Hi everyone. Apologies for my delay. I am now slowly getting to work responding to inquiries and updating content on the website. Your new webmaster: Karina Lapalme This site, of course was the creation of my father, Barry McKee. https://vancouversunandprovince.remembering.ca/obituary/barry-mckee-1083523940
McKee Families from Donegal – with Roots in Galloway
Alexander McKee was born in County Donegal, Ireland, in 1802. About 1836 he married Jane McClintock, and they farmed at Crannogeboy townland, on Loughros Point (click on map to enlarge). Alexander and Jane had 12 children, eleven surviving to adults. Of these, 2 remained in Ireland, 5 emigrated to Australia, 2 to the USA, and 2 to Canada (via the USA).
Two hundred years later, a great grandson of Alexander, Raymond, still farmed the same property in Crannogeboy, another great grandson Aaron had moved in across the road for his retirement years, and a great granddaughter Sadie lived about 20 km south in Bruckless.
Map of Ireland and Loughros Point 
Lackagh, Crannogeboy townlands, Inishkeel parish,
I am Karina (McKee) Lapalme, daughter of Barry McKee, the creator of this website I am a great-great granddaughter of Alexander (b 1802), and a great-granddaughter of Andrew McKee (b 1858), who emigrated to Canada. We Canadian McKees lost the details of our Irish connections, and it was not until this century (with the help of Andy in Canada, and Jennifer, out of Australia, and Lesly in Australia) that we have become reconnected. Thanks to Andy, many of us had been corresponding by e-mail; we hope this website www.MckeeFamiliesfromDonegal.com will further aid communication between the branches and generations of our family. We have remarkable family stories and pictures to share here. And since we are inter-married with the McClintock, Lockhart, Boyd and Cooke families, also from Loughros Point, and the Bow family from Scotland, we shall share some of their stories too.
If you have suggestions, corrections, pictures, or stories related to these McKee roots and related families, stories, please use Contact in the menu or click the contact button here.
Making Contact has worked at building new connections, as in 2014, Debra Lee Van Wagoner Sutherland (Deb) noticed that 5 first names were common in the male children of “our” Alexander McKee (born 1802, Loughros Point) and “her” Charles McKee, (born 1764 in Ireland, married to Margaret Lockhart and subsequently emigrated to Ohio). Can these names be chance? After much exploration and DNA testing, we know this is not coincidence, and have started a McKee Family in USA section to include Deb’s family.
For more information on the testing results, see Section A, story 1, of our page DNA Tests. Deb’s Charles (b 1764) was probably an uncle of Barry’s Alexander (b 1802).
Barry was browsing the Donegal Genealogy Resources webpages and found a transcription of the Index to Wills, Diocese of Raphoe, (including almost all of the county of Donegal) 1684 – 1858. All of the original Wills were lost in the fire of 1922, but books of Indices survived. This lists about 2000 wills, of which 2 were McKees:
- McKee, Alexr.; Lackaugh; 1765
- McKee, Thomas; Drumroosk; 1752
Alexander’s entry is notable because Lackaugh (or Lackagh) townland is close to Loughros Point. Perhaps this somewhat prosperous Alexander McKee dying in 1765 and son (?) Andrew moved to Crannogeboy townland, about 10 km distant, and were buried in Kilcashel cemetery in 1790.
Following are three emails from Jennifer to her newly discovered Canadian cousins in 2008. In them she tells the story of finding her Irish cousins a couple of years previously.
From: Jennifer
To: Andy
Subject: Re: McKee genealogy
Sent: Sept 02, 2008
Dear Andy –
I received your e-mail and also one from Lesly by way of introduction. How exciting to find some more cousins – and the first McKee cousins I’ve heard of in North America (of course, considering the size of the families, we’re probably related to half of New South Wales, anyway!)
I don’t know how far you have gone in your research. Have you been to Ardara in Co. Donegal? We were there a couple of years ago, and met two second cousins, Raymond and Aaron McKee, who still live on the family farm. We saw the house where the 12 children of Alexander and Jane McClintock McKee were born (it is used as a cowshed now, and a nice new house stands in front of it). Aaron and his wife, Una, live across the road – a lovely couple – and we correspond with them.
According to my records, the 12 children of Alexander McKee (1802-1879) and Jane McClintock McKee were:
- James (b.1839)
- Margaret (b.1841) – married ? Bow?
- Elizabeth (b. 1843) married Robert Boyd
- Etain (b. 1845)
- Ellen (b. 1847)
- John (b.1849)
- Charles (1852-1909) married Margaret Boyd (1865-1944) – grandparents of the Aaron who is married to Una
- Aaron McClintock (b. 1855)
- Alexander (b. 1856)
- Andrew (b. 1859)
- Ralph (b. 1861)
- Samuel (b. 1863)
If you can fill in more dates, I would be grateful.
James (age 25) and Elizabeth (age 20) arrived in New South Wales on Jan. 18, 1864, on the “Ocean Empress”, and settled in the Broughton Creek area of NSW. Aaron (age 20) and Alexander (age 19) arrived in NSW Feb. 15, 1876, on the “Earl Dalhousie”. Alexander joined James at Broughton Creek, but Aaron went north to Bathurst where he married Emilie Hood in 1880. Her father, John Hood, had a station (farm) near Bathurst.
I would like very much to have information about the McKees who settled in Canada and the US. And what is the story about the first cousins marrying? What were their names? I’ll trade you for the story about how we found the cousins in Donegal! Also if you are interested I can fill you in on the subsequent generations of the family of Aaron McClintock McKee (1855) and Emily Hood McKee. The whole thing is made a bit more confusing by the fact that the same first names recur in each generation – it’s almost necessary to put the birthdate with each name.
And what about your family? I was born in Australia but moved to the US at age 3. I’m married to Bob Evans, who is half Welsh and half Norwegian, and we have 4 grown children and 4 grandchildren.
I’ll look forward to hearing from you again, and hope we can share some information about the elusive McKees!
All the best,
Jennifer
From: Jennifer
To: Bill McKee
Subject: Re: Info on the McKee Migration – Canada Connection.
Sent: October 18, 2008
Hello, Bill –
It is nice to make your acquaintance! Andy has forwarded a couple of your e-mails, but I didn’t know where you were on the family tree. (Incidentally, I still don’t know where Andy fits in, except as a grandson of Andrew who went to Pittsburgh.) I will have to sit down with paper and pencil and digest all the information you sent, and then add it to my computerized tree.
My grandfather was Aaron McClintock McKee, born 1855, one of the 12 children of Alexander and Jane McClintock McKee. My mother was his daughter, Olive Ruth McKee, born in Bathurst, NSW. I was born in Sydney, NSW. On Olive’s birth certificate, which I have, it lists her father’s place of birth as “near Ardara, Co. Donegal”. Note: Ardara is pronounced “ArdRAH”, leaving out the 2nd syllable and coming down hard on the 3rd syllable, so it sounds very much like “Armagh”, which is pronounced “ArMAH”.
I found on the Internet in Griffith’s Land Valuation for Co. Donegal for 1857 that Alexander McKee leased quite a valuable (compared to his neighbors) piece of land near Ardara. A couple of years ago my husband, Bob, and I were in Ireland on a short study course, and when we finished the course we rented a car and drove up to Ardara to see what (or who) we could find. After much inquiry in the small town we were directed to the homes of two brothers, Raymond and Aaron McKee, who lived “out Loughros Point Road” a mile or so from town, still on the same piece of land, although I think the family had added some acreage over the years, and then recently sold some for new housing. We met Raymond first, and he showed us the house where my grandfather was born, which is now used as a cow barn, a nice new house having been built nearby now that prosperity (and the EU) have come to Ireland. He directed us across the road to Aaron’s house. Aaron is retired and is interested in family connections, and he and his wife Una were most gracious and welcoming They gave us tea and then took us for a lovely drive around the area, to the pebble beach nearby, and also to the cemetary where the McKees have been buried since before 1790. I think they were part of the Ulster Plantation of James I of England and VI of Scotland (early to mid-17th century). Aaron, Raymond and I are 2nd cousins. (Lesly and I are 1st cousins.)
We visited Aaron and Una again the next day, and have kept in touch since. They had been to Australia the year before and met Dr. John McKee, who has also done some work on the family tree, but none of the Australia McKees seem to know about the migration to Pittsburgh and subsequently to Canada, and John McKee did not know anything about my grandfather except that he had sailed to Australia. Bit by bit we’re putting it all together, and every now and then a new piece of the puzzle falls into place. I had known that my mother’s family had origins in Ireland, but what I did not know was that they were definitely SCOTCH-IRISH, determinedly Protestants, still not completely assimilated into Donegal Irish! One of them was one of the founders of the Methodist chapel in Ardara, in the early 19th century.
I can print out a copy of what I have for the family tree and send it to you if you would like to see it.
Bob and I were in Nova Scotia several years ago – attended an Elderhostel program in Shelburne, and spent a day or so in Halifax – had a very nice time. It’s such a beautiful place.
Thank you for sharing your information. I just wish we could put more personalities to some of these names! Anyway, we’ll keep digging and see who else we can find!
All the best,
Jennifer
From: Jennifer
To: Marg and Barry McKee
Subject: McKee family
Sent: October 23, 2008
Hello, Marg and Barry –
Thank you for your e-mail and the photo, and query from Jack Devitt. The name Devitt is woven all through the McKee saga.
I was interested to see where you fit in on the Family Tree, and I shall fill in some of the blanks with the information you sent. This is turning into a fascinating exploration! I just wish we could add personalities to some of these names. The McKees we met near Ardara were very nice, and Una and Aaron most welcoming and friendly. FYI: Loughros Point is a long narrow peninsula reaching out into the sea, beginning just outside Ardara. It is a beautiful green landscape, hilly, with little narrow roads and widely separated houses – originally mostly farm houses, I think, but now there are some retired people living there, and some other non-farmers. The beach we visited along the seashore is not sandy, but is covered with mostly white and a few black perfectly round small rocks. I brought one little one back with me for a keepsake.
Incidentally, if you Google “Ulster Plantation” you’ll get more information than you ever wanted on the subject! According to material I got from the internet, the McKees are part of the Clan McCay, or McKie, of Sutherland, in Scotland. There was a later migration of McCays (etc.) from Scotland at the beginning of the 19th century, when the Countess of Sutherland decided that she wanted to raise sheep, so she had her rather obnoxious overseer run all of the McCay farmers off their land and burned their houses. There was much bitterness engendered, as you might imagine, and now there are very few of the clan in Sutherland. I think our McKees were already in Ireland, comfortably settled on Loughros Point, long before the Countess’ expulsion of the remaining farmers.
Vancouver is a lovely city. Bob and I were there and Victoria doing a tour of gardens a couple of years ago, and we really enjoyed it.
It’s nice to find some more cousins! Do keep in touch.
All the best,
Jennifer
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