Background by Barry and Deb, Dec 2020
Craig McKee has been tracing his McKee and Hutchinson family histories for several years now. He was in touch with Deb, who told him about this McKee Family from Donegal website. Craig had traced his McKee family to Andrew, born 1802, Donegal, but was not certain beyond that.
Deb described her search for McKee family connections in her introduction for her 2017 webpage Early Settlers in S.W. Pennsylvania :
“I set out with the idea of finding evidence that these 3 McKee families were related. I met first Mike Barr who now lives in Coshocton, Ohio. He told us about McKees in Coshocton from Donegal.
I then met Craig McKee who has a gr – – gr grandfather, Andrew McKee, born in 1802 in Donegal Ireland, who also came to Coshocton, Ohio. Craig’s grandpa was born in 1802 and Barry McKee’s grandfather, Andrew, was born Loughros Point, 1858. To make it more interesting my Charles had a son, Andrew McKee, who was also born in 1802 in Pennsylvania. So we have 3 McKee families from county Donegal having sons Andrew. Of course, Andrew McKee is special, as there is a grave marker for Andrew McKee – born in 1695 and buried in 1790 at Kilcashel Cemetery, Loughros Point, Co. Donegal!
Three years ago, I had decided to have my cousin Thomas Gerard McKee Y-DNA tested. Shortly after this, I saw Barry’s McKee Family from Donegal family website. I wrote to Barry and we compared notes: my Charles and his Alexander had named many of their children with the same given names. Barry did DNA testing to match Tom’s and they came out with a 108/111 match – meaning Tom and Barry have a 50% probability of having a common ancestor within about 6 generations. But Y-DNA changes are random through the generations so this match108/111 is also consistent with a 1 % probability of 14 generations between a common ancestor.
This year, Craig has just done a Y-DNA Test and matches Tom at 108/111 and Barry at 107/111 also indicating a 1% chance of having a common ancestor within 14 generations. This is an exciting result because it confirms the link between our Loughros Point and Malin More McKee families.
Another key in our McKee family history is John Cochran. John has McKee/Love connections who came to Coshocton Ohio from Malin More and the Love family kept records of their history. See John’ s book if you haven’t read it already!“
The Love family has been extra good in preserving their history and we say Thanks to them and John Cochran here.
Deb and Mike have been pointing us to the M’Kie clan in Minnigaff Parish, Kirkudbrightshire, Scotland and we now have a new and growing new section – Exploring McKee Roots in Galloway, Scotland. Scottish family records are more numerous than Irish and many are now available transcribed and indexed on the website – https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/search-our-records .
For example, access to Parish records in Minnigaff, including Baptisms and Marriages go back to 1695.
The only Andrew McKie baptized in 1695 in Kirkcudbrightshire was in Minnigaff Parish to father Andrew – so probably the first born son! Is this our Andrew buried Kilcashel? This seems very likely The mother in this birth is not named, so probably she died at birth. And we see this baby Andrew given the second name Thomas.
The list of Marriages with groom Andrew McKie shows him marrying Isobell McLroy in 1696 – this would likely be a second marriage after the death of his first wife.
Looking at Baptisms again with father Andrew McKie and any child, the third entry is – son Thomas McKie, father Andrew, mother Isobell McLroy, born Minnigaff Parish 1700.
So we have Andrew and Thomas McKie, Stepbrothers in Minnigaff in 1700! Were these two the Kilcashel Andrew and the Malin More Thomas? I think that is very likely; we already know there is a close genetic link between the two families. So you and I are about 14th cousins, Craig – but all part of this amazing McKie/McKee family!
Enough background – time for information from Craig! Here is a button to access the first part of Craig’s work: