Genealogy

I'm starting a lesson on Matthew tomorrow and plan to bring a little personal history to the table since we're doing the genealogy of Christ. I thought you'd find this interesting Mom, so I posted it just for you.

McLAIN

The McLains have been traced back to Scotland to Clan Maclaine (if you look back at old Scottish clans, the various spellings of the name, including McLean, are derived from the same family.) Clan Maclaine was from the Isle of Mull, where their ancestral home, Moy Castle, is located. According to history, the two sons of Iain Dubh (or Black John) were each granted independent charters to lands on the Isle of Mull from John, 1st Lord of the Isles (MacDonald), thus forming the two dominant lines of the family; Maclaine of Lochbuie and McLean of Duart. Eachann Reaganach, or Hector the Stern, was granted lands at Lochbuie and married MacDonald's eldest daughter Margaret in 1356. There were fueds among the two branches of the family, but they banded together to fight outside forces. Lands were lost to England in the 1920s and much of the family was coerced into moving to Ireland, which became a gateway for those coming to America.

You can also check out an Isle of Mull Webcam from Tobermory (although the date listed in it is May.) This site is an Isle of Mull photo website. Make sure to check out where we started.

The American branch of the family has been traced back to Alexander McLain (born about 1758 in North Carolina.) We are still researching to find the "immigrant," the one person who brought the family from Scotland to America. Alexander's son, Reverend Thomas McLain (1771-1855) is the one who moved the family to Tennessee, where many of them still live today. Thomas' great-great grandson was Jacob Claude "PawPaw" McLain (1905-1988), who was the one who brought the family to North Carolina (among other places, Claude was a wanderer!) The majority of our branch still calls North Carolina or South Carolina home.

According to rumours, Jacob Claude "PawPaw" McLain's grandmother was part or full-blooded American indian. His great-grandmother's name was Appy Cela, which could have some Native American history to it, although there has been no proof and this rumour could have started as conjecture.

Info provided by: http://www.krysteria.com/geneology/history1.html