I am searching for descendants of Thomas McKee who are still living in Northern Ireland.
Thomas was born in Saintfield in 1868 to William McKee (1814-1893) and Eliza Currie (1821-1897). He married Mary Catherine (Minnie) Fitzsimmons at Second Saintfield Presbyterian Church 22 April 1889.
Thomas and Minnie had five children: Robert (1891), William (1893), Georgina (1895), Thomas (1898), and Samuel (1901). Minnie died four days after Samuel’s birth and Samuel’s aunt (Thomas’ oldest sister, Sarah McKee Massey Gabbey) took Samuel to raise.
Thomas married Agnes McFerran 26 June 1902 at First Larne Presbyterian Church. Thomas and Agnes had three children: twins John and Catherine (1903), and James Holden (1907). Thomas became a contractor and owned Thomas McKee & Sons Builders located in Belfast. Thomas died 12 June 1945 and is buried in the cemetery at Second Saintfield Presbyterian with his parents and first wife.
When Thomas’ sister Sarah came to the United States in 1905 to be near her children who had emigrated earlier, she brought Sam Mckee with her. He was four years old. Sam only saw his dad once after leaving Ireland and that was when Thomas made a trip to the US in 1923 to visit his extended family.
Descendants of Sam are now living in several states in the US but have lost contact with their relatives in Northern Ireland. Any information provided to help us make contact would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for any help you can provide,
Jeffrey Bullins
North Carolina, USA
[POSTED 26/01/2019]
Hi,
I am Robin McKee, the son of TRM McKee, whose grandfather was the Thomas who started the building company.
Hi Robin,
I am so excited to hear from you! I would love to compare family history research with you, introduce you to your American cousins, and learn more about the McKee family in Northern Ireland. I don’t know the best way to provide you with my contact information. I don’t want to put it on an open website. Perhaps the editors of the site can help us make a connection.
Jeffrey’s email address has been forwarded to Robin.
Hi there
I am a descendant of John and Jane Collins their daughter Agnes Collins married a McKee family member back in 1850s
I have no info however as its all news to me but I do have some old copies of their wedding certificate.
Hi I do family genealogy, my McKee from Newtownards and Saintfield. If I can look information up for you. There is a Book of McKee’s lots of USA information, all related back to McKee’s of Saintfield, first pioneers 1776. My maiden name is McKee.
The Book of McKee by Raymond W. McKee 1959.
Janey Sproule nee McKee direct line of Thomas McKee + sons has spent a wonderful “Lock Down” chatting to Jeff Bullins North Carolina who’s wife is of the McKee line of descents.
And we never moved more than 9miles from Saintfield!!
Subject: McKee, Russell, Hanvey, Best, Sloan 1800s
John McKee left Ireland around 1860, the son of William McKee and (likely) Agnes Russell. I noticed several DNA matches to members of the Hanvey family and then I found the references attached. The extended family has connections to Sloan and Best of Belfast. A member of the NZ family was communicating with Bangor McKees in the early 1900s.
Information on “The Loop farms in Raleagh townland” can be found at the bottom of this page on Ros Davies website:
https://www.rosdavies.com/PHOTOSwords/KilmoreAll.htm