allows us to positively link this man with Donnchadh Rua Mac Ailín.

So take heart.  If your DNA match group has provided you with a geographic area to focus on, it is possible to use primary sources to extract a real genealogy.  You can use the Derbhfine and Gelfine surnames along with land transactions of merklands and pennylands to follow the trail of your ancestors.    

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[1] Michael Newton, A Handbook of the Scottish Gaelic World, (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2000), 136-7. 

[2] Lamont, Inventory, 99.

[3] Ibid., 139.

Cornbread, Scots-Irish Foodways

In the 18th Century when many thousands of Ulster's sons and daughters came to New World to settle on the frontier, they brought with them their folkways, music, etc., and also their foods and methods of food preparation. Many of the cooking styles and foods became in time quintessentially 'American.' Foremost among these would be the humble and incredibly delicious cornbread.

The Ulster settlers brought with them a tradition of cooking flat oat breads on a griddle, something that had been done for several thousands years in Ulster. Now, in the New World these Ulster settlers quickly adapted to the new foods available to them. In the Ulster settlements oats and wheat quickly gave way to corn and the traditional griddle cooked oatcake was then made of corn. This trait of borrowing from other cultures they were exposed to was a factor in the success of Ulster folk on the frontier.

Griddle cooked cornbread quickly became the bread of the Scotch-Irish communities and the bread followed them as the pushed the frontier west. This wonderfully simple food is still commonly found in those areas where the Scotch-Irish settled and it is to this day a staple on the supper table of the descendants of these Ulster folk, especially in the American South.

The bread is simplicity itself, a little cornmeal, an egg, some leavening, a pinch of salt, and enough buttermilk to make a batter. This is poured onto a cast iron hot skillet with bacon grease or oil in it. In the past the bread was cooked in a skillet next to the fireplace or anyplace where coals were available. When Dutch ovens came into use, the cooking of cornbread was often done in them. Later still, when ovens became a common kitchen appliance, the cornbread recipes were adapted for the modern oven, where it came into its present day form.

The cooking of cornbread in the South is an art as well as a science. Many families have special cast iron skillets, often that have been in the family for generations, in which the cornbread is cooked. Many women have wooden bowls and spoons handed down in from past generations, in which the batter is made. It is served with butter with a meal and can also be served after a meal with honey or sorghum syrup, as sweet.

Cornbread is a wonderful food, simple, tasty, and also part of  the cultural continuum from Ulster.

Dr Rankin Sherling on 'Finding the McCains'

"This is a unique piece of work.  Not only has Barry McCain produced a fine book that is very interesting to McCains--and it is that in spades--but to historians of Irish identity and Irish migration as well.  McCain uses the story of his search for his own Gaelic roots to demonstrate how the intelligent use of DNA helps to fill historical gaps that traditional historical techniques never could.  The results are dramatic and strongly challenge the traditional, nationalist mythologies of Irish historiography."  

---Rankin Sherling, author of The Invisible Irish: Finding Protestants in the Nineteenth-Century Migrations to America (McGill-Queen’s University Press, Fall 2015).

Ulster Heritage Publishing

 

A small independent Southern publisher.  Their new blog, have a look:

Ulster Heritage Publishing

The Southern Cracker

The Cracker

Cracker Cattle

What is the etymology of the term Cracker?  We all know what a Cracker was (or is).  A Southern Anglo-Celt, usually of Scots-Irish origin, who lives in the backcountry.   The term appears intact and in use by the mid-1700s in Colonial America.  One eighteenth-century definition of what a Cracker provides a good description; in 1776 a Colonial official wrote to the earl of Dartmouth:

I should explain to your Lordship what is meant by Crackers, a name they have got from being great boasters; they are a lawless set of rascals on the frontiers of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia, who often change their place of abode.

They were basically a semi nomadic group who were excellent hunters, kept free range cattle and pigs, and lived in the backcountry.  They were normally of Ulster ancestry, but not exclusively so.

Cracker is still a much used term.  Dubious sources, such as Wikipedia, tell us it is a “usually derogatory term for white people.” Wikipedia also offers a proposed etymology of the term coming from the sound of the “whips” used by Southern whites on their livestock.

The real story is more complex.  It is term with links to Ulster and associated with the people we know as the Scots-Irish.  The original Crackers are also associated with free range cattle and lived in the backcountry.  That much is on firm ground, but the etymology is more difficult to deduce, but I believe is also linked to Ulster.  There are several possible origins, which I will not list and state each one’s case. 

Creachadóir:  This is the word I believe is the actual origin of Cracker. It is Ulster Gaelic and Scots Gaelic (Creachadair) word meaning, “raider and freebooter,” but also associated with the free range cattle drovers in Ulster.  In short, I think Cracker is the anglicised form of Creachadóir. 

Creach: (Ulster Gaelic) means a “herd of cattle,” and also a “Cattle raid.”   You will also find the word Greigh in Scot Gaelic meaning a “herd of cattle.”   There is also the Scots-Gaelic word Gréighear meaning a “farm grieve.”  (someone who took care of livestock) 

Other possible etymologies:

Cracaire: This word means “talker” or a person that chats a lot and is related to the modern Irish word “Craic” meaning “a gathering where people talk, have refreshments, and have a good time.”  As far as I can tell, the use of Cracaire and Craic are more recent in their use in the Gaelic language and I do not think this is the etymology of Cracker, but it is a debatable point.    

I think the salient element is the linking of Crackers to cattle.  Creach was anglicised as Creacht and was used from the mid-1500s into the early 1800s to describe both a herd of cattle and the drovers (cowboys) of the herd.  These men were also used for raiding parties.  So in actual use a Creacht was both a free range cowboy and raider and freebooter. In modern Gaelic usage the older meaning of free range cowboy has been dropped and now the definition is “raider and freebooter, ” but it was the same thing, or person, in a historical context.  So, in Ulster, we have the word Creach and Creacht in use in both Hiberno-English and Gaelic and meaning exactly what the Southern Crackers were.  Given the fact that the Crackers were from Ulster and were free range cowboys the Creach, Creacht, and Creachadóir, origin from Cracker is logical.

A Cracker Cowboy by Frederic Remington

The anglicised form may be from Creachadóir or it could be from Creach and anglicised from adding an English suffix of “er.”   I think however, the former more likely. 

So, the likely etymology of Cracker is from the Ulster and Scots Gaelic word Creachadóir.  For the record, Cracker is not considered derogatory among the Crackers living in the South today.  The opposite is true, it is an often used term of ethnic self-description and is a source of pride.  It means you are indigenous to the South, ancestors from Ulster or northwest Britain, have roots in the Uplands or Backcountry, are independent, self-reliant, you act in an honorable way, are good with weapons, hunting, fishing, and are man that knows how to do things.  As the Southern Crackers settled Texas and the Southwest they became the Cowboy, a cultural continuum of their unique lifestyle.   

 Cowboy 1888

© 2019 Barry R McCain

The Scots-Irish: Scots-Irish DNA Project

The Scots-Irish: Scots-Irish DNA Project: The Scots-Irish DNA project is open to male Scots-Irish to assist their families' genetically genealogy and family history research.  T...

Y-DNA test When No Paternal Relative Is Available

Y-DNA test When No Paternal Relative Is Available

A frequent issue in genetic genealogy is the problem of Y chromosome DNA testing when there is no male relative available.  This means a participant does not have any known family member that is a direct paternal descendant of the family line they wish to research via Y-DNA.   This situation does present an obstacle, but one that can be overcome.  Here is how many have done this; you can do the autosomal DNA and use your results to locate a co-lateral line from the paternal line you wish to research.

 

I have done this myself.  I wanted to research the Y-DNA of the family of my father’s mother.  Since the Y-chromosome is only passed from father to son, I could not use my Y-DNA results; I needed a proxy male to test for me from my father’s mother’s father’s family.   I did the autosomal test and located a brother and sister from my father’s mother’s father’s line.  The male from that autosomal match group tested his Y-chromosome; this gave me the Y-DNA data from the line I wanted to research. I could now use his Y-DNA results to research my father’s mother’s father’s family.  This was done with great success.

 

It takes a bit longer and you have to organize the project and get proxy participant to cooperate, but usually they are happy to do it.     

Memphis Scottish Society News

I will be speaking and doing book signings at the Memphis Scottish Society on 13 April.  Dinner at 6:00 and the program at 7:00.  I will be speaking on genetic genealogy for Irish, Scots, and Scots-Irish.  I will also will present my books Finding the McCains, A Scots-Irish Odyssey and The Laggan Redshanks, The Highland Scots in West Ulster, 1569-1630; this is a opportunity to pick up signed copies of both.

Everyone interested in Irish, Scottish and Scots-Irish people, culture, and history are welcomed to attend.  Details on the meeting, location, time, etc. including in the newsletter.  Please share this widely. 

Link below to the Memphis Scottish Society newsletter.  Follow the link for a Pdf version of Grace Notes.

Link:  Memphis Scottish Society March Newsletter