RESEARCH REPORT - Acct. # 1148 - 22 March 2003
Please find enclosed the results of our latest research efforts in your behalf. As with our previous project we have
continued our efforts to learn more about the family and ancestry of Alexander McKAY and his father Elkenny
McKAY. This has been an interesting project with a few small successes and some interesting turns. As we
concluded our last project the list of future activities we had planned was something like this:
1. Contact those we had found on the Internet with connections to Elkenny McKAY and seek input and feedback
from them.
2. Automate the information found from Benjamin REES on Mary SACKETT’s mothers’ ancestry on the
MARTEN line. Also automate the information found on the DAVIDSON, SACKETT, and STONE families during
our last project.
3. Search the available church records for Edinburgh, Scotland for Elkenny or Elkanah McKay born about 1705.
4. Continue to learn more about the origins and records of the Towns of Kent, Sharon, New Milford, Woodbury,
Washington, Bethlehem, New Preston, and Judea in Litchfield County, CT.
5. Continue working on a Time Line for the McKAY family.
6. Obtain and study topographic maps for Litchfield County, CT.
We have made progress on many of these objectives and at least one of them has been taken over by another family
member, which is a good thing. Let’s work through what we did for this project although I may not go in the order
listed above.
Contacting People found on the Internet
We decided to do this first so that we could work on other tasks while we were waiting for those we contacted to
reply. We also wanted to be able to react to clues and comments they sent back when we received them, rather than
set them aside for our next project. This proved to be a good approach as I have received some good clues and have
had some small successes from them.
We had a total of 25 people on my contact list, 3 by regular US Mail and 22 by E-Mail. We wrote to each of them
and told them we had information to share if they were interested.. We sent information to 19 of them. For those
that we had not had contact with previously we sent to them copies of our last two research reports. Those that we
had been corresponding with already received only the most recent report. To all of them we also sent a four
generation descendants list starting from Elkenny McKAY and going down to his great grand children. We felt that
would give a broad enough window for all of them to see how they fit into the family we are studying. We also
invited them to send us any information that they had that we did not have in the material we sent to them. To save
space we did not include our notes in the printout, that may have been a mistake because as we started working
through what we got back from them I had many of the information pieces in my notes on the record for the same
individual. As we conclude this project we will send out another descendency that will be Elkenny McKAY and his
family only with their notes. I will probably do the same for Alexander McKAY and a few of his sisters.
Perhaps the best thing that has come out of this “out reach” activity is that your family has organized and rallied
around each other in the hunt for Elkenny and his family. Nancy Siders decided to create a Mail List Website that
the people she had been working with on the McKAY family (including us) could work through and coordinate their
activities. Even more important it is a place where they can share information. She set it up the last week of
January and it has been very active. In January there were 12 messages posted, 45 in February, and 49 in March so
far. The messages are a wonderful mix of getting to know each other and sharing genealogical information about
Elkenny McKAY and his descendants.
We decided it would be helpful to us to preserve copies of the messages we have seen from this sharing process for
future reference. Therefore we have printed most of them and put them in a notebook. This way we can keep track
of the ones that we have read and responded to at least the information they contain. It will also keep track of what
we need to review as we prepare for your next project. We have enclosed a cover page that shows the number of
messages received thus far that are in the archive for this mailing list, a list of the subscribers with their connection
to Elkenny McKAY that was prepared by Nancy Siders and is printed from her Elkenny McKAY website, and
copies of the messages I have printed from this sharing and correspondence.
The growth and activity on this mailing list and website is very exciting to us. We believe that if the family will
continue to work together that it will be their combined efforts that will finally lead to the information that we are all
seeking for Elkenny McKAY and his ancestry. As we finish this project we will share with Nancy, the McKayElkenny Mail List, and any others that are not on the McKay-,Elkenny Mail List a copy of this report and supporting
printouts, plus any documents that they may wish to have. As usual we will wait about three weeks before sending
it out to them to give you time to read through it first.
In the past as we have received replies from those interested in our research, we have added them into my McKAY
database so we know how they fit in. We started to do that this time, but with Nancy’s website the information
started coming in too fast. We have taken some of the information and put it into my database but not all of it. We
decided that our keeping track of all of Elkenny’s descendants and information that is generations away from
Alexander or Elkenny was diverting time that we needed to focus on Elkenny, so we will leave that part of the
McKAY research effort for some one else in this newly founded group to pick up and run with. We have taken the
data we thought would be helpful to us and have run with it. A few seemed more important to us than others, and
one did allow us to find a new family of interest.
One of the first people we wanted to make contact with was Benjamin REES who was the one that had an extra
Alexander McKAY between our Alexander and Elkenny. In searching for a better address for him we ran across his
obituary in the “Harvard Magazine” on-line. That was a disappointment. It was actually his wife Corinna (Hobart)
REES that was a McKAY descendant, so I wrote her at the same address that we had for Benjamin to see if she was
interested in the information we had. We did not receive our letter back with a bad address on it so it must have
been delivered or forwarded, but we have had no reply from her as well.
The data we downloaded from the Benjamin REES’ file on the Genealogy.com web site contained “World Family
Tree” (WFT) estimated dates in it. To us these dates are not helpful - they are computer generated estimated time
ranges and we did not want to load them into our database. So we went looking elsewhere for the same data. We
found it in the Ancestral File once we knew what to look for. We copied the information and imported it into our
database. As we did this transfer of information we noted that the Ancestral File had indicated that Mary
SACKETT’s maternal grandmother, Pieternella VIELLE, was the adopted daughter of Peter Cornelis VIELLE and
Jacomyntje SWART. We have left this line in place for the present with a note that it is an adoptive line. As we
finish this project we will print this information in an ahnentafel format on the SACKETT family to share with
others.
We devoted a good part of this project responding to clues that we got from this correspondence. A short time after
we sent out our mailing to the family we got from John Phillip McKay, Jr. the results of a very careful review of
what we had sent and what he had in his records. As we reviewed these entries we added several entries to our
database and in other cases we added notes about the differences between our data. Some of the more helpful tidbits
on the family included:
- information on Bazaleel GURNEY and Isabel McKAY, including the fact that they had a son named Nathan
GURNEY born 25 Sep 1768 in Hartford, and the death information for Bazaleel GURNEY that he died in Trenton,
Oneida, NY which we did not have previously.
- a discussion of the wives and families of Medad McKAY and an indication that his wife Mrs. Lucy Morse’s
maiden name was SUTLIFF.
- a suggestion that Wealthy TARBOX was the daughter of Samuel TARBOX and Lois MATTESON.
- and several other isolated pieces of information.
Terry Flynn sent a note that he had found mention of a Basheba CHURCHILL the wife of Josiah CHURCHILL
being received at the church in Stockbridge, MA in 1771 from the church at New Preston, CT.
Blanche McKay sent me updated copies of corrections and additions to the McKAY book and some other papers
that had the death dates and places for Jonathan RICH and Abigal McKAY both in Strafford, Orange, VT, that we
did not have. There were a lot of other good information in these pages from Blanche as well, however, here too I
limited my updating and information gathering to Elkenny McKAY and his immediate family.
Follow ups to Feedback - Bazaleel GURNEY.
The first item from the feedback information we went after was that on the Bazaleel GURNEY family. We started
with the FamilySearch.org website and found some tidbits on the family (see Doc #119 A - D). It did show a
Nathan GURNEY born in Hartford, Hartford, CT on 25 Sep 1768 and named his parents as Bezaleel GURNEY and
Isabel McKAY but gave no data on them. We did find Bazaleel GURNEY’s parental family in the book “Families
of Early Hartford, Connecticut” by Lucius Barnes Barbour. However, it did not have the families where Bazaleel
was the parent (see Doc #122). We tried to search the Church Records for Hartford but there were too many. We
will have to follow up on this search more during your next project.
Then we shifted our attention to Trenton, Oneida, NY to see if we could find more on the family in later years. We
looked at an index to probate records, and at two sources from church records. Unfortunately we were not
successful in learning more about this family from these searches.
In the material from Blanche McKay she noted that both Bazaleel GURNEY and Daniel OWEN (must have been
Jr.) received Revolutionary War Pensions based on the Act of 1818 while they were living in Oneida County, NY.
As part of our next project we will seek these records to see what more they can tell us about these families.
Follow up on Feedback - Basheba CHURCHELL
Here we were able to search the church records for Stockbridge, Berkshire, MA and searched them for entries on
Josiah CHURCHELL and his family. We found the 1771 entry that Terry Flynn had pointed us to but we found no
other entries for this family. (See Doc #117 and #118). There were many other CHURCHILL entries but none that
we could identify as being for our family. We had intended to see what we could find in the New Preston church
records as well but we did not find any listings for New Preston, Litchfield, CT in the Family History Library
Catalog. The town of New Preston is still on the map for Connecticut so we will have to see if there is still a church
there and if we can access their records by correspondence or by visiting there. We shall follow up on this clue
again as part of our next project.
Follow up on Feedback - Mrs. Lucy Morse (nee Sutliff)
As we went to add the surname SUTLIFF to the record for Medad McKAY’s wife Lucy we saw in the notes that we
had named a sister for her and what looked to be a brother now that we knew her surname. This information in the
notes was from the Medad McKAY court papers regarding his murder trial that you had sent to us long ago. This
gave us enough information and a unique name that we could go search for with hope of finding Lucy’s parental
family. We were successful in this effort.
Her brother’s name was Gadd SUTLIFF, so we searched for him on the FamilySearch.org website expecting that
there were not that many of them. Then we looked for those found, that had families, to see if he had sisters by the
name of Lucy and Elizabeth. Once found we hoped to see if Lucy married Medad McKAY and if Elizabeth married
a man with the surname BARNARD. We found the family of a John SUTLIFF and Lucy HODGKIN (or
HOTCHKISS) that met this condition. A little further searching turned up an entry in the Ancestral File that showed
Elizabeth SUTLIFF, the daughter of John and Lucy, with a husband named only as Mr. BRAINARD (sic) (see Doc
#120 A - D).
We also made a search of the FamilySearch.org website for the marriage of a Lucy SUTLIFF and any man with the
surname of MORSE. We did not find any such marriage listed there. We did not pursue this line of research
further. We may want to do so as part of a future project.
We have added this family to our McKAY database. We realize that the material from the Ancestral file and the
International Genealogical Index are far from documented sources and that this connection will need further
verification. However, the combination of distinct names within this family matches our data so well that we felt it
was a good match. We will pursue further documentation on this connection during another project.
Another part of the follow up on this feedback was the restructuring of Medad McKAY’s wives and families based
on the material from John Phillip McKAY, Jr. and the dates and notes that we had on the family. We shall include
with the material that accompanies this report new print outs for Medad and his wives, plus the new information on
Lucy SUTLIFF.
Follow up on Feedback - Possible parents of Wealthy TARBOX
In the reply from John Phillip McKay he indicated that he had some indication that the parents of Wealthy
TARBOX were Samuel TARBOX and Lois MATTESON. We tried to follow up on this possibility and found the
family of Samuel TARBOX and Lois MATTESON in the files on the FamilySearch.org website. The family
included a child named Weithean TARBOX but she married a Doty HOPKINS and was having children with him
from 1792 until 1814, which is the same time frame that she should have been having children with Medad McKAY
(see Doc #121 A-B). So I think our Wealthy TARBOX is not the same person listed as Weithean TARBOX the
daughter of Samuel TARBOX and Lois MATTESON. We did not pursue this family on other web sites. If we have
further evidence that suggests this parentage is correct we will continue to pursue them, but for now we have not
done so.
Follow ups to Feedback - Abigal McKAY and Jonathan RICH
We had hoped to follow up on the information from Blanche McKay that gave us the death dates and place for
Jonathan RICH and Abigal McKAY in Strafford, Orange, VT but we did not get a chance to do so. We do have a
few records for Strafford and Orange County, Vermont so we will pursue this family as one of the first efforts of our
next project.
Church Records for Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland
As we concluded our last project we took a few moments to see what church records were available for Edinburgh,
Midlothian, Scotland where Elkenney McKAY is reported to have been born in 1700 or 1705. We found that there
were not that many records available to us that covered the time period that we needed, plus some of those that were
available had been indexed. We decided to search these records for any Elkenney or Elkanah McKAY born
between 1690 and 1715. We found a few Alexander McKAY entries (see Doc #128, #129, and #130 ) but nothing
for Elkenny or Elkanah McKAY, or for an Elkenny or Elkanah with any other surname for that matter. We had
hoped this search would open a new door for us, we were disappointed that it did not work out.
Topographic Maps
During this project one of the things we wanted to do was seek topographic maps and land ownership maps for the
Litchfield County, CT area. We found land ownership maps in the Family History Library Catalog but those that we
had were for a more modern time frame than we needed for Elkenny McKAY and his family.
We also looked for topographic maps knowing that we had some in black and white on microfilm. These maps are
much better in color but we thought we would see what they had. We did find a few maps for Litchfield County, but
not the complete set or at least the pieces that we wanted. These maps show geographic features (mountain,
streams, lakes, etc) and property or buildings such as Churches, Schools, Cemeteries, etc. My original thought was
that maybe these maps could help us to pinpoint where the lost Cemetery in the town of Washington (really Judea)
was located. However, there is a lot more effort that will be needed to accomplish that task if it is even something
that we can accomplish. We still want to get the topographic maps but we will have to pursue them for next time.
Time Lines
As part of your last project we had started a Time Line for the McKAY family. On it we tried to list in
chronological order events involving the McKAY family that we had documents for. We started basically with
Alexander McKAY’s birth and worked towards the present. We did not include it with our last report because it still
needed a lot of work. We have touched it up some but need to do more with it. However, we have enclosed a copy
with this project. This is a work in process and we shall revise and print it for you again as our efforts in your behalf
continue.
Time Line for Elkenny McKAY. We decided as we began to work on this project that we wanted to create a time
line for events in the life of the family of Elkenny McKAY. So we made a second time line for Elkenny McKAY
and his family. The difference is that we put events on this time line that we have not yet documented, estimated or
“about” event dates, and so on. We focused on events in Elkenny’s life and those of his children up until the time of
their marriage. We felt that until that time they were probably still living at home. If we can find where their
marriages took place then we have an excellent place to seek for more records on Elkenny and his family.
We have added a few things to this list as we conducted other searches. We have also added in as shaded
highlighted lines a few historical events that would have impacted the family. We have enclosed copies of both time
lines for your review. They are an interesting tool that helps keep things moving along in the research process.
Town Records
The earliest event that we really have a document for within the events in the life of Elkenney McKAY was the
marriage of his daughter Abigal to Jonathan RICH in 1749 at which time Abigal was listed as being of Bethlehem,
Litchfield, CT. We decided to focus on Bethlehem first, and then several other towns, to see if we could determine
when they were first settled and where the people came from to settle them.
As we worked through the resources available for Bethlehem we did find some interesting information. One
interesting item was found in a little history book titled “Bethlehem - A Primer of Local History from the Beginning
to 1876" by the Old Bethlehem Historical Society. It gives the following information about two epidemics:
Epidemics - “There have been three distinguished sicknesses in the Town [Bethlehem] since its settlement”, wrote
Dr. Backus in 1812. “One of the malignant Long Fever, 1750. One of the Peripneumonynotha, 1760. One
Cynanche Maligna, 1793. An account of all which had been published in the Medical repository of New York.....”
“In the spring (1750), the anger of the Lord began to burn hot against his people for all their abominations, and he
sent a destroying angel among them, who slew about 30 of them ... A long slow nervous fever, very malignant
spread and prevailed 4 or 5 months .... In the year 1760, 34 died of the Peripneumonynotha, a disease very similar
to that of New Milford and Towns adjacent in the winter and spring of 1812.”
These two epidemics were very interesting to us. They are in the correct time period for Elkenny and his wife to
have been effected and to have even died.
We tried to follow up in the Vital Records to see if we could find lists of the dead. We have not been successful in
this effort yet. We shall continue to pursue this clue during our next project on this family.
Colonial Wars
As we were adding a few historic events to the Time Line for Elkenny McKAY there were two wars that we listed.
In looking for records relating to those activities we found some sources that were listed under the heading of
Colonial Wars. We devoted a lot of time to the one on the French and Indian War which covered the time period of
1755 - 1763. In a series of works called “Rolls of Connecticut Men in the French and Indian Wars 1755 - 1762", in
two volumes. In searching these works we found several entries for people with the same names as members of
Elkenny’s family (namely his sons-in-law). However, based on the information that is here it is difficult to tie them
together. Without repeating the whole list of entries (see Doc #123 A - E) some of the ones we found very
interesting were:
- a Daniel OWEN and Barzeleel (sic) GURNEY serving in Capt. Wadsworth Militia
- an Absolom OWEN of Capt Elmore’s Company [Elmore is from Sharon, CT] who died 22 Jul 1759 and a David
Owens of the same company with the same death date.
- a David OWEN and a Daniel OWEN in Capt. McNeal’s Company (of New Haven)
- an Elkanah MACK that deserted from Capt. Stantons Company in 1762 [Capt. Stanton is of Groton, CT]
We have no way to prove that these are our people especially the Elkanah MACK entry, but the entries for David,
Daniel OWEN and Bazaleel GURNEY are from the right neighborhood, and they are in the some very interesting
combinations. We tried to trace all these entries down to their original entries which we hoped would tell us more.
The entry for Elkanah MACK was very hard to locate and of a poor visual quality that made it difficult to copy.
This document only included him in a list (see Doc #124). The same was true of the hospital record for David
Owens death on 22 Jul 1759, there is no additional detail (see Doc #126). We found a bonus entry that we copied
just because we found it. It is for an Elisha STONE who could be the father of our Ethan STONE (see Doc #125).
We also still have some Militia Records that we are working through. It shall be interesting to see what comes out
of them as well. We shall continue and report that search as part of our next project
Summary
As we indicated at the first of this project it has been very interesting. We have had contact with several people who
share your McKAY ancestry. Those folks have united into an exciting collaborative effort that I think will do a
great deal to fill in many of the blank spaces that are our missing pieces. We have also receive helpful comments
and information from many of the people in the collaborative effort. Those clues have provided the surname for
Medad McKAY’s wife Lucy, the Widow Morse, as SUTLIFF. That coupled with notes from previous efforts
allowed us to find her parental family and her parents names as John SUTLIFF and Lucy HODGKIN. They have
also allowed us to fill in some of the blank spaces on the family group records for Elkenny McKAY and some of his
children. We have enclosed new family group record for Medad and his families.
We have searched without success the Church Records of Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland seeking Elkenny or
Elkanah McKAY or any use of the name Elkanah, etc. As we get clues to other localities in Scotland we will
conduct similar searches.
We have also found through a search of French and Indian War Military Records several entries that we suspect may
belong to members of the McKAY family. One exception is the entry that we found for an Elkanah MACK who
was listed as a deserter. We hope to be able to learn more about this man and what happened to him. At the
moment we have no proof that he is our Elkenny McKAY. In fact we believe that he is not our Elkenny McKAY.
It looks like these soldiers came from Groton, CT which is on the east coast and rather far removed from where our
Elkenny’s family was living and marrying in the same time period.
We have also prepared and provided two different Time Lines. The first is for the McKAY family that is intended
to list only events we have documentation for. The second one focuses on Elkenny McKAY and events for himself
and his family, whether we have documented them or not.
We have also extended the ancestry of Mary SACKETT on her mother’s side several generations (see pedigree
enclosed), we have provided new family group records for Alexander and Mary SACKETT and Elkenny McKAY;
each have had some changes and additions.
We have also continued, and will do so in your next project, as part of the process of trying to locate where the
Elkenny McKAY family came from to arrive in Litchfield County, CT. We have looked at town origins, and have
found some useful clues, but we need to continue this effort.
Next Project
We have listed several searches that need to be undertaken and continued through out this report. I want to
summarize them in a separate document to use as a beginning point for our next project. There will also be new
leads to follow up on from the correspondence by the Mail List Serve for McKay - Elkenny. We feel the prospects
for continued research success remain fair and may be improving due to the activity to collaborate in trying to find
new information on Elkenny McKAY and his family. As all of the little clues are brought together they will begin
to open new doors for us. They already have done so in the case of Lucy SUTLIFF. As always we have greatly
enjoyed working on your project and we look forward to continuing in your behalf at our mutual earliest
opportunity.
David S. Barss
Accredited Genealogist
Mary Ellen Barss
Genealogist