McMickin

[Aspiringloser]

The info in your last post is the only real info I've been able to find. Everything else that everyone else has posted has blown me away. I wish I had those investigative skills.

[ctbuchanan]

Sadly this is only some investigation of the origins of the surname and its variations. The real work would have to be done by you to trace back your family to Ireland or Scotland. And if it is Ireland to also realize that many Scots went to Ulster and then re-emigrated to the USA.

But even my clan, the Buchanan, had its origins in Eire then to Scotland at around 900 AD. So in any event you have a connection to Alba that goes way back.

[Aspiringloser]

The story I've been told is that my ancestors left for America by way of Donegal. I'm not sure how accurate that is, of course.

[ctbuchanan]

Then you need to do some reading on the history of the Ulster Scots because Donegal is a major part of Ulster. Hundreds of thousands of Scots from the border regions which includes Galloway (where the Scottish MacMickins were from) ended up in Ulster as part of the Ulster Plantation experiment.

Many hundreds of thousands of them ended up leaving for the Americas and were known as the Scots-Irish or more recently the Ulster-Scots. They ultimately ended up in many places - New England, Mid-Atlantic states like Maryland, but the vast majority ended up going west then south into the Shenandoah Valley and beyond. They then spread out throughout Appalachia and westward into places like Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma etc.

So depending on when you think your family ended up in Mississippi there is a credible possibility that your ancestors belonged to this group. The Ulster-Scots make up, by a large margin, the vast majority of Scottish surnames in the southeast United States.

P.S. (edited) I have found in my research that old family legends like "my family came to America from Donegal, tend to be accurate most of the time.

Read: Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America by James Webb

Last edit: I sure say "ended up" a lot.

[Aspiringloser]

I just ordered the book you suggested. Thanks again.

[Kate]

Here is the link for the quote in my previous post regarding the "queer macs"

http://members.dodo.com.au/~vk2fm/famhist.html

[MacGowan]

Another consideration to take into account. If your ancestors immigrated through Ellis Island or Castle Garden (pre Ellis Island)? When they were registered by the Immigration officials, and asked their name. The recording official often spelled the name phonetically, in accordance with the inflection of their accent in pronouncing it, or how they thought it would be spelled, without bothering to ask.

There were times that they were processing thousands of people a day, and didn't take the time to ask for the correct spelling, or simply did not care.

Once it was entered into the records, that was how it officially remained. MacMeekin, or variation could very easily have been translated as McMickin, and recorded as such.

At that time Irish Immigrants were often viewed as nothing more than cattle, and valued even less. I would doubt that a Scottish immigrant would be shown anymore respect, or considered to be any better.

Many, many names were either misspelled, or were merely shortened to fit into the allotted space on the documents. This was fairly common, especially with Middle European and Slavic names.

[Aspiringloser]

Interesting. Thanks for your input.