[From an email I sent to "Irish Roots" podcaster Michael O'Laughlin mike@irishroots.com]

My Buchanans
I have a website on my Buchanan family that contains genealogy, old stories, some photos, and free e-books about the family.
In 1847 during the peak of the great famine, Andrew and Jane Buchanan and their 8 (mostly grown) children left Binnawooda townland in Tyrone for Canada. The ship nearly sank in a storm and had to return for repairs. On the second attempt, they reached Canada but like so many ships, a plague of "immigrant fever" had broken out onboard. The official quarantine station on Grosse Isle, Quebec was already overwhelmed, so they were quarantined onboard for 3 weeks at Kingston, Ontario, where Andrew and an infant granddaughter died. The family settled in the unsurveyed wilderness that later became Elma Township, Perth County, Ontario, where it grew and prospered. From there it spread out to Manitoba and Washington State, and far beyond.

A YDNA study found that we were of "a typical chiefly line of Clan Buchanan". These chiefs traced their ancestry back to Annselan O’ Cahan son of King Dermond O' Cahan, who reigned in Ulster province, and was a descendant of the ancient kings of Ireland. (The O'Cahans ruled the kingdom of Coleraine, now in County Derry.) Anselan landed in Argyll, Scotland in 1016 with some followers and helped Scottish King Malcolm II to repel Danish invaders, and was granted the Buchanan lands in Lennox, from which his descendants took their name.
So my Buchanans were of ancient Irish descent as well as more modern Irish descent.

I love the family stories and old photos.
--
Bill Buchanan
website: http://billbuchanan.byethost17.com/
blog: http://billbuchanan.blogspot.com/