Samuel McKee -- supposedly Sligo
Hello, all. My father had always presumed we have origins in Ireland (based on the fact that we are McKees) but never knew specifics and was only familiar with ancestors in and around far west (Ayrshire/Dailly), Scotland. Recently I had stumbled upon this strange 1879 excerpt from the London Gazette that details a bankruptcy hearing involving Cattle Dealers Samuel McKee of "Largan (which they mispelled "Largen"), county Sligo, Ireland" and [sons] Samuel and William McKee of Dailly (which they mispelled "Dailby") -- see attached image ;)
The peculiar thing is that Sligo appears to be much farther inland west than where most of the McKees appear to hail from (looks like County Down has the highest concentration of them) and, of course, the Internet doesn't yield anything additional information at all about any McKees from Sligo (or that worked in the cattle industry for that matter). The only other clues are a small tidbit of info on a genealogy website that says he was born in 1829 "in Ireland" and makes mention of this fellow's father (another William McKee) who was a "hotel keeper" and his mother "Ann Wilson" -- Unfortunately too common of a name to be helpful in yielding a solid search. (There is a William McKee listed as a "Grocer" from Sligo in Slater's Commercial Directory of 1846, but it's impossible for me to know if it's the same guy..) Samuel seemed to have made a life for himself across the water in Ayrshire at some point, but any information or evidence related to his upbringing in Ireland (or info about his parents and beyond) is nowhere to be found.
I had presumed, though, that perhaps hotel keepers and cattle dealers in the 1850s would have a bit more information scattered about the Internet, but then again, a lot of that stuff also appears to have been "lost in fires" etc, so there's that. So! With the information provided, anyone have any clues as to where I could perhaps find more information about these fine folks? Thanks much!
