Main Line Genealogy

A reader asked if I ever assembled a full lineage from the early clan leaders to the present day.

The answer is NO.

There is a lot of genealogy in ClanDonnell, but I only included genealogy charts to help keep the cast of characters straight. It’s easy to get confused with so many people named McDonnell – and with so many people with the same first names. I did not include a genealogy chart or describe the full lineage of the clans.

I came close, though. I put together a chart entitled ‘McDonnell Gallowglass Clans’ and starts with Alexander Mor McDonald, son of Donald and the first of the clan to take the last name ‘McDonald’ or ‘McDonnell’. This is actually a typo – it should be ‘Angus Mor’ and not ‘Alexander Mor’. Oops!

Earlier references in the book can take you back further from Angus Mor.

The chart then extends to the first person to head a related clan. For example, the chart links Angus Mor to Angus Og to John (all three being Lord of the Isles), and then to John McDonnell – the first of the McDonnell Clan of Ireland.

As another example, the chart links Angus Mor to Alexander, and then to the founders of the clans in Ulster, Leinster and Mayo. It also includes another link to the Mayo clan, stemming from Angus Og.

The book extends some of these genealogies for more generations, but does not bring all of them to the present day. There are published genealogies available which might do this.

The Scottish Clan Donald stems, in part, from Angus Mor to Angus Og to John to Donald (all being Lord of the Isles). But Angus Mor had another son and had brothers, and many Scottish clans descend from these men. The Angus Mor’s father (the first Donald) also had brothers and uncles.

Many clans within the broad umbrella of Clan Donald, descend from these men. It is probably more accurate to refer to these aligned clans as ‘Clan Somhairle’. There are many sources which extend these lines for more generations, and perhaps to the present day.

The illustration is McDonald, Lord of the Isles, by Robert Ronald MacIan for The Clans of the Scottish Highlands, 1845.