Welcome to

NOTICE: This page is a work in progress and will change frequently.

I've been researching my McCrackens since about 1969. In that time I've learned a lot about genealogical research and a little about my McCrackens. I've been stalled for many years because the widow Elizabeth McCracken and four children appeared out of the blue in western KY in 1850. She, her deceased husband (born ca 1806), and three of their children were born in TN. I've never been able to determine his given names or to which of the many Tennessee McCracken clans he belonged. When I heard about the utility of Y-DNA testing in genealogy, I decided to create a McCracken Y-DNA Surname Project that would serve several purposes. One would be to connect my mother's line to the correct TN McCracken line, and another, far more important, would be to possibly group many of the other McCracken lines in America in the late 1700s and perhaps associate them with McCracken men who had come from the British Isles.

Recently, the first part of my goal was attained. The owner of Kit 34410 matches my maternal McCracken uncle on 72 of 73 markers so they undoubtedly have an earlier McCracken ancestor, probably within the past 300 years. Thus my mother's McCracken line has been tied to a well documented TN line after more than 35+ futile years of searching, thanks to Y-DNA! Unfortunately, we don't know when or where the connection occurred so now my hard work really starts. But at least I now know where to start looking in TN. Recently, we have added another to this line, Kit 85070, who is known from conventional genealogical research to be a very distant cousin of Kit 34410. His test results match my uncle's 43/43 and those of his cousin 42/43. Thirty more markers are on order.

The success of the larger purpose of this project will only be attained if we can attract a large set of participants whose McCracken lines are reasonably well documented. I urge you to contact any/all McCracken researchers you've had contact with and refer them to this page and/or to me.

Understanding the results of Y-DNA testing within the context of genealogy is not easy because it involves a knowledge of both genetics and statistics that most of us don't have. Fortunately, there are folks out there who understand both and are genealogists as well. The best of both worlds! Immediately below are URLs where you can find more information than you want or need. I would urge that you visit these sites and read a little. Please *don't* be intimidated by all the jargon and details. I'd suggest that you go to the tutorial site first. Read as much as you can and then scroll down to see the results to date for the McCracken Project.

SAD NOTE: I'm sorry to report that the owner of Kit 29521, George Devords McCracken of Texas, passed away on 14 March 2005 at age 94. His line of descent from David ca 1750 was David ca 1750 =>James ca 1770 =>David ca 1795 =>George Deavours =>Cicero Miller McCracken AL, TX=>George D. 1911-2005.

As results for the Kits arrive, they are compared to the others and a color is assigned. Each distinctly different McCracken line has a different color. Where the results match well enough to suggest a common McCracken ancestor, they have the same color. (Markers within a family group that differ from the rest are high-lighted.) Traditional genealogical research must be used to identify that common ancestor.

We now have 45 participants with with 43 test kits returned. This includes one who lives in County Down in Northern Ireland, our first outside the US. Current test results are shown below.

There are 33 haplotypes in one group which match well enough to suggest a common McCracken ancestor even though several have different surnames. They appear with a green background. I asked Dr. Bennett Greenspan, an expert interpreter of Y-DNA results and also the founder and president of FTDNA, to look at these results and give us his thoughts. In summary, he says that:

(1) He believes that all are related i. e. have a common ancestor somewhere back in time.

(2) The value of 15 at Marker 392 is very unusual and is present in less than 2% of the 37,000+ haplotypes in his database. The combination of that value and the value of 12 at marker 388 appears in less than 0.5% his database. In addition, those values in combination with a value of 11 at DYS385a and 14 at DYS385b occur in about 0.025% of the database. This and the good agreement of all other markers supports there being a common ancestor somewhere back in time.

Please note that Kit 34308 represents a line of descent from a McMaster man living in England ca 1850 whose descendent currently lives in Wales. He has the needed values for DYS 392 and 388 and a good match on 25 and 37 marker results so is included in this family. It will take additional research to determine when and where the connection occurred. Also note that a second McMaster descendent, Kit 38793, is also included with the McCracken men. At the present time it cannot be determined if they are descended from a common McMaster ancestor, or if there was a McCracken-McMaster tie at some point in the distant past.

To date, 20 have arranged for a full 67 markers. Results in to date are remarkably similar, probably because the additional 30 markers are very slow mutators.

Also, seven participants have ordered the FTDNA Deep Clade test, with identical results of M269+ for the six whose results are in. It almost certain that the rest would have the same result if tested.

I would urge each of you to go to your personal FTDNA web page and upload your results to the YSEARCH database so that McCracken researchers who have had their tests done by other companies can compare their results to yours. If you want me to do this for you, please send me an e-mail asking me to do it.