Facts and traditions collected for a family record

108 FACTS AND TRADITIONS.
come to the conclusion, that the present Ayrshire families of M'Connell
came at a comparatively recent date from Ulster; whilst those of older
date, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, were a former migra-
tion from Cantyre or the Highlands direct to Paisley and Ayr, or other
parts of Ayrshire. Though this latter, or older branch, appears now to
be extinct in Ayrshire, still it is from it that those in Galloway have
sprung.
Mr M'Connell, of George Street, Edinburgh, in his traditionary
account, says, that " there were other M'Connells in Ayrshire, who lived
there before his time; but he believed them all to be of the same origin."
This statement adds considerable weight to my opinion.
In the treatment of this subject I have striven to set myself to the
task with an unbiassed mind. Yet it is particulary gratifying to find
that the conclusion to which I have been brought, by all the evidence I
have been able to collect, coincides so completely with the views which
my father held, and which were imj>ressed so firmly in his mind during
his early life in his native land, and amongst his own relations— namely,
that, whatever may have been the peregrinations of the family before
they settled in Galloway, their true source is to be found in the High-
lands of Scotland.