I'm currently at a brick wall regarding our McMillan/McMullian/MacMillan family line. The earliest definite event we have is the marriage of John McMullian (John did sign "McMullian) to Margaret Orr May 2, 1844 in Downpatrick, County Down, Ireland. If anyone has a trip planned to Ireland, I could share some ideas of where you could look at Irish records that still exist. One area would be to review the diaries kept by Aynsworth Pilson, as he kept journals of records that I know have our John McMullan's marriage. There could be more information about our McMullan family. Aynsworth Pilson had lived at Downpatrick. Also, PRONI (Public Records Office of Northern Ireland) is in Belfast. Apparenlty, this office has Church of Ireland birth records for Downpatrick. We don’t know where our John McMullan was born for sure, but it’s possible he was born in Downpatrick between 1820 and 1825. If someone travels to Ireland, perhaps they could do some searches at PRONI for John's possible parentage.
I have had a number of DNA tests. I have now had the Big-Y700 DNA test from Family Tree DNA (FTDNA). This is the ultimate test which follows my male McMillan lineage directly back, from me to my Father; to his Father, to his Father, to his Father, and so on back in time. The testing step before the Big-Y700 was the Y-DNA111 marker test. At Y-111, I have 40 matches. But, I don’t match any of those for autosomal DNA, meaning our common ancestor is likely back too far to determine so far. Most matches are with similar McMillan/McMullan/McMullen surnames, but there are a few different surnames.
For the Big-Y700 DNA test narrowed my best matches down to 3 individuals. The four of us share the terminal (most recent) haplogroup of R-FGC14321. Presently, this appears to point to possible common ancestry with those 3 individuals in Ireland. It has been thought that our Y-DNA points to ancient Irish ancestry. So far, I can’t prove a Scottish connection, but it would seem possible there could have been back and forth to Scotland, but that is an unknown at this time.
One of those 3 best matches is Denny McMillian. At Y-111 Denny and I have 2 marker different. I’ll explain what I see for Denny’s lineage. It does appear they have it correct which works back to James McMillan born about 1720 (unknown place of birth?) and died 1799 at Kentucky. James was first known to be in Virginia about 1752. He married Margaret White. James and Margaret White McMillan are listed as among the original settlers of Fort Boonesborough (Kentucky). There is one Memorial at Boonesborough, where James and Margaret McMillan’s names are next to Daniel Boones. Family lore for James indicates it was felt he attended some college in Edinburgh. It does not seem to be know, for sure, where James was born. So, at this point we do not know when or where we would have common ancestry with Denny McMillian who is my Y-DNA match. Some feel James was born in Scotland, but there is not record of birth, so no proof where he was born.
The second of my 3 best matches for the Big-Y is Bob Arbuthnot. It is clear that at some point back in time a McMillan/McMullan parented a person who became an Arbuthnot, could be adoption or other circumstances. Bob is 4 markers different to me for the Y-111 DNA test. Bob’s feels his earliest ancestry was from County Tyrone, Ireland.
The third of my 3 best matches for the Big-Y is Robert MacMullan. Robert is 8 markers different to me for the Y-111 DNA test. Robert’s line went from County Antrim, Ireland to Pennsylvania probably before 1850.
The administrator of the Mullen-McMullen DNA Group, feels our family might be ancient Irish. He does match me with 7 markers different at Y-111. He feels our connection is further back than we can determine, presently at least. His McMullen line goes back early in County Kilkenny, Ireland. This is Lyn McMullen, and Lyn lives in British Columbia, and has been the Chief of Clan MacMailain of Ireland. Here’s a link to Lyn’s MacMailain website:
Perhaps eventually, a closer McMillan/McMullan match will test who can help us determine where our common ancestry is with the others we match.
Thanks to cousins, I have also now taken autosomal DNA tests. This type of DNA test can help find ancestors/cousins from all sides of the family. However, when DNA is handed down from parent to child it recombines, leaving us with only certain DNA from our ancestor's. So, we will not have matches for all the surnames on our family tree. Some autosomal DNA matches can go back to 6th or 7th generations or in some cases earlier.
I have had autosomal DNA tests at ancestry; Family Finder at FTDNA; was able to upload free to MyHeritage DNA; and tested with Living DNA but they don't have much in matching yet. A lot of us from those testing companies have uploaded our DNA free to gedmatch whhre we can see how we match someone on chromosomes.
FTDNA predicts the odds of matching for cousin relationships. We should match all first cousins (first cousins share Grandparents); 99 percent of second cousins (share Great Grandparents); 90 percent of third cousins (share GG Grandparents); 50 percent of fourth cousins (share GGG Grandparents); 10 percent of fifth cousins (share GGGG Grandparents); the odds reduce for matching earlier cousins.
We get 23 chromosomes from each parent, so we don't know for sure which side of the family a match might be initially. If parents; siblings; uncles and aunts, and cousins have tested, that would be very helpful to know what part of the family the match might be for. The mother gives a son her X chromosome and the father gives a son the Y chromosome. The female gets an X chromosome from Mom and an X chromosome from Dad.
If someone with one or more of our lines has autosomal DNA tested at ancestry, it can be helpful to share our matches with each other. If you have tested at ancestry and would be willing to share matches with me, I would be glad to share mine with you also.
Ancestry does not have a chromosome browser. A chromosome browser is helpful to show how we match someone on individual chromosomes, in figuring out what surname we match someone for. A lot of us have uploaded our autosomal ancestry DNA results to a free website which is gedmatch where we can see how we match someone on chromosomes. Another free site is DNAPainter where we can paint our DNA mtaches to find matches that overlap on a chromosome.
A match will show what chromosome/chromosomes we match someone with, and can give a prediction of what level of cousin they might be. This is more accurate with closer cousins, and becomes more difficult to determine with cousins where the connection is further back in time.
So far, I have some unknown matches I think might be our McMillan/McMullian line, but they are not definite yet. I'm hopeful as more test I can find other's that will help define this better. I'm also watching very closely for other family surnames, including Todd; Drummond/MacGregor; Anderson; Orr and more.
I'm finding the Clan system to be complicated.
From what I've read the Clan system started in the 11th Century, and was mostly dismissed not long after the Battle of Culloden in 1745.
A Clan would have lived in a particular geographical area with the protection of a Clan Chief. If someone lived on the Chief's lands they were considered a part of the Clan. Those with different names than the Chief were considered part of the Clan if the were loyal to the Chief. It seems those by different names would have been Septs of the Clan. There was some movement of some Clans due to fighting between Clans. This can be confusing, so I would encourage additional reading to understand Scottish Clans better.
Here's a link to a website which seemed to have a pretty good write up about Scottish Clans:
www.yourscottishdescent.com/featurec.html
Clan MacMillan
From my reading it seems MacMillan's could have been part of at least 2 different Clans. The Clans would be Clan MacMillan and as a Sept of Clan Cameron.
Here's a link to the Clan MacMillan website: www.clanmacmillan.org/
Here's a link to Septs of Clan Cameron, which also includes some who were MacMillan:
www.clan-cameron.org/septs.html
Orr Family Clan Affiliation
It seems likely our Orr family had come from Scotland. The Orr's show to have been a Sept of Clan Campbell, or Clan Gregor (MacGregor). Here's a link to Septs of Clan Campbell:
Clan Gregor (MacGregor)
Here's a link for Clan Gregor for information about MacGregor's: www.clangregor.com/
Clan Drummond
It seems there's still some confusion about our Drummond family, as they may have been MacGregor's. I'm including information, though, here for the Clan Drummond for information until we know more:
www.electricscotland.com/webclans/dtog/drummon2.html
Clan of our Todd Family
Todd's would have been either a Sept of Clan Gordon, or of Clan MacTavish.
Here's a link to information about Clan Gordon and Septs:
www.electricscotland.com/webclans/dtog/gordon.html
Here's a link to Wikipedia about Clan MacTavish and Septs of the Clan:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_MacTavish
Anderson
Some have told me Anderson's could have had ties to Scotland. Here's Wikipedia about Anderson's and Clan affiliations:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_Anderson