Patrick Abrach MacGregor, the Mackgehee - Holden McGhee

Started by Beverly Thomas on Tuesday, May 5, 2015
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I am descended from Sarah McGhee who is supposedly the daughter of Holden McGhee b. 1722 and Rachel McGhee. Holden was surety for Sarah's marriage to Jacob Stover in Franklin Co, Va in 1788. I have seen many posts on Ancestry and other sites on the net showing that Holden McGhee's ancestors were actually MacGregor's from Scotland who came to America. My question is.....has this ever been proven or just speculation? I am hoping to visit the Highlands next year before traveling to Ireland where I have Irish roots as well. I did have the opportunity some years ago to visit Edinburgh and surrounding areas but looking forward to seeing the Highlands!!
As for Holden being the father of Sarah I know there are some who feel he may have been a brother but I tend to believe he was her father basing it on she named a daughter Rachel, possibly after her mother?

I spent quite a bit of time a few years ago looking for evidence of the Mackgehee connection to the MacGregors. I didn't find anything except "family tradition". Might be time to look again. Maybe by now someone has done some DNA testing.

Justin, I had my autosomal dna done thru Ancestry and have had matches with other McGhee's as well MacGregor who show up in the list of surnames that are supposedly a 4th to up to 8th generation matches. Not sure how this really works as when I run the MacGregor surname it will also show other surnames that I actually do match, which is confusing to me. Are the results saying that I match MacGregor as well as with the known cousins that I do match?
It would be wonderful if a male descendant would match another male descendant from the MacGregors.

I'm not sure how Ancestry's matching tool works, what you see when. With autosomal DNA you can see matches on any side of your family and they don't necessarily have surnames from your ancestry (because they are cousins). From what I've heard about Ancestry's system, I'm guessing that when you run the MacGregor surname you are seeing people who match you on that line. I hope someone will correct me if I'm wrong about that.

I snuck some time out this morning to look at the MacGregor DNA Project:
https://www.familytreedna.com/public/MacGregor?iframe=yresults

There are five McGehee men who have tested. They automatically cluster together, with some McGee men. That suggests that a detailed comparison would show they all belong to the same fairly recent branch of the human family tree.

However, the project admin has not put any of them in the main MacGregor (Ian Cam) subgroup. That tells me he does not think the McGehees are close enough to the MacGregors that there could be a relationship.

Finally, this old message from 2005 says the link between the McGehees and the MacGregors has been disproved by DNA:
http://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/gee/1858/

The message says, "we McGehee's have for many years argued the point about actually being McGregors. It became bitter and heated. The DNA has now proven that the many McGehee and various spellings are NOT McGregors. This myth had been been promoted from the late 1890's to 1940's because of the work of a disreputable professional genealogist who did this for prominent wealthy clients who wanted to prove lineage back to Kings etc.It was passed on by Virginia researchers and the myth had become fact until we disproved it thru DNA. It has been completely disproven."

Sad to see that one go. I have some Grant ancestors where a cousin swore his line had the tradition they were really MacGregors. Grant was one of the surnames used by the MacGregors when their surname was banned. That one was also disproved by DNA.

Looks like there are some McGehees who need to be disconnected now. Let's give it a few days to see if there is any discussion.

William McGehee, of Ardchoille
Thomas McGehee
Unknown Profile
William Mackgehee

Very glad to see this discussion. Sorry I'm so late to the game. I'm searching for the antecedents of William Mackgahye born circa 1618, immigrated to US 1653 or before under the sponsorship of William Hoccaday. Any leads will be appreciated. My DNA is available at GEDMatch Kit #M133713 for matching.

Holden McGhee is new to me. Been wondering about this whole speculation for some time. Macgregor DNA connected? No. Sept or cadet branch of the clan? Maybe.

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