The American McIlvail branch of Clan MacMillan

GENERAL INFORMATION AND PRE-1830 U.S. CENSUS AND

STATE RECORDS RELATING TO MCILVAIL/MCINVALE

NAME-VARIANTS

This Genealogy Web Site established November 8, 1996.

 

This page provides information gleaned from official records and other sources about the name-variants of McIlvail, which is itself a name-variant derived from the original Gaelic name now commonly referred to as MacMillan. These present-day American name-variants are: McInvale, McIngvale, McInvaille, McInvaile and McInville. All are derived from McIlvail and MacInvail, along with other name variants of our immigrant ancestor(s).  The first American of our line is believed to be John MacInvail, who arrived in Virginia in 1729 from the Kingdom of Ireland. He lived in Brunswick County, Virginia, which is on the Virginia/North Carolina border.  Family legend has it that 2 brothers immigrated from Ireland together.  If so, the brother's name was likely James.   The early McIlvail/McInvale family lived in Brunswick County, Va. and in what is now Warren County, North Carolina, which borders Brunswick.  They spelled their name a variety of ways.

In Gaelic literature, a MacMillan was referred to as either 'Maolanach' (a tonsured person) or as MacGhillemhaoil (son of the devotee of the tonsured one).. The etymology of the name is: 'MAC' or 'MHIC' - which means 'son of'', 'GHILLE' - which means 'servant or devotee of'', 'MHAOIL' - which is Gaelic for 'the tonsured one', 'bald one', or 'shaven-headed one'. The tonsure refers to the practice of shaving the front half of the head. The tonsure was worn by the clergy in the Celtic church. 'MH' in Gaelic is often pronounced like the 'V' in English. Thus, the original Gaelic name, 'MacGhillemhaoil', which likely referred to the descendants of a Culdee Christian priest, was pronounced 'Mac-Gil-Vaoil', virtually the same as our immigrant ancestor's name: 'McIlvail'

The name appears to have disappeared in the Highlands of Scotland after the '45 due, some suggest, to forced name changes. Many of today's descendants of the McIlvail - MacGilveil branch in the highlands of Scotland may still live there, but their name is often 'Bell', a name many adopted after the '45. The MacGilveil branch lived on the shores of Loch Arkaig, in Lochaber, near Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Scotland. The name has lived on in Ulster and North America in various forms.

There are now believed to be at least 200 name-variants which are identified as belonging to Clan MacMillan, and many of them are similar to McIlvail in pronunciation, though not always in spelling. The name of the clan, MacMillan, is a latinized version of the original Gaelic clan name, and is derived from 'MacMaolan', which means 'son of the tonsured one'. Note that the clan name in Gaelic,

CLANN 'IC 'ILLEMHAOIL ABRACH

contains " 'IC 'ILLEMHAOIL", (Mhic-Ghille- mhaoil) which is pronounced virtually identically to the Gaelic pronunciation of "McIlvail". Thus, McIlvail is an anglicized rendering of the Gaelic clan name.

The following information relates to persons who are the ancestors of present-day Americans who have the McIlvail name-variants: McInvale, McIngvale, McInvaille, McInvaile and McInville. . Even if your last name is spelled differently than that of the persons named in these notes, you quite possibly are still descended from them. Remember, not only has the name spelling changed in the past two hundred years, but old records often misspelled last names, especially uncommon ones like these. The transition from McIlvail to McInvail and subsequent changes appears to have been the work of only a few years, but it took better than a century for the names as they are spelled today to become permanently established. The name McIngvale appears to have developed in Mississippi in the late 19th centruy, and is directly descended from McInvale. It is said by some that the name change resulted from a family fued. The Mississippi McIngvale family appears to be descended from the Alabama McInvale family.

If you have information that you would like to see posted at this site, please E-mail it to me, Reid McInvale, at reid.mcinvale@gmail.com and, working together, we can assemble a complete history of our extended family in the U.S.

If you wish to see my DNA signature, and the MacMillan’s DNA signature, go to  www.familytreeDNA.com  or www.familytree.com and select the MacMillan surname project. The DNA signature of many people are listed, including mine under the name of John McInvale, our immigrant ancestor.  You will note that our closest relatives by DNA signature are the Beattie/Beatty/Beaty family and the Owens/Owings family.  Also, the Byrne/Byrnes/Burns family is very close to use genetically.  If you have your DNA tested, please inform me of your DNA signature for comparison purposes.  DNA promises to help genealogy research immensely.   My Y-Chromosome signature, which is passed down in the direct male line over millennia, is reproduced here below under the name of our immigrant ancestor, John McInvale.  You should have your DNA signature identified as well by contacting Family Tree DNA.

Most Distant Ancestor

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