He was out of a Morgan and Thoroughbred cross mare named Maggie Marshall, a descendant of Figure and the Thoroughbred racing stallion Messenger; and sired by Allandorf, a Standardbred stallion descended from Hambletonian 10, also of the Messenger line.

During this time, Maggie Marshall most oftentimes threw black trotter foals, passing her coloring to her offspring.

Black Allan would be the mare's last foal, with her final breeding to the Standardbred stallion Red Wilkes (b.

1874) - a grandson of Hambletonian 10, largely Thoroughbred, with ample Morgan-cross blood - resulting in stillborn bay filly in 1888.

[8] Black Allan was bought by John P. Mankin of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, for $335, only to be sold again a few years later.

McCulloch, used Black Allan as a "teaser" to see if mares were in estrus before they were bred to jack donkeys to produce mules.

[11] Through Figure, his dam could also trace her sire line back to the Byerly Turk, and her dam line back to the Godolphin Arabian, two of the foundational stallions of the Thoroughbred breed, as well as lesser-known Arabian and Barb foundational bloodstock.

The resulting foal was "McCurdy's Young Wildair", a colt who was sold to Scots-Irish judge and Patriot sympathizer[12] George Grant McCurdy of Old Lyme, Connecticut,[13] who bred the colt to his own Narragansett Pacer mare to produce the "Samuel Burt mare".

Most of Black Allan's best offspring, including Roan Allen and Merry Legs, were produced from crosses on American Saddlebred mares, especially those from Denmark bloodlines.

[1] Due to Black Allan's influence and potency in passing his gait and conformation to his offspring, he was given registration number F-1 when the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders' Association, the precursor to the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders' and Exhibitors' Association, was formed in 1935.

[1][14][15] * Black Allan is inbred 4S x 4S to the stallion Mambrino Chief, meaning that he appears fourth generation twice on the sire side of his pedigree.