Hello,
I'm not sure that I am in the correct web location, but I am looking for my great, great, great grandfather, William McKinney, who claimed on every US census he was in that he was born in Ireland around 1792 - 1795. I suspect, but have not been able to document that his father was Robert McKinney. I have searched every where I know to search for when they arrived in the US or when they left Ireland. I have no idea where in Ireland they lived before leaving.
William McKinney married a widow with two children who was living in Belmont county, Ohio, on February 25, 1825. The marriage took place in Belmont county, Ohio. His wife's name is Susanah Hardesty. The last name of Hardesty was her first husband's last name. He died on July 1, 1814 in Belmont county. She lived in Belmont county, near her in-laws until she married William. A Robert McKinney, also born in Ireland with no paper trail from Ireland is living in Belmont county in 1820 with several children at least one of whom was William's age. The census in 1820 only contained the male's name and simply head counts of those living with him, but no names.
Please let me know if there is a better location within your web site to present this information and, if this is what you are looking for in the first place.
I greatly appreciate your very kind assistance with my request. I would enjoy nothing as much as finding a solid connection in Ireland or wherever the family is today.
Thank you for your web site and your offer of assistance.
Jim McKinney
Retired833
Sunday 13th Jan 2019, 11:16PMMessage Board Replies
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Jim,
You can use this site to see where the surname McKinney was most prevalent in Ireland in the mid 1800s:
https://www.johngrenham.com/surnames/
You’ll see that it was almost exclusively found in the counties of Ulster, in the north of Ireland. Most of the McKinneys in Ireland are descended from Scots who settled in Ireland in the 1600s. You haven’t said what denomination your ancestor was but if he was Presbyterian – as I suspect he may have been - then that also indicates Scottish roots.
McKinney is the same name as McKenzie in Scotland. As I understand it, McKinney is how the name was originally pronounced in Scotland but the spelling experts there decided to spell it with a “z” because there is no “y” in Gaelic and eventually this led to the name being pronounced differently. But that’s its origins.
So I would expect your family to have probably come from the counties of Antrim, Down or Derry.
Researching in Ireland in the 1700s is very hard going due to the general lack of records. If you don’t know where they lived it’s a needle in a haystack. Ideally you need to know the person’s exact denomination and the townland or parish they lived in to have any chance of finding them, and even then there may not be any records for that location.
Possibly DNA testing may be a way of matching with others who have additional information about where the family originate. Family Tree DNA reportedly has more people with Ulster roots than any other company. That obviously increases the chances of finding a match. You might want to try them or, if you have already tested, you can transfer your results to them for no fee.
The North of Ireland Family History Society is running an Ulster DNA project and can offer FTDNA testing kits at a reduced price. http://www.nifhs.org (Go to DNA project on the website).
Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘
Monday 14th Jan 2019, 12:13AM