The McCullough branch of our family has some of our most well-known – and well-documented ancestors. These include Jacob Broom, one of the “Founding Fathers”, who attended the Constitutional Convention for Delaware, William Frampton, who held offices in William Penn’s government, the Lyons, who were instrumental in founding Carlisle and were some of the earliest settlers of central Pennsylvania, and the Bagley family of Dudley, England, who were close associates of Lord Sutton in the late 1500’s and 1600’s.
Due to the wealth of information we have on several of these families, there is a separate section for the Lyon – Broom branch and pages for the McCullough and Frampton families in this section, with a special section on William Frampton. Under the Myths & Mysteries tab, you can find the current state of our research into the ancestry of William McCullough (b. 1763-7, York, PA).
DNA
Thanks to DNA research, we are also finding new cousins and proving or disproving relationships on a regular basis. We’ve also had some surprises – for instance, it appears that our branch of the McCulloughs is in a special subgroup who have more close ties with people named McCracken – see below. .
atDNA
Through atDNA matches, we have identified links to four of Sheridan McCullough’s children and many more to his son William’s descendants in our line. This backs up our paper tree to at least Sheridan, of which there was little doubt since one of his books has been handed down to me, along with many papers and photographs. Where it starts to become tricky is with father William and mother Rachel Sheridine. Most suggested matches at this distant level are quite small and on Ancestry.com. Since Ancestry does not give segment information, it is impossible to verify whether these matches match on a McCullough segment or perhaps another ancestor’s segment.
What is interesting is that based on trees and DNA, ancestry does suggest a link to an Andrew McCullough whose descendants think that he is a son of William and Rachel. There are unfortunately no paper records to back this up, and the DNA matches in this case often triangulate to other ancestors than the McCulloughs. For now, it appears we are reaching the limits of what atDNA will prove unless more McCullough descendants test in the near future.
Y-DNA
So far, I have found no descendants of Sheridan McCullough who have done a Y-test. It would be very useful if any other males of our line who still carry the McCullough surname would do this test. A good place to look for Y-tests is FTDNA (I have no connection with this company – it is just one of the very few offering Y-DNA tests instead of only autosomal). They offer discounts on their tests several times a year, so timing is everything! Additional testers would help confirm the tentative conclusions and also help localise where the family may have lived in Northern Ireland or Scotland, and so make it easier to trace the line back to Europe. If you are a McCullough cousin and need any help managing your kit and interpreting your results, I am happy to help. Please contact me.
The two most interesting results so far are that we do have strong Y-matches to two McCulloughs, one of whom descends from the Andrew mentioned above. However, the estimated common ancestor is probably a generation or two above William. The second match has an ancestor John from the late 1700’s who was an early settler of Butler County, PA. The three of us have our own haplogroup at the moment and our closest – but slightly more distant – matches are not McCulloughs but McCrackens and a few other surnames. This split likely occurred around 1600.
Here too, it would be extremely helpful if any McCulloughs with mid-to-late 1700 roots in York County, PA, Pennsylvania in general in the 1700’s or to northern Maryland, particularly Hartford, would test. Please contact me via the above link if you would like more information.