Intro by Barry
In 2014, Debra Sutherland notice the similarity in first names between her Charles McKee (born 1764, Ireland, married Margaret Lockhart about 1787, Ireland) and my Alexander McKee(born Loughros Point, 1802). Was this coincidence? We thought not, and DNA testing confirmed a close relationship. This was an extension in space (USA) and time (18th century) of my family, and I added a new USA Section for Deb’s Family and a section for our DNA Results.
In October, 2015, Deb visited her new McKee family in Donegal, and uncovered a line on Andrew McKee’s grave marker giving his age at death as 95. Thank you, Deb, and thanks also to Aaron, Una, Sadie and Raymond for welcoming Deb as part of our family. Here is Debra’s story, with pics!
Debra’s Donegal Trip, Oct, 2015
I am writing to tell about my recent trip to Ardara, Ireland. I left on Tuesday Oct 20th from St George, Utah, and flew to Salt Lake City and had dinner with my daughter Jen. I then caught the redeye to New York City, and when I arrived I rented a day room at the Sheraton. I then got up and left my hotel at 4:30pm and headed over to the airport for my redeye flight to Dublin.
I got into Dublin at 10:30 am and rented a car and started my trip to Ardara. Well actually, I had reserved a room at a B&B in Glenties which is about 10km north of Ardara; I got a bit lost and ended up in Omagh, Northern Ireland, but then got back on track and made it to my B&B about 4:30pm. I decided to take it easy for the evening since I had arranged to meet with Una and Aaron McKee on Saturday. I went up a few doors to the Highland Hotel and got a bite to eat – Fish & Chips of course – you can’t go to the UK and not get Fish & Chips! They have live music there every night and so I stayed for the music and got to video a bit of it. I will put that together in a video and send a copy. I thoroughly enjoyed myself but with the changes in time, decided to call it an early night at 10pm and went back to my room.
Friday morning I got up ready for a full day of genealogy research, but awoke to a typical Irish weather day -it was raining. I thought I would drive down the road a bit to an old cemetery I had seen on my way in, but the weather proved it not to be a good idea, so I decided to make my way back to the St. Connell’s Historical building in Glenties. I wanted to get some advice as to what sort of records I might find in the area. I spoke with a lovely couple there and the lady asked me what surnames I was looking for – I told her McKee’s and Lockhart’s. She lit up when I said Lockhart and announced that she knew I was a Lockhart as I was a spitting image of Georgina Lockhart from Loughros Point, as they had gone to school together. When I got home, I spoke with Roberta, Georgina’s sister and learned that they had indeed attended school in Glenties. So that was fun; I had not seen a picture of any Lockhart’s so it is nice to know I bear a family resemblance to them! Who knew?
They steered me to the Historical Center in Ardara where I met Pauric Gallagher. He gave me the link to their webcast where they have discussions on family history http://donegalsounds.com/index.html .
His son is the mastermind of their webpages. He informed me that the farthest back they have records in the town are from the mid 1800’s which since my gr grand dad Charles left around 1790 does me no good. But it was fun to talk to him, and exchange some information with him. I gave him the link to extreme genes which is a genealogy radio show that I found and have enjoyed listening to, getting some good ideas on how to do more family history research. They have archives of old shows that you can go listen to for free and so he was excited to learn about that. He sent me up the road to talk to Mrs. Young at her son’s store, but she was hard of hearing and really didn’t know much about the McKee’s of Loughros Point.
I then went down the road past the sign for Loughros Point to a little shop that sold knits and tweeds but didn’t purchase much – a book and some trinkets. I called Una and Aaron while I was in town to set up a time to meet on Saturday left a message that I had made it that far. I wasn’t having much luck on the genealogy side of things so decided to drive the 22 km to Donegal town. I did some shopping for trinkets to take home and found an interesting history book on Donegal County so I purchased that as well. I then grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to my B&B in Glenties as I had ordered some cute door plaques for the grandkids from Custom Carvings in Glenties and he had called me around noon letting me know they were ready.
Upon reaching Brennan’s B&B I learned that Aaron and Una had called, so I called them back and we arranged to meet at the Catholic Church in Ardara so that I could follow them out to their home on Loughros Point for a visit. I got my plaques and then headed out to Ardara and met up with Aaron and Una and had a lovely visit with them in their home. There isn’t much mention of us actually being related though they did see some resemblances from family pictures that I took with me on Saturday on my iPad. We arranged to meet on Saturday at noon and I headed back to my B&B around 7:30 pm. It had been a long day so I decided to stay in and just eat some snacks I had picked up from the local market. I then spent most of the evening downloading pictures for my visit with the McKee’s from my McKee Facebook page. I also did some texting with my kids and sent some pictures of my B&B and the area. I didn’t do a lot of picture taking, but I did get a few nice ones that I will send you copies.
On Saturday, before heading to the McKee’s, I set out to Ardara to see if I could locate a copy of the Dearcadh; The Ardara View, 2013-2014, 30th anniversary year book. The Brennan’s had a copy of it at their B&B and I wanted a copy and found it at the Post office in Ardara for 10 euros. It is a fun book where they tell stories of times past and the goings on of the community for the past year or two. I am happy I was able to find a copy. I then went over to the McKee’s and was excited to meet Aaron’s older sister Sadie, although her given name is, I believe Sarah, and Aaron had informed me the night before that his given name was actually Alexander Charles McKee, a name that has gone down from father to son.
Of course as genealogy goes, with every answer there always seems to arise a dozen new questions! Thus was the case with my visit to Loughros Point. Sadie brought along her copy of the book Corkerbeg to Cuyahoga & Kiama by Allan Angus Munro, and I’ve also found a copy of that book on the web. It says our Alexander McKee (born 1802) had three sisters: Bess, married to “Big George” Cooke; Alice, married to John Devitt; and Susan, married to Andrew Devitt. Recently Barry found a record of a will from Alexander McKee, died 1765 Lackaugh (or Lackagh) townland, Would he be the father of Andrew, buried 1790 in Kilcashel cemetery, about 10 km distance?
On Saturday the sun broke through and we jumped in the car and ran out to Kilcashel Cemetery. I was able to pull back the grass at the bottom edge of Andrew McKee’s grave and lo and behold the age I so hoped to find. Andrew McKee died in 1790, age 95 years old. YAY! I was also able to take a picture of Alexander McKee’s entire headstone with the name of his son Charles and his wife buried there as well.
I wish, like John Devitt, I had been able to visit with Billy Boyd; we drove past his home but he passed away in 2012, so I missed that opportunity. I was sad that the Lockhart family were away on holiday during my time in Ireland so I was not able to visit with them. Just after getting pictures of the headstones, and we entered the car the Heavens burst open again for a big downpour with hail in it! Just in the nick of time we got in the car!
The McKee’s then took me down to the tip of Loughros Point where Sadie and I got out of the car in search of a small white stone for me to take home from Loughros Point, I didn’t find a very small stone but I got one but sadly forgot to grab it from the back seat of my rental car. We then continued a tour of the peninsula on the south side and then they took me down to see Portnoo.
The day got sunnier and we had a lovely visit, I felt as if I were visiting family I had always known. It was such a fun day. They then took me to a little Cafe next to the historical building in Ardara for a lovely meal of Fish & Chips – the best I had on the entire trip! We then went back to the McKee’s and Sadie and I slipped over the Raymond’s to meet him. I was happy to hear him admit to Sadie that I had a look of Aunt Ellen! Yet another family resemblance!
I was amazed to see my own grandfathers cheeky smirk on the face of my new-found cousin Raymond McKee; it was quite uncanny. We went back to Aaron and Una’s to get into my rental car only for it not to start, had a longer visit with them during the hour I waited for the Road side service to arrive and start the car right up. I guess it must have gotten wet during the day and the extra hour gave it time to dry up enough to be started. Electric cars – go figure!
I had such a lovely time, I said my goodbyes and went back to my B&B and then about 9:30 am headed back to Dublin. I had a lovely trip enjoying the beauty of Ireland and then after arriving there around 3:30 called and spoke with Conall Cannon, the man that gave me the link to this McKee Family from Donegal website. He and I have exchanged several e-mails over the past two years so it was nice to meet him and his wife Catherine – we had a lovely visit. He is a very nice man originally from Donegal County. He has been a great help whenever I have questions about finding information in Ireland and has promised to go over to the Archives in Dublin to see if he can get a copy of the will for Alexander McKee of 1765 as well as search for anything on our Andrew who died in 1690. I am hoping he will be able to find something there. I told him that I was told there weren’t copies to be found, but I am grateful for his willingness to do some of the leg work for me. He is suffering with Cancer treatment right now but was eager to help.
As an airline employee I was travelling on standby status; flights out of Dublin were busy because of the holiday weekend (Halloween) and there was a marathon in Dublin, so I took an Aer Lingus flight over to London and flew out of there on the 5:45pm flight on Monday the 21st to New York City. I spent the night in NYC and then flew back to Salt Lake City and then down to St George, Utah getting in by 2:30pm so not too bad!
The trip was a big success; I learned a lot (including Andrew’s age) and totally enjoyed my trip. I look forward to going again someday!
Debra