Discovering my mtdna – Scottish Irish or Viking ? Part One.

Under Construction

Part 1. Looking for McLean and Robertson origins and connections using mtDNA

Introduction – Why Test ?

Having hit a brickwall with my Scottish born great great great grandmother Ann McKenzie nee McLean, I finally decided to try mtdna mitochondrial DNA testing with FamilyTreeDNA. I have no information on Ann’s parents.

Mostly what I had long known was that Ann was believed to be born in 1808 at Armadale or more likely Calligary on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. In 1837 Ann emigrated on the “William Nicol” to Australia with her husband Alexander McKenzie and their four sons. In Australia, she bore another son and three daughters – I descend from Mary Ann, her eldest daughter born in 1839. Ann died in 1846 in the Illawarra. Such a short life and yet so many descendants. At the bottom of this post, I have a list of some of Ann McKenzie nee McLean’s direct maternal line descendants who would carry her mtdna.

Apparently there were some McLean’s from Corry, Strath on Skye who also emigrated to Australia on the “William Nicol” in 1837. Corry is a little less than half way between Armadale and Portree on Skye.

MacLean is a name associated with the Scottish Highlands. Calligarry of Sleat, a former crofting village on the Isle of Skye is not a very large place these days – maybe a farmhouse (?) and several B&B’s, and the ruins of Dun Arcardinon, a stone fort. It is near to Ardvasar – see Undiscovered Scotland web page. From the Sleat Local History website :”There were originally two parts to Calligarry – Mòr and Beag. Calligarry beag was south of the Teanga Mhòr. It was absorbed into Tormore in the early 19th century. At the same time part of the old farm of Alltatuath was merged with Calligarry.“

In 2020, based on an analysis of collective Ancestry DNA results for myself, my sister and my maternal aunt, I consider that there is a likelihood of Ann McKenzie nee McLean being a daughter of John McLean (1766 Calligarry – ) and Mary Robertson (1771 Strath, Isle of Skye – ) – and I do not believe this premise can be lightly dismissed.

2. Journeying to the Isle of Skye in 2019

We travelled to Scotland and the Isle of Sky in 2019 and the images below are from our holiday – we drove down to Calligarry along the winding single lane road, with the smell of burning peat wafting around.

Images above and below are from Armadale, Isle of Skye – June 2019.

Images above & below of the Calligarry, Sleat area of the Isle of Skye – June 2019.

3. Ann McKenzie nee McLean’s Descendants, A McKenzie Family Reunion in 2017 and Searching for Viking Ancestry?

We had a small McKenzie family gathering in October 2017 to commemorate the 180th anniversary of the McKenzie’s arrival in 1837.

McKenzie descendants at the Wollongong Old Presbyterian Cemetery in 2017 where some McKenzie’s lie – does Ann McKenzie nee McLean lie here ? Note – all except Josh in the centre are descendants of Ann McKenzie nee McLean.

Below are photos of Ann’s two older daughters, Mary Ann Hicks nee McKenzie and Catherine Sheather Ross nee McKenzie.

Mary Ann Hicks nee McKenzie

Catherine Sheather Ross nee McKenzie

One of my unanswered questions – did Ann’s maternal ancestry include Scottish, Irish and/or Scandinavian – Viking origins ? The Vikings were known raiders in England, Scotland and Ireland see Scandinavian Scotland on Wikipedia

Mary Ann Hicks with Children Grandchildren 1917modified

Mary Ann Hicks nee McKenzie with two of her daughters, Mary Alice “Biddy” Cook & Edith Florence “Jog” Joy and seven of her grandchildren. Most in this photo carried Ann’s mtdna – except for the two young grandchildren to her left and the young grandchild second from right

Information from Ancestry DNA – my mother’s sister has done Ancestry DNA testing and her ethnicity shows no Scandinavian connections nor any from Germanic Europe but does show 40% Scottish – Irish. I have 3% from Germanic Europe which includes Denmark, whereas my two siblings both show 2% Norwegian but no Germanic Europe – one sibling also shows 2% from Sweden, while the other shows 4% from Sweden. So the potential for a Viking-related direct maternal line connection could not be entirely ruled out.

Mary Alice Cook Edith Florence Joy 1930s Penshurst

Ann McKenzie nee McLean’s direct maternal line granddaughters Mary Alice Cook and Edith Florence Joy at Penshurst in 1930’s.

I wasn’t actually expecting to find any mtdna matches who could provide me with common ancestors as the testing pool for mtdna is so much lower, ie about 300,000, than the autosomal testing done by companies like Ancestry, MyHeritage, FTDNA, 23andMe, LivingDNA etc, which in total is running to 30 million or more people tested.

I have a First Edition of Blaine Bettinger’s The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy, which is a good start for understanding the basis of mtdna and an introduction to Haplogroups. Though the book does not delve too deeply into all of the known Haplogroups and their subgroups (aka subclades).

4. MTDNA Results Arrive

My Haplogroup

My mtdna results are H1bb – and what does that mean ?

H is the most common haplogroup in Europe, and about 44% of the British are in this grouping – 1,

H1 is a subgroup or subclade of H1, and likewise H1b is a subgroup of H1, and H1bb is a subgroup of H1b.

My Matches ?

Unexpectedly I found initially that I had four close mtdna matches – and by November 2019 I had five close mtnda matches, December 2019 it was six close mtdna matches, July 1 2020 I had seven close mtdna matches & May 2023 it was 9 matches :

four matches at genetic distance GD = 0 – with Scottish Highlands & Islands origins. Two of these were descended from Isabella Murchison who married in Moore County North Carolina to Hector McNeill who was born c.1752/1753 on the Isle of Skye Scotland.
- North Carolina was place where many Scots, especially Highlanders & Islanders migrated after the catastrophic Battle of Culloden and the Clearances – see North Carolina Encyclopedia, Carolana, . The Highland Scots in North Carolina have been covered in the Outlander television series.
one match at genetic distance GD = 0 with unknown origins
three matches at genetic distance GD = 1 : two of these have Scottish origins – one uncertain; one has a Catherine McLean b.1815 as the earliest known direct maternal line ancestor although her location in Scotland is unknown but could possibly have been from Skye or Ross, and the other had a McShane – Thompson origin possibly in Lanarkshire.
one match at genetic distance GD = 3 : this one is understood to have Irish origins and a very small family tree. There is a maternal line of Conlon links to County Mayo Ireland (possibly at Tooromin Bohola ) as far back as 1836 . I found another likely family tree in Ancestry, which went one generation further back. Unfortunately the earliest female’s maiden name was not given. A question ? Is it possible that this person may be a person of Scots Irish heritage from one of the Plantations into Ireland, eg the early 17th Protestant Plantation of Ulster by King James? Although County Mayo lies outside the best known Ulster Plantation area, nevertheless it is near to County Tyrone, County Donegal and County Fermanagh which were part of the Plantation. Also there were other Plantations in Ireland dating from Henry VIII. And it seems that some Scottish and English did settle in County Mayo from the early 17th Century. Alternatively could the match relate to Viking origins – as Vikings were in Ireland and the Western Isles of Scotland?

The identified definite Scottish mtdna match is the only one I had in 2019 with the 3433 people who identified as having Scottish as their earliest direct maternal line ancestor – that’s means my match represents about .03% of the Scottish pool of connected testers.

The identified Irish mtdna match is the only one I had in 2019 with the 7142 people who identified as having Irish as their earliest direct maternal line ancestor – that means my match represents less than .015% of the Irish pool of connected testers.

By 2019, there were about 300,000 who have done mtdna with FTDNA – and by 2020 I only matched 7 of them – these matches represent a little over .001% of the total pool of mtdna testers at FTDNA. However none had McLean or Robertson for their earliest known direct maternal line ancestor.

Nevertheless I was surprised and pleased to discover these matches as I was not overly optimistic about having any. I have had contact several of my mtdna matches, and I hope one day to hear from the others ?

I also noticed another possibly close H1bb descendant in the Scottish Hebrides Project at FTDNA – the place of origin was not given but the earliest maternal line ancestor’s surname was MacDougall. Plausibly this is probably consistent with some sort of Scottish origin? I wondered if this person might be a mtdna match or not, compared with my mtdna matches at FTDNA.

There was also a H1bb descendant in the Australian Citizens Project at FTDNA – but no details given.

So far I have directly encountered one person in a Facebook DNA group who is also H1bb, though I am yet to find out details of that person’s earliest Direct Maternal Line ancestor.

How far back to the common ancestor (MRCA) with my closest mtdna match? Reading more about mtdna indicates that where you have an exact matches in the mtFullSequence HVR1, HVR2, & Coding Region, then the most recent common ancestor that you share could be 5 generations back (about 125 years) at 50% confidence level. Or, it could be as far back as 22 generations back (about 550 years) at 95% confidence level – FTDNA . What does that mean ? Five generations takes me back to Ann McKenzie nee McLean, so it won’t be surprising if it’s way more than 5 generations back to find a common ancestor with my closest mtdna match with GD=0.

5. More information

It was helpful to read the section on mtdna in my First Edition of Blaine Bettinger’s The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy. It provided a relatively simple understanding of the scientific basis of mtdna and an introduction to Haplogroups. However, as the book does not delve too deeply into all of the known Haplogroups and their subgroups (aka subclades), I sought information elsewhere and found Roberta Estes’ DNAeXplained blog was really good.

Some links – there’s a lot of information out there ! A lot of it is to do with the science of mtdna.

Joining Forums

Eupedia, Facebook H1,

MTDNA – The Science

Academic OUP, Debbie Parker Wayne, DNA Geek, Genealogy Explained, Geni, Irish Genealogy, ISOGG tools, ISOGG tests, Kerry Farmer, LegacyTree, MTDNA Norway,
DNA Explained Blog – Roberta Estes – Brickwall Bulldozed, FTDNA Mitochondrial Haplotree, Mitochondrial the Maligned DNA, Native American – Jessica Biel, Patrilineal vs Matrilineal, Xdna vs mtdna, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4,

From SNP Tracker – How the H1bb haplogroup evolved from Africa into Asia and then across Europe over the centuries to the Bronze age

MTDNA Tips

DNA Explained, Education, FTDNA MTDNA Basics Forum, FTDNA MTDNA Closeness, Geni – Which Test ?, LeanneCooper, Legal Genealogist, Living DNA, Megan Smolenyak, Professional Family History UK, Which Test,

MTDNA – The Haplogroups

DNA Explained, FTDNA Haplogroups Basics Forum, ISOGG projects, SmarterHobby,

MTDNA – Haplogroup H – Regions of the World in History

As explained earlier I am part of haplogroup H – specifically the H1bb subgroup aka subclade.

H is the most common haplogroup in Europe, and about 44% of the British are in this grouping – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,

38.5% of Irish people carry mtDNA haplogroup H – of whom 11% are in H1 – Irish Genetics

H is found across Europe and especially found in Eastern Europe and the Iberian Peninsula – but not confined to these areas – and may be found in Scandinavia – including Vikings

H1 is a subgroup or subclade of H, and likewise H1b is a subgroup of H1, and H1bb is a subgroup of H1b.

H1 is the most common branch of haplogroup H. It represents 30% of people in haplogroup H, and 46% of the maternal lineages in Iberia. 13-14% of all Europeans belong to this branch, and H1 is about 13,000 years old. – Harvey,

Danish, FTDNA, GenealogyWise, Legal Genealogist, Wikipedia

H1b

It is detected at its highest frequency in Eastern Europe and North Central Europe. It is also found in about 5% of haplogroup H lineages in Siberian Mansis – Harvey. However H1b can be found in other areas as indicated in the links below.

Finnish, Swedish, Viking,

H1bb

Viking – “there was a study to explore the genomic history of the Viking era, we shotgun sequenced 442 ancient human remains, from the Bronze Age c. 2400 BC to the Medieval Age c. 1600 AD” – the map below was shared on the web page. Also included on the web page were the following four which are relevant to my H1bb result :
- H1bb – VK 118 (Norway), VK545 (Ireland)
- H1b – VK313 (Denmark), VK395 (Estonia)
Other Viking Links – 1, 2, 3,

At Living DNA in 2022 my Viking Index was 94% which means that my DNA is more similar to Viking DNA than 94% of all Living DNA customers.

The Viking Population Match from Living DNA

The Viking Population match indicates which Viking population your DNA is most similar to. We have identified 4 distinct Viking populations from our the analysis of ancient DNA. These are Norwegian Vikings, Swedish and Danish Vikings, British and North Atlantic Vikings, and Eastern European Vikings. My identified group is Eastern European…. While Norwegian and Danish Norsemen went westward, the Swedish explored eastwards into the Baltic sea. Here they found the estuaries of the rivers that lead inland across Eastern Europe into modern day Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, travelling along the Volga and Dnieper rivers until they reached the Black and Caspian Seas. On this journey these Vikings became known as “Rus” or “Varangians” by the Slavic people they encountered.

There has also been academic interest in the movement of Eastern Vikings along the Silk Road and into Central Asia – curiously at MyHeritage, both my own DNA ethnicity and one of my cousins, who shares my Tulloch Morayshire ancestry, both show about 1% Central Asian ethnicity. Is this spurious or could there be some degree of basis to this admittedly very low amounts of Central Asian ethnicity?

Previously in 2021 I gave Genomelink a go and subsequently my Viking report there said said: “1. Scandinavian Viking, 2. Vikings of Britain, 3. Finnish Vikings, 4. Slavic Vikings dna – my report says my Viking Index is 65% & that I am in 20% percentile compared with all Genomelink users“. This is somewhat different to the LivingDNA report, however nevertheless both reports show strong Viking origins.

Some more links

The Danelaw – The reasons for the waves of immigration (of Vikings) were complex and bound to the political situation in Scandinavia at that time; moreover, they occurred when Viking settlers were also establishing their presence in the Hebrides, Orkney, the Faroe Islands, Ireland, Iceland, Greenland, France (Normandy), Russia and Ukraine (see Kievan Rus’). Polabian Slavs (Wends) settled in parts of England, apparently as Danish allies. – this may provide an insight to the spread of H1b and H1bb
Where did Vikings settle in the British Isles ?
Vikings in Scotland website is an excellent overview : ” Scotland boasts some of the highest Nordic DNA outside of Scandinavia … to form their own kingdom there (called Lothlend, or Lochlainn) …. Sailing out from Norway, Denmark, and Sweden towards the rich monasteries, fertile fields, and abundant resources of Ireland and Britain, the archipelago of islands that form the west of Scotland would make perfect base camps for armies to amass and trading posts to flourish…. By the time the Vikings came on the scene, what is now Scotland was a patchwork of competing kingdoms, and each of these kingdoms was a patchwork of competing tribes and clans…. Though the Vikings established supremacy in the western islands, and ended the Scottish kingdom of Dal Riata, the emergence of a more unified Alba changed their designs. Conquering the land no longer seemed possible, and so as they had in Ireland, the Norse began to become more enmeshed in the ethnic, cultural, and political landscape….. Eventually, it was not only the Picts and the Scotts that were Scottish, but the Vikings, too…. The Hebrides were officially territories of Norway, not Scotland, until the 13th century, as was Orkney and Shetland until the 15th. Today these places are still as rich in Norse culture as they are in Norse blood. DNA studies show that the Shetland Islands are 44% Norse, and Orkney is 30%, and offer firm evidence that these areas of Scotland were settled by Scandinavian families, and not just male adventurers. Other islands, like the Hebrides, are around 15-20% which is still very high considering that we are talking about a migration that occurred a thousand years ago.” – and it is from the Hebrides that our Isle of Skye forbears have their ancestry.
I also have possible Shetland Islands Viking ancestry through my Tulloch Morayshire ancestry plus I have a number of Irish ancestral lines and so I could also have Viking origins there, see below:

My Paternal Ancestral Lines

Barden/Easton – Sussex – Southern England – outside of Vikings Danelaw
Tulloch/Anderson – Morayshire – Scotland – invaded by Norwegian Vikings and Danish Vikings
McCosker/McAllina – County Tyrone – Ireland
Power – County Waterford – Ireland – area of Viking influence
Adams/Gray – Albany New York State – USA – earlier origins unknown
Weatherstone – Edinburgh – Scotland – area of Viking raids but not settlement
Butts – Birmingham – Midlands – England – outside of Vikings Danelaw
Dougherty – County Derry – Ireland
Watson/Waters – Bristol Gloucestershire – Southern England – outside of Vikings Danelaw
McDonald – Paisley Renfrewshire near Glasgow – Scotland – area of Viking influence
Robinson/Stearns – Cambridgeshire – Southern England – within Vikings Danelaw area

My Maternal Ancestral Lines

Callcott – Oxfordshire – Southern England – outside of Vikings Danelaw
Freeman – London England – Southern England – outside of Vikings Danelaw
Avard / Harmer / Mepham – Kent Southern England – outside of Vikings Danelaw
Midson/Mears – Essex – Southern England – within Vikings Danelaw area
Small – Birmingham – Midlands – England – outside of Vikings Danelaw
Parker – Chelsea – London area Southern England – outside of Vikings Danelaw
Bradley / Barnes – London area Southern England – outside of Vikings Danelaw
Joy – Kent – Southern England – outside of Vikings Danelaw
Newlands – Glasgow Edinburgh Bathgate Shotts – Scotland – Glasgow and Edinburgh were areas of Viking influence
Ure – Glasgow – Scotland – area of Viking influence
Hicks – Kent – Southern England – outside of Vikings Danelaw
Howe – Surrey – Southern England – outside of Vikings Danelaw
Daley – Dublin – Ireland – Viking area
McKenzie/McIntosh – North Uist/Isle of Skye Hebrides – Viking area – Scotland
McLean/Robertson – Isle of Skye – Inner Hebrides, Viking area Scotland – direct maternal line with H1bb haplogroup

6. Direct Maternal Line Descendants of Ann McKenzie nee McLean

Donald Daniel McKenzie
Donald McKenzie
Alexander McKenzie
John McKenzie
Mary Ann Hicks nee McKenzie
- Catherine Hicks – died as infant
- Ann Hicks – died as infant
- James Alexander Hicks
- Margaret Minnie “Maggie” Cook nee Hicks
  - George Wilfred Cook
  - Marjorie Allison Rummery nee Cook
    - Harold Rummery
    - Rae Rummery
  - Gladys May Saunders nee Cook – had at least one son
  - Alfred Edward Cook
- Henry William Hicks
- Unnamed Hicks – died at birth
- Mary Alice Cook nee Hicks – no known descendants
- George Hicks
- Christina Ann Woolley nee Hicks
  - Unnamed Woolley – died as infant
  - Unnamed Woolley – died as infant
  - Mary Thelma Harris nee Woolley
    - Thelma Ann Harris – died as child
    - Douglas John Harris
  - Muriel Lucy Julian McKenzie nee Woolley
- Henry Thomas Hicks
- Edith Florence Joy nee Hicks
  - Kenneth Charles Joy
  - Mary Constance Callcott nee Joy
    - Ian
    - Joan
      - KerrieAnne
        
        KEC
      - Julie
        
        ELL
        
        OS
        
        GLL
      - Daryl
    - Enid
      - Virginia
        
        JB
        
        KB
    - John
    - Joy
      - Susan
        
        MC
      - Barbara
        
        KS
        
        JV
        
        RV
      - Julie
        
        BD
      - Barry
      - Graham
- Ida McKenzie Webb nee Hicks
  - Gwynneth Mary Emily Stuart nee Webb – has male and female children
  - Enid Rhys Webb – no known children
  - Ida McKenzie Knox nee Webb – has at least one daughter
  - Frederick Henry Webb
  - Joy Lois Webb – had at least one son
- Richard Ernest Hicks
Catherine Sheather Ross nee McKenzie
- Isabella Ann Bruggy nee Ross
  - John Bruggy
  - William Bruggy
  - Catherine Anne Bruggy
  - Bertie L Bruggy
  - Nellie M Blood nee Bruggy
  - Harold Bruggy
  - Vera D Bruggy
- William Ross
- Christine Mary Ross
- Catherine Eliza Henson nee Ross
  - Emma May Henson
  - Arthur E Henson
  - Charles E Henson
  - Doris L Henson
  - Katherine R Henson
  - Harry Gordon Henson
  - William Alexander Henson
  - John R Henson
  - Robert Henson
- John Donald Ross
- William James Sheather
- Thomas Henry Sheather
- Robert Benjamin Sheather
- Archibald Hugh Sheather
- Edward John Sheather
Agnus McKenzie – no known descendants
Angus McKenzie

Note – a mother passes her mtdna onto all of her children, but only her daughters pass the mtdna onto the next generation

Part 2. Reviewing Autosomal DNA test results for McLean/MacLean connections

A New Year Project for 2020 – The Plan

I reviewed my research on Ann McKenzie nee McLean/MacLean with a mindmap – a technique I had encountered in a “Researching Your Family History” online course with the University of Strathclyde and FutureLearn – see summary diagram below

Ann McLean v1

Then, having decided that I had probably ascertained as much as I was likely to achieve with my mtDNA results for a while, I decided to review my DNA results from Ancestry.com, MyHeritage and FamilyTreeDNA with a focus on McLean/MacLean connections – including the use of Third Party Tools like DNAGEDCOM.com, GEDmatch.com, DNAPainter and FreeMind. This is not going to be a quick project by any means.

So I was looking for any McLean/MacLean, and from 2020, also Robertson connections :

who mostly might be 5th cousins at the closest, though it is possible that Endogamy (Pedigree Collapse aka In-breeding) in Scottish Highlands and Islands could distort the CM’s sizes of matches.
with ancestry from the Isle of Skye especially around Armadale and Calligarry down in Sleat – or ancestry from other areas of the Hebrides eg North Uist, South Uist, Lewis, or from the Highlands
who are a shared match with my relatives descended from Ann McKenzie nee McLean/MacLean but are not descended from Elizabeth McKenzie Hanks, the second wife of Alexander McKenzie (Jnr), and not descended from any of her husband’s three siblings.

Likewise, I decided to run a similar process for matches of my sister Julie, brother Daryl and my maternal first cousin, also named Julie.

My DNA Results – Looking for McLean/Maclean connections

Ancestry.com

Previously I had grouped my McLean/MacLean Ancestry.com DNA connections in with my McKenzie and McIntosh DNA connected matches. It was time to split off these McLean connections into a separate group. After hours of research activity when I was kept indoors on a bushfire smoke laden day, I found I had nearly 200 potential McLean/MacLean connections in my Ancestry.com DNA matches (which by December 2019 totalled over 34,000). These were linked to McLean/Maclean’s from across Scotland – too many places to list them all, but especially in Invernesshire and Argyllshire, plus Rossand Cromarty. I was not surprised to find we have matches with McLean/Maclean connections to the Western Isles of the Inner and Outer Hebrides, including: Isle of Skye – including Calligary, Kilmuir, Duirnish, Kilmuir and Kilmore Sleat; Coll, Mull, Tiree, North Uist, Valtos – Isle of Lewis, Eishken – Isle of Harris, Isle Raasay. My sibling’s ethnicity revealed that she had been assigned to the Scotland’s Highlands and Islands Genetic Community in Ancestry – so the distribution of our McLean/Maclean DNA matches was not a surprise.

Highlands and Islands Genetic Community 2020.07 JLL

And my McLean – McKenzie first cousin showed connections to the Outer Hebrides in her Ancestry genetic communities.

Julie Davis Ethnicity Outer Hebrides

I have also found several DNA matches at Ancestry.com with descendants of Calligarry McLean’s. My closest match, of 21 cms over 2 segments, is shared with my sister and maternal aunt, of 29 cms over 4 segments which is suggestive of matches around 4th – 5th cousins. And so arguably his ancestor would have been closely related to our Ann McKenzie nee McLean ?

Given these relatively close DNA matches at Ancestry.com, and matches with yet another of Ann’s descendants, it is quite feasible that Ann was a sister of this match’s ancestor John MacLean (about 1794 – 1877). That John MacLean was a son of John McLean (1766 Calligarry – ) and Mary Robertson (1771 Strath, Isle of Skye – ) – all of these lived in Calligarry at some point.

Further, another connection to this MacLean DNA match is a Robertson, the match being 22 cms over 2 segments, which is suggestive of 4th – 5th cousins. This Robertson match has Robertson ancestry from the mid 18th Century to 20th Century at Kyleakin, Broadford, Strath and Harrapool Isle of Skye.

The other more distant DNA match of 8 cms at Ancestry.com is a shared match with another Australian McKenzie McLean descendant, which gives me more confidence that it might not be a false match. That more distant match is a descendant of a Donald McLean and Mary Anderson via their son Kenneth McLean (1818 Calligarry – 1914 Calligarry). It raises the possibility that our Ann McLean was some sort of cousin of Kenneth McLean?

Considering the above DNA matches at Ancestry.com, the likelihood of Ann McKenzie nee McLean being a daughter of John McLean (1766 Calligarry – ) and Mary Robertson (1771 Strath, Isle of Skye – ) cannot be lightly dismissed.

Additonally, I had previously noticed that, in my McKenzie – McLean/MacLean DNA cluster of matches, I had relatively close matches with a Canadian mother and son with North Uist Outer Hebrides ancestry – they were at 34 cms and 31 cms respectively, and both of these were across 1 segment only. They also seemed to be connected to some of my Australian McKenzie McLean/MacLean relations. I’d also noticed that they seemed to be “nodes” for a large number of North American connected matches. As I began to explore these interrelated matches I found that there were McLean/MacLean’s and McDonald’s appearing in some of the ancestral lines. However the closeness of the matches with the Canadian mother and son was surprising and unexpected – unless there was some Endogamy (Pedigree Collapse aka In-breeding) at play. In the Western Highlands and Islands, Endogamy was quite feasible.

MyHeritage

At MyHeritage, where I have over 6000 matches, other than my siblings I had several known McKenzie – McLean/MacLean DNA matches : a third cousin, a third cousin once removed, a fourth/fifth cousin and two probable fifth cousins (from New Zealand).

A search for McLean/MacLean in the ancestral lines in my DNA matches revealed over 45 people for further analysis, and also about 30 people who were triangulated matches with my McLean McKenzie third cousin and third cousin once removed. There are a range of interconnections eg one of these has been a match in Ancestry and MyHeritage and has McLean/McDonald ancestry from the Outer Hebrides island of North Uist, off the Isle of Skye.

As MyHeritage has a chromosome browser it is possible to look for shared matches and determine which one’s can be triangulated on specific segments (lengths) of specific chromosomes. Also some, but not all, of these matches at MyHeritage with the match from McLean/McDonald’s matches had family trees. At this stage, after reviewing the matches, I considered that our McLean-related DNA matches were possibly triangulating on Chromosome 9 – whereas the McKenzie’s seem to triangulate on on Chromosome 11, and with the MacDonald – McLeod’s appearing to triangulate on Chromosome 3.

There appear to be a number of matches of interest with respect to McLean and Robertson who had also done Ancestry DNA testing.

FamilyTreeDNA

Here I found 6 matches with McLean/MacLean ancestry, excluding my siblings – two of these were likely related to each other – and one of these is a DNA match with me at Ancestry and MyHeritage (Chromosome 9). As FamilyTree DNA also has a chromosome browser, I found that my two shared DNA matches triangulated with me on Chromosome 9. I found another ten shared matches with this match from Ancestry and MyHeritage, – and these additional matches also triangulated with me on Chromosome 9. Regrettably, most did not have large family trees, if they had one at all. However the match that I share across Ancestry, My Heritage and Family Tree DNA has McLean/McDonald ancestry from the Outer Hebrides island of North Uist, off the Isle of Skye.

My Sister’s Results – based on Ancestry.com, MyHeritage and FamilyTreeDNA – in progress

Ancestry –

MyHeritage – My sister has a number of McLean/Maclean DNA matches at MyHeritage including Isle of Jura, Barra, Tiree, Isle of Mull, Isle of Lewis and Isle of Rhum from the Inner Hebrides plus others with Ross shire, Ardgour and Banffshire ancestry.

FamilyTree DNA – My sister has only two with McLean / Maclean ancestry, other than with myself and our brother. The two other matches were not shared matches with each other – though one, who has Barra MacLean ancestry was a match on Chromosome 4 with our McKenzie McLean McIntosh third cousin.

My Brother’s Results – based on MyHeritage and FamilyTreeDNA – in progress

FamilyTree DNA – revealed eight matches with McLean / Maclean ancestry other than myself and our brother. None of my brother’s eight matches were shared matches with each other.

My First Cousin’s Results – based only on Ancestry.com test results – in progress

Ancestry.com

Like me, my cousin Julie (and her mother) also had matches with the Canadian mother and son – at 34 cms and 33cms respectively.

My Third Cousin’s Results – based on MyHeritage test results – in progress

In Summary

I and my siblings have autosomal DNA matches, from Ancestry, My Heritage and FamilyTree DNA, with McLean and Robertson descendants from the Isle of Skye in the Inner Hebrides, and also from the Outer Hebrides island of North Uist, off the Isle of Skye.

Further thoughts and review on my H1bb mtdna results can be found at this blog post – DNA & Discovering my mtdna – Scottish Irish or Viking? Part Two?

4 Responses to Discovering my mtdna – Scottish Irish or Viking ? Part One.

brianharris5 says:

October 7, 2019 at 12:44 pm

Ok. You have convinced me to start down the slippery slope of DNA testing. What type of test/s do you recommend? PS I love the picture of Christina and Edith.

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