Hello Cmbh1,
By using DNA I am able to segregate lines of descendants. Because it's rather close to about the year 1800 when the split in the DNA (a married couple that are common ancestors of all the DNA testers that descend from separate siblings), I am able to find common segments of DNA. The length of the segment would indicate the likely distance of the relationship along with the total amount of DNA shared on all shared segments.
For example, children share 50% of their DNA with parents, 25% with grandparents, 12.5% with great grandparents, etc.
Among the descendants in the family lines, there have been rumours of a double marriage for Duncan Fraser, and going back a bit further, for the mother of Mary Kempt who married Duncan Fraser.
There is one descendant of Ann Fraser, daughter to Duncan Fraser and Mary Kempt (daughter of William Kempt and Mary Fraser).
There are about 5 descendants of Katherine Kempt, daughter of William Kempt and Mary Fraser.
There are 30+ descendants of Murdoch Weaver McKenzie and Arabella/Annabella McKenzie (daughter of Captain John McKenzie and Mary Fraser).
There are about 5 descendants of Gregor Kempt, son of William Kempt and Mary Fraser.
The common ancestor of all descendants is a Mary Fraser. At this point we do not know her parents names, but there are connections to MacRae/McRaes via DNA for her and her descendants.
Mary Fraser married a William Kempt. The "T" on the end of Kempt seems to have been added about this same time. I have an article on William's father who married many times and fathered over 20 children.
Mary Fraser and William Kempt had a few children of which, descendants of Mary Fraser's first marriage and second marriage are matching in extremely large segments.
Duncan Fraser married a daughter of Mary Fraser and William Kempt and had a few children in the 1790's. Records for Gairloch do not exist unless they were in records kept by the well to do families. There are patches of unkempt records all over Western Scotland that simply do not have records at all for that time period. The Hebrides are a perfect example.
I have been working on the DNA of this group of descendants of these families for about 3.5 years now and have done paper trail genealogy for 24 years and am in the process of becoming certified. I have more in the way of DNA showing the relationship and paper trails for what is available in Gairloch, Cape Breton, Australia, and New Zealand during the time frame. If helpful, I have a book from Cape Breton written in 1933 that shows the author then knew of the family connection of the Kempts to the Frasers.
Actually, as far as I know, we have never been in contact with a descendant of Duncan Fraser and Isabel McKenzie. It would be interesting if you or anyone in your family that descends from them have been DNA tested. I'm certain there will be matches between any of you and any of us on these other lines. I'd be interested in discussing this further too if you would be interested.
If you read this older post as well, it has more information on it. I'm in contact with the author too who is a genealogist. It may give more information you can check on Scotland's People. (
https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/fraser/2700/)
Please feel free to message me and I can give you my email. I'm more than willing to share everything I have on this small project I'm working on. It's all to try and tell who Mary Fraser's Frasers are and exactly where our McKenzie line breaks off from the major line. We have the mutation SNP on the Y chromosome which is considered an identifying marker for Gairloch McKenzie line.
Let me know if that makes sense or if you have any other questions.
