This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: ksaxe Surnames: McConnell Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.mcconnell/2466/mb.ashx Message Board Post: ***** Belinda Dettmann is an avid Australian genealogist who hit a brick wall researching her ggg grandfather James McConnell. As an adult, James lived in England, but Belinda found census entries which say that James was born in Scotland about 1801. Belinda described her research beyond the census as follows: "James McConnell moved to Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, where he was a warehouseman, then foreman in an iron foundry. He married a local girl in 1820 and lived there until his death in 1868, having at least 8 children and lots of descendants. In the 1851 and 1861 census his unmarried sister Jean McConnell (also b Scotland in 1811 or 1812) was living with the family. This ought to be enough for me to identify his Scottish roots, but it hasn't so far. I've investigated half a dozen possibilities to date in the Scottish PRs [parish registers], and they either turn out to be impossible, or have insufficient data to decide. There is a family legend that there were Irish roots way back, and it's been suggested that he might have been born in Ireland and been ashamed to admit it. This could be so but there is also a strong family tradition that they were born in Scotland, or at least lived there - James is supposed to have kept his Scots accent all his life and his childre! n and grandchildren were named more or less according to the traditional Scots naming scheme. Which should help us find his parents, but it doesn't... My line descends from James' grandson James Douglas McConnell who emigrated to Australia in 1878 along with several of his brothers, so there is quite a large family presence in Australia." With conventional research at a standstill, Belinda asked her cousin Keith McConnell to take a Y-chromosome DNA test, and he joined the Scotland DNA project at Family Tree DNA last year with a 37 marker test. Along with his cheek swab samples, Keith submitted his signed copy of the consent form allowing his contact information to be shared with any men with matching results who had also consented to the sharing of such information. Keith and Belinda agreed that Belinda would be the first contact for researchers with matching results. When Keith's results came in during June, 2006, everything was set up for Belinda to access information about Keith's matches. She just needed to make a few choices about which matches to display first. She could look at matches and near matches on 12, 25, or 37 markers. Once she was in the Clan Donald project, she could also choose whether or not to confine the display to matches within the project. Belinda did not want to miss any of Keith's matches, so she chose to display all of them. When she did this she found out that Keith had HUNDREDS of exact matches with the 12 and 25 marker results for other men! He also had a large number of near matches at the 37 marker level. How could Keith have so many matches, and how closely related are these men likely to be? How could Belinda sort through these matches to find the best prospects to contact? Answers to these questions will be posted later this weekend. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.

Hi My gg grandfather was Robert McConnell he was born 1867 in Donegal his father was William they did go to live in Scotland sorry to say i dont know if they had any siblings regards Jean (Australia) On 7/14/07, gc-gateway@rootsweb.com <gc-gateway@rootsweb.com> wrote: > > This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. > > Author: ksaxe > Surnames: McConnell > Classification: queries > > Message Board URL: > > http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.mcconnell/2466/mb.ashx > > Message Board Post: > > ***** > > Belinda Dettmann is an avid Australian genealogist who hit a brick wall > researching her ggg grandfather James McConnell. As an adult, James lived > in England, but Belinda found census entries which say that James was born > in Scotland about 1801. Belinda described her research beyond the census as > follows: > > "James McConnell moved to Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, where he was a > warehouseman, then foreman in an iron foundry. He married a local girl in > 1820 and lived there until his death in 1868, having at least 8 children and > lots of descendants. In the 1851 and 1861 census his unmarried sister Jean > McConnell (also b Scotland in 1811 or 1812) was living with the > family. This ought to be enough for me to identify his Scottish roots, but > it hasn't so far. I've investigated half a dozen possibilities to date in > the Scottish PRs [parish registers], and they either turn out to be > impossible, or have insufficient data to decide. There is a family legend > that there were Irish roots way back, and it's been suggested that he might > have been born in Ireland and been ashamed to admit it. This could be so > but there is also a strong family tradition that they were born in Scotland, > or at least lived there - James is supposed to have kept his Scots accent > all his life and his childre! > n and grandchildren were named more or less according to the traditional > Scots naming scheme. Which should help us find his parents, but it > doesn't... > > My line descends from James' grandson James Douglas McConnell who > emigrated to Australia in 1878 along with several of his brothers, so there > is quite a large family presence in Australia." > > With conventional research at a standstill, Belinda asked her cousin > Keith McConnell to take a Y-chromosome DNA test, and he joined the Scotland > DNA project at Family Tree DNA last year with a 37 marker test. Along with > his cheek swab samples, Keith submitted his signed copy of the consent form > allowing his contact information to be shared with any men with matching > results who had also consented to the sharing of such information. Keith > and Belinda agreed that Belinda would be the first contact for researchers > with matching results. > > When Keith's results came in during June, 2006, everything was set up > for Belinda to access information about Keith's matches. She just needed to > make a few choices about which matches to display first. She could look at > matches and near matches on 12, 25, or 37 markers. Once she was in the Clan > Donald project, she could also choose whether or not to confine the display > to matches within the project. > > Belinda did not want to miss any of Keith's matches, so she chose to > display all of them. When she did this she found out that Keith had > HUNDREDS of exact matches with the 12 and 25 marker results for other > men! He also had a large number of near matches at the 37 marker level. > > How could Keith have so many matches, and how closely related are these > men likely to be? How could Belinda sort through these matches to find the > best prospects to contact? Answers to these questions will be posted later > this weekend. > > Important Note: > The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you > would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link > above and respond on the board. > > > > > > ********* > Visit the threaded archives of this list: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/MCCONNELL > ********* > Messages posted to the RootsWeb/Ancestry MCCONNELL Message Board are > gatewayed to this Mailing List. Remember that the author of gatewayed > messages may not be a list subscriber so please reply to gatewayed messages > by clicking on the link and replying on the board. > ************ > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > MCCONNELL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > -- Kind regards Jean