MacMullin/McMillion in Uist and Barra

Discussion: Have just learned thru DNA that my paternal roots lay in the Islands...with the ancient McMillion family. They were intermarried with the Norman Vikings..

I would like history of same. Need to glean the progenitor of McMillion, who ended up in America in mid 1700.

Thank you
LuRose Hickey
San Marcos TX

Sorry LuRose, having just responded to your other post, I have just spotted your latest to me here. to address one question, one thing we have learned from DNA testing is that the old assumption that most people in a clan are from one line or family, is far from the truth. In the MacMillan case, going back to the start, a Bishop Cormac was given responsibility for inhabited lands running from Dunkeld in eastern Scotland to the western sea. One of his sons was the tonsured [Maol} man from whom the name MacMillan derives. In turn, his son was the first to be called MacGillemhaol or MacMillan just as the first surnames came into existence and it seems that the folks already living on his lands, with variable DNA, must have taken the name MacMillan. Later they divided into three groups, in Lochaber, Knapdale and SW Scotland. Members of at least the first two probably found their way to South Uist and Benbecula, hence the mix of DNA found.

As I said in my earlier note, there is one more contributor. In the 1700s, patronymics rather than surnames were still in general use in the Gaelic speaking islands. One of these was mac Mhaolmhuire, sons of a Maolmuire, tonsured (servant) of Mary. When surnames were Anglicised, this group were given the borrowed known name MacMillan; yet another set of DNA.

Your tradition that your MacMillions (simply a variant spelling) were from Knap may well be true and, in that case, DNA results will eventually confirm it. Williams is Welsh not Scots and was probably just a mishearing at some stage of the last part of MacMillion. Quite often records were written down later and mistakes occurred.

Ochiltree has me puzzled. I am pretty sure it has never been a name in Benbecula. What link do you have between the two?

All the best. Angus

Dera Mr. Angus...

Have not talked to you in a while...

The McMillions came to Greenbrier VA in ca 1750, I dont remember the McMullin but if I find that info I will forward it to you...Ancient histoy states the native born McMillions were of Knap...I am still searching that out...I dont understand why the McMillan DNA is different....I am not sure if we are McMillions or we are Williams...that is so strange. I do know that my Ochiltree family was in Benbecula, I would like the GAelic name for us..

My Haplo is: R1b1a2a1a1b5b
Subgroup is: L165/S68
Kit #: 162876.

Thank you. And I look forward to hearing from you...

LuRose.

Hello LuRose; I have had a look at the Y-DNA results for your brother's test. You might like to look at mine on the same FTDNA project; I am Kit No 47694. As you will see, there is no match, nor are yours the same as either of the other two Isle of Benbecula MacMillan sets I have so far. I have been meaning to start to stimulate tests in neighbouring South Uist and this makes that thought all the more attractive.

Do you have a paper trail back to an antique Williams [which of course is a Welsh not Gaelic name]? Otherwise, given the exact Haplotype match with MacMillion/MacMullan, I wonder if it could have come from a mistranscrition by some recorder of (mac) Million, which could sound very similar?

My other question is whether you have been in contact with or otherwise know anything about the Neil the tailor origins or descendants. In particular, it would be helpful to know when Neil and family emigrated.

I look forward to hearing more. Best wishes. Angus

Thank you for answering my enquiry.. My brother tested DNA in 2009 with FTDNA...

Kit#162876
Russell Jean Williams
Haplo group ends with a 5 not 4.

His findings are in the L165, MacNeil, and McMillan, But I do want to bring to your attention two alleles that no one else has...

There are three of us alike, McMillion, McMullan and Williams...I would appreciate any direction you can give....

Thank you.

LuRose Williams
Marker 439 is 13, Marker 447 is 24....

The two spellings as you have them and the conventional one this side of the water all no doubt stand for the same name. Each of the islands has its own, seemingly distinct, set of MacMillan families. The island of Benbecula, which was historically part of the Parish of South Uist, for example, certainly has three and perhaps four separate families. South Uist has a similar number. It is very difficult because the records are sparse, to group them and there are no records that let us work out which came from where.

There has always been a debate about whether the island MacMillans came from a southern location in Knapdale, Kintyre or from further north in Lochaber; or perhaps both. There is a third possibility that we are not related to the mainland clan at all but that, when names were Anglicised in the middle of the 1700s, the MacMillan name was simply borrowed for the sons of a Maolmuire that shared the same root of the name with MacMhaolan or MacGillemhaol.

As you have obviously spotted, the only resolution to all this lies with Y-DNA testing. We have made a start on testing island MacMillans. My Hapogroup, for example, is R1b1a2a1a1b4. You do not give the results of the test you have but, if you are willing to share, then comparisons can be made. The one thing that will not show up, of course, is any intermarriage with the Norse. Unlike the MacDonalds, the island MacMillans are Western Atlantic, i.e. Gaelic by descent.

Look forward to hearing more. Angus MacMillan