A Possible Surname Comes to Light!

Glasgow, Scotland

Well, my results from FTDNA came back much sooner than expected! I was so excited to get the email! However, the results have not been as conclusive as I'd hoped. I paid for testing out to 37 markers, which is the lowest you can choose. (they also do 67 and 111 markers) Apparently, at that level of comparison, there are matches on Dad's list that are close enough to register as a match, but are not, in fact, direct paternal relatives. There were many surnames on the matches list, which totaled 58 people at 37 markers matched.

However, I do have a good idea now of what the surname likely is. I will have to go further to confirm it, but out of 58 matches, 13 of them are named McLaughlin or a derivative thereof! So, the surname of John Reid's father was most likely McLaughlin. AND, most of those on the match list named McLaughlin trace their ancestry back to Ireland! So I may be more Irish than I thought.

I joined the McLaughlin dna group through FTDNA, but that group appears to have been abandoned by the group owner, since his email address bounces. I also joined Dougherty, since the second most frequent name on Dad's matches list is Dougherty, or some variation on it. The owner of that group sent me an email and suggested another test I can have done that checks SNPs, and will give us more info on how closely he matches each individual on his list. I don't know what SNPs are, but I am taking his expert advice and have ordered the test. It costs $99, but since I have a $30 credit on my account, it will only cost me $69.

I have done a census search for McLaughlin men in and around Paisley in 1871. I have a list of possible suspects! The best one, so far, is a man named Robert McLaughlin who was boarding with a family in Neilston and working as a worsted weaver, which could have been in the same factory that

Caroline worked in. In 1871 he was 43 years old, and his birthplace is listed as Tyrone, Ireland. He was apparently a single man, unless he had family back in Ireland.

There are several others who are possible suspects too, but I will wait for this new test to come back before spending a lot of time on McLaughlins, in case the results point in another direction. Fingers crossed that this test will be the charm!