Clan McWho

Clan McWho is a light-hearted name given to a cluster of Y chromosome DNAsignatures which are very similar to each other, and yet very distinct from their nearest known relatives.

This male line descends therefore from a relatively recent common ancestor, who probably lived in the Middle Ages in Scotland.

The Argyll region, once ruled by the kings of Dál Riata, is currently the most probable homeland of the common ancestor. This region in turn was strongly connected to Northern Ireland.

Surnames in this cluster include Maclay/McClay, Wilson, Fergie/Ferguson/Furry, Porter, and Livingston/Livingstone. These surnames have been said to suggest a possible connection to the ancient Clan Maclea.

The haplotype is in many ways not so unusual from the most common ones in Western Europe, and indeed it has been shown to share the typical "Western Atlantic" SNP mutations M269, and M312/S116. This should be compared to the current ISOGG phylogeny for the R haplogroup.

But at some time the 2 part STR marker DYS385 has had one of its parts overwrite the other in a so-called RecLOH mutation, apparently going from a typical 11 and 14 to an extremely unusual 15 and 15, in one generational step. Several other STR markers have also been shown to be distinct.

External links

• Summary webpage
• http://www.wilsonofkilwinnet.com/

Evolutionary tree of Human Y-chromosome DNA (Y-DNA) haplogroups

most recent common Y-ancestor

A

A1b

A1a-T

A1a

A2-T

A2

A3

BT

B

CT

DE

CF

D

E

C

F

G

H

IJK

IJ

K

I

J

LT

K(xLT)

L

T

M

NO

P

S

O

N

Q

R

Y-DNA by populations · Famous Y-DNA haplotypes

R	R1 R1a R1b R2