Following Up on Buchanan Project on FamilyTreeDNA
My cousin Darlene, asked me to follow-up on some of the genetic matches. Yesterday I sent this email to the 19 closest matches:
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I am contacting you regarding a Y-DNA match at https://www.familytreedna.com/


My cousin's results said that we are of a “typical chiefly line of Clan Buchanan”. Since your results match ours, that should be true of your Buchanan line too.

The earliest record of my own Buchanan family is the christening of Robert Buchanan on 20 Apr 1815 in Derg Parish Church, Castlederg, Tyrone, Ireland. Robert was the son of Andrew Buchanan, and his wife Jane (whose last name may have been Long or Young, but probably McNeilands). In 1847, Andrew and Jane sailed to Canada with their 7 sons (Robert, Charles, James, William, Andrew, John, and Samuel) and their daughter Jane. Charles had married Ann Porter in Mar 1843 in Killeter Presbyterian Church, Termonamongan Parish, Tyrone, Ireland. William had married Ann Thompson on 24 Mar 1846 in Lower Longfield Parish, Tyrone, Ireland. Charles and William had baby daughters. The family may have been accompanied by other relatives. The father Andrew and William's baby daughter died of immigrant fever during quarantine in Kingston, Ontario. The rest of the family settled in uncharted wilderness that is now in Elma township, Perth county, Ontario.

Wayne Buchanan and Clifford Buchanan in the FamilyTreeDNA database are descendants of this Andrew and Jane Buchanan who lived in Learmore townland near Castlederg in the 1815-1824 time period and in Binnawooda townland near Drumquin in the 1840's. I believe that Andrew Buchanan of Cooel (adjacent to Collow) in the Tithe Applotment Survey in 1826 is the same Andrew, since he was not shown in Learmore.

There is speculation that they may have come to the Castlederg area from County Donegal.


Ernest Buchanan is a different case. I am contacting you at the request of my cousin who had Ernest's Y-DNA test done. There is no “paper trail” connecting Ernest to my family, but he comes from the right area and is a perfect match to my cousin Wayne Buchanan. William Thomas 'Ernest' Buchanan was born in 1931 6 mi/10 km south of Castlederg. His grandfather was John Buchanan of Kirlish townland. I think that John's father was William Buchanan of Kirlish, Longfield West parish, Tyrone, (the only Buchanan listed in Kirlish in Griffiths Valuation). And that is as far as we have gone on Ernest's line. Since “Lower Longfield” is synonymous with “Longfield West”, this is the same parish where my 2g-uncle William Buchanan married Ann Thompson, daughter of James Thompson of Collow townland. I believe that Ernest is closely related to my family.

There is also a Buchanan family from Cooel/Coolavanagh townland that is said to be related to the Buchanans of Kirlish. Unfortunately, we have not yet been able to do a Y-DNA test on this other family.
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Now the questions of interest to me and my cousins ...

Were any of YOUR ancestors in the area of western Tyrone or adjacent areas of Ireland?
Can you trace them back to Scotland?
What information do you have on your Buchanan ancestry?
May I share what you send me with my cousins?
(I have used BCC: to hide your email address from other recipents of this email.)

I look forward to hearing from you.

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Bill Buchanan
For the descendants of Andrew and Jane Buchanan of Castlederg, Ireland