Excerpt from William McCoy and His Descendants: A Genealogical History of the Family of William McCoy, One, of the Scotch Families Coming to America Before the Revolutionary War, Who Died in Kentucky About the Year 1818; Also a History of the Family of Alexander McCoy IN the following pages is given the history of an average Western family. It began with a middle - class Scotch family, that came to America about the middle of the eighteenth cen tury. This family, like most others emigrating to this country in an early day, remained for a time in the eastern portion of the American Colonies, their descendants rapidly multiplying and swarming westward. A few of the mccoys who came to America at this time remained in Maryland, and others in Pennsylvania and Virginia; but the great majority of them are scattered over the northern half of the Western States, between the Alleghenies and the Pacific Ocean. The two brothers, Daniel and Alexander, sons of William mccoy, first settled in Maryland, then in Pennsylvania and Virginia, and lastly in Kentucky. Most of their sons and daughters, finding the institution of slavery distasteful to them, pushed north ward and westward, until they are found in all the Northwest ern States; and yet some are in Tennessee, Georgia, Arkansas, and Texas. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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All Henry ever wanted was to escape the skinflint soil of his father's farm and make a life for himself, maybe make enough for a wife and children. Ordinary enough ambitions, but big enough to lead him across a continent, through near-fatal illness and betrayal to a shack in Edmonton, a blacksmith job, and finally a future. His determination resembled that of his forebears, and it was reason enough for this family history to be written. While Henry thought he had left the past behind in Quebec, his descendants were busy embroidering the family story. They spoke of Irish roots and leaving Cork for Canada. They stitched up traces of poor brother Will McCoy who had died a spectacular death in the wilds of North Dakota. Or was that South Dakota? Then they traced a long lost sister to California and coloured in a sad tale of how she got there. But how much of what they said was true? It was enough to set us off on a 15-year voyage through archives, libraries, family interviews, and places Henry had been to cobble together an answer.