In the summer of 1957, I discovered genealogical research while trying to complete a family tree in a Bible that my Grandmother McCown had given me for Christmas. It soon became my goal to establish the immigrant ancestor and get our line back to the “old country.” Most of the genealogical evidence pointed toward Francis McCown of Augusta Co., Virginia who died in 1761. I cooperated with several other McCown researchers in an attempt to document my line and theirs to Francis and Margaret McCown of Augusta Co., Virginia. Some were successful in documenting their line to Francis, I was not. Computers came along so I started two McCown databases. One was named McCown and documented my line, the other was Virginia McCowns and included the descendants of Francis McCown of Augusta Co., Virginia.

In February 2001, I communicated with Dr. Marcia Eisenberg and contracted with Laboratory Corporation of America in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina to test Y chromosome DNA collected from nine different McCown men, all direct line descendants of various branches of the McCown family.

The Y chromosome is inherited from father to son, and remain almost unaltered from generation to generation.

Three more McCown men were asked to join the project later. Two of these were from Francis McCown (son of James). The third was from John McCown of Rockbridge Co., Virginia. Because of his close relationships with Francis McCown in Augusta, a suspected kinship was suspected.

The participants were removed from Francis by six to nine generations. The study showed that three of the twelve participants did not share the same paternal lineage. Either their known end-line ancestor did not share a common male ancestor with Francis, or the direct paternal line was broken between the participant and his end-line ancestor. The three who did not match the group did not match each other.

This DNA study confirms: The line from George McCown of Augusta through John Edington McCown and Michael DeWitt McCown definitely descends from Francis McCown of Augusta. The lines of John McCown, Malcom McCown and Isaac McCown through Fred Vernon McCown, Walter Wade McCown and Jerry Glen McCown descend from Francis of Augusta through his son James McCown. The line of Malcom McCown of West Virginia through Brian Scott McCown descends from Francis of Augusta. Lines from Francis McCown of Lincoln Co., Kentucky though James Kimbol McCown and Hollis Edward McCown descend from Francis McCown of Augusta. Perhaps this Francis is a son of James McCown and grandson of Francis McCown of Augusta. The male descendants of John McCown of Rockbridge Co., Virginia through the line of James Samuel McCown share the same paternal lineage as Francis McCown, so these men were related and had a common ancestor. The male descendants of George of Pennsylvania and Francis of Augusta did not share the same paternal lineage. It might be premature to state this conclusion as fact without further testing of other male descendants of this line. When and if this is done, I would feel it would be safe to state whether George and Francis were not related. I will leave this to descendants of George for further study. They are welcome to have their results compared to our test.

The allele numbers for the Y chromosome STR’s were not reported. I specifically asked Dr. Marcia Eisenberg from the Laboratory about this. She replied, “For the Y chromosome STRs, the statistics are not based on match probabilities as are other STRs because all of the markers are on the same chromosome. There isn’t a statistical analysis possible like there is with STRs. Each lab decides on what their reporting criteria are. Most forensic laboratories do not actually report the alleles just a match, non-match. At this time we are reporting only a match, non-match format for the Y STRs.” However, in January 2002, and April 2002, I received the allele numbers from Dr. George Maha from LabCorp, Identity Testing Division:

The table below contains the results for the Y Chromosome loci evaluated by this laboratory. Since your test was initially performed, an additional system was added to the test battery. This resulted in a mismatch at the DYS19 locus for Brian. This however does not necessarily indicate that Brian does not have a common male ancestor, as mutations (natural change in the DNA) will occur through the generations. I would interpret these results to indicate a common male ancestor for Brian, Walter, Fred, Jerry, John and Michael. The other men, Dennis and James, have a clearly different male ancestor.

	Y Chromosone Loci
Name	DYS392	DYS19	DYS388	DYS391	DYS390	DYS393
Brian Scott McCown	14	15	12	11	24	13
Walter Wade McCown	14	14	12	11	24	13
Fred Vernon McCown	14	14	12	11	24	13
Jerry Glen McCown	14	14	12	11	24	13
John Edington McCown	14	14	12	11	24	13
Michael DeWitt McCown	14	14	12	11	24	13
Hollis Edward McCown	14	14	12	11	24	13
James Kimbol McCown	14	14	12	11	24	13
James Samuel McCown	14	14	12	11	24	13
Dennis Ray McCown	11	14	15	10	24	12
James W. McCown	11	15	15	10	22	14

Virginia McCown Genealogy DNA Chart

Pennsylvania McCown Genealogy DNA Chart

Bennett Greenspan Family Tree DNA 1919 North Loop West, Suite 110 Houston, Texas 77008 info@familytreedna.com http://www.FamilyTreeDNA.com

The original testing was done by: Dr. George Maha Identity Testing Division Laboratory Corporation of America 1440 York Court Extension Burlington, North Carolina 27215 George_Maha@labcorp.com

I found a descendant of George McCown of Tippah Co., Mississippi, but failed to get them to help us with the study. I would still like to confirm that he is the son of James McCown and a grandson of Francis of Augusta.

For my part, I asked three more descendants of Francis McCown of Lincoln Co., Kentucky to share DNA in an attempt to verify the descendants of this ancestor. It would also help me to determine the break in my line. Of these three, James Kimbol McCown and Hollis Edward McCown matched. The third participant failed to send in his DNA sample.

I am deeply indebted to the participants of this group for their help with this study. I thank them, researchers and cousins, that have helped me study the McCown Family in the Americas.

Leonard J. McCown 1 May 2002