General Notes

Exactly when the family of Neal McCann, Senior came to America has not
been established. Nor has it been established if the McCanns are of
Irish or of Scottish descent. Whether they are Irish or Scotch or a
little of both, we are proud of our ancestors who have contributed much
to our American Heritage. (Statement in "The McCann Genealogy" by
Margaret Winn Haynes).

My ancestors, the McCanns and Robinsons came to Kentucky from Spottsylvania
Co., Virginia with the "Traveling Church" leaving September, 1781 and
passing through the Cumberland Gap on December 31, 1781. They stopped
first at Crab Orchard, Kentucky where there were other white settlers.
In the spring they went in groups to settle land, and to build churches, homes and forts. There were some five or six hundred men, women, children and slaves. The Ellis family was also among the group.

Neal (O'Neal) McCann and Neal McCann, Senior are listed in Fayette County,
Kentucky, on the first United States Census taken in 1790. There were
seven Men with the McCann names listed in Fayette and adjacent Bourbon Co.
as follows: Thomas McCann and William McCann, Bourbon Co.; John; Joseph;
another Joseph; Neal, Senior; and, Neal McCann, all Fayette Co.

On the 1800 census, Kentucky, Neal McCann, Senior, and Neal McCann, Junior
and Joseph McCann were listed in Fayette Co., KY. Pleasant McCann, Senior
was listed in adjacent Clark Co., KY. James and John McCann were listed
in Bourbon Co.; James in Montgomery Co.; John, Thomas and Patrick McCann
were listed in Fleming Co., KY. There was also a Lanthy McCann listed in
Bracken Co., KY. Remember that: Bourbon was formed from Fayette in 1785;
Mason Co. was formed from Bourbon in 1788; Clark Co. was formed from
Bourbon Co. in 1792; and, Fleming Co. formed from Mason Co. in 1798.

O'Neal McCann was born during the 1700's and died Oct. 1, 1813. He was from
Virginia. The O' was finally dropped from Neal's name.

His will is in what is termed the "burnt records" badly burned but (7)
children's names can be counted.(Will - Vol. 4, page 231, 311, 113, 114;
Fayette Co., Ky). He may have had other children besides the ones mentioned
but the will was so badly burned that only the center of the pages are
legible. His son, Pleasant McCann, Senior, was the administrator.

These McCanns came with the 1781 move of the "Traveling Church" from
Spottsylvania County, Virginia to Crab Orchard, Kentucky. Of the many families, two others were the Robinson family and the Ellis family. Three of Neal McCann's sons married into those families.

In examining books in various libraries, I find that there is some support
for the theory that the McCann name was originally McKEAND. The emigrant seems to have been JOHN McKEAND, born in Whithorn, County of Wigtown, Scotland and that he immigrated to America with other members of his family prior to the Revolutionary War. " They came to Philadelphia on the Queen Elizabeth, settled at Frostburg on the Allegheny Mountains, and subsequently settled in Bourbon County, Kentucky. In a letter to him from his cousin, Jeen McWilliam from Mochrum, Wigtown, Scotland, dated April 28, 1817 asking for power of attorney to sell the family homestead, he said `When you send the power of attorney to sell the family homestead be so good as to sign your name John McKeand as that is the way it is signed in this country and mention that you are the son of John McKeand, son of John McKeand in Whitehorn'. My great grandfather was born 30th of July 1769 and his spouse Nancy Penn was born June 15, 1779, they were married 24th of August 1797, his father was born 1742 and Margaret McColough, his spouse, was born 1743. About the first time the name was spelled McCann was when uncle James McCann was born in 1800". That is signed by a C.R.J. Wright (Mrs. Cynthia Rebecca Jones Wright) who wrote the notes in the Wright Bible in June 1896.) (Copied by Julia S. Ardery, 1948).

I found the above in the Family Folder