Your Scots-Irish Roots

Notes:

• This page starts with your 4G grandparents, the ancestors of your great-grandfather Hollis Dean McKim, back to the earliest immigrant to America. The youngest of these 4G grandparents was born in 18XX; the oldest in this group was one of your XG grandparents, born in 1575. 
• The immigrants in this group came either directly from Scotland or from Scotland via Ulster (Northern Ireland). Say why they migrated. This list does not include anyone who stayed in Great Britain; my work stopped with the immigrant. 
• Numbering system: To find anyone's father, double their number and add one; to find anyone's mother, double their number and add two. To find any father's kid, subtract one and divide by two; to find any mother's kid, subtract two and divide by two. If you notice a missing number, it's because I know nothing about that person or, for those in the earliest generations, they stayed in England.
  
• Immigrants are highlighted. Men who fought in the American Revolution are marked with (AR).

 

John and Henrietta, who seems to have gone by Harriet, lived their whole lives in western Pennsylvania; first in Huntingdon County and later Mercer County. During John's lifetime, only one federal census listed occupation. His was "master carpenter."

We don't have any stories about them, but we do have photos. 

They were both born in 1804, and I cannot find a record of their marriage. Their first child, your 3G grandfather Robert Alexander was not born until 1838, when John and Harriet were 34, which is a bit old for that time. After Robert, they had four daughters in the next ten years: Lydia, Rebecca, Catherine, and Martha. 

There is a little bit of disagreement on Ancestry.com about the identity of John's wife. On some family trees, his wife is identified as Henrietta Rung, and some differ about the names of their children. It's clear from the few official records that there was both a McKim and a Rung family living in Huntingdon County at that time, and both had a John and a Henrietta or Harriet. Judging by the dates of the various records tied to both women, I don't think this is a case of John marrying both at different times.
 

I couldn't entirely sort it out, but chose to go with the Henrietta/Harriet Nelson story because their grandson John, on his father Robert's death certificate, listed Nelson as his mother's maiden name.

Her stern mouth and dress make Henrietta look rather unapproachable, but I noticed her eyes; I think they might have been quite beautiful.

 

Poor Oliver and Hester Gould have the honor of being the first on this family tree for whom the record just peters out--I cannot find enough about either of them to be able to identify their parents. 

Here's what I do know: The 1850 Census shows both Oliver and Hester at 40 years old. Oliver's birthplace is given as Connecticut; Hester's as Pennsylvania. Oliver was a surveyor by trade. The 1870 census shows an economically comfortable family with personal property valued at $2,500 and real estate valued at $7,000 in 1870.

Here's what I don't know: Hester's last name, which prevents identifying her parents. 

But Oliver is also a bit of a mystery. I cannot find him in any record in either Pennsylvania or Connecticut before that 1850 census. Not Oliver Gould, or Goulde, or Gold born anywhere near 1810. I cannot even find any male with any of those last names and the initial O.

So I looked for Olivers born around then. Connecticut records show eight boys named Oliver born in 1809 or 1810. Records are available through death for all except one: Oliver Rising, the youngest son of Samuel and Sarah Rising, of Hartford. Sadly, his parents' deaths are recorded in 1819, when Oliver was only 10. His older siblings can be seen growing up in Connecticut, but Oliver just disappears from the record. It's a pure guess, and a long-shot one at that: Was Oliver adopted by a Gould family in Mercer? That's far too weak a link, I think, to justify researching the Rising lineage, so this line stops here. 

 

On the Pennsylvania frontier in the first half of the 19th century, these two are lacking much in the way of ancestry documentation. 

Both were born in Ulster, and both immigrated (likely with their parents and siblings) before 1810, when they married in Pennsylvania. They may have had 11 children, born between 1811 and 1834--I didn't check to see how many lived to adulthood. Our ancestor Jennie was their fourth child and third daughter. 

On any record that listed occupation, David was identified as a farmer. In 1824, David was recorded as one of 33 'subscribers' who contributed funds "for the purpose of building a Bridge across Stone Creek at or near Couch's Mill in Barree Township in the County of Huntingdon."

Unresearched information that someone else can clean up if you want: Pennsylvania changed its counties' boundaries several times between independence and the 20th century. I finally gave up trying to figure out precisely where these people lived, even though most records name a county of residence. 

Because both David and Mary were born in Ulster, I did not research their ancestry any farther back. David's parents were James Semple, born in 1753 in Ulster, and Nancy Kerr, born in 1751 in Scotland. I wasn't able to identify Mary's parents.  

 

Western Pennsylvania families:
31 & 32 - John Adam McKim  (1804-1867)  and Henrietta Nelson  (1804-1881)

33 & 34 - Oliver H. Gould  (1810-1872) and Hester (unknown)  (1810-1875)

35 & 36 - James Sloss  (1784-1867) and Elizabeth Thompson  (1791-1872)  (from Ulster)

37 & 38 - David Semple  (1785-1856) and Mary Stewart  (1791-1845)  (from Ulster)

YOUR 5G GRANDPARENTS

Western Pennsylvania families:

63 & 64 - David McKim  Dec. 19, 1768-1830 and (Sarah Stringer)  (1730-1817)

65 & 66 - John Nelson  Dec. 24, 1774-1850 and Margaret Graffius  Oct. 27, 1776-1845  

67 through 70 - unknown

YOUR 6G GRANDPARENTS

 Western Pennsylvania Families:

127 & 128 - Robert McKim  1740-1834 and Mary Graham  c. 1747-1814 

129 & 130 - Sarah Stringer's parents

131 & 132 - Lt. William Nelson (AR) and Elizabeth Carroll  1735-1813 

133 & 134 - Nicholaus Graffius  Apr. 17, 1746-1822  and Maria Elizabeth Correll  1753-1843 

135-142 - unknown

 

YOUR 7G GRANDPARENTS

 Western Pennsylvania Families:

255 - 256

257 - 258

259 - 260

261 - 262

263 - 264

265 - 266

267 - 268

269 - 270

271 - 272

273 - 274

275 - 276

277 - 278

279 - 280

281 - 282

283 - 284

285 - 286

YOUR 8G GRANDPARENTS

  Western Pennsylvania Families:

511 - 512

513 - 514

515 - 516

517 - 518

519 - 520

521 - 522

523 - 524

525 - 526

527 - 528

529 - 530

531 - 532

533 - 534

535 - 536

537 - 538

539 - 540

541 - 542

543 - 544

545 - 546

547 - 548

549 - 550

551 - 552

553 - 554

555 - 556

557 - 558

559 - 560

561 - 562

563 - 564

565 - 566

567 - 568

569 - 570

571 - 572

573 - 574

 

 YOUR 9G GRANDPARENTS

  Western Pennsylvania Families:

1023 - 1024

1025 - 1026

1027 - 1028

1029 - 1030

1031 - 1032

1033 - 1034

1035 - 1036

1037 - 1038

1039 - 1040

1041 - 1042

1043 - 1044

1045 - 1046

1047 - 1048

1049 - 1050

1051 - 1052

1053 - 1054

1055 - 1056

1057 - 1058

1059 - 1060

1061 - 1062

1063 - 1064

1065 - 1066

1067 - 1068

1069 - 1070

1071 - 1072

1073 - 1074

1075 - 1076

1077 - 1078

1079 - 1080

1081 - 1082

1083 - 1084

1085 - 1086

1087 - 1088

1089 - 1090

1091 - 1092

1093 - 1094

1095 - 1096

1097 - 1098

1099 - 1100

1101 - 1102

1103 - 1104

1105 - 1106

1107 - 1108

1109 - 1110

1111 - 1112

1113 - 1114

1115 - 1116

1117 - 1118

1119 - 1120

1121 - 1122

1123 - 1124

1125 - 1126

1127 - 1128

1129 - 1130

1131 - 1132

1133 - 1134

1135 - 1136

1137 - 1138

1139 - 1140

1141 - 1142

1143 - 1144

1145 - 1146

1147 - 1148

1149 - 1150

In Great Britain:

1151 - 1534

 Southern Pennsylvania families:

 1791-1792 - 

YOUR 10G GRANDPARENTS

 Western Pennsylvania Families:

2047-2048

(etc)

(start at 4095)

In Great Britain:

4607 -6142