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From:
Subject: [S-I] News Scotch Irish List
Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2010 13:51:39 +0000 (UTC)


Hi folks, if you are receiving this email, you are still on the Scotch Irish list.

Two news notes: First our cousins the eastern Cherokees now REQUIRE a DNA test for new members:
http://www.dna-worldwide.com/dna-news/news/2010/06/24/tribe-implements-dna-testing-for-new-applicants/
Many early Scotch Irish intermarried with these fellas so I thought this might interest a few of us.

Secondly, big news, also on the DNA front. I've been working with a family surnamed McCamish/McAmis (etc) for years trying to figure out where they came from. The American family descends from three brothers who were dropped off by a UFO in Virginia in 1770. Many of our ancestors seem to have been on the same flight!

Various theories have been put forth over the years regarding their origin and their relationship to others with the surname in colonial America. Several years ago I was able to prove with the help of many others that they came from Tyrone -- Dungannon area and that they were of native Irish origin. Geneticists in Dublin identified that their DNA was that of the chieftains of an Irish clan, the O'Cahans. So we had some lost Irish princes. This is one family that can probably be sure that they know what their ancestors were doing a thousand years ago: ruling parts of Ireland, conquering other parts.

They used the same first name conventions as did a family in Old Mother Cumberland in Pennsylvania: a William McCamish (born by 1730) who by 1751 had purchased land and settled west of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, in what is now Franklin Co. He is known to have had a Joseph, who died without heirs, and James, who died after the Revolution leaving several under age children and a widow. It has long been speculated that there was a relationship. My research proves that he was NOT the father of the Virginia brothers. However we now have a very very close DNA match that shows he was definitely related to the three brothers: One off on the 67 modal.

A lot of DNA projects are run by basically waiting for someone to show up to test. Because this surname is rare, we didn't wait. We did traditional genealogy to identify men we wanted to test and actively pursued them. We hoped to find a descendant of the PA line to test -- and we finally did.

What is interesting (to me) is that so far all the US lines we tested descend from the Tyrone families, who bailed out of Ireland in the 1700s. There appear to be none left in Tyrone and nearby areas of Derry. One family migrated to Dublin in the early 1900s, where the father was a policeman.

On the other hand, there's a large group of McComish/McCamish in Banbridge in Co. Down. They do not match the Tyrone family : independently taking the surname. However though one can see that many families left Down, we haven't found any in the USA. Where'd they go? The lines found in Scotland so far all descend from the Tyrone family. Most of these lines later migrated to Australia by the mid 1800s. There are still families in Co Down and Belfast and of course other places. At least one line migrated to Louth, but whether they are still there I do not know. Surely at least one went to the USA??? Or so you'd think, eh???

Linda Merle

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