Ancestry and the inexpensive DNA tests can turn a man's world upside down. For $99 you can make every ancestor of yours a liar by discounting all the stories told to you as a child about "who came from where". I have recently been researching my Irish roots, only to find they're actually roots from the east side of the Irish Sea in Scotland. But I pressed on to explore the lands occupied by my genetic donors, Clan MacTavish. It was there I discovered a most unsettling bit of history.
While the Scottish Highlands seem to be the historical and more romantic origin of the ancient Scot clans; my kin of Clan MacTavish lived and farmed in the area between Dumfries and Courthill in the South of Scotland. The area was also occupied by at least two other prominent Clans; Clan Campbell (the Scottish version of Smith) and....Clan MacMillan.
I guess I've discovered why they picked-up shop and headed west....
You are so very talented at making up bizarre stories. You should market yourself to Hollywood.
I read on another forum someone write that the main outcome of mail order ancestry DNA testing is that millions of family stories about Native American ancestors turned out to be bullshit. Mine included 😉
Actually (other than the missing Choctaw link) mine came back pretty much what was expected, approximately:
30% Irish
30% Northern European
25% British
10% Scandinavian
So, it's "Cousin Kent"...for now!
Nate The Surveyor, post: 441652, member: 291 wrote: So, it's "Cousin Kent"...for now!
maybe...but I would more likely imagine back then we threw rocks at each other from opposite sides of the loch. 😉
paden cash, post: 441654, member: 20 wrote: maybe...but I would more likely imagine back then we threw rocks at each other from opposite sides of the loch. 😉
Loch Dearg
[USER=20]@paden cash[/USER]
DNA research has progressed significantly in the past decade, especially for law enforcement.
You, (and me) ought to be damned glad it wasn't available when we were teenagers. If ya know what I mean. 😉
My Mother documented things back to the 1500s. My daughter just did 23 and me. I was pleasantly surprised to see the two line up perfect. It was a bit scary to read the list of potential medical issues. Again, it lined up with our family history very well.
On the one hand its pretty cool. On the other it may not being out the best in some people. There are questions best left unanswered..
Everyone from south of the Mason-Dixon Line has at least 1/8 Cherokee according to them.
Dave Karoly, post: 441676, member: 94 wrote: Everyone from south of the Mason-Dixon Line has at least 1/8 Cherokee according to them.
NAAHHHH, only 1/16 for me (grin). I guess I should check into ours but I only know back to Great Grandfathers. One who started working on a farm and ended up owning a couple of thousand acres in the 1890's. The other was a sharecropper. Mine is the first generation to get any education past high school.
Andy
paden cash, post: 441637, member: 20 wrote: I guess I've discovered why they picked-up shop and headed west....
I think we can rule out the possibility that Dr. Samuel Johnson would have made the following remark attributed to him with a slightly different choice of destination:
"The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to Oklahoma?"
of course, all things are relative, as Dr. Johnson recognized:
Mr. Arthur Lee mentioned some Scotch who had taken possession of a barren part of America, and wondered why they would choose it. Johnson: "Why, Sir, all barrenness is comparative. The Scotch would not know it to be barren."
I was astonished several years ago to discover marriage documents which clearly show I'm one-quarter Irish, from Patrick Murray and Catherine Kelly in Belfast on August 1, 1874. Equally surprising is how accurate my mother's family memoir is. Written in her old age, she had all the facts down cold.
DNA shows my largest genetic component is Scandinavian, from the Vikings I presume.
Under the heading of wish I had known to ask the old folks before they passed on: We searched and searched for a marriage license between great-grandparents Edward Bruce and Jessie Williamson. Then we stumbled upon it ?? he was already married, to Ellen Wallwork. When she died on April 1, 1903 he was free to marry Jessie, which he did on April 9, 1903 after producing six kids with her, after the two kids with Ellen. My mother had all sorts of stories about Edward and Jessie, but nothing about a scandal. The photo is Edward and Jessie in front of their pet store on Blackfriar's Road, Salford, circa 1915.
Kent McMillan, post: 441710, member: 3 wrote: I think we can rule out the possibility that Dr. Samuel Johnson would have made the following remark attributed to him with a slightly different choice of destination:
"The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to Oklahoma?"
of course, all things are relative, as Dr. Johnson recognized:
Mr. Arthur Lee mentioned some Scotch who had taken possession of a barren part of America, and wondered why they would choose it. Johnson: "Why, Sir, all barrenness is comparative. The Scotch would not know it to be barren."
...As compared to your lush hanging gardens of Crane County? 😉
Bruce Small, post: 441714, member: 1201 wrote: I was astonished several years ago to discover marriage documents which clearly show I'm one-quarter Irish, from Patrick Murray and Catherine Kelly in Belfast ....DNA shows my largest genetic component is Scandinavian, from the Vikings I presume...
Ravaging the Irish women was probably pretty much "fish in a barrel" to the marauding Norse...after all, most of the Irish men were passed out drunk..;)
there is one Scott from Oklahoma that I wouldn't mind see as a recipient of a public stoning. (And I don't mean the recreational type)
Bucking Okie sleeze
paden cash, post: 441717, member: 20 wrote: ...As compared to your lush hanging gardens of Crane County?
If you have Scots ancestors, I would be almost certain to guess that they arrived during the 18th century on one of the early waves of immigration to the Carolinas that filtered westward before reaching Tennessee and making the jump from there directly to Oklahoma. What did I win?
Kent McMillan, post: 441726, member: 3 wrote: If you have Scots ancestors, I would be almost certain that they arrived during the 18th century on one of the early waves of immigration to the Carolinas that filtered westward before reaching Tennessee and making the jump from there directly to Oklahoma. What did I win?
Almost a Kewpie Doll...you left out Texas. Scotland to the quasi-Carolinas (Virginia, 1750-ish), then to Tennessee, then to Texas. Then to Okie Homie.
paden cash, post: 441637, member: 20 wrote: Ancestry and the inexpensive DNA tests can turn a man's world upside down. For $99 you can make every ancestor of yours a liar by discounting all the stories told to you as a child about "who came from where". I have recently been researching my Irish roots, only to find they're actually roots from the east side of the Irish Sea in Scotland. But I pressed on to explore the lands occupied by my genetic donors, Clan MacTavish. It was there I discovered a most unsettling bit of history.
While the Scottish Highlands seem to be the historical and more romantic origin of the ancient Scot clans; my kin of Clan MacTavish lived and farmed in the area between Dumfries and Courthill in the South of Scotland. The area was also occupied by at least two other prominent Clans; Clan Campbell (the Scottish version of Smith) and....Clan MacMillan.
I guess I've discovered why they picked-up shop and headed west....
Well cousin - howdy. A significant part of me came from Motherwell. My Greatgrandfather settled in Iowa via Alberta, Canada. In spite of this, I am apparently more British than the average citizen of Britain...
paden cash, post: 441731, member: 20 wrote: Almost a Kewpie Doll...you left out Texas. Scotland to the quasi-Carolinas (Virginia, 1750-ish), then to Tennessee, then to Texas. Then to Okie Homie.
It's a good outline for a story, but the claim that your progenitors actually arrived in Texas and then moved to Oklahoma isn't plausible unless they found Texas life too law-abiding.
Kent McMillan, post: 441735, member: 3 wrote: It's a good outline for a story, but the claim that your progenitors actually arrived in Texas and then moved to Oklahoma isn't plausible unless they found Texas life too law-abiding.
McMinn Co., TN to Parker Co., TX and then to Wilbarger Co., TX and THEN across the Rio Roxo to Jefferson & Cotton Co., OT. And you might be right about the local laws. This side of my family was particularly proud of their ability to produce distilled corn liquor and the liquor laws were a little less stringent in the OT.
