Background by Barry
Michael Barr noticed our Website McKee Family from Donegal in early 2016 and contacted me. Mike is an Ohio descendent of families allied together in Donegal and subsequently in the USA, Australia and Canada, He had visited Donegal in 1996, looking at Boyd church records and taking pictures at Kilcashel Cemetery, including Andrew McKee – born 1695, died 1790. Mike was wondering if Jane McKee, married to his ancestor, Moses Blain, was a daughter of this Andrew McKee? Our McKee history 300 years ago is fuzzy, but Mike has been an ongoing help and encouragement. He suggested Deb look at McKee/McKie birth records in Minnigaff Parish, Kirkcudbrightshire County, and he has knowledge of family history from several allied American families including Nancy Leinweber’s book on Robert Boyd’s family. Mike also notes that many of our allied families are found together earlier in Galloway. All exciting family history!
Story and Photos by Michael
In 1996, I (Michael Barr) and my mom, Doyce, set off on an extended trip to Ireland and Great Britain. I had seen copies of the Boyd letters in the Ohio University library archive at Athens and knew from the heading “Loughros Point” that Albert Boyd and his family were from this peninsula just next to Ardara, Ireland, in County Donegal. (These archives are now on-line; click here, for example, to see the journal of Margaret Boyd, first female graduate and namesake of Boyd Hall at Ohio University) My ancestor, Robert Boyd’s son, Daniel, came first to Coshocton County, Ohio, in 1819. His parents, Robert and Jane Ramsey Boyd, soon followed. Robert Boyd’s parents, Albert Boyd and his wife Blain, probably had died by 1820 or were left behind. I was in search of Albert, so mom and I spent about a week at a B&B in Ardara. Albert Boyd’s family were included in the 1920 Boyd history of our family and the first ten pages of that history “One Hundred Years in America” is available here as a PDF file.
From the B&B, I could see Loughros Point, a long narrow strip of land with mountains to the south and long rolling hills to the north. I felt like a piece of me belonged here. I went exploring and drove out the one lane road. Next I found Kilcashel cemetery, just full of Boyd tombstones. The pictures below include twelve general photos plus many cemetery pictures grouped into families – Blain (1), Boyd (23), Dunleavy (1), Given (1), Lockhart (3), Long (1), McKee (2), Morrow (3), and Richie (1).
As I was working to take these pictures, a man named John Morrow asked me what I was doing. I was quick to let him know that I was a Boyd descendant, looking for Albert. John Morrow was the son of Rebecca Morrow, also a Boyd researcher. I spent one morning at Rebecca’s home talking about Boyds on Loughros Point. Rebecca had never heard of Albert Boyd. She must have been a great wealth of oral history for the Devitt-Boyd books. I learned many years later that John Morrow and his mother Rebecca were my Boyd cousins, descendants of Hugh Boyd and his wife Ann Morrow. The Morrows, like the Blains, are intermarried into the Boyd family over several different generations. This Hugh Boyd was a brother of Robert Boyd, my ancestor, both sons of Albert Boyd, according to the 1920 Boyd history. I could not find any reference to my Albert Boyd on Loughros Point, but all the associated family names from my research at Keene Methodist church, Keene, Ohio, were buried in this small plot of land at Kilcashel cemetery. Here were the Blains, Boyds, and McKees, all resting peacefully. Kilcashel was a location of an early Church of Ireland; cashel is the Gaelic word for church. This was most likely the burial ground for one of the early Inishkeel parish church of Ireland. The remains of a small rock wall are below this cemetery; it might have been a chapel of ease, meaning a church building other than the parish church. See picture 7 below.
Albert Boyd and his Blain wife do not have any tombstones at Kilcashel. However Albert Boyd’s father, Hugh Boyd has a rough-cut stone marker is located here; he died at the age of 77. See pictures Boyd 22 and Boyd 23 below. The year of his death has been cut off for the next grave. I found this stone to be similar in style to the marker of Andrew McKee, who died in 1790 at age 95. Hugh Boyd’s death year was probably 1776, taken from the baptism record of Hugh and Catherine Boyd’s son Hugh in 1699 at Inishkeel parish, Donegal county. I believe this Hugh Boyd was first of our Boyd line that was born in Ireland. This line is proven between the Boyd 1920 History and finding Hugh Boyd line on Loughros Point. According to the 1920 Boyd book Robert Boyd b 1758 had a brother Hugh Boyd who had two sons Hugh jr and Robert. Robert migrated to Australia. This Robert is better known as Rev Robert Boyd the Methodist. There are early photos of this Robert about 1867 at his house in Laccaduff, and later with his wife Catherine in Derry, NSW, Australia. His tombstone is shown below, right.
A descendant of this line’s autosomal DNA matched mine. Mr. Diggins from down under reached out to me about our match. Our autosomal DNA confirmed our genetic connection and our paper trail proved out the Boyd line. The 1920 Boyd history has provided a missing link in the Devitt Boyd books. His tree should be corrected to add Albert. The first known Boyds of Loughros Point are Hugh and wife Catherine Boyd, the 2nd generation is Hugh jr (b 1699 d 1776), the third generation is Henry and Albert Boyd, and the fourth generation is Robert (b 1758), Hugh (married Ann Morrow), Nannie (married McCrea), and Florence (who died young).
Like Albert, Henry Boyd has faded out of memory, but deeds pertaining to his lands provides some insight into his daughters. Henry was an early landowner at Drumirren.
My pictures below are shown “thumbnail” size, with titles for each. Click on a thumbnail to open the picture full size, and see a description giving more detail.
