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McMullin of Cape Breaton

Title: McMullin of Cape Breaton
Posted by: sheldon sim on 02-07-2012

Discussion: Hi
My mothers family came from South Uist.
Aonghas Iain Nill MacMullin (MacGillemhaol) his wife Kate Walker and 9 children all born in South Uist arrived in Canada around 1840 Aonghas and all his sons were pipers.
Aonghas was son of Iain who was son of Nill, Aonghas had a brother Niall Iain Nill MacMullin married to Mairi MacPhee we think he was a tailor Niall and Mairi died in South Uist but 5 of their children came to Canada.
All lived in the Cape Breaton area , Today the family is very very large , we live in all parts of North America.
We would like to know more about the history of the family were they from Ireland , Scotland or Norse? Would there be a cousin still in the area.
Thanks

Replies to this post

Posted by: sheldon sim on 04-07-2012

Angus ,
Thank you for your time and all the great information .
Yes the book by Fr MacMillan was a great help but you filled in the blanks for us.
So we are of Norse decent , that might explain all the red heads in the family.

Mr Williams welcome to the clan.

Thank you for your time
Sheldon

Posted by: Angus MacMillan on 04-07-2012

Picking up the story: No MacMillan worldwide except that represented by the tiny group of three or four families to which you and LuRose, who has also posted, belong has this Norse marker. It thus seems most unlikely that you are in any way related to the main(land) Clan MacMillan. You are seemingly though, genetically of the Clan MacNeil group of Barra, the island in clear view just across the water. I can only think of two possible explanations.

One is that a MacNeil had a son by a MacMillan woman, married or single via what is poitely known as a non-paternal event and that the son took his mother\'s name. that may have been in Barra itself or, as the MacNeil chiefs held the southern part of South Uist for a long while before being ousted by Clanranald, in the Daliburgh area. The MacNeil chiefs such as Rory the Turbulent were a wild bunch and known for their activities in that respect.

However, surnames were late coming to the islands and I rather favour an alternative explanation. People were known by patronymics until the priests were encouraged to keep records and to use Anglicised surnames. There are indications further north in the Uists that the known name Morrison was applied to folks known as MacGhillemhuire and by the same token a genetic MacNeil known as MacMhaolmhuire i.e. son of Maolmuire (roughly Myles) may have had the borrowed name MacMillan applied because they share the root \'maol.\' Though not of your Norse grouping, I also show no genetic relationship to anyone of the main Clan MacMillan so it is thought that may explain my own surname. I hope this all helps a little. Angus MacMillan

Posted by: Angus MacMillan on 04-07-2012

Hello Sheldon; I will have to keep this short and post a couple of times as I have twice lost what I have written. I guess from what you write that you have access to the book \'A West Wind to East Bay\' that covers the family and was written by Fr MacMillan whose own family were from close to your mother\'s in Daliburgh South Uist. Though he may well also have been a tailor, it is not Niall brother of Angus but Niall\'s son Niall Ruadh who the book points to as handy with a needle.

Your family, seemingly via a descendant of Niall ruadh, is also recorded in the MacMillan DNA project. It is classified as R1b, generally regarded as the marker for the Western Atlantic groups including the Gaels, who settled Ireland and some of whom, as the Scots, migrated across the Irish sea, most famously in 500 ad, to form the little Kingdom of Dalriada in Argyll and the Isles. However, much earlier, these R1b folks migrated from further east and south in Europe and one group seems to have broken away and turned north to settle in Scandinavia, developing a distinctive variant of R1b that is noted in DNA tests by a sequence of letters ending 5b. This is the subset revealed by testing of your family. Genetically, you are thus Norse from a line that settled in Orkney and Shetland, in the Western Isles and even in some cases in Ireland

Posted by: Lurose Hickey on 03-07-2012

Hello Mr. Sim and family...

I am a McMullin by DNA findings...I dont know a whole lot about the family but I am sure Angus can fill you in as he is very learned...

I live in Texas and just found about a year ago that I had the DNA...I cannot help anyone else other than just say hi...

Good luck..
Lurose williams

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