Background by Barry McKee
In 2008, I learned about my second cousins in Australia and family roots near Ardara, Co. Donegal. We visited the family farm in 2013, and I resolved to collect and preserve our family history. This website is the result – but what to name it? I asked family to help pick a name (McKee Family from Ardara, from Loughros Point, or from Donegal, I recall) and the favorite was McKee Family from Donegal, which has set my direction since then.
I now think most McKee families originate from the McKie clan in Minnigaff Parish, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. Looking at Griffith’s Valuation for Ireland in 1857, the majority (45%) of McKee/McKie families lived in County Down (closer to Kirkcudbrightshire, better farming – see map) and about 2% in County Donegal. The other County fractions were 19% in Armagh, 17% in Antrim, 9% in Londonderry, 4% in Monaghan, and 0.2% in Fermanagh. (See Table below). By this date, the majority of Scots-Irish McKee families would have emigrated, but probably the county fractions would stay similar through time. So I expect us Donegal McKee families to be a small fraction (perhaps 2%} of the total.
McKee/McKie Families in Ulster Counties – 1857
| Counties in Ulster | Antrim | Armagh | Donegal | Down | Fermanagh | Londonderry | Monaghan | Tyrone | Total |
| McKie /McKee Families | 164 | 179 | 15 | 435 | 2 | 84 | 34 | 49 | 962 |
| Fraction (%) | 17.0 | 18.6 | 1.6 | 45.2 | 0.2 | 8.7 | 3.5 | 5.1 | 100 |
Sometimes We see items which are not from Donegal families, but nice to mention. So in 2020, with Deb’s encouragement, I have added a new page Non-Donegal McKee Families and put it under the Roots tab.
Item 1 – Non-Donegal Page, November 2020
Deb found these three interesting McKee family letters from 1916. They are written by S.M. McKee, Lewistown, Pennsylvania, John W. McKee, Wooster, Ohio, and Samuel McKee, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Letter 1 from S.M to J.W is full of family history. In Letter 2, J.W. replied that they were likely fourth cousins, both families going back to Andrew McKee from County Down, Ireland. Letter 3 is from Samuel McKee, wring about his family in Kalamazoo, Michigan, which he had traced back to his great-grandfather, John, born 1754 in County Down, Ireland.
“For a period of ten years I wrote to every McKee whose address I could obtain throughout the length and breadth of the U.S., asking co-operation in the McKee picnic Association of Southwestern Michigan. The result of letters sent out by me is, that the lines of the McKee Association have been extended beyond our own father’s family circle; notably among the added circle being James McKee end family of Row Ann, Ind., John McKee and family of Kokomo, Ind,, Nelson McKee, his brother and their families of Luna, Ind., Wm. E. McKee of Sturgis, Mich., and Darwin McKee and family of Decatur, Mich.”
Item 2 – Non-Donegal Page Nov 2020 – Judith Burns’ Website
Judith started her local and family history as a paper version in1990, and as a website in 2004: http://www.maxinkuckee.history.pasttracker.com/index.htm
Deb noticed Judith’s Website and was impressed with the diligence of her genealogy, I contacted Judith if was OK to mention her website here. She replied:
“Yes you can – also I have done a lot of work on GENI on all the McKee branches – I have tried to keep them accurate there as many have dumped stuff in from FamilySearch and Ancestry and have tried to link them all up as one big happy family – trying to keep the branches separate has proven to be a nightmare and a challenge.”
So thanks and keep up your good work, Judith! Click the button below for a few pages of her (non-Donegal) McKee Genealogy.