Taking a hit for one's ancestry, Senator Jim Webb

Here in the Diaspora it is the silly season; politics, lads and lassies. One son of Ulster is taking a few hits. Senator James Webb has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate for Barack Obama. A few Republicans bloggers have already jumped to attack James Webb for what they see as his pro Confederate sentiments. This means he acknowledges real history, always dangerous. One Republican blogger stated he had the blood of an ancestor that had died in Andersonville! I assume he thinks James Webb should apologise? But perhaps we should then make the Blogger apologise as more Southerners died in Northern prison during the 1861-65 War. This could get confusing. Is there an etiquette we should observe?

I wonder about the wisdom of this type of attack given the fact that it will further alienate the Southern vote as the South is a place where heritage is still alive and well.

And from the opposite direction we have leftist academic Edward Sebesta with the University of Texas who sees Senator Webb’s views as racist somehow, even suggesting that members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans are by definition racists. While this inflammatory rhetoric sells books, I suppose, does it really mean anything? It seems people are lining up on both sides to attack Senator Webb. Just a casual observation, but many times that is a sign you are doing something right in life.

Senator Webb is known to many as the author of the book Born fighting: how the Scots-Irish shaped America. The book is a good read and is a history of the Scots-Irish in American as told by a descendant. The book breaks out of the old Victorian paradigm and places the Scots-Irish in a more realistic Irish Sea context. Senator Webb is a friend of another Ulster descendant, Senator John McCain, who was good enough to write a nice review of Webb’s book. I think Senator Webb deserves much better than to have his ankles nipped at by wee dogs, but that’s politics, I guess.

Politics is entertaining if nothing else when it is all said and one, and I like very much what Will Rogers said, Don’t vote, it only encourages them!


Now I have an idea, how about a presidential ticket of Senator John McCain and Senator James Webb! Sounds like a winner to me. On a more serious note, it is good to see two men of Ulster ancestry active in presidential politics.


Barry R McCain © 2008

FIRE! Ready, Aim...

The well known English leftist newspaper, the Guardian, recently ran an odd article supposedly to debunk the reported ancestry of the popular American Republican presidential candidate. The head line of the piece proclaims…

John McCain, veteran war hero: yes. But a descendant of Robert the Bruce? Baloney

Then we get the hard hitting gist

... Asked by the Guardian to investigate McCain's family history, genealogist and medieval historians described the link to Robert the Bruce as 'wonderful fiction' and ' baloney'...

It is an odd article to the educated reader as the subjects of the sentences toggles back and forth between John McCain’s paternal and maternal lines. The article is not in fact about John McCain’s paternal McCain ancestors, but rather those of two of his maternal lines, the Earles and Lamonts and their connections to Robert the Bruce. The writer of the article is unaware of some basic biology or prefers paternal surnames when leveling remarks that could be taken as less than flattering to the Republican Presidential candidate.

The Guardian asked a panel of experts it selected to ‘investigate’ an oral history told in John McCain’s family, which has never been offered up by the family as the written-in-stone truth, but rather exactly what is stated, an oral history passed down. Despite this aspect of the Senator’s story, the newspaper felt it necessary to debunk it none-the-less.

Rather than rely upon the speculation and guesses of an English newspaper’s selected genealogists and medieval historians it is now possible to turn to the brutally honest science of genetics to examine one’s ancestors. So how do John McCain’s ancestors stack up?

John McCain’s roots go back to the McCain family of Teoc, which is in Carroll, County Mississippi. The Carroll county McCains and their relations has been the subject of a five year running Y chromosome DNA tests. The results have been very revealing and also confirm John McCain’s ‘oral history’ about his paternal line. There was some Victorian era colour brushed upon the tale, but the basic facts were spot on.

John McCain’s paternal line is a Gaelic one, from County Antrim. They are not really Scots-Irish, but rather an old order Gaelic family that had links to the mid Argyll. For those readers not familiar with Gaelic history, Irish and Scottish Gaels moved back and forth from Ulster to the southern Hebrides and Argyll for centuries. In the late 1400s into the mid 1500s there was a large movement of Gaels from mid Argyll into Ulster to settle, encouraged to do so by the leading Gaelic clans of that day, such as the McDonnells of the Glens and Route, the O' Neills of Tyrone, the Aodh Buí O’Neills of County Antrim, the O’Kanes of County Derry. The DNA results place the McCains among these Gaels that moved from Argyll into Ulster circa late 1400s to mid 1500s.



Gaels of Argyll origins often were part of the Irish Gallóglaigh caste, left is a late Medieval stone carving of a Gallóglach.


The Y-chromosome haplogroup that the McCain family belongs turned out to be interesting. This haplogroup is centred in the geographic area of the Gaelic kingdom of Dal Raida, i.e. County Antrim, Ireland and mid-Argyll and in this area it even out numbers the famous Niall of Nine Hostage (R1b1c7) haplogroup discovered by researchers at Trinity. It is very possible these McCains belong to a paternal dynastic family long associated with Dal Riada; additional research will likely reveal even more details.

While the Y-chromosome DNA research into the McCain family does not relate to the validity of the Earles and Lamonts in John McCain’s ancestry, the research does show that the parts of John McCain’s family’s oral history that has been researched, did in fact turn out to be true.

In the hurry to obtain readers and ratings the media increasingly presents stories before facts and research have been done. It might be a good idea, that prior to announcing that a prominent family’s history has been debunked to have actually done some in-depth research relative to the matter. The Guardian-led investigation is mere speculation which when given the labels wonderful fiction and baloney suggests political motivation rather than a desire to provide its readers with the facts. In fact, the article offered no evidence of in-depth research on these families’ link to Robert the Bruce. The matter is as yet unknown. Perhaps one day there will be such research, perhaps both mtDNA and Y-chromosome DNA testing could be a part of this research. Until that time it might be wise to hold off on the gleeful debunking. The Guardian may be thinking ahead here as one of the experts went on to say Robert the Bruce was ‘an absolute scoundrel’. I guess this is to cover their bases just in case Senator McCain’s link to The Bruce turns out to be bona fide.


McCain's Corner

Barry R McCain (c) 2008

Congratulations Mac !!!

John McCain won the Texas Republican primary on Tuesday, 4 March and clinched the number of delegates needed to win his party's presidential nomination. John McCain’s family emigrated from north County Antrim to the Colonies circa 1719 and it is always good to see Antrim descendants doing so well. Senator McCain’s experience and wisdom will serve him well in the upcoming presidential contest. He is unique in that he had a career, that of naval pilot, prior to entering the world of politics. The story of his bravery and service in the face of extreme hardships and danger is well known.


Also a nod to his opponent Governor Huckabee for running a good and honourable campaign that kept important issues at the forefront of the race. An interesting sidebar, Governor Huckabee’s wife’s maiden name is McCain. While there is no known relationship to Senator McCain’s family, both families hail from the Deep South and research done by the Ulster Heritage DNA Project have shown most of the McCains from the Deep South come from the north Antrim McCain family, some interesting research waiting to be done there perhaps.


John McCain has had an interest in Ireland for many years, to use his words… I count myself as a friend of Ireland… (photo, John McCain with the Taoiseach)


Barry R McCain

Senator John McCain and Ireland

I have received many inquires into Senator McCain’s family’s origin. Is it Scottish or Irish? I can not tell you how many times I’ve been asked that question. What is the true story? More than a few of our readers have noticed that the Ulster Heritage DNA Project is run by two members of the McCain family, i.e. Jim McKane from Ontario, Canada, and Barry R McCain of Oxford, Mississippi and so it is understandable that so many people email or call us asking about Senator McCain’s connections to Ireland.

The short answer is his people are indeed from Ulster, from County Antrim, Ireland. They left from Coleraine town circa 1719 and appear on the border of the Pennsylvania and Maryland Colony in the early 1720s. His immigrant ancestor was named Alexander McKean and yes, the two lads who run the Ulster Heritage DNA Project are from the same McCain family.

Those that have read Senator McCain’s autobiography, Faith of Our Fathers, will know that he addresses his McCain roots briefly in that book. He gives a short history of his McCains being Highland Scots, connected to Clan Donald. So, how does that tie into the reality of his Antrim roots? Well, he made a slight, but very understandable error in his family history, one which many McCains of this family have made, including myself. The story he gives was one that circulated widely among the members of our family from the early 1900s well into the 1980s. It was a story crafted by early researchers who meant well, but were totally lost in the very Gaelic world of the early McCains. It was only recently and after he completed his book that a more complete and accurate history of this McCain family was recovered. This recovered history was the work of several McCain researchers, both native born Irish McCains and McCains in Canada and USA, who used DNA testing and primary source research to find out what they could about the family.

Senator McCain’s family has Mississippi roots, they are the Teoc McCains. Teoc, which is in Carroll County, Mississippi, is the little community that grew up around the plantation of this branch of the McCain family. Teoc is a Choctaw word, a shortened form of Teoc Tillila which means Tall Pines. Their patriarch, William Alexander McCain, named his plantation Waverly, but the Choctaw name stuck and the area is called Teoc to this day. I am rather glad the Choctaw word stuck as it is a lovely name.

Senator McCain’s second cousin is the author Elizabeth Spencer. In her memoir Landscapes of the Heart she writes of her days spent at Teoc and her McCain kin. She has a fascinating bit of oral history relating to the McCain family. I mention this because being a writer as she is, she is also a listener, and in her memoir she relates what she heard about the McCain history as a girl at Teoc. It is a romantic story of the McCains, again remembered as Highland Scots, being supporters of Mary Queen of Scots and having to flee after her downfall in 1568.

Now we have to go into the Byzantine world of late Medieval Gaelic families and politics circa 1480s into the mid 1500s, for that is the real world of the McCain family which became planted in north Antrim. There is the very complex history of Gaelic families of the old order, of Gaelic military castes in Argyll moving to Ireland and becoming the Irish Gallóglaigh. Then there are the Earls of Argyll and their intrigues in Ulster and support of Irish clans, their sending Gallóglaigh and Red Shanks to Antrim, their support of Mary Queen of Scots, etc., and somewhere right in the middle of this stood the McCain family.

This is where the research into this family is at present; both the primary source research and the DNA testing suggest they were one of many Gaelic families that moved back and forth over the Irish Sea and part of the Gallóglaigh kindreds. Research is still ongoing so it is premature to come to final conclusions, but Senator McCain’s roots go back to this Gaelic world. He is of Irish ancestry; this is certain, but there is an old link to Argyll and to Gaelic Scotland as well. Given the dynamic history of his family, his father, grandfather, and now his son, this history fits them well.



Additional material on this McCain family is lcoated here:

http://mississippimccains.blogspot.com/

http://maceain.blogspot.com/


Barry R McCain © 2008