All three of these groups hail from Northumberland.
The surname spelling is not only different from those on the other side of the Border but also varies considerably.
1 In the 'D group', William (b1811 Rothbury Northumberland) & Jane Wheallens lived in Alnwick at 1851 with their seven children. He married Jane McGregor during 1836 in Doddington. His parents are unproven but are hypothesised to be Cuthbert Whillins/Whillens who married Ann Scott. Some of the group had a definite work connection with the Duke of Northumberland. This group has 90 named descendants, one of whom has an almost identical Y-DNA to the author, a descendant of James Whillans b1688. Our Y-haplogroup is R-FT85125.
2 The 'E group' originated with Matthew Whillens who married Jane Hogg in 1782 at Elsdon Northumberland. They had at least seven children. This group has 215 named descendants with a wide variety of surname spellings. 3 The 'EM group' originally lived at Great Bavington and South Shields. The progenitor is hypothesised to be Robert Whillans/Whillins/Whillons/Whealance who fathered at least seven children all c1781-1794 Presbyterian at Great Bavington. One of these Mihil/Michael Whillance c1792 has given us most of the 260 named descendants.
