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Genealogy Notes
Email received, and other notes regarding the McGehee family
Most of these are from Kevin McGehee's email
list and are in reverse date order
To view a map showing the distribution of McGehees in America, click here.
06/14/1998
Hi Stephen,
I made it down to Greensboro yesterday afternoon, and they now have a guarded gated
entrance to the lakefront community where your ancestors are buried. I did persuade the
manager at the sales office to allow me inside for a few minutes. Took me a while to find
the site again after so long, and the fact they have built a golf course nearby and the
old road I used is now overgrown. I did succeed, and cleared the stones off again and took
a few photographs. Apparently, a huge tree has fallen across Mary's grave, breaking her
stone and "reshaping" the iron fence at her end of the enclosure. This must have
occurred
two or three years ago. Vandals have made off with the gate to the enclosure, as well as
most of the iron fence decorations. A real shame in my mind.
Don't know if there are any kinfolk in this area or even in Georgia who would be
interested, but it seems a shame these graves are being destroyed, if not by man, by
nature and neglect. If these were in my family, I would hope we would take some action to
repair the damage, and clean up the site. Othewise, these graves will be totally
unreadable within another few years. I would have replaced the stones myself, and in fact
I tried to do just that, but they were far too heavy for me to move alone. It would take
at least three or four strong people (I started to say guys - sorry). Also, there are two
distinct depressions at one end of the rectangular enclosure which I am certain are also
graves, whose stones were either stolen or never had markers. Perhaps very young
children?? Anyway, it would be nice if some folks could go down there and take a
weedwhacker and pruning shears, and maybe a portable welding torch to repair the fence and
generally improve things. I can't afford to do this myself, whether for my own family or
someone elses, but I would be glad to go down and point the way and pitch in if there is
an interest among McGehees.
Best wishes,
Reg Smith
06/09/1998
Colleen McGhee received the attached, which clears up the usual doubt that
surrounds dates of birth and death in the earlier years of our family. I've
updated the Thomas Mackgehee descendants tree to reflect the dates found on
these four grave markers. Reg Smith deserves our thanks.
Kevin McGehee
North Pole, Alaska
mcgehee@mosquitonet.com
http://www.mosquitonet.com/~mcgehee/mcgehees.htm
-----Original Message-----
From: cmcghee@ahab.wellesley.edu <cmcghee@ahab.wellesley.edu>
To: mcgehee@mosquitonet.com <mcgehee@mosquitonet.com>
Date: Tuesday, June 09, 1998 7:46 AM
Subject: McGehee gravestone inscriptions
Kevin,
Hi, I got the following information a few days ago. I figured there were so many of us by
now that it was sure to be helpful to someone! I thought maybe you could send it to the
latest group of McGehee researchers you've compiled, or put it on the web page, or
something. I think it's so neat that this guy did this without having any connection to
the McGehees at all. Genealogists are the best!
Colleen
------- Forwarded Message
Date: Sun, 07 Jun 1998 04:45:47 -0400
From: Reg Smith <rsmith@athens.net>
To: mcghee@astrosun.tn.cornell.edu
Subject: James McGehee in Georgia
Dear Colleen:
I was working in a very rural area in Putnam County Georgia on June 2, 1992, when I
literally stumbled across an ancient family cemetary, with four markers. I struggled to
climb into the old iron enclosure and cleaned some of the overgrowth enough to count the
stones and with an old rotten stick, rubbed the engravings to the point I could read them.
I transcribed them verbatim and later entered it all in my computer. Now, many years
later, I found the old file. At the time I had no idea how to contact anyone to share this
with, but thanks to the Internet, today we have the means.
There may be more graves in the enclosure, but they were unmarked. These four have large,
marble stones. They are apparently a family, husband, wife and two children. The following
are copied EXACTLY as I found them, to the punctuation
and placement of the lettering:
Grave 1:
Sacred
to the Memory of
MARY GREENE
daughter of Micajah Johns:
who was born March 1777
and was married to James McGehee
in her 19th year,
and to the Rev. Myles Greene
in her 58th year,
and died Oct. 1st, 1849
in her 73rd year.
----------------
grave 2:
Sacred
to the Memory of
JAMES McGEHEE
Son of
James and Mary McGehee
who was born
October 17th, 1801
and died March the 5th, 1829
------------------------------
grave 3:
Sacred
to the Memory of
MARY ANN McGEHEE
Daughter of
James and Mary McGehee
who was born
May the 23rd, 1816
and died August 19th, 1828
----------------------------
grave 4:
Sacred
to the Memory of
JAMES McGEHEE
Son of
Micajah & Nancy McGehee
who was born Nov. 26th, 1770
and died May 16th, 1826
AGED 55 YEARS, 5 MONTHS, & 21 DAYS
------------------------------------------------
I have always thought that someone somewhere would be interested to have this information.
I had no idea how to find someone in either of these families. Hope you will be able and
willing to pick this up adn forward it to others who may be related to these people.
PLEASE let me know whatever you find out or who you contact who is interested. I'd love to
know the REST of this story.
I live about 60 miles north of this site. It was in an old seed orchard, near Lake Oconee,
near Greensboro, GA. Now I believe the property has been sold to developers who are
building luxury homes there, on the lake. I have no idea what may have happened to the
graves, or even if they know of them. If someone is seriously interested, I would be
willing to go down there and take some pictures or whatever...
Reginald Smith (Reg)
Perfect Pitch Restorations (Repairs of antique music boxes)
196 University Circle
Athens, Georgia 30605
706-543-1920
email: rsmith@athens.net
From: "joyce hetrick" <joyce@mev.net>
Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 15:35:01 -0500
In answer to Kevin's comments:
Since we know William (the immigrant) was unlikely to have arrived much
if
any before 1636 (few earlier arrivals survived) and that most arrivals were
teenagers and single people when they came (almost no indentures were
married) and since we know that he was born about 1618, we may reasonably
assume he got here sometime between 1636 and 1653 (when the indenture/land
patent was filed) We know from history, however, that many patents were not
filed until the 1653 year that dated from up to 20 years previously. Again,
we may make a reasonable assumption that he would have been a YOUNG man
when he arrived, that he worked off his indenture of about 7 years, was
freed and started working to secure a living for himself. We have no PROOF
that he married, but the area of residence, the rarity of the name, etc
would lead us to believe that he MAY have been the father or grandfather of
THOMAS and/or WILLIAM-the Quaker. who would have been born about the tiime
of the testimony in 1658. The dates are such, however, that there COULD
have been an interveening generation between WILLIAM-1 and William the
quaker and Thomas. At this point, we may only guess, with a reasonable
certainty the realtionships between William-1, William the Quaker and
Thomas of New Kent.
The ages of (birth dates) of Thomas and William the Quaker could range
from 1658 to several years earlier. With the KNOWN age of William-1, he
could have been having kids OR grandkids or BOTH at that date. Since we
know from history, that indentured people seldom were allowed to marry
until their indenture was complete, and that in early Virginia a man was
unlikely to find a wife until he had acumulated enough where-withal to
support her, we may reasonably assume that William-1 would have married
late in life, we may "guess" that William the Quaker and Thomas were more
likely to be sons than grandsons, and include the fact that there are no
records discovered at this time that show a generation between.
in other words, it is still much guess work.
Joyce
05/12/1998
Dan:
>The best I've been able to do is work back from Catherine, who married
>Thomas Butts on 2 Sep 1713. Assuming she was 15 when married, she must have
>been born by 1698, and that would mean that William must have been married
>by 1697. James married Rebecca Prewett on 9 Dec 1721, so that puts him
>born not later than 1699, and Samuel married Mary Lead (Ladd) on 19 Feb
>1722/3, making him born not later than 1701. If William married at 21, he
>would have to be born in 1676, but he may have been born earlier. Also, we
>know that William was a processioner in 1698, so he must have been born not
>later than 1677. I personally believe he was somewhat older than 21 when he
>married - say 25, which would make the birth date at 1672 or 14 years
>younger than Thomas, and if William was like a large majority of the men in
>my branch, he was closer to 30 when he married, or born in 1667!
Having married at 32 myself, I can relate. I do think it likely that, either
William was born earlier than currently put, or there would have to be more
siblings (perhaps sisters). Another possibility is that Thomas and his
brother were actually *half*-brothers -- that a tragedy, which is entirely
within the realm of possibility, made the original William a widower
sometime after Thomas' birth.
Most of what I've seen seems to place Catherine's birth in 1696, making her
17 -- or nearly there -- at her wedding in 1713. If William was born in
1675, this would make him 21 -- or nearly there -- at her birth, and not at
all an unlikely groom shortly before. Yet assuming Thomas' birthdate in 1658
we have William Mackgahye becoming a father at age 40, and Thomas becoming
the father of his own son William at 31 or so. While William Mackgahye would
be delayed by his servitude, the only delay Thomas should have had was in
establishing himself as a provider, which he seems to have begun fully ten
years before his son's birth. Since I'm now unsure of the DOB's of Thomas'
first two daughters, though, I can't say for sure that Thomas' efforts
weren't rewarded some years earlier. Yet where might his *younger* brother
have gotten the wherewithal to marry at an age at which Thomas was still
making himself eligible?
There are a number of possible answers -- a bequest from his father, or a
gift from his (by then) prospering brother -- but I think it most likely
William the Quaker probably was born at least a few years earlier than the
1675 most commonly offered. The logic is good. It'd be nice, though, if
there were some hard info to pin it to, even provisionally.
Kevin McGehee
North Pole, Alaska
mcgehee@mosquitonet.com
http://www.mosquitonet.com/~mcgehee/mcgehees.htm
05/11/1998
Cousins,
You can always tell a McGehee, but you can't tell him much. Once again I've
come to a conclusion some among you must already have come to about our
earliest American forebears.
If Ethel Grider's Volume I is correct in giving 1679 as a date for Thomas'
purchase of 150 acres in Pamunkey Neck, Virginia, I would think it highly
unlikely this would happen before he has reached legal adulthood. If this mark
was 21 years in those days (any info?) this means his likely latest DOB would
be in 1658.
Joyce Hetrick believes that if William Mackgahye were still indentured when he
testified in 1658 the court records would have identified him as a servant,
which it did not. Enough time lag is seen with respect to other land grants
even into the 1700s that William's 1653 headright listing could most certainly
have been recorded long after the fact. Sheila McGregor's article, "McGehees --
Lost Tribe of Clan Gregor?"
(http://www.mosquitonet.com/~mcgehee/LostTribe.html)
cryptically remarks that
William "seems" to have been in Virginia as early as 1649. If so, a seven-year
indenture would have expired in 1656, giving William sufficient time to get
himself set up, get married, etc., in time to be a father by 1658.
There is, however, a 17-year gap between Thomas' latest DOB and the DOB given
for William Mackgehee (the Quaker). I have not seen actual information pinning
down William's date of birth. Does anyone have such?
Kevin McGehee
North Pole, Alaska
mcgehee@mosquitonet.com
http://www.mosquitonet.com/~mcgehee/mcgehees.htm
05/07/1998
After all that noise I made about not knowing how to untangle one William's
descendants from another's, I look at my William tree and find a 14-year gap in
children's birthdates staring me in the face. Based on the information I have,
therefore, William McGehee, Jr., born about 1700 or 1702, is the last born
child of William Mackgehee, brother of Thomas. Mary McGehee, born about 1716,
now appears to be the firstborn of William McGehee, first son of Thomas.
The charts and narrative on my website now reflect this conclusion.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled Internet experience.
Kevin McGehee
North Pole, Alaska
mcgehee@mosquitonet.com
05/06/1998
Hi everyone.
Just wanted to let you know that Colleen has sent for Ransom McGeehee's
Union Civil War pension and received all 75 (SEVENTY-FIVE) pages of it. She
has shared some of the high points with me by e mail and is sending me a
copy by snail mail. We will compile this information and share with anyone
who is from the Osburn>John>Ransom lines. We have succeeded in tracing most
of the kids of John, all of the daughters and the one son of Osburn. I even
found two new daughters up in Mo that stayed there after Osburn and the
rest left. Jennie Campbell and I accidently found references to these two
daughters in the estate records of Osburn in Conway County when we were
going through the original records last summer. One married an Epps and one
married a Knighton. We also solidified WHY Osburn went to KY (his in-laws
were there) Found Anna's first husband's given name John Hood, and the
marriage in KY, found them on the 1830 census in MO near Osburn, and found
when Osburn went from KY to MO, 1818/19. So we have made some significant
progress in the Osburn line. Anyone interested in this line let me know and
will forward what we have so far.
Ransom's pension will make me need to go back and do a
"rewrite" on
several articles in my book, but that is great! new information is always
welcome.
Thanks for including me in your "private list"--- Joyce
Hetrick
Hello all!
Last night Josie Adams looked up the McGehee that I discovered was listed on
the World Family Tree CD, and It's not my great-grandfather -- more likely the
John Franklin McGehee on that CD is a contemporary of my own father. It may be
possible that he's related, though.
Woody "Jack" McGehee informs me he had an uncle named John Franklin McGehee who
was born some years before the one on the CD, and who passed away during the
1980s. I've been told of a John Franklin "McGhee" who could not have been my
great-grandfather but who did live in Missouri at a time that may have
coincided somewhat with my gg-father's childhood. The plot thickens.
Also, Colleen McGhee informs me that in addition to Josie and Dan who have the
WFT CDs, there is a website listing volunteers who have not only the WFT CDs
but many other archives as well, and will do free lookups. Turnaround time, she
says, runs anywhere from hours to a couple of days. The website URL is
http://www.seidata.com/~lhoffman/cdlist.html
One last thing: some of those whose names are on this mailing list are not
active participants in the ancestor search and may find the general message
volume heavier than they'd like. If so, I hope they'll let me know right away
so I can make some other arrangement for them. Thanks.
Kevin McGehee
North Pole, Alaska
mcgehee@mosquitonet.com
http://www.mosquitonet.com/~mcgehee/
I have accessed Tree #80 on World Family Tree Volume 5...John Franklin
McGehee was still alive when the tree was submitted. His wife Vivian
Katherine Carmical was also alive, but from her parent's birth and marriage
dates, I estimate that she was born about 1931. Vivian's family were from
the Decatur/Atlanta GA area.
05/04/1998
Cousins,
While perusing listings via WhoWhere (http://www.whowhere.com/) I came upon
that service's "ancestor finder" search engine, which looks for mentions of a
selected name in various archives. According to the search, there is an entry
for John Franklin McGehee (so spelled) in the World Family Tree Online, Tree
#80. However, to access this tree I would have to have Family Tree Maker and
pay an additional $19.95 for a subscription to the World Family Tree.
The tree is available on CD-ROM, however, and so I was wondering whether anyone
on my mailing list here, who uses FTM, also has the Volume 5 CD. If so, what
information can you find about the listed John Franklin McGehee?
If no one has the CD in question, I'll bite the bullet and buy the program and
CD myself, though searches for other associated names (like that of my
grandfather) came up empty, suggesting this John Franklin McGehee may be
unrelated to my great-grandfather. However, a search on "Marion McGehee" turned
up Jack McGehee's web page mentioning the Marion born in Illinois in 1836, the
same who was married in Missouri in 1854...
My thanks to anyone who can help.
Kevin McGehee
North Pole, Alaska
mcgehee@mosquitonet.com
http://www.mosquitonet.com/~mcgehee/
"At one point the President even declined to say whether he thought as a
general principle Presidents should obey the law."
(ABC White House correspondent Sam Donaldson, speaking about President Clinton,
April 30, 1998)
05/02/1998
Cousins,
Well, thanks to my mother and the Social Security Death Index
(http://www.ancestry.com/ssdi/advanced.htm
-- bookmark this URL!!) I can add
another piece to the puzzle of my own branch of Clan McGehee:
My mother tells me that my grandfather, Ward Orr McGehee, had a brother named
Kenneth. A quick search of the SSDI has turned up a Kenneth McGehee born in the
same county in Iowa as my father and grandfather, but in 1911 -- well after my
grandfather's birth in 1896. If this is the same Kenneth McGehee my mother is
talking about, we can guess that my great grandparents, Frank and Myrtie,
stayed in Ringgold County, Iowa for some years.
It also suggests that Frank and Myrtie were relatively young when my
grandfather was born, if they were still having kids 15 years later. This makes
it somewhat less likely that Marion McGehee, born 1836 in Illinois, was my
great-great-grandfather.
If anyone has information lying around about a Kenneth McGehee, born 3 Oct
1911, died 23 June 1995, I'd be very grateful to have it. Thanks.
Kevin McGehee
North Pole, Alaska
mcgehee@mosquitonet.com
http://www.mosquitonet.com/~mcgehee/mcgehees.htm
"At one point the President even declined to say whether he thought as a
general principle Presidents should obey the law."
(ABC White House correspondent Sam Donaldson, speaking about President Clinton,
April 30, 1998)
04/28/1998
Cousins,
Until I can obtain concrete information about Thomas Mackgehee's year of birth,
I'm declaring open the question of whether some of Thomas' grandchildren
attributed to his son William (mentioned in his will) are in fact Thomas'
nieces and nephews, fathered by another William (married about 1696) who was
Thomas' brother.
For now the family tree charts will continue to attribute all those descendants
to Thomas' son, until the question can be answered, but the text on the
"McGehee Family in America" page now acknowledges that there may have been
another William and that his descendants may be wrongly placed on the chart.
To settle the question of whether Thomas had a brother, certain credible
evidence will be needed:
* A clear date of birth for Thomas -- not James MacGregor or anyone else, since
there's no certainty which James MacGregor, if any, would be the right one.
Dating Thomas' life from the birth of a James has led to some wild errors,
including a claim that he lived from 1624 to 1724 and fathered children (by
implication) while in his 80s. Any credible information, such as that used to
place William Mackgahye's year of birth at about 1618 (that is, a record of
court testimony in 1658), should suffice if it is sufficiently authoritative.
Or...
* Documentation clearly distinguishing one William from another (and especially
one William's *children* from others). I have seen dates for William's baptism
and marriage, but a late baptism isn't entirely out of the question, and it's
possible the one and only William could have *twice* married women named Mary.
If I'm to disentangle the two Williams (assuming there were two), I must know
which lines to leave with Thomas and which to place with his brother (if any).
As if simply determining the true identity of our original immigrant ancestor
weren't challenging enough! And I haven't even begun to tempt fate with the
question of Thomas' mysterious multiple wives.
Anyway, if any of you has anything that can shed light on the William Mackgehee
question, please send it on. If you can't e-mail it, let me know and I'll
provide my snail-mail address.
Kevin McGehee
North Pole, Alaska
mcgehee@mosquitonet.com
http://www.mosquitonet.com/~mcgehee/mcgehees.htm