The Lennox Chronicles

DNA Over Deeds (With Charters):  E-BY5775 Linking Colquhoun, Kilpatrick & McCarter By Tiffany McCarter Evans — The Lennox Chronicles Plain-English takeaway: We match Y-DNA breadcrumbs (E-BY5775 and daughter branches) with page-cited medieval charters . When documents and DNA point the same direction, we build testable working theories —and we show our receipts so anyone can follow. What we’re doing (no jargon, promise) Y-DNA passes down the direct father-to-son line. Every so often it picks up a tiny mutation—call it a breadcrumb. Scientists give each breadcrumb a name (a SNP ). If a group of men share the same SNP, they usually share a distant paternal ancestor. Our project follows one breadcrumb cluster in the Lennox: E-BY5775 . We put charters (land grants, witness lists, place-names) beside modern Big Y-700 results . Where both sets of evidence agree, we have a testable working theory . Where they disagree, we adjust. That’s “ DNA Over Deeds—But Not Without Charters...

The Ark: A Living Document of the Lennox By Tiffany McCarter Evans, Clans of Scotland Historian For over 700 years, the lands of Loch Lomond and the Lennox have whispered their stories in charters, dowries, and fragments of parchment written in Latin ink. Until now, most of those whispers have been left untranslated, misunderstood, or worse — ignored. That changes here. Welcome to The Ark: A Living Document — this will be the first open, searchable, and scientifically grounded database where medieval charters and modern Y-DNA meet. This is not a hobby project. This is not just a clan fan club. This is history reconstructed from the ground up, sourced line by line, signature by signature, haplogroup by haplogroup. And yes, it is free. No memberships. No gatekeeping. No secrets. What’s Inside the Ark The Ark is not just for Colquhouns or McCarters. It is for anyone descended from the ancient Earls of Lennox. The charters inside stretch from 1100 AD through the 170...

  The Tears That Named a Monastery:  Scotland’s Earliest Charter Story by Tiffany McCarter Evans Imagine: ChatGPT AI Creation by Tiffany McCarter Evans Imagine Scotland before kings wrote Latin charters, before castles dotted the hills, and before surnames even existed.  The year is around A.D. 565 , and into the rugged northeast comes a monk with a fire in his eyes and a student at his side. The monk? Columcille — better known today as St. Columba , the Irish saint who founded Iona. The pupil? Drostan, son of Cosgrach , was destined to be remembered as the quiet saint of Aberdeenshire. Their destination? A patch of land in Buchan that would one day become Deer Abbey . The First Scottish “Charter” We call it a charter, but in truth it’s a miracle story, a legal note, and a folk etymology all rolled into one. It survives not in stone but scribbled into the margins of a gospel book — the Book of Deer , now one of Scotland’s national treasures. Here’s the tale:...

  Isabail de Luss: The Fair Maid of Luss, Found at Last (Latin: Isabella de Luss) For centuries, she was remembered only as “the Fair Maid of Luss.” A shadow in the chronicles, a nameless heiress passed from one generation to the next. Today, thanks to the painstaking work of charter transcription and yDNA-supported genealogy, her name has finally emerged from the silence of Latin parchment. She is Isabail de Luss. Born about 1351, Isabail was the daughter and heiress of Godfrey de Luss, 6th of Luss. Her mother’s name remains unconfirmed, but the evidence suggests she belonged to the powerful Erskine or Hamilton families. At approximately 17 years old in 1368, Isabail was married to Robert de Colquhoun of Ilk, 5th of Colquhoun. Their union was sealed in a dowry charter, preserved in The Lennox Charters (Vol. I, published in 1869 by William Fraser). This singular document fixes the date of her marriage and confirms her name in black and white Latin ink. But the story deepens. ...

  The First Documented Heiress of Luss: Agnes de Luss What good are these charters if no one translates them?   by: Tiffany McCarter Evans August 8, 2025 A Forgotten Name, Found Again History remembers the warriors, the earls, and the men who signed their seals. But hidden in the Latin lines of medieval charters are the women who carried bloodlines, brought dowries, and changed the fates of clans. Our newest Helix Heiress is Agnes de Luss — the first recorded heiress of Luss. She was the daughter of Malcolm, 4th Earl of Lennox , and his wife Eva de Lenzie (another forgotten heiress now recovered from the records). Born around 1250 AD , Agnes inherited Luss as her dowry. Her marriage to John of Lennox transformed her husband’s title to John de Luss , and through their line came the later Fair Maid of Luss (whose name remains elusive in the charters) and the eventual union with the Colquhoun's in 1368. Agnes is the first woman we can name who held Luss in her own r...

Our E-M35 Ancestor:  "The Clan MacArthur Heir Who Changed Everything” The DNA and History Behind the McCarter–Colquhoun Legacy In 1495, a man named John MacArthur of Tirivavich stepped forward to claim what was rightfully his — the leadership of Clan Arthur . He wasn’t just any claimant . He was described in charters as the “nephew” of the last formally recognized chief, Iain (John) MacArthur , executed by King James I of Scotland in 1428. For nearly 70 years, the MacArthur name — once one of the most powerful in Argyll — had been in exile from its own lands. The chief’s execution was a political earthquake, and his estates were seized by the Crown. But in the political chess game of the Scottish Highlands, power never stays buried for long. In 1495, a sliver of that lost birthright was restored when John of Tirivavich received charters returning him lands at Loch Awe . These weren’t the full MacArthur estates, but they were a foothold — and a statement. The DNA Proof: ...