DNA
A decade ago I took a Y-DNA test for the Clan Donald USA single name study. Much more recently I have added my DNA and my father's on Ancestry, FTDNA, MyHeritage and Gedmatch (LG8554433 Andrew and JD7330955 Peter). This has led to many interesting discoveries and connections. My DNA is entirely Scots/Irish.
Hello
Scottish DNA
Having Scottish and Irish DNA it is was inevitable that I would see a lot of cousin matches in the USA. Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
more detail
Canadian links
From the Hebrides there was very significant emigration from the late 1700s onward to Canada. My DNA has shown a very large number of distant cousins matches to people whose ancestors went to Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island and Glengarry County Ontario.
More specifically I have many dozens of DNA links to people all over Cape Breton. From 1770 to 1800 especially there was significant emigration from Moidart, the Uists and the Isle of Eigg. This was due to large numbers of the Catholic tenants of the Clan Ranald Macdonald lands took the opportunity for a new life. The volume of these connections is fascinating and especially the links to so many people who are descendants of pioneers who settled in PEI, and Antigonish and Inverness Counties.
North Carolina and Georgia
In the first decade of the 1800s there was significant emigration from Sleat on the Isle of Skye to North Carolina. Emigration from the Hebrides was already well established from the mid 1700s. Many Highlanders made the long voyage to Wilmington and then up the Cape Fear river. Many of these families settled in Moore County NC.
One very interesting DNA connection came with the descendants of a Donald McDonald who left Sleat at approx 1800, His son was Ranald (known as Randal) who married in Tattnall County on April 18, 1816 to Catherine Miller a native of Bulloch County. We know that Ranald McDonald was born in Sleat on the Isle of Skye, and came with his father Donald at the age of eight. Accompanying him was his sister: Nancy (1801) whom later married Washington Knowles (1798-1868) they moved to Columbia County, Florida. I have DNA links to descendants of both Ranald and Nancy.
Australia and New Zealand
From the 1830s onward emigration to Australia and New Zealand gathered pace from the Hebrides. My Great Great aunt Jessie Macdonald left for new Zealand in approximately 1880 with her husband William McLeod and their small sons. They have many descendants in New Zealand today. Another branch of my family that has been connected via DNA are the descendants of my Great Great Aunt Margaret Gillies who left Sleat for Australia with her husband Donald and family in the early 1850s. Today I have many 4th and fifth cousins that have come from this Sleat connection.