Final Report on Genetic Analysis of the McMurtry Family

Detailed Report

Richard McMurtry

December 20008

 

 

Introduction

 

As discussed in the summary report, for decades, McM family members have wondered about their family origins.  Some asked whether their famlies came from Ireland or Scotland.  Others wanted to know where in those countries their ancestors lived.  Others wanted to know their connection to the first McM in their lineage to come to America.

 

In 2004, the MacMurtrie Clan Family Records learned that one could use DNA genetic testing to tell which McMurtrys shared a common ancestor and which ones didn’t.  So for the first time in history, it seemed that some of those perennial questions might at long last be answered.   For those of us who had been studying the family history for most of our lives, we were excited!

 

This report discusses the origins of the McM family in Scotland and Ireland and the dispersion of the McM family throughout those countries and to America.  It also discusses the implications of DNA genetic analysis for linking families to their common ancestor.  It contains all the information in the summary report and supplements that with additional details.  For an introduction to understanding DNA in family history, see the next to last page of this report.

 

Between 2004 and 2008, almost 50 DNA samples were collected from 37 McM families around the world – the USA, Canada, Ireland, Scotland, and Australia.   We sought to tell how the McM of America were related to the McM of Ireland and Scotland, how the various Scottish and Irish families were related to other McM families across the Irish channel and within their own countries, and how the McM of America were related to each other.   The results were astounding!   The report that follows sumarizes what we have learned and what still remains a mystery.

 

The most important discoveries were:

1. The Irish McM all share an ancestor with families back in Scotland.  The McM of Co Derry share an ancestor with a family that lived in Dailly Parish, Ayrshire, Scotland and the McM of Co Antrim share an ancestor with the McM who lived in most of the parishes of south-central Ayrshire where the McM were concentrated by the 1700s.
2. All but one of the McM who migrated to colonial America came from northern Ireland, they all share a common ancestor with each other, and they share a common ancestor with families in Scotland.
3. All McM families studied to date are descended from only three different individuals who lived sometime back in the 1400s or 1500s or perhaps earlier.  This is reflected in the fact that all these families have only 3 basic DNA patterns.  (a)  The “Ayrshire/Antrim” pattern common to McM in Co Antrim in Northeast Ireland and most of the “McMurtrie” parishes of south-central Ayrshire, (b) the “Ayrshire/Derry” pattern common to Co Derry in northern Ireland and to one family in the parish of Dailly, Ayrshire, and (c) the “Ayrshire (Dalmellington)” pattern common to families related to those originating in the town of Dalmellington in eastern Ayrshire.

 

Next we will discuss the origins and dispersion of the McM in each country and what the DNA tells us about which families share a common ancestor with which other families.

 

            Scotland

 

The McM name in its various spellings is said by some  to have evolved from the converstion of the Gaelic name Muircheartaigh or Muircheartach to an English form of the name.  One Scottish genealogist thought the McMurtrie name evolved from the Muircheartaigh of Bute and that the McMurtries were a “sept” of the Clan Stewart of Bute.  However, some McM historians doubt the Bute origin and think the name may have evolved from Muircheartaigh elsewhere in Scotland.   The name appears in various forms in various places in the 1500s - McMurthre in Wigtonshire, McMurthe in Kintyre (where it became McMurchy), McMurrarty in Bute, McMuryte elsewhere.   As Murtrae, Mowtrie, Mutrie (derivatives of Moultrie) it appears in eastern Scotland, particularly in Fife north of Edinburgh and is reported to have derived from an Anglo-Norman knight.

 

But as far as names that we would recognize as McMurtrie, it is Ayrshire that we find its origins.  The McM name is found in Barr Parish, Ayrshire as early as 1538 when a Robert Makmurtre is listed as occupying the farm of Bailleballoch (which is Gaelic for "farm in the pass").  It appears in Maybole, Ayrshire in 1575 when a John McMurtre received payment of a cow from the estate of Sir Thomas Kennedy.      The first mention of the name in its modern spelling is in a Testament dated 1604 for a Thomas McMurtrie who died in 1592 in Culzean, not far from the village of Kirkoswald.

 

Regardless of its origins, by the early to mid-1600s, references to them are found in all the “heartland” parishes of Ayrshire:  Girvan, Barr, Kirkoswald, Maybole, Kirkmichael, Dailly and Straiton as well as some isolated references in Kilmarnock 20 miles north of Maybole.   By the 1700s, they are found in Ayr and Dalmellington.  As the 1700s progress into the mid-1700s, we begin to see migrations northward to Kilmarnock (3 families in the 1730s) and to Glasgow (one family in the 1730s and 3 familes in the 1750s), one Falkirk, half-way between Glasow and Edinburgh (one family in 1750s), and a family of McMutrie in Edinburgh in 1750s.

 

In Wigtonshire, south of Ayrshire, there are a few isolated families (in Old Luce and Glenluce) in the mid-1700s, but it is not til around the turn of the century that we see an increase in McMurtries.  In 1798, an Andrew McMurtrie born in Colmonell in 1769, married in Stranraer, in Wigtonshire.   And around 1807, a John and Robert McMurtrie who had been living in Co Down, Ireland moved back to Scotland and settled in Inch Parish, and then Glenluce Parish.

 

In the last half of the 1700s, there were migrations within Ayrshire too numerous to list here.     Of note were some migrations to the Glasgow area, to areas just west of Glasgow, namely Paisley in Renfrewshire and New Kilpatrick in Dumbartonshire,  and in some cases back from the Glasgow area to Kilmarnock and back to Maybole.

 

In the early 1800s, branches of the McMutrie family of Edinburgh seems to have moved to Glasgow and branches of a Dalmellington McMurtrie family moved to Barr/Maybole with three children moving on to Edinburgh area in the 1830s.

 

There were migrations as well out of Scotland prior to 1750.    In 1747, David McMurtrie of Dalmellington went to London and in 1752 to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in America and was followed by his nephew William by 1762.  Another David McM of the Dalmellington family went to Melboure in 1837.  In 1850, James McM of Edinburgh (descended from a Dalmellington related family) moved to New Zealand.

 

            The DNA results for the Scottish families

 

As mentioned earlier, there are three DNA patterns for the McM of Scotland:

•     Ayrshire/Antrim Pattern 

•     Ayrshire/Derry Pattern

•     Ayrshire (Dalmellington) Pattern

 

The Ayrshire/Antrim Pattern (20 families) occurs with slight DNA variations in the “McMurtrie parishes” in the heart of Ayrshire where the McM appear in the parish records and other public records by the 1600s, namely,  Maybole, Kirkoswald, Dailly, Barr, Kirkmichael, Straiton.   The Ayrshire/Antrim pattern is also the pattern of several families who lived in Co Antrim in northern Ireland and is the pattern of the McM that migrated from Ireland to colonial America in the 1730s and 1770s.  And it is the pattern of most of the McM families for which we have DNA samples  (20 out of 37 families).  McM family historians have wondered for decades about the origins of the American McM and wondered if there was a connection between the Scottish and Irish families. Here we see proof of a connection between Scottish and Irish families AND early American families, suggesting a Scottish origin to all of them! 

 

The Ayrshire/Derry pattern (8 families) occurs in 6 families in eastern CoDerry, but in Scotland it occurs only in the descendants of John McM b 1718 Dailly Parish and Andrew McM b 1771 Kirkmichael Parish.  This suggests that the Dailly family was the origin of the family that later appeared in Co Derry in Ireland and northern Kirkmichael in Ayrshire.  Hence, we see a genetic connection between these Irish and Scottish families proving a common origin among these families but one which is different from the Ayrshire/Antrim pattern McM. 

 

The Ayrshire (Dalmellington) Pattern  (9 families) is characteristic of 5 families known to have documented in the Dalmellington parish registers and well as 4 families that can not be so linked but have a similar DNA pattern:

 

The map of Ayrshire shows the location of these families with a color corresponding to each of the three DNA patterns.  Below is a listing of each of the Scottish families sampled grouped according to the DNA pattern it shares.  Elsewhere on the MacMurtrie Clan Family Records website can be found a search engine that can help you locate one of your ancestors and thereby identify the family number of the family you are descended from.  Once you know the number of your family, you can identify its DNA pattern in the listings below.

 

 

            Ayrshire/Antrim Pattern

 

The Ayrshire/Antrim pattern has 4 variations to it, but only Sub-pattern 1 is found in Scotland.  The other three variations are found either only in Ireland or only in America.  These other patterns will be discussed in the Irish section of this report. 

 

            Ayrshire/Antrim Pattern

 

Sub-pattern 1 is common to the following families:

 

CF 28        John McMurtrie of Balwhirn, Kirkmichael, Ayrshire, children b 1720s

CF 37/38  Matthew McM of Kirkoswald, children born abt 1700

CF 39        James md 1800 Maybole, prob s of James b 1743 Barr md 1768 Dailly (CF4)

CF 56        James McM md 1791 Jean Glen in Paisley (5 mi w of Glasgow)

CF 57        John McM md 1839 Margaret Nicolson in Fredericton, New Brunswick

CF 30        Thomas md 1796 Eliz Neill in St Quivox, Ayr

CF 24        Thomas McM md 1781 Elizabeth Gardner in New Kilpatrick, Dumbartonshire

 

CF 112:  Alexander McM d 1761 Hunterdon Co NJ (sons included Hugh McM d 1810/20                                         Union Co, PA and CF133 Alexander McM of Orange Co NY)

 

CF 202:  William McM 1775-1855 Co Carlow & Bowmanville, Ontario Canada

 

The following are basically sub-pattern 1 but with two additional mutations.  Samples from a second branch of each family is needed to clarify if these are recent mutations or old ones.

CF 7:    Thomas McM md Margaret Gemmell, Maybole

CF 22:  Thomas McM md 1720 Margaret McM, Mackrillkill, Dailly Parish, Ayrshire

 

This sub-pattern is unique amongst the Ayrshire/Antrim pattern families in that representatives of this sub-pattern are found in most Scottish families, an Irish family and an American family.

 

We believe that Sub-pattern 1 is the ancestral signature of the McM.  We further believe that CF 202 and CF 112 reflect the continuity of that DNA pattern through the families migration to Ireland and to America.   It also suggests that CF 202 and CF 112 may be closely related.

 

The other three variations of the Ayrshire/Antrim pattern are single mutations from the  basic pattern of Sub-pattern 1.   We believe that this reflects mutations that happened after the family moved to Ireland between 1600 and 1675.

 

            Ayrshire/Derry Pattern

 

There are only two families in Scotland with the Ayrshire/Derry pattern and it is likely that the later one is descended from a sibling or cousins of the earlier one.

 

CF 1:      John b 1714 md 1744 Park, Dailly to Agnes Ferguson Bellymore, Barr

CF 12:    Andrew b 1771, son of John of Pleasant Park, Kirkmichael

 

The pattern is also characterisitic of 6 families in Co Derry in Ireland which indicates a common ancestor between the two countries and suggests that the Derry families are branches of the Dailly family.

 

            Ayrshire (Dalmellington) Pattern

 

The Ayrshire (Dalmellington) pattern families can be traced to the parish registers in Dalmellington except for three Thomas McM of CF 47, CF 18 and CF 16 and the James McM of CF 42.

 

CF 113/CF 19 William McMurtrie b abt 1690 of Dalmellington, Ayrshire (descendants include David b 1721 who went to Philadelphia 1752 and his nephew William b 1740 who followed him by 1762), and a David McM who went to Melbourne 1837)

CF 23                          John McMurtrie b 1733 Dalmellington md 1766 Coylton, resided Craigie                                       and Sorn, Ayrshire

CF 104            David McMurtrie b 1735 Dalmellington, md 1762 Kirkmichael Ayrshire

CF 45/CF 46/  William b 1766 Dalemelllington md 1805 Mary Hoet Barr/Maybole

                        Children: Thomas b 1811,  William b 1817 and James b 1820s who went o                         Edinburgh area 1830s      

CF 42              James McM md Margaret McLatchie and had  dau Eliz in 1780 in Doonside in northern Maybole Parish.

 

CF 18 and CF 16 have a similar mutation that is different from the rest of the Dalmellington group, suggesting a close connection between them as a distinct branch of the Dalmellington group of families.

 

CF 18                          Thomas md 1781 Marion Bole, resided Dam of Barnshean, Kirkmichael

CF 16              Thomas md Janet Murdock 1785 Paisley=>Maybole 1795/1797

 

CF 17 has a basically Dalmellington pattern but has several mutations that suggest that the family should be resampled by a distant cousin of the branch to get a more representative pattern for this family.

 

CF 47              Thomas McM and Mgt Gibson had natural son Thomas b 1798 Galston

                        who md 1825 Elizabeth Hunter in Edinburgh

 

 

We speculate that the Thomas McM (CF 47) of Galston with the natural son Thomas b 1798 might be the Thomas McM who md Marion Lamont in Paisley in 1785 and had children in nearby Kilmarnock 1786-1792;  we note that another Thomas married in Paisley and had children there with Janet Murdock in 1793 (Thomas) and 1795 (Mary Ann) before migrating to Maybole between 1795 and 1797.    Thomas b 1802, son of Thomas and Janet Murdock (CF 16), moved to Kilmarnock in 1828 and lived in Galston in 1830.  This geographic overlapping might be indicative of the two Thomas being the same person or cousins of the same family since both Thomas b 1798 Galston and Thomas b1802 share the Ayrshire (Dalmellington) DNA pattern.    We also note that CF 23 (a Dalmellington family had moved to the Craigie area between 1770 and 1792); so perhaps there was a migration of other members of this family that we don't know about.

 

           

            McM of Ireland

 

As mentioned earlier, some historians assert that the McM name evolved from the Muircheartaigh family of the Island of Bute.   Most McM historians  believe that the appearance in Ayrshire Scotland was a migration from Bute beginning in the 1500s and that the appearance in Ireland was from a migration from Ayrshire.    The settlement of Scots in northern Ireland in the early 1600s occurred in the wake of the armies of Queen Elizabeth (1595-1603) and King James (1608) who confiscated the feudal lands of Irish chieftains and evicted the native Irish peasantry.

 

One McM historian believes the McM of Ireland may have come independently from a migration from the Isle of Bute beginning after 1540.   I believe that there may have been migrations of Muircheartaighs, such as McCurdys, to Ireland at that time, but don’t see enough records of McM in Ireland in 1600s to justify a conclusion that the McM were descended from such early settlers.

 

There were McM in Ireland by 1630 in Dunluce in the far NW corner of Co Antrim adjacent to Co Derry and  in the 1660s along the SE coast of Antrim in Carrickfergus and Glynn.   There are isolated references in the 1700s in Co Down by 1712, in County Derry by 1765 and in Dublin in 1752.  In Antrim, Derry and Down, the early references are followed by increasing numbers of McM families suggesting descendants of the first arrivals or additional waves of migration.  In Dublin, the early entry is a merchant whose family either died out or returned to his origin, probably Scotland.

 

By the early 1800s, McM families were concentrated in:

·         County Antrim, in the coastal and near coastal parishes of Ballylinney, Carrickfergus, Glynn, Raloo, Larne and Island Magee, lying between 10 and 20 miles NE of Belfast,  but there was also a family in Belfast and a family in Clontifinnan in NW Antrim near the Dunluce area where the McM settled in  the 1630s 

·         County Derry, along the eastern edge of Co Derry from Coleraine and Aghadowey and Kilrea in the north to Artrea in the south. 

·         Co Down at unknown location, There had been a family in Comber, Co Down in 1758 and 1787, but they seemed not to have remained there into the 1800s. 

·         An Antrim family had three brothers that went to southern Ireland.  One went to Co Carlow in southern Ireland by 1800 to work the mills of John Alexander, a wealthy Belfast merchant.  Another brother settled there also at an unknown date.  A third brother went to Tipperary about 1837 to work the mills there. 

 

There were also migrations from Ireland prior to 1850.  In the 1730s, three brothers Joseph, Robert and Thomas McM migrated to Somerset County, New Jersey.  Prior to 1747 a distant cousin Alexander McM migrated to Hunterdon Co, New Jersey.  By 1750, another Alexander had died and his widow remarried in 1751 and raised her sons in Augusta Co. Virginia.  In 1772, a William McM from the Larne area migrated to South Carolina. 

 

About 1802, John and Robert McM of Co Down migrated to Wigtonshire, Scotland.  In 1821, William McM of Co Carlow migrated to Ontario, Canada.   In 1823, James and John McM migrated from Co Derry to Ontario.   Several branches of a Ballylinney family came to the mid-west of America (Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri) after 1828.  In the 1840s, some Co Derry families migrated to New Brunswick and an Island Magee family migrated to London.   Some of the Raloo Parish McM migrated to New York State about 1850.  In the 1850s, three sons of the Antrim-Tipperary family migrated to Detroit, Michigan; Chicago, Illinois; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

 

 

            Irish McM DNA Data

 

The McM of Ireland have two DNA patterns – (1) the Ayrshire/Antrim pattern characteristic of those families that lived in Co Antrim and (2) the Ayrshire/Derry pattern characteristic of those who lived in Co Derry (to the west of Co Antrim).

 

Attached to this report are maps showing the locations of the McM families in Co Antrim and Co Derry in the 1800s. 

 

            DNA for Ayrshire/Antrim Pattern in Ireland

 

The Co Antrim McM shared a common ancestor with the McM of the central Ayrshire Scotland parishes where the McM had lived for centuries, ie. Maybole, Kirkoswald, Barr, Dailly, Kirkmichael.  So we suspect that those parishes were the origins of the Co Antrim McM.   A less likely possibility is that their common ancestor could have been on the Isle of Bute where the McM name evolved from the Gaelic Muircheartaigh family and that they migrated directly to Ireland in the 1500s or 1600s.

 

As the map of Co Antrim shows, the McM were concentrated in the southeastern coastal and near-coastal parishes of Co Antrim, but some also lived further inland to the west and north.

 

There are four variations in the Ayrshire/Antrim pattern – all of which differ from the oldest pattern by only one mutation.  Hence, familes of three of the pattterns are likely branches off the main trunk of the family tree.

 

Ayrshire/Antrim Pattern

 

Sub-pattern 1 is common to the following families:

 

IRELAND

CF 202:  William McM 1775-1855 Antirm/Carlow Ireland & Bowmanville, Ontario      

                Canada

 

AMERICA

CF 112:  Alexander McM d 1761 Hunterdon Co NJ (including Hugh McM d 1810/20                              Union Co, PA and CF133 Alexander McM of Orange Co NY)

 

SCOTLAND

CF 28        John McMurtrie of Balwhirn, Kirkmichael, Ayrshire, children b 1720s

CF 37/38  Matthew McM of Kirkoswald, children born abt 1700

CF 39        James md 1800 Maybole, prob s of James b 1743 Barr md 1768 Dailly (CF4)

CF 56        James McM md 1791 Jean Glen in Paisley (5 mi w of Glasgow)

CF 57        John McM md 1839 Margaret Nicolson in Fredericton, New Brunswick

CF 30        Thomas md 1796 Eliz Neill in St Quivox, Ayr

CF 24        Thomas McM md 1781 Elizabeth Gardner in New Kilpatrick, Dumbartonshire

 

 

The following are basically sub-pattern 1 but with two additional mutations.  Samples from a second branch of each family is needed to clarify if these are recent mutations or old ones.

CF 7:   Thomas McM md Margaret Gemmell, Maybole

CF 22:  Thomas McM md 1720 Margaret McM, Mackrillkill, Dailly Parish, Ayrshire

 

We are assuming that the most likely interpretation of the data is that Sub-pattern 1 is the ancestral signature of the McM and that the other three variations in the Ayrshire/Antrim pattern were mutations from this basic pattern. 

 

This sub-pattern is unique amongst the Ayrshire/Antrim pattern families in that representatives of this sub-pattern are found in Scottish families, an Irish family and an American family.

 

 

Sub-pattern 2:

CF 110:  Joseph d 1761 Sussex Co NJ, Robert d 1775 Sussex Co NJ, Thomas d 1785 Somerset Co NJ

 

This sub-pattern is found only amongst the Somerset/Sussex Co NJ family.

 

Sub-pattern 3:

CF 201:     Matthew Mc M 1750-1813 Island Magee, Co Antrim

CF 204:     James b 1820 r Carrickfergus, Co Antrim

CF 117:     William McM d 1808=>Laurens Co SC about 1772

CF 121:      Archibald McMurtry 1754-1830, Bruslee, Ballylinney, Co Antrim

CF 15         John and Robert McMurtrie born in Co Down =>to Wigtonshire ca 1800

CF 103                   John b 1810 &  Jane b 1816 Ireland,  James b 1836 Ireland md Isabella                                    Carr=>Philadelphia pr 1858

 

This sub-pattern is the dominant sub-pattern in Ireland which is found is several parishes of Co Antrim.

 

Note that CF 15, a family that settled in Scotland, most closely resembles the Co Antrim families of Sub-pattern 3 whereas the other Scottish families of the Ayrshire/Antrim pattern are in Sub-pattern 1.

 

Sub-pattern 4:

 

CF 111:      Samuel McM 1748-1796 and John McM 1738-1790 of Augusta Co VA

 

This subpattern is unique to this American family.  It seems to reflect a mutation from Sub-pattern 1 some time in the previous 50-200 years. 

 

So we theorize that a family or families of McM of Scotland came to Ireland where the mutations occurred from which most of the Antrim families descend and that families with sub-patterns 2 and 4 died out in Ireland after the migration of those families to America.

 

The two Ayrshire/Antrim subpatterns belonging to the McM families that migrated to Somerset Co New Jersey and to Augusta Co Virgina have no other McM families sharing these sub-patterns.  This is either because the mutations occurred in the progenitor of the family, or because we haven’t sampled all the McM families of Antrim yet, or because the male lines of those with that pattern died out in Ireland.    It would be valuable to continue to seek DNA samples from the unsampled families of Antrim.

 

            County Derry

 

There is a Thomas McMurtry who appears in Derry by 1765.  We suspect that he was the progenitor of the various Co Derry families and shared a common ancestor with the Dailly Parish McM and possibly came from Ayrshire though he may have been related to the McMurtrys who appeared in Dunluce to the east of the Coleraine border in 1630.

           

Some of these Derry families remained in the vicinity of their ancestral residences (see the map of McMurtry residences in Derry); others migrated, for example:

• From Artrea Parish in southern Derry to March Twp, Ontario in 1820s and to Massachusetts by 1850
• From Coleraine to Ontario prior to 1851 and later to Saskatchewan
• From Kilrea to New Brunswick by 1847 and then to Nova Scotia

 

 

            DNA of Ayrshire/Derry Pattern

 

The Ayrshire/Derry pattern families appear to have originated in Scotland, possibly in Dailly Parish, Ayrshire, and to have migrated to Derry possibly prior to 1765 and become two branches – one in northern Derry and one in southern Derry.

 

The Ayrshire/Derry pattern appears in Scotland only in two familes (that might actually be the same family) – one in Dailly Parish, Ayrshire by 1714 and one (possibly a descendant of the Dailly family) in nearby Kirkmichael by 1775.  

 

The first Irish pair below are a near match to each other and are only 1 mutation from the Scottish pair and the other Irish four family group is only 2 mutation from the Scottish pair.  But the Irish groups are about 3 mutations from each other.  This suggests that the Scottish pattern was the ancestral pattern from which the two Irish pairs are independent branches.

 

            Ayrshire/Derry Pattern Families

 

CF 1:      John b 1714 md 1744 Park, Dailly to Agnes Ferguson Bellymore, Barr

CF 12:    Andrew b 1771, son of John of Pleasant Park, Kirkmichael

 

CF 203:  James McM 1794-1878 Artrea, Co Derry to March Twp (Ottawa area), Ontario

CF 211:  Alexander McM 1790 Artrea, Co Derry to Boston Massachusetts

 

CF 210:   Thomas McM b 1818, resided Coleraine, Co Derry=>Ontario abt 1840

CF 208:  John McM b 1805, r. Kilrea, Co Derry =>Nova Scotia prior to 1839

CF 221:  Hugh 1797-1887 r Aghadowey, Co Derry

CF 243:   James b 1791, r Aghadowey, Co Derry

 

 

The DNA links two families that probably originated in southern Co Derry - the family that appears in the 1831 census in Ballynenagh, Artrea Parish, Co Derry and migrated to Massachusetts about 1850 (CF 211) and the family whose inlaws are documented in southern Derry and that migrated to the Ottawa area, Ontario in the early 1820s (CF 203).    They are only 1 mutation different and that mutation is likely a recent one; so for all intents and purposes, we can consider them a match.  They are essentially only 1 mutation from the pattern of the Scottish families.

 

The DNA links the four families from central/north Co Derry – CF 210 Thomas McM b 1818 of Coleraine, CF 206 John McM b 1805 of Kilrea, CF 221 Hugh b 1797 of Aghadowey and James b 1791 of Aghadowey.  They are essentially 2 mutations from the Scottish families and 3 mutations from their counterparts in northern Derry.

 

The two Scottish families -  CF 1 and CF 12 – are a match to each other suggesting that the Andrew b 1772 son of John may be a close cousin to John b 1714 Dailly.  

 

            McM of Colonial America

 

During the colonial period of American history, 5 McM families crossed the Atlantic to settle in the New World, one from Scotland and the others from Ireland.  

 

David McMurtrie born in 1721 in Dalmellington migrated to London by 1747 and then to Philadelphia by 1752.

 

The Irish immigrants were:

1. Alexander McM d 1761 who settled in Hunterdon County New Jersey by 1747.
2. Joseph d 1762, Robert d 1775 and Thomas McM d 1788 who settled in Somerset County, New Jersey by 1735 with Joseph and Robert moving on to Sussex County, New Jersey by 1750.
3. William McMurtrey d 1808 Laurens County, South Carolina migrated from Larne, Northern Ireland in 1772
4. John McM 1738-1790 and Samuel McM 1745-1796, sons of Alexander and Sarah McM, who came to Augusta County, VA prior to 1751 and were raised by their mother and their step-father James Young.

 

David McM had the Ayrshire (Dalmellington) pattern as expected.  The four Irish immigrants had one variant or another of the Ayrshire/Antrim DNA pattern.

 

Though all of these Irish families have the Ayrshire/Antrim pattern, there are slight differences in the DNA pattern that we call sub-patterns.    The Somerset/Sussex New Jersey and Virginia families’ sub-patterns do not appear in Scotland or Ireland.  The Hunterdon New Jersey family’s sub-pattern is the dominant pattern in Scotland.  The Laurens Co SC family’s sub-pattern is the dominant pattern in Co Antrim, Northern Ireland.

 

We believe that the original DNA pattern of the McM is the subpattern that shared by the the Hunterdon Co McM, most of the McM in numerous parishes in Scotland and one family in Ireland.   From this original pattern, the other sub-patterns are offshoots that occurred about the time they came to Ireland of after they had been in Ireland for a while.   They are all only one mutation diffferent from the original DNA pattern though they are 2 mutations from each other.

 

So the answer to the question about whether the McM are Scottish or Irish is that they are both!   The McM of New Jersey, Virginia, and South Carolina had origins in Northern Ireland before coming to America, but their Irish ancestors had Scottish ancestors before that.  It is possible that those Scottish ancestors lived in the Ayrshire parishes where the Ayrshire/Antrim pattern continued to dominate, but it is also possible that the common ancestor of both the Irish and the Ayrshire McM lived on the Isle of Bute back in the 1400s and 1500s when the name was still Muircheartaigh and language was Gaelic.

 

 

Family historians have often wondered whether the Somerset-Sussex Co NJ family and the Hunterdon Co NJ family and the Augusta Co VA families might be close cousins.  The Somerset-Sussex County family had a branch which settled next door to a branch of the Augusta Co VA family when they both migrated to Kentucky in 1780.   The Hunterdon Co NJ and the Somerset-Sussex Co NJ families lived only 25 miles from each other and arrived in NJ about the same time.  Since the DNA tells us they share a common ancestor, it is intriquing to wonder how how long before coming to America these families shared a common ancestor and whether they were close cousins or distant cousins.    The mutational difference between the Hunterdon Co family and the Somerset-Sussex Co family and between the Hunterdon Co family and the Augusta Co family is only one mutation, but the difference between the Somerset-Sussex Co family and the Augusta Co family is two mutations.   So the common ancestor could have been only a generation or two before coming to America OR the common ancestor could have been 100-150 years before.  So the common ancestor could have been in Ireland in the 1600s, but it could have been in Scotland prior to that.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Hopefully, an enterprising McM will come along and complete the DNA work that we have started by getting samples from unsampled families.  Good luck to you!
Future  Research 

 

In order to fill in the gaps in our understanding of the McM family, DNA samples are needed from several unsampled families and second samples are needed from some families to determine a more representative pattern for the family.

			Irish Origin Families
	CF number		Progenitor	Location of Residence
	CF 223	M	Thomas 1811-1884	Belfast
	CF 212	M	Andrew b ca 1790 & William b 1796	Raloo, Toregah, Co Antrim; Essex Co., NY, Iowa; Co Antrim, England
	CF 213	M	James b 1806 md Margaret Muir	Carrickfergus; Melbourne
	CF 215		John b ca 1820; John & Chas. md 1860s	Lisburn
	CF 217		Mitchell->James b 1842 m 1862	Co Tyrone; Scotland; Australia
	CF 218		James md Martha Oliver ca 1905	Ballymena; England
	CF 232	M	William b ca 1800	Newtownards, Belfast; Australia; Ilford, Romford
	CF 236		John b ca 1880	Newry, Belfast
	CF 238		John b ca 1840	Belfast
			Scottish Families
	CF Number		Progenitor	Location of Residence
			First Priority
1	CF-059		William McMutrie md Janet Hornal 1830	Gorbals, Lanark.; Liverpool
2	CF-047	M	Thomas b ca 1770 md Marg. Gibson	Galston, Ayrshire; Edinburgh (Second sample)
3	CF-048		Wm md 1777 Eliz Patterson	Dalmellington, Kirkmichael, Sorn
4	CF-050		Alexander md 1808 Ayr Ann Campbell	Ayr
			Second Priority
5	CF-027	M	Andrew md Janet Caldwell 1807	Kirkmichael?,St Quivox, Dreghorn; England; Canada; Penna
6	CF-011	M	James b. ca1825 Kirkmichael	Kirkmichael, Dalrymple,Saltcoats, Ayr.; Glasgow; Vancouver
7	CF-008		Andrew b 1837 d. 1916 London	Glasgow; London; Ottawa
8	CF-052	M	Adam md pr 1804 Mary McHutcheon	Glasgow (poss. related to CF 4)
9	CF-041	M	Thomas md Agnes McKlumun ca 1750	Maybole; Grennoch; Utah
10	CF-042		James b ca 1770 md Margaret McLatchie	Maybole; Ayr; Dundonald, Tarbolton; St Paul, Minn; Chicago
			Duplicate Sample
11	CF-016		Thomas b ca 1770	Maybole, Kilmarnock, Kilmaurs; Glasgow; Aust.; N Zeal'd.; N Jersey
12	CF-007		Thomas b ca 1760 md Margaret Gemmel	Maybole, Ayr; Montreal, Australia
13	CF-021		Hugh b ca 1740 md Agnes Rowand	Kirkm'l, Dailly, Hurlford, W Derby, Cluton; Austr.; So. Afr.; Winni.& B.C.,Can.

 

Unsolved Mystery

 

One mystery that we have not been able to solve is the strange DNA pattern of John McM 1752-1841 and James McM 1760/70-1837 who went from New Jersey to Orange Co NC about 1786 and then to Sumner Co Tennessee about 1794, with James heading west to Humphreys Co about 1807.  They along with Joseph McM 1764-1846 have been considered the “sons of my son James” mentioned in the 1785 will of Thomas McM d 1788 Somerset Co NJ.

 

However, their DNA patterns are not what one would expect if John and James were brothers of Joseph.

 

A descendant from each of two sons of John and a descendant of each of two grandsons of James have the same DNA pattern.  The pattern of John’s descendants is equivalent to the pattern that John must have had; the pattern of James’ descendants is equivalent to the pattern that James’ son must have had.   Their matching patterns is what one would expect if John and James were brothers.   But this pattern does not match the pattern of Joseph McM 1764-1846 who had been assumed to be the brother of John and James.  Yet Joseph matches the DNA pattern of the descendants of Joseph McM d 1761 Sussex Co NJ and Robert McM d 1775 assumed to be his great uncles.   Since Joseph shares the pattern of the other Sussex Co NJ McM, his father must have had the same pattern.   So in order for John to have the pattern he had, he would have had to have had 2 mutations at his birth.  Also for his brother’s son to have the pattern he had, either John’s brother would have had to have had the same two mutations or John’s brother would have had to have had one of the same mutations and his brother’s son to have had the second mutation.   But it is unusual for a brother to have two mutations and more unusual for two brothers to have the same mutation in the same generation or a brother and a nephew to have the same two mutations; so it is unclear how James and John could be the brothers of Joseph, unless something very unusual has happened.

 

So we considered other explanations for the DNA results. 

 

1. The John and James DNA pattern was identical to a number of McM families in Co Antrim in Northern Ireland.   Could they have been descendants of another family that had migrated to NJ?   Since there is no evidence of another McMurtry family that had migrated from Ireland, this does not seem to be a likely possibility for the parentage of John and James.
2.  Their DNA pattern had only one difference compared to the family of Alexander McMurtry d 1761 Hunterdon County, New Jersey.     This  makes it much more likely for John and James to be children of Alexander than to be children of someone with a DNA pattern with two differences.   Though we have no record of John and James in Hunterdon County, this is not sufficient reason to conclude that they weren’t Alexander’s sons.   Another Alexander McMurtry b about 1755 lived in Orange County, New York in 1790 and though we have no record of him being in Hunterdon County, a descendant of his has DNA matching Hugh McMurtrie of Hunterdon Co who is presumed to be a son of Alexander d 1761.  So though we don’t have any genealogical evidence to support Alexander d 1761 being the father of John and James, we must consider this a possibility.  For this to be the case, the DNA would either (a) need to have John have one mutation in his generation and James’ son having the same mutation in the next generation or (b) both James and John having the same mutation in their generation.     This first option is not a usual mutation pattern, but it is more likely than both brothers having the same mutation in the same generation (assuming they are not twins).  So this remains a possibility.
3.  Another way that James and John could have matching DNA is if James was a son of John’s by an earlier marriage.   This would require John to have had a son James at age 18 and James to have married at age 18.   Not impossible, but not likely for John to have had a son in 1770 and not remarried until 1781.
4. Another way that James and John could have matching DNA is if they were sons of James McM and if Joseph was son of Thomas McM, Jr.   This would require (a) James having 2 changes in his DNA that were carried on by both sons or (b) James having had one mutation and then John having a second and then James’ son having the same second mutation.  This is more likely than all three being brothers and having two brothers having the same two changes. 

 

This would make Thomas Jr. as father of Joseph born 1764 possibly only 33 -37 when he served in the Revolution 1776-1780 which seems more likely than Thomas being the father of John b 1752 and being 43 to 47 for such service.

 

Also, there is a report that James appeared on an 1812 Humphreys Co tax list as James McMurtry, Jr which supports James being the son of James McM.

 

However, we have a lack of information about Thomas Jr to support this theory and we have the report by a grandson of Joseph b 1764 that Joseph had a brother who served in the Revolution.  

 

We are left to conclude that the genealogical evidence seems to favor John and James and Joseph all being sons of James and grandsons of Thomas, but the DNA requires us to consider other possibilities: (1) John and James being sons of Alexander d 1761 of Hunterdon County or (2) John and James being sons of James, son of Thomas d 1788 and Joseph being a son of Thomas Jr.

 

 

 

            DNA and Family History

 

Before we discuss these results further, it would be good to explain how the DNA works in family history research.

 

 DNA is a part of the every cell in a person's body.  It is the genetic code that tells the embryo at the moment of conception how to grow to be the person it is destined to be. 

 

One piece of the DNA is the male DNA which is passed down from father to son to grandson and so on virtually without changing.  Even if two McM living today have an ancestor back in the 1400s when they still spoke Gaelic, the DNA of living male McM descendants will be the same or virtually the same.  So, you can tell what families are related to a specific family simply by comparing one family’s male DNA with the male DNA of other McM families.

 

To put this simply, DNA analyses consist of looking into 25 compartments of the DNA and counting the number of strands of DNA material in each compartment.  Then a table of all the samples is made with each row of the table being the results for one person and each column being for the number of strands of DNA material found in each particular compartment.  Then all you do is look to see which persons have matching numbers in each of the 25 columns.   If it’s a match or if there are only one or two differences, then the two persons being compared share a common ancestor.  If there 5 or more differences, then they don’t share a common ancestor.  Differences of 3 or 4 requires more information to tell if there is a common ancestor or not.

 

What causes differences to occur in a line are random events called mutations.  Mutations are changes to the genetic code so that the number of strands of DNA material change.  On average these mutations don’t occur more than once in 14 generations or say 100-250 years or more.  So generally, family members sharing a common ancestor won’t have any or won’t have many differences.  Ocassionally though, a lineage will have an unusually high rate of mutation.  For example, in one McM family there were 2 mutations in only 3 generations.  To account for these unusual results, it is necessary to get at least 2 samples from each family to make sure that at least one sample is characteristic of the family.

 

The McM of the Ayrshire/Antrim pattern differ by 5 mutations from the McM of Co Derry and differ by 13 mutations from the McM of Dalmellington.  So these are clearly different families unrelated during modern history.

 

 

 

 

 

Usefulness of using 37 or higher markers

Richard McMurtry

 

Some family historians are suggesting the need for statistical purposes of using the 37 marker test instead of the 25 marker test.  The more I look at the 37 marker data the more I think it is impossible to interpret without at least 3 samples per family.

 

So based on that, I’m looking mostly at the 25 marker data for this analysis.  However, the 37 marker tests was used to compare a CF 110 and CF 28 and CF 111 family and determine that the 2 mutations of difference represented a 90% chance of common ancestor within 12 generations (6 generations prior to coming to America).