Twelve Years of Accomplishments

in McCrea/McCray/McRae

Genealogy and Family History

 

From the beginning let it be made clear! The following chronicle reports the rather amazing accomplishments of many, many individuals - working alone or in concert with others - who have contributed to the total results being here reported.

By the very nature of genealogy and family history, no one can accomplish anything without the involvement of many others. This has been particularly true during these twelve years - as we have seen a great spirit of cooperation and sharing, out of a warm enthusiasm for the subject at hand. Because the results to date are so impressive, it is time to pause and remind ourselves of these accomplishments.

Some of us will continue on into the 21st Century with commitment and energy for the tasks ahead - and others will have stepped aside from the work for a variety of reasons. But, thankfully, others will join the ranks with youth and vigor to extend the work for still future generations. That's what it's all about!!

Having made clear that we are reporting on the cooperative work of many persons - I shall now be quite willing to use the first person singular, about much of what is recorded. I can best report, of course, what I myself have been personally involved with, or have been made aware of. The "editorial we" would only be confusing. And, in fact, I am pleased and proud to have been able to be a significant part of the whole cooperative enterprise!

For me, the interest in Family History began as a very young person as I began to learn about my own family, and to wonder about those things not yet known. As with many of us, however, I did not have time or opportunity to do very much about it all until my retirement from the Presbyterian Ministry.

I first went to Scotland in 1981, and learned enough about my own McCrea heritage that I immediately determined to learn more, and to record my findings in some sort of volume that could be shared with my own children and grandchildren - as well as with others of the wider family circle.

And it all grew from that effort, as I began to be in touch with what others were doing around the world. So - I am beginning my list with that project. The rest will follow in no particular order of time or significance.

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But there is one more significant fact. While I did then begin to locate others who were working on individual family lines, I could not locate any central source of knowledge about McCreas in general, nor any group of persons who were sharing in the common tasks of researching this family name. The story of McRaes is slightly different, and will be referred to below.

Since that time, however, we have made great strides:

• In 1985 I completed and privately published Scottish Origins: The Family of Thomas and Jean Thomson McCrea. These were my Ayrshire great-grandparents, and in that volume I began to sort out some of the earliest known McCraes of Southwest Scotland.

• In searching for a missing great-uncle, I corresponded with several McCrea families in Iowa - from which effort came the first non-related McCrea family historians that I had known. I became interested to learn more about all early American McCreas.

• One person referred me to another, and then that one to another each of whom had accumulated research data on their own lines. The idea of a McCrea NETWORK was conceived.

• A number of us began to share research data on the various lines of early American McCreas and McCrays, and the collection of McCrea/McCray files and documents began to grow.

• over the next eight or ten years, I maintained the McCrea NETWORK, which grew to about 65 individuals (or couples) - none related to me. We exchanged correspondence - visited by phone occasionally met one or another in person - and shared a great deal of data, documents, resources, and other information.

• During that time I circulated a NETWORK Newsletter of McCrea\McCray Genealogy and Family History - issued several times a year - with news and events, as well as the beginnings of a systemized identification of the various early American family lines.

• We have also circulated a Directory, listing all NETWORK Members and their family of origin.

• Using the criterion of "first in America", or "earliest known of the line", we identified about 30 apparently separate lines of McCreas/McCrays known to have been in America prior to 1800. Some revision is now needed. We also accumulated records of another 100 or so individuals by our name - without clear identification of their family lines - who were in America prior to 1800. We then identified another 20 or 30 lines descended from persons first known in America between 1800 and 1850. There are many more.

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• Out of this effort has now come a computerized Data Base of 2,009 McCreas, McCrays, and related family members - most all of whom are identified as early Americans or their descendants, from 1710 up to about 1825 or 1850. There are very many names in file yet to be entered into this Data Base.

• Learning that by far the majority of these early lines were Ulster Scots - families that had come to America from Ireland - we searched for as much information as possible on their Irish homelands, and then for the places in Scotland from which they had originated.

• Because my own special interest is in Southwest Scotland, I have made a concentrated effort to locate as many McCraes from that area as possible - using especially the Old Parish Records, and the early Census Records. I have entered 1,266 such names into a separate computer Data Base.

• I had opportunity to return to Scotland in 1984, 1990, and 1994 - each time learning more about McCraes of Southwest Scotland, and becoming acquainted with long unknown cousins still living there. My son and I have walked over the fields and pathways of our ancestors, in 10 or 12 separate locations where they lived, worked, and worshipped.

• I identified the most prominent McCrae of Ayrshire - Gov. James McCrae of Madras, India - born in or near Ochiltree in about 1677 - and did extensive research into his origin, his life, and his achievements. In this effort I met and learned much from a charming Scottish scholar, Andrew Boyle, who shared his knowledge of Gov. McCrae and hosted our tour of his area of Scotland.

• From the beginning of this effort we discovered published works on McCrea/McCray lines, representing great effort on the part of others who had labored in earlier years. An incomplete list of these includes Waldo McCrea's Samuel McCrea of Ontario; a number of documents on the line of William McCrea of White Clay Creek, Delaware, and his son, Rev. James, of Lamington, NJ; the story of the "Philadelphia McCreas", descended from another James; and Rev. Alexander McCrea's The Clan McCrea (quite unrelated to our well known History of The Clan Macrae, also by a "Rev. Alexander").

• In bringing together the NETWORK, we included still others who had long been at their tasks. Three of the earliest of these were Lewis Reed, Irene Titus and Duane Upton, all of whom had written extensively on their lines. We corresponded and further exchanged information and interpretations.

• One of our number, Philip McCray, was already deep into his own publication project which came out in 1989, as The McCrays of America. In 1993 this was republished in an enlarged Second Edition of 441 pages. While this was entirely his own work, he has done extensive research into other known collections and sources, including those stated above, and has exchanged correspondence with many others who shared his interest. We continue to refer researchers to this excellent work.

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• Along with the various published works, we were also able to identify a number of other persons who had done very extensive research, and who had volumes of file material of all kinds. The names are too numerous to mention here, but I have been astounded at the extent of some of these efforts - and we have all profited by so much of this material that has become available now and for the next generations.

• With a life-long interest in the Canadian poet - Lt. Col. John McCrae - I travelled to Guelph, Ontario, and visited his place of birth. I traced out his own Scottish genealogy from the same area as my own.

• As a result of my interest in the Poet, I travelled to the Scottish home of his ancestors and then researched and wrote the essay - "Duke the Shepherd - The Story of Marmaduke McCrae", which has now been published in The Highlander magazine.

• All of the above activity has generated volumes of correspondence, and I have now exchanged communication with countless other persons interested in McCrea family history, in addition to members of the NETWORK.

• During the past two years I have monitored the computer on-line services - Prodigy and America On Line - during which time I have recorded several hundred postings by persons seeking to give or receive information on McCrea or McCray - or McRae - genealogy. When I could be of help, I have responded to a number of these.

• I have had the privilege of contacts and exchanges with McCreas and McRaes around the world - including Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.

• The first of these persons from abroad was the late Donald Macrae of Glasgow, with whom I visited in person twice, and had extensive correspondence. He was long recognized as the unofficial genealogist of Clan Macrae. He not only assisted me with my research into Lowland McCraes, but encouraged me in my beginnings with those of Clan Macrae, of Kintail and elsewhere in the Highlands.

• Following Donald's death, I set out to locate and identify the depository where his extensive papers of Macrae research had been placed. After considerable effort, I was able to clear this mystery, and that information is now in the hands of the proper persons - to be available at some future time.

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• Having long been associated with Clan Macrae Society of North America, I was asked to become Genealogist of the Society. I served for five years in that capacity, and continue as a Commissioner. Much data was already available on these Highland MacRaes, and many persons had labored on the history and genealogy.

• I was introduced to Molly Akers, of New Zealand, who was then working on an extensive publication, listing McRaes and McCraes who had come to New Zealand over the past two centuries. I was privileged to exchange much data with her - assisting somewhat with the Ayrshire McCraes, and learning from her much more about many others of all groups. That marvelous volume has now been published, Macraes to New Zealand. I have just received a very useful index supplement to the volume.

• Among our most recent acquaintances - of British McCraes - are Ken and Karen Lees, who have acquired an intense interest and energy in all forms of McCrae/McRae family history and are now themselves undertaking some ambitious projects to further the cause - of which you will one day be hearing more.

• During my years of work with Clan MacRae Society, I have engaged in extensive activities with McRae genealogy similar to all the above reported activity with the McCrea/McCrays. By now we have collected and entered into a still additional Data Base 2,370 names of Kintail McRaes, and their American descendants and families.

• I established a column in our Society newsletter, entitled "Kith and Kin", and over the several years wrote ten or twelve columns on various aspects of Clan MacRae genealogy.

• We have also collected a great number of documents and genealogies of these McRaes - all of which are waiting to be passed into Society archives for future use.

• We have identified the Ellen Payne Odom Library of Moultrie, Georgia, as the future depository for Clan Macrae Society records.

• We have established an advisory group of ten, to provide leadership and assistance in McRae genealogy and family history.

• We have done extensive work toward the republishing of Donald Macrae's From Kintail to Carolina, now out of print. This work is continuing at the present time.

• In this Clan Macrae work, I have had correspondence with another 100 or so persons seeking information on their McRae ancestors, and have heard from still others among the "on-line" contacts mentioned above.

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• We have defined the office of "Genealogist" for Clan MacRae Society of N. A., and have set out some of the duties and activities of such a person.

• As an individual effort - not yet an of official project of the Clan Society - my brother and I are developing a volume on "The Tartans of Clan MacRae". We have others working with us on this project, and have already acquired prints, descriptions, and histories of many more Tartans and variations identified with Clan MacRae than we could ever have imagined.

• And, in all of the above accomplishments in the area of McCrea/McCray/ McRae genealogy, the greatest has been the extensive work of so many individual family historians and genealogists who are now interested and involved with your own efforts, and who are sharing so generously with one another.

• (In addition to all of the above, I have done extensive research and writing on my own "non-McCrea" family history.)

1. I am still closing out certain obligations to Clan MacRae Society, which will soon be completed.

2. During 1997 I shall be seeking to do further extensive work with existing material compiled with the help of McCrea NETWORK. We shall be entering additional data into the computer Data Base, and we shall especially be seeking together to solve some of the long-standing mysteries in regard to early American families.

3. I hope to pick up again with several more McCrea NETWORK Newsletters, to share certain specific information and observations on the progress of our on-going efforts. There are several recent developments that I want to share.

4. Whereas I no longer foresee my own publication of an adequate volume on early American McCreas, I shall make every attempt to write as fully as I can, to organize and present the information which we have been gathering over these years.

5. I intend to enlist a small number of select persons involved in McCrea/McCray genealogy, to be an informal council to assure the ongoing coordination among us and to give guidance and direction to future work in this area, such as we have been carrying on within the NETWORK. (Volunteers are welcome!)

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• As has already been done with Clan MacRae Society, I am deeply committed - as I have always stated - to assuring the proper availability and disposition of all my McCrea NETWORK manuscripts, documents, and data - with the "final" computer data base - representing the completion of my own labors, and the rather amazing accomplishments of us all working together on this exciting and worthy enterprise.

  Thanks and appreciation are expressed to all those who have made contributions of time, labor, and dedication during these years!!

  John T. McCrea
  P. O. Box 55-8136
  Miami, FL 33255
   
  E-Mail: