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/2507.1.2.1.1.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Yes, I found your family and the family of the other lady who posted today both on the site after I made the post. There seem to be a lot of lines connecting to Dumfriesshire, and some of them are probably not right. I've been in touch with members of 3 different groups of McConnell researchers who suspect a connection to the Dumfriesshire McConnells. They can't all be from the same line, because their results from DNA testing are too different. One of the men who has suspected such a connection is the Robert C. McConnell who has the dsolar website. He is from the line of the clan chiefs, which is part of a group called the R1a haplogroup. This means that he can't be from the same line as either of the other 2 groups, which are in a very distantly related (to R1a) group called the R1b haplogroup. The two groups of R1b McConnell researchers have results that are quite different, suggesting that the two groups in R1b are not closely related. One of the groups has matches in Dumfriesshire with other surnames, suggesting that their ancestors were in the area before the adoption of surnames. If I had to guess which group descends from the two men from Dumfriesshire, this is the group I would pick, but there's no proof yet. It's even possible that none of these groups descends from the Dumfriesshire immigrants, but I doubt that very much. 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.