Background by Barry

In March 2019, Deb sent me an article The Early History of McKeesport reprinted from the “Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine”, Jan 1930. This contained interesting McKee family  history, but as their location in Ireland was  not mentioned, I assumed it was not Donegal.

But Deb notes that in The Book of McKee, the McKeesport family is from Scotland via Donegal. It quotes the “History of Allegheny County”; “There were few in which courage, constancy, and prudence were so happily blended as in David McKee.  If the traditions of the family may be credited, he removed from Scotland to County Donegal, in the early part of the 18th century. Persecution followed him thither, and about the middle of the century, with several brothers, he migrated to America, where they settled near Philadelphia.”

 I found a third reference in The First One Hundred Years of McKeesport. This booklet, by Abbott and Harrison, is subtitled “An Historical and Statistical Description of the City from its Inception until its Centennial in 1894”. Like the other references, the  early history of McKee’s Ferry and McKeesport is described, but in this case, the McKee family history is described in more detail.

Quoting from page 10: About the beginning of the eighteenth century, David McKee, with his family, moved from Scotland to the Protestant settlement in the north of Ireland, setting near Londonderry. But Persecution followed the Presbyterians and about the middle of the century he was forced to seek a new home. He came to America in company with several bothers and found In the Province of Pennsylvania what he said he long had sought: “a church without a  bishop; a state without a king.”

I have looked at Griffiths Valuation (1857) for McKee families in Donegal near Londonderry and see a family David McKee in Muff Townland, Muff Parish. Is this the McKeesport family? Seems likely, so I include some maps including Muff and surroundings. And recently, I  have been in contact with Jo McKee from New Zealand who has an autosomal  DNA match with the McKeesport McKees. Her family is from Limavady across the Foyle river from Muff. 

What an exciting family!