Hello everyone, I recently sent this email to Cavan Genealogy which is run by a McGovern, hoping to get some historical insight due to lack of paper records in Tullyhaw pre-1700, but their current email address at eirecom.net is bad. Im not sure if the organization still exists or not. I figured with the bright minds on this board, Ill throw this question your way!
--------
Good afternoon,
I run the McGovern DNA group on FamilyTreeDNA and although the timeframe I am researching is beyond the point of written genealogical records, I am seeking some historical knowledge and perspective of northern Tullyhaw since there is really no references to the townlands surrounding Glangevlin until circa 1700.
My paternal ancestors were McLains, and not until fairly recently with advances in Y-DNA, did I find out that more distantly, they were McGoverns. The surname Maclean on my line, likely the result of non-paternal event between Gallowglass mercenaries in the area and the native inhabitants of Tullyhaw, as you know the complex way in which celtic kinship worked (also, the Gallowglass recruited native farmboys/soldiers as their ranks dwindled from war, as it was cheaper and faster than the Chieftain to replenish ranks via the highlands). I found records of the Ui Ruairc having Maclean gallowglass in his service in the late 15th century in the Ulster Annals, as two of them, Ruadhri and Alan, were noted as slain fighting for the Ui Ruairc against a sept of the MacRaghnaill in 1486. Likely, the Ui Ruairc had billeted his mercenaries in the border areas of his territory. I found a large concentration of McCleans around Killeshandra circa 1600s and even got in touch with a descendant who still lives in Drumgoa, descended of Patrick McClean, who appears in the 1663 hearth rolls farming the same Drumlin, and sent him a DNA test. It turns out that his Y-chromosome markers are actually MacKiernan, native to Tullyhunco, which means a separate non-paternal event occured between Macleans and the MagTighernan.
Since I first started trying to sort out the mystery of how distantly my ancestors were MacGoverns (right now it seems probable to be somewhere in the mid-1500s, but that is based on the data I have to compare with), I have been trying to find information on the townland near Glangevlin named Carnmaclean. My closest DNA matches are two 2 McGoverns from Glangevlin, and a Dolan from Altnasheen. I realize that many of the townlands in northern Tullyhaw were not regularly occupied until after the plantation started, as people were dispossessed and went further into the mountains. But would the townland Carnmaclean have already been named at this time? As I know townlands close by like Dunmakeever and Corneenflynn were the areas inhabited by Samhradhains ancestors.
My question is probably more of a "what came first, the chicken or the egg?" type, but Im wondering if its feasible that Carnmaclean was an area given by Ui Ruairc to his gallowglass, where they either recruited or became kin to some McGovern families. Or is it more likely that it received its name later on as a dispossessed Maclean from further east, like Killeshanda, was pushed off of the land that they had been farming for centuries?
Thank you so much for your time, and I am looking forward to hear any insight that you may have.
