Hi John, >Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2011 23:06:23 -0400 (EDT) >From: Lochlan@aol.com >Subject: [R-M222] Milligans, Johnsons, Jordans, McCamish >'The Milligans, Johnsons, Jordans and McCamish have an interesting cluster within M222. >_http://clanmaclochlainn.com/R1b1c7/yutility.html_ (http://clanmaclochlainn.com/R1b1c7/yutility.html) >John The McCamish surname clusters in Derry and southern Tyrone. An early hit in the early 1600 was in the Derry Liberties (Murtagh McC fined for not showing up for jury duty). Many of the early spellings are so confusing that it is impossible to tell if the name will someday become McCormick or McCarmach or McCamish. In the late 1700s the surname emerges in the barony of Dungannon, clustering (where we can tell) in townlands that were in the Archdiocese estate. The church was not expected to rent only to British at the time of Plantation (or any time)_. Hence the various churchland estates were home to many, many Irish displaced by settlers from civil estates. Living on one suggests immediately Irish origin to me -- and I've found this often to be true. Some of these townlands were lent out on long leases to local noblemen so it might not be obvious at first that they were churchlands . Other details also suggested they were Irish: ie no manic attachment to Presbyterianism as part of an ethnic identity. The findable ones were of various religious persuasions. Many converted to some form of Protestantism BCR (Before Church Records). Not in Convert Rolls, etc (so 'common' or unlanded Irish). In early 1800s evidence that even some of the Protestants spoke Irish (stories of Irish speaking saving them in Belfast riots). When they moved to Belfast, became confused with the McComish clan from County Down, also M222, but not related. By the late 1700s they were small tradesmen, often carpenters. Some moved to the new world by 1751 (Pennsylvania) -- confirmed related via DNA. This particular man's ancestor was one of three brothers who migrated about 1770 to Virginia, then Tennessee. Several men descended from these fellas have tested (so we got the right DNA sig). Matches an Australian with a clear paper trail back to an emigrant from a Tyrone village. The family has tended to believe they were settlers, descendants of Clann Gunn, in NE Scotland. But very very little M222 'up there', for starters. Some McGregors and Stuarts used "McCamish" in Scotland in the 1600s and 1700s, though by the time that we have Scottish censuses, all McCamishes in these censuses are tracable to Ireland and the Tyrone McCamish, so I don't think it 'took' as a surname in Scotland. However both McCamish and McComish were used in early Mann. I've not DNA tested any of the Manx -- largely because I haven't found any alive! However it has seemed to me, though I'm not an expert, that the Tyrone McCamish are probably local boys and not Manx transplants because their DNA is similar to the DNA of the central Ulster Irish. Maybe some of this info will shed light on the Milligans, etc. Linda Merle