McDaniel Family

Hello my name is Christopher R. McDaniel. I know that my last name is extremely common so trying to figure out where I come from is going to be tricky to say the least. I am a Historian so I have done some research with the help with of some others including a Scottish/Irish Import store who have helped me find that the origin for the names McDonald, McDonnell, McDaniel, etc... all come from the Scottish Clan Mac Dhomhnuill which was the largest clan for a very long time, a group broke away and traveled south into Ireland and wales thus the reason why McDaniel, McDonald, etc... are so common. I don't have much else to go off of at the time being because my family is scattered and I don't know many of them, I know that my mother's side of the family is Scottish, German, and Irish and that my father's side is primarily Irish for we still use the Irish Spelling of the 'c' being underlined and raised prononucing it "Mac" instead of 'Mic'. My father's family is currently mainly in Pheonix, Arizona (USA) and he said that before our family was there we were in Little Rock, Arkansa (USA) but that's as far back as we know because our family didn't bother to pass down our family history, just tall tales that's hard to believe.

I know that this is going to be nearly impossible to trace but I would like to go as far back as I can and any help I can get will be wonderful. Please anything you can offer or suggest for me to do would be greatly apperciated.

Thank you for your help,

Chris McDaniel