Howdy Linda, Just curious. Are there any accounts on line relating to the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Wilkinsburg. That's where my McKinneys ended up after selling their Braddocks Field farm to Andrew Carnegie for his steel works. Bill McKinney In Erie (which, yes, got precious little snow this year compared to last) -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 5:11 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [S-I] Mitchell, Scotch/Irish New York to Michigan Hi Richard, This doesn't quite make sense to me: >My FTDNA, (67 Y Markers Tested), shows overwhelming Scotch and Irish ancestry with Irish being slightly higher than Scotch. Thats not how Y DNA results are reported (in any useful fashion). Are you refering to the familytreedna page of Recent Ancestral Origins? That's not accurate at all. It just sees where people that match you (who have origins) come from. A lot don't list origins and some are wrong. Go with your haplogroup. The haplogroup is of course fuzzy too for a couple reasons: We don't know where they originated (though the scientists have theories -- which change every two years) and who cares -- we want to know where your immediate ancestors were living. If you turn up NW Irish, you can assume they were in Ulster or nearby areas of Scotland -- ie it gives you some clues. What's the haplogroup? And who do you match to? You may find matches with a different surname because surnames are fairly recent, but they're a clue. If you tell us a few of them, maybe we can tell from the surnames where they might have come from, unless it was Glasgow....same surnames in parts of Glasgow as in northern Ireland because so many went over. The point is though that these are statistical and your unique history is unique and not based on statistics. You use the statistics to figure out where the best places are to search. You don't have enough info to search in Scotland. You need to follow George back through the censuses as far as you can. You might find him living as a child in a household with his parents. Anyway the census work will give you an approximate date of birth. Then censuses also tell you where he was born -- what state. You should also try to find an obit for him and see if you can view the actual death record, not a death certificate. This is dependent on the state he died in. What state did he die in? You also need to gather all his siblings, their dates of birth and where they were born from the censuses. These are clues, esp. ones born in Scotland. There are plenty of James Mitchells there, but with the names of children and maybe spouse, you can narrow it down. Since he was born in the USA and his father in Scotland probably his father was in the USA at the time of his birth and you can trace him backwards in the censuses. Then you look for a naturalization record. If he was in the USA in 1812, if he was not naturalized he should be listed as an alien. the book is in Ancestry. You want to search for a naturalization record for the father and then first papers. The first papers are more likely to nail down his origins. However the people who stood for him are critical people. Like in the case of a client of mine whose ancstors claimed to be Scots, the men who stood for him when he naturalized were both first generation Irish. They didn't randomly go somewhere in the USA -- they went to where other people from the family and/or village went. It's called c! hain migration. So you always look up those guys in the censuses and see what you can learn about them. They are clues. Similarly, one of the sons of the Rev. John Black, who also became a minister, witnessed the will of a Kelly ancestor of mine. Why? He died north of the Allegheny and this man's church was in Wilkinsburg. Because of some previous tie, that's why. There were Kellys associated with the Reformed Presbyterian church in Wilkinsburg but so far I've not found the origins of mine -- but it is an important clue to where they were before they manifested in Indiana Twp (Allegheny Co). >I apologise to any of those who I may have offended on the list, Actually I did more offending than you today. You didn't offend anyone at all. Good luck! Linda Merle ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Hi Bill, I haven't googled recently so I can't tell you what there is on line for the RP church in Wilkinsburg. The RP Seminary library is just up the road apiece. I don't know what they got either since when I visited there last I hadn't revisited the will of my ancestor (collected by mother and sister) and as a result of a lot of learning, realized that the witness to the will was now known to me. I guess I should go back. Linda ----- Original Message ----- From: "William McKinney" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, March 9, 2010 2:26:46 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [S-I] Mitchell, Scotch/Irish New York to Michigan Howdy Linda, Just curious. Are there any accounts on line relating to the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Wilkinsburg. That's where my McKinneys ended up after selling their Braddocks Field farm to Andrew Carnegie for his steel works. Bill McKinney In Erie (which, yes, got precious little snow this year compared to last) -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 5:11 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [S-I] Mitchell, Scotch/Irish New York to Michigan Hi Richard, This doesn't quite make sense to me: >My FTDNA, (67 Y Markers Tested), shows overwhelming Scotch and Irish ancestry with Irish being slightly higher than Scotch. Thats not how Y DNA results are reported (in any useful fashion). Are you refering to the familytreedna page of Recent Ancestral Origins? That's not accurate at all. It just sees where people that match you (who have origins) come from. A lot don't list origins and some are wrong. Go with your haplogroup. The haplogroup is of course fuzzy too for a couple reasons: We don't know where they originated (though the scientists have theories -- which change every two years) and who cares -- we want to know where your immediate ancestors were living. If you turn up NW Irish, you can assume they were in Ulster or nearby areas of Scotland -- ie it gives you some clues. What's the haplogroup? And who do you match to? You may find matches with a different surname because surnames are fairly recent, but they're a clue. If you tell us a few of them, maybe we can tell from the surnames where they might have come from, unless it was Glasgow....same surnames in parts of Glasgow as in northern Ireland because so many went over. The point is though that these are statistical and your unique history is unique and not based on statistics. You use the statistics to figure out where the best places are to search. You don't have enough info to search in Scotland. You need to follow George back through the censuses as far as you can. You might find him living as a child in a household with his parents. Anyway the census work will give you an approximate date of birth. Then censuses also tell you where he was born -- what state. You should also try to find an obit for him and see if you can view the actual death record, not a death certificate. This is dependent on the state he died in. What state did he die in? You also need to gather all his siblings, their dates of birth and where they were born from the censuses. These are clues, esp. ones born in Scotland. There are plenty of James Mitchells there, but with the names of children and maybe spouse, you can narrow it down. Since he was born in the USA and his father in Scotland probably his father was in the USA at the time of his birth and you can trace him backwards in the censuses. Then you look for a naturalization record. If he was in the USA in 1812, if he was not naturalized he should be listed as an alien. the book is in Ancestry. You want to search for a naturalization record for the father and then first papers. The first papers are more likely to nail down his origins. However the people who stood for him are critical people. Like in the case of a client of mine whose ancstors claimed to be Scots, the men who stood for him when he naturalized were both first generation Irish. They didn't randomly go somewhere in the USA -- they went to where other people from the family and/or village went. It's called c! hain migration. So you always look up those guys in the censuses and see what you can learn about them. They are clues. Similarly, one of the sons of the Rev. John Black, who also became a minister, witnessed the will of a Kelly ancestor of mine. Why? He died north of the Allegheny and this man's church was in Wilkinsburg. Because of some previous tie, that's why. There were Kellys associated with the Reformed Presbyterian church in Wilkinsburg but so far I've not found the origins of mine -- but it is an important clue to where they were before they manifested in Indiana Twp (Allegheny Co). >I apologise to any of those who I may have offended on the list, Actually I did more offending than you today. You didn't offend anyone at all. Good luck! Linda Merle ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Googling just now, I came up with the obituary for one of my McKees who was a trustee in the Wilkinsburg congregation at the time of his death in 1893. It appeared in the Reformed and Covenanter newsletter. Most copies of the newsletter, from 1864 to 1895 are in the online archives of the RP Seminary <http://www.rparchives.org/refprescov.html>. Didn't see anything specific to the congregation, but I also didn't go beyond the first page of links. Hugh Nevin On Mar 9, 2010, at 5:27 PM, [email protected] wrote: > Hi Bill, I haven't googled recently so I can't tell you what there is > on line for the RP church in Wilkinsburg. > > The RP Seminary library is just up the road apiece. I don't know what > they got either since when I visited > there last I hadn't revisited the will of my ancestor (collected by > mother and sister) and as a result of a lot > of learning, realized that the witness to the will was now known to > me. I guess I should go back. > > Linda > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "William McKinney" <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Sent: Tuesday, March 9, 2010 2:26:46 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern > Subject: Re: [S-I] Mitchell, Scotch/Irish New York to Michigan > > Howdy Linda, > > Just curious. Are there any accounts on line relating to the Reformed > Presbyterian Church in Wilkinsburg. That's where my McKinneys ended up > after > selling their Braddocks Field farm to Andrew Carnegie for his steel > works. > > Bill McKinney > In Erie (which, yes, got precious little snow this year compared to > last)