Family Tree Click Here
|
History of the Surname Click Heree
|
McCotter Surname Reports Click Here
|
Are McGings DNA Cousins? Click Here
|
Two things
First, I’m going to ask everyone who has an
interest in this genealogy who has had a DNA test to please consider putting
you test results online at gedmatch.com. It’s free and helps research tremendously.
Briefly, each of the testing companies gives
you results, but only with people who have tested with them. There are 4 or more major DNA testing
companies, but if someone tests at company A but you tested at company F, you
won’t know about that possible match.
What Gedmatch does is provide a place where people pool their test
results across these companies, all in one common pool. And it has a bunch of free (and paid) tools
if you are interested in getting deeper into this.
But the more people put their data there, the
better we can figure out the dna linkages, which for Irish genealogy, is
important due to the poor paper records.
So I ask anyone who has tested, even if you didn’t put a family tree on
Ancestry, for example, to put the data on Gedmatch and triple the number of
people who can match against you. The
Gedmatch IDs of my family are listed below.
And second, please check out if you are an
X-match or not on your test. If you are, look at my page on X-Matches.
What's New!
September 2019 – So now we have 4 male McGings from non-connected
lines who have done Y-DNA testing and I updated the results at the “Are McGings
DNA Cousins” link (above). The 4 lines tested are traceable back to the early
1800s but with zero known connections between them.
So for them all to be in the same Y-DNA group and reasonably distant
from each other, we do get more data to support the idea that we are all
related, even if we cannot name who that common ancestor is. (He may not have been a McGing, but his descendants
adopted the surname. And so far this DNA
combination only has been seen with men in Scotland and Ireland.
August 2019 – I’m tickled that a new Y dna test on a member of a
McGing line that I cannot link via records does show a connection. Have to spend some time working through how
this can help link associated lines.
Slowly finding proofs on how McGings must surely all be cousins. And here is a must read link on Irish naming
conventions - https://irelandxo.com/ireland-xo/news/irelandxo-insight-irish-naming-and-baptism-traditions
April 2019 – No breakthroughs, been spending time working
on my wife’s half sister’s paternity.
Been interesting. The new tools at MyHeritage and Ancestry helped flesh
out some lines but no knocked down walls yet.
Feb 2019 - No major breakthroughs but
lots of tweaking the data and updating supporting documentation. I can see numbers creep up as holiday testers
results get posted to Ancestry, FTDNA etc but no one has yet has been able to
push back any dates or clear up mysteries. A lot of 4th cousins and
more remote and those aren’t much use. And the 2nd cousins all seem
to be Joyce’s. Which is a rant all by itself J Still looking for any
leads on ways to update this site from the 1997 era html its coded in. I’m
aware it’s pretty “old school”.
Oct 2018 – If anyone knows someone
who could help me redo this website in a way that lets me update it easily, let
me know. It is really showing its age. There are nooks and crannies that have
decent data that are hard to find. I’m
just too old for relearning the modern tools of website building when I’ve
other things I want to do instead. And I do own my own website name and host
the site on my own.
No
research breakthroughs but the new DNA Painter is to me vital to
figure out those links that you don’t know what family line to try and
research. The Ancestry rejigger of the ethnicity
finally matches what my paper research shows to be true.
Sept 2018 – So it’s been a while,
no major break throughs, no distant family lines have done DNA tests, lots of
incremental records updating, tweaking some lines by fleshing out family files. I’ve a few long term conversations going on
with Joyce connections. Clearly have
Joyce relations just don’t know how they are related.
April 2018 – Incremental work
progressing. Fixing the web pages, updating as I find things. Trying to better
document things and clean up my records and files. I’m hoping that folks who
match me on my mom’s side can help me start to figure out that family tree,
since the family doesn’t know that much. I remain scratching my head over the
way folks in my family tree had intermarried, as I hunt at least one and likely
2 ancestors who are common to both my mom and dad.
March 2018 – I’m liking the new RootsFinder
tool. Especially the DNA visualization
tools. It helps that folks have been
putting stuff into Gedmatch. The more
folks who match on Ancestry or 23andme who put their data on Gedmatch, the more
connections we can find and the better it is to look at specific chromosomes.
That’s how we eliminate wrong family paths and save time. I urge everyone to
add stuff to Gedmatch. It'll pay off.
On FTDNA I find a woman in
Sweden who is connected strongly to my mom’s sister Mary. But this Swedish lady
is someone whose family roots there is for hundreds of years. But it
seems someone from her family must have visited Ireland or England because some
of her family DNA is in Mary as a reasonably close cousin (but not her sister
Nora). Hoping she answers my emails
soon.
Had the same thing with dad
on MyHeritage. A family hundreds of years in Norway has a reasonably close
connection to dad. And neither of these cousin connections is from the
Vikings, it's from the last 150 years or so.
And because people test, I
have just found that my mom’s family has a DNA connection to my great great
grandparents on my dad’s side, the Morrins/Flanagans. No paper, but multiple
connections via DNA to documented (and tested) cousins is hard to beat.
Lastly, the McGing who took the Y DNA test
and helped prove that we have a common ancestor (see elsewhere on this page)
did an autosomal test and that test shows us as 3rd cousins. Normally that’s be great news but this
person’s mom and dad were both McGings, his mom from a known line and his dad
from a not yet connected line. So the autosomal test confirms the one known
linkage and the Y DNA confirms the non-documented line through his dad. Big
smiles all around.
January 2018 – I had some fun that I’d
like to share. I thought I’d look at the
given names of McGings. The reason is
that some names run in families, esp 100 years ago, so they are both
interesting and a clue. So using my
genealogy database, which likely doesn’t have every McGing in the world, esp
young families and some I know I’m missing in Australia, I analyzed the data I
do have. So here are some fun facts:
· I have 78 McGings where I
have no clue about their given name
· I have 2244 McGings where
I do have a given name.
So, of those 2244, what are the most frequent
names? I decided that anyone with a
middle name (John Joseph McGing) would be counted as a John. Spelling variants like Catherine, Kathleen
are left alone.
Top 10 for men and women are:
|
John |
191 |
Mary |
217 |
|
Patrick |
178 |
Bridget |
114 |
|
Michael |
143 |
Catherine |
71 |
|
James |
133 |
Margaret |
66 |
|
Thomas |
106 |
Ann |
45 |
|
Austin |
67 |
Anne |
39 |
|
Martin |
39 |
Sarah |
26 |
|
Philip |
38 |
Elizabeth |
17 |
|
Peter |
21 |
Julia |
17 |
|
William |
21 |
Nora |
15 |
|
|
937 |
|
627 |
So, of the 2244 names, the top 10 for men and
women account for 1,564 or about 70% of the names used. The remaining 30% is
made up of 296 unique names, of which 178 are single time names, 58 are names
only used 2 times, 14 are names used 3x, 14 are used 4x, 8 used 5x, 3 used 6x,
5 used 7x, 1 used 8x, 1 used 9x, 1 used
11x, 1 used 12x, 3 used 13x, 2 used 14x, 1 used 15x, 2 used 16x, 2 used 17x,
and 1 used 19x.
Names often run in families, such as Penelope
is unique to my family, Daniel runs in another family group, Anthony seems to
do so as well. And Philip is limited to a group of families in a smaller
area. (speaking only of pre-1950 usage,
names loosened up after that date.)
December 2017 - Rootsweb has free hosting but it’s having
issues so I moved my site to a private hosting service. If you find links that don’t work, let me
know. I’ve been hunting them down. I
apologize for the 2001 look and feel but I simply don’t have a visual brain and
fancy web tools don’t make sense to me.
And they all cost a boatload of money! But to make family tree checking
easier I’ve used a tool called Gedsite to build a subsite that has the family
tree in it and it’s more up to date than other online trees Ancestry etc. So check it out - Family Tree Version 2.
It’s really pretty good.
But on a recap note, while progress on me has
been slow but steady, my wife has actually found a half-sister and pushed her
ancestry back a ton. She’s eligible for
DAR at least 2 if not 3 ways and she went from thinking she had little family
to finding out about tons of folks related to her. Her data is online in the tree here to help
that research.
For me, DNA genealogy is more complicated
than it should be as I am still pulling my hair over the endogamy of Mayo. Cousins marrying cousins marrying cousins and
when there are records, everyone uses the same 5 first names. Folks marrying neighbors with the same
surnames. Sigh. And don’t get me started about Joyces – they
are like rabbits and seemingly only find love with other Joyces!
July 2017 – Added a new page on ethnicity estimates.
It’s interesting stuff. Check out
ethnicity estimates page.
June 2017 - Just a brief update. No big breakthroughs. Still looking for McGing males
to consider the Y-DNA test and anyone from a McGing related family of any form
to take one of the many autosomal DNA tests (Ancestry DNA, Family Tree DNA, My
Heritage, even 23andMe are the big ones available) to see if we are related. Given poor records and families that don’t
remember where they came from, DNA is often the only way to show relatedness.
It is interesting that this does lead to interesting outcomes. There is a McGing family that I am related to
not but through McGings (that I can tell so far). Seems a person that is an
ancestor on my mother’s (Collins) side had a Duffy relation that married into this (unrelated) McGing family and
that is how I am connected to them. I
still think we share some common Gr times 7 grandfather but until then….
January 2017 – No major breakthroughs but slowly finding cousins who actually have
family trees that may mean we can actually figure things out. Not a knock on
those just starting out, but it’s frustrating to find likely 3rd
cousins who have zero idea about their family and expect me to know. I wish I
did, but I’m looking just as hard as everyone else. There is no substitute for doing
“traditional” genealogy, DNA just is a tool.
Keep in mind, when it says we are 4th or greater cousins the amazing
number of people that we have to consider as our common ancestor.
You have 64 great-great-great-great-grandparents.
|
Generation |
# You Have |
Who |
Approximate
Percentage of Their DNA That You Have Today |
|
1 |
You |
100% |
|
|
1 |
2 |
Parents |
50% |
|
2 |
4 |
Grandparents |
25% |
|
3 |
8 |
Great-grandparents |
12.5% |
|
4 |
16 |
Great-great-grandparents |
6.25% |
|
5 |
32 |
Great-great-great-grandparents |
3.12% |
|
6 |
64 |
Great-great-great-great-grandparents |
1.56% |
Each of those GGGG-grandparents contributed 1.56% of your
DNA, roughly.
|
YEAR |
|
NUMBER |
PERCENTAGE |
|
|
OF
YOUR |
OF
DNA AND SAME |
|
|
|
ANCESTORS |
SURNAME |
|
|
Birth Year |
1950 |
|
|
|
1 generation back: Parents |
1925 |
2 |
50.00% |
|
2 generations back: Grandparents |
1900 |
4 |
25.00% |
|
3 generations back: Great-grandparents |
1875 |
8 |
12.50% |
|
4 generations back Great-great grandparents |
1850 |
16 |
6.25% |
|
5 generations back: Great-great-great grandparents |
1825 |
32 |
3.13% |
|
6 generations back Great-great-great-great grandparents |
1800 |
64 |
1.56% |
So given the
records of Co Mayo are sketchy prior to 1850, I have a whole lot of cousins at
4th and 5th and greater who will likely never be
documented because the records are simply not there, unless the family has
already done their family trees and written down their family stories.
That’s the
reality of it. I want to try and find a
link with anyone who has the interest, but have to stay real that it’s not
likely for a lot of us.
Past Changes ç There is a LOT of information on this page; it’s been moved from this page to keep it from getting too big. I recommend you do check this out. It’s full of the odd bits and piece.
Why this Page?
Thanks for stopping by! I figure 99% of the
people stopping by will be bored silly, because this really is a trivial page
but.....
I'm on Facebook and LinkedIn so no longer
have a general web page. This particular page is neat because I bought the
McGing.org domain name and that's cool, at least to me. So this page is
being set up to be a McGing magnet and maybe a few other things. I do
have an obligatory picture of me
here (it's pretty recent but could take a bit to view on a slow connection).
I’ve been doing my family history since 1985 and
this web page first went up in the late 1990s.
(I know, it looks it.) So while
some of the questions I asked have been fully or partially answered, I’ve kept
this page largely untouched because it reminds me of just how much work and
time has been spent on this.
In 1985, I was thinking that anyone with a
name as rare as McGing would find that most of the McGing’s he runs into are
related in some way. But until recently, I’d have been wrong. Until recently, all the ones who track me
down are not related (based on making your typical family tree and linking up
with records.) So many families, yet so many saying “Nope, not a
relation.” Go figure! So what started out as a effort to document
my family turned into an effort to document the McGings of the world with a
view to proving or disproving that we are indeed actual cousins.
And what has changed since 1985 is DNA
testing. Which supports the hypothesis of all being related even when the
records don’t exist to make the link.
So this is a McGing magnet page. If you
are a McGing, or used to be one or have a relation who was or is one, drop me a
line or sign my guestbook below and we'll see if we can find out just where we
all come from. If I get any responses, I can publish whatever people contribute
and share various tidbits.
Who am I?
My name is John McGing and my immediate ancestry
is as follows:
Mother was Sarah Collins, born in
Shanvallycahill, in the Cappaghaduff district, Ballinrobe, Co Mayo. Her father
was John Collins of Shanvallycahill, her mother was Bridgit Conoboy. She came
from a large family, some of whom are still in Tourmakeady, while the rest went
to England or to the US, mainly in Chicago, Il.
Father is John McGing, born in Churchfield,
in the Cappaghaduff district, Ballinrobe, Co Mayo. His father was Thomas
McGing of Churchfield, his mother was Bridget Donoghue. He also came from a
large family, all of whom live in the States, again mainly in Chicago, except
for one sister who lives in Dublin and one in Tourmakeady.
Both are from places right on Loch Mask.
(Here's a small map of Mayo) We're from
around Tourmakeady, which you can see is on the shores of Loch Mask in South
Mayo. Here is a much larger,
older map of Mayo, circa 1890's Surprisingly, the home place, in
Churchfield, was in Galway, until it was given to Mayo in a border change in
1898 - 1899. (meaning people need to
check both Galway and Mayo records…)
My father’s people were originally from a
townland called Arderry, as Great Great Grandfather Patrick is found in the
1818 rent rolls of Lord Sligo as a renter there, along with a Bryan McGing who
I believe is likely a brother.
I love both sides of my family, but my dad’s
side remembered more of their history than my mom’s. It’s a common situation, where the family
honestly doesn’t know much about their ancestors, and the stories either
weren’t told or never shared. That’s my
issue on the Collin’s side. No real information about Great grandfather or
further back. So it’s not with any ill
intent I don’t have more on my maternal side, it’s simply I cannot find
much. But I am always looking and want
to flesh out that part of the tree.
However, it does seem that we have a boatload of Joyces on both paternal
and maternal sides.
DNA Overview
You should also check out my Are McGings All Related?
It Seems Likely! page.
GEDMATCH Numbers
DNA Tests taken
- 23andme
- Family Tree DNA (FTDNA)
autosomal and Y-DNA-111
- Ancestry.com autosomal
- National Geographic
Genographic Project
mtDNA Haplogroup (Maternal) T1a1
Also on MyHeritage, which is doing DNA matching as well.
I also have data at MyHeritage.com,
and at Geni
and at Wikitree
which is cool because it looks across other people's data for likely matches
but my tree data is rarely updated there, as I instead put it into Legacy
Family Tree and then on Rootsweb, but it's a good place to do your genealogy.
And they are getting smarter, doing a lot of the grunt work for you.
IMPORTANT!
I have found that my Irish research tapers
out at 2rd great grandparents, beyond that is lore, assumption and conjecture.
That means cousins 4th or higher have to have better data than I do or have
done some research themselves. I share with anyone but if DNA testing says we
are 4th or 5th cousins, unless you have some records research of your own, it's
very unlikely that I have anything either. Just saying up front. Please do check out my family tree, look for
connections, but just don’t be surprised if I don’t have them already.
My ancestors by generation:
Right click and open in another tab to see a
larger and more readable version..
Surname/GEDCOM/Family Tree Data
McGing.
Did the Chinese meet a Scotsman?
Sorry, but have heard it a lot.
It’s an unusual name and the history
of the surname is interesting. And if you are really interested in what
I've found, I'm making available a redacted version of the genealogical data
I've gathered. Write me if you'd
like to discuss getting access to this information. Due to concerns about
privacy, I ask you write so we can discuss what you're looking for.
Understand, the data is always being changed
and there are always mistakes and misunderstandings. I've named people odd
names because I know a first name only, or a last name only or I only know they
had 11 kids, 6 boys and 5 girls, things like that. This data has been secured
from searching the internet, especially genealogical sites, contacts with other
McGings, the sharing of data by others who have done their own research (and to
whom we are all indebted) and searches of things like the LDS files. Where
possible it is sourced, but see my note at the bottom of this page. I believe
that we are indeed likely all
to be cousins but it is only documented via DNA.
In addition, I've found a LOT of information
in places that you'd not expect, and in order to preserve it, I've put it into
an Adobe Acrobat file that you
can find here. I've also listed some things I just didn't know where to put,
so they are listed there. It's worth checking.
I’ve since created an offline datastore of
pictures and pdf files of things like census, birth records, military records
and more. It’s simply too large to put online, as the size would incur costs.
But my point is I do have a lot of McGing documents identified and stored. If you are serious, please email me and I can
make these available to you.
Who Are These People?
When I was in
Ireland, I found a whole nest of McGing’s
in Westport, but it seems the connection with them was distant, if at all. It
was kind of disconcerting to get a calendar from John McGing's place, which was
a service station, as I recall. (Which is odd, come to think of it. The
name is exceedingly rare, yet 2 groups of families with the same rare surname
grow up near each other yet aren't related? What's up with that?)
Same applies in the States. My dad was
confused with another John McGing who was in the Army at the same time he was,
and they ended up living not far from each other on Chicago's NorthWest
side. The other family even had a number of kids with the same names as
my siblings. Yet we also never met. There's a boatload of McGing’s in and
around Chicago, but the majority of them are not related to my side of the
family. [I do have to say that I have now actually corresponded with some of
those "other" McGing’s and it's neat to finally do so!]
And the Cleveland Ohio McGing’s all seem to
be related to the Westport McGing’s, but not to me (they say). The
Cincinnati Ohio McGing’s are related (1st cousins). Check out my cousin's website. The
ones in Florida seem to be Cleveland McGing’s who have gone south. Then there
is the odd one or two living in NY, Virginia, places like that that no one can
seem to place. My mother told me we have McGing related cousins in Montana,
they use McGinn. Color me confused. And
I found McGinn cousins (via DNA) just outside Philadelphia. (But again, the
name McGing in English does translate to McGinn, so such usage isn’t
unexpected. In fact, I say with
authority if you are a McGinn with Co Mayo roots, you are a McGing originally.
And what's with this
Scottish connection anyway? There are McGing’s in Scotland, it seems we
went there to work the fields, but why Stirling Scotland and why stay? What was
so much better there that kept some McGing’s from returning to Ireland? (Seems the Irish were migrant labor for
Scottish farms, the folks traveled to where the work was.)
Gerry McGing from Trim sent some very
interesting information that I have made available here. We may now have a lead on
where in the North to look for more McGing roots! It looks like they emigrated
from Armagh to Mayo. Or not, if what Paul
MacCotter says is true. Obviously this needs more investigation. Does
anyone have family stories about where their families came from?
I guess I see two areas where we could
connect yet have difficulty. My Gr Gr Grandfather had to have siblings, yet I
know nothing about him and his family. Could we be related through one of his
brothers? Or could we be related through one of his sons? A couple of them had
a LOT of boys, yet I've nothing on them. These seem to me to be the biggest
area that would pay off in detecting this elusive family link.
One of the many bright spots in the family
claim to fame is my 1st cousin is Mick
Lally who was an Irish actor (played "Miley" on Glenroe on RTE,
was a regular on "Ballykissangel," played in "Circle of
Friends" as Minnie Drivers dad, and was in the great movie "The
Secret of Roan Inish" as the grandfather) His mom (RIP) is my dad's
sister (May Lally, who was a great contributor to the Tourmakeady "Waterfall")
and before he died, he was a favorite at Maire Lukes. Another is the fact that my family has a
history with Irish dance, in that my cousin Mary (already noted) and my cousin Jimmy
(now a judge) taught/teach Irish dance. While Jimmy doesn't do it anymore, his
ex-partner Mark Howard
does.
My research has shown that the spelling of
the name takes many forms; McGing, McGinn, McCinn, Ging, Ginn and other odd
spellings. And the Gaelic is McGinn but the English is McGing, so the mixed use
does make sense.
One other interesting fact is that if you put
"McGing" into a search engine, you get a lot of hits. It used to be a
toss-up between me and Dr. Brian McGing at Trinity as to whose name is found
most often, but his references are starting to really mount up but the links
for my cousin Mary, who owns an Irish
dance school, have really started to overshadow us all!
Here is a link to my family tree material for
your own research Version
2.
Besides my family, my other abiding interest
is the rare genetic syndrome my son has. The section below explains a bit and
links you to my pages about the syndrome. Perhaps one reason I've developed this
abiding interest in where I have come from is knowing that my son will not have
any children. My daughter will live her life and I don't mean to sound like I'm
ignoring her; on the contrary, she's very precious to me. But I realize that my
"line" is ending, at least as it goes forward carrying the McGing
surname. But he's a great lad, and so I'd be neglectful if I didn't drop this
in here.
The Chromosome
18 Registry and Research Society
This is a link to the Chromosome 18 Registry
and Research Society. My son Sean has a genetic condition called tetrasomy 18p which is
very rare. The Registry is a great support group and is an organization always
looking for assistance. For anyone in the US who can contribute to the Combined
Federal Campaign, look for them as a recipient group (#10291) or check them out
and contact them directly.
In addition, if you are in the US and
participate in the United Way, be aware that although the Registry isn't a
direct participant in the UW, you can use the "Donor Direct" option
to specify the Registry for your gift.
For anyone outside the US, please contact the
Registry in San Antonio (using the links above).
Seriously, this isn't like Jerry's Kids or
March of Dimes stuff, where there is a lot of publicity and people throw money
at them. Nope, these conditions are rare and virtually unknown and there's been
little research done on them. Please keep them in mind when considering any
charitable contributions.
Links
Here are some interesting basic Irish links I've linked to.
Need to note that many of these things in the
collections below pre-date what is now available online at Ancestry,
MyHeritage, Findmypast and other similar genealogy sites. Seems the commercial companies caught up with
me. And I’ve digitized many many records including many of these. So if you see
something that interests or concerns you or whatever, let me know.
Historical and
Genealogical Links
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United States |
Ireland |
England |
Scotland |
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McGing in 1850 US Census
(Lines 30-32) |
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Sincere Thanks
I'd be remiss if I did not give full credit
and approbation to the many people whose work has been so important in doing
this research. I've been lucky to be able to build on the shoulders of many
fine people whose hard work they willingly shared. There is Sr. Helen, Carl
"MacMan", Mary Chervenak, Elaine O'Malley, Michael McGing, Pam Burg,
Tom Kenny, Jackie Filippone, Nicola Batmaz, Mary Duffy, Jean Baun, Patrick
Connolly, Jim McGinn and others. If you find anything of value in these pages,
their contributions were indeed a major part of it.
And a special thanks to all of you who have
done DNA tests because it’s the only way to figure this stuff out J
My sincere thanks.
Notice
I'd be remiss if I didn't point out what may
or may not be obvious. And that is this: I am not a professional genealogist,
and a lot of the material I have here has not been sourced to original
documents. I have tried whenever possible to give a source, including family
history, whenever I could, but as I've been told, your work isn't done until
you have checked the original sources. That doesn't mean that everything here
is worthless; that's certainly not true! Everything here is as accurate as I
can make it, but things I typed in myself from sources may indeed have typos.
Sources I link to may have errors. But that doesn't make their value any less,
it just means you really need to check things out where possible using original
source documents As I get a look at original documents myself I'll update
entries to reflect that fact.
Let me know what you think. Your comments are
welcome! Please consider signing my guestbook. View My Guestbook
or Sign My
Guestbook You can use this form
to WRITE TO ME! or click the button below (can't say I don't try to make it
easy!)
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Last updated
Wednesday, March 19, 2018