DNA results and links to Macdonald

A Read-only Archive of the old forum. Many useful messages and lots of family data!
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John Livingston2
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Joined: Sat Jan 15, 2005 5:35 pm

DNA results and links to Macdonald

Post by John Livingston2 »

'I''ve just had my 25 marker DNA results, and it appears that my branch of the Livingston family may have links with Clan Donald. It seems that the Aberdeenshire cluster of Livingstons has a distinct gene pattern which does not fit with most of the others already identified. I now believe the reason that my ancestors were found in their area of Aberdeenshire was that they were part of the Highland army that fought at the battle of Harlaw in 1411. Harlaw is only 8 miles from Culsalmond, which is the centre of the cluster of Livingston families. It seems possible that some of the retreating survivors of the battle got as far as Culsalmond and decided to put down roots. This may be because the going gets much rougher and mountainous at this point, and demotivated and defeated troops may have decided that Culsalmond was a good refuge. It would also have been the last of the good farming land in the Aberdeenshire plain as they headed back along the Inverness road. If this hypothesis holds up, it doesn''t explain why Macdonalds renamed as Livingstons - perhaps to disguise their origin, perhaps ? What part would the other Argyll and Lismore Livingstons have played in the Battle of Harlaw, I wonder ? '
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