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McCurdy Lineage: 1400-1800’s

One of the most prominent figures of the battle of Gettysburg was not that of a soldier, but of a young woman that wrote a book about it. She wrote the book from her experiences of the battle and what she saw during the three days of battle and the days afterwards caring for the wounded. This woman didn’t know how to be a nurse until she was told to do this and that from a doctor at a field hospital. She didn’t know anything about war prior to the battle that happened in her town. All she knew what that her friends and her teacher witnessed the soldiers arriving into town on June 30th as they passed by her school at the intersection of West High and South Washington street. They were able to give hope and smiles to the arriving soldiers marching into the southern borough of Gettysburg as they sang to the troops protecting their town from the advancing Confederate foes.

What is family lineage you might ask? The definition refers to the direct ancestry of a family by an individual and tracing their connections back through the generations.

The beginning of this family lineage is likely found a few hundred years prior to the creation of the town of Gettysburg. The first name on the tree is that of Donald I McCurdy (Makurerdy) from (1464-1486). His family would have lived into the region of the Isle of Bute, Scotland, which was part of the United Kingdom. His family would have five sons. One of his sons was Donald McCurdy II who lived between 1487-1565. One of their children was Donald McCurdy III. He would marry Esther Budd (1552-1586) and remain on the Isle of Bute in Scotland.

After Donald McCurdy III marrying Esther Budd, they would have a child named Finigal McCurdy (Makurerdy). This is where it becomes a little easier to find history lineage from. There is a story that is found along with family crests and banners. Here is the family crest of the family below.

Courtesy of the Fingal MacKurdy page on the Family Search website

Within the article above, Pethric McCurdy is mentioned to marry Margaret Anne Stewart in 1668. She is a direct descendant of King Robert II of Scotland and you can see by the picture below the wealth that her family was worth. The only reason why I mentioned it is here is her picture:

The link above shows the history of the family up to near 1700s. Daniel McCurdy would marry Margaret in 1694, and their son James Arthur McCurdy. James was born in Ireland, and he would marry Mary Polly Cooke in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in British Colonial America. Their son, Robert McCurdy (1736-1810), would marry Ann Creighton in 1761.

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