Acknowledgments
In a successful family history, no one works alone.
Someone walked that cemetery and wrote down the names on the stones.
Someone else carefully copied names from a family Bible.
Another sent away for a pension file and shared it with anyone who showed interest.
These pieces—gathered by many hands, across many years—come together to tell a larger story.
And that, when you stop to think about it… is something truly beautiful.
Because long before we began this work, others were already tending the roots.
We are especially grateful for the work of three individuals, without whom this site might never have come to be:
To Uncle Kenny,
who traveled to Northeast Pennsylvania, knocking on doors in search of long-lost cousins.
God bless him—he documented every family event and, every now and then, captured them on 8mm film. His persistence, curiosity, and deep sense of family helped bring scattered branches a little closer together.
To Aunt Margie,
who faithfully and tirelessly wrote out and mailed family updates—tracking births, deaths, and marriages by hand.
She preserved not just records, but relationships… sharing names and dates as they had been passed down to her, keeping the family connected in a time long before computers made it easy.
To Augustus McGill,
our Civil War veteran ancestor, who after becoming physically disabled, took up his pen and got to work.
He wrote letters to cousins near and far, gathering their recollections and stories, and compiled them into his book, The McGills: Celts, Scots, Ulstermen, and American Pioneers. His determination and vision laid the foundation for much of what we know today.
To each of them—and to the many unnamed others who contributed in ways both large and small—we offer our sincere thanks.
Some recorded names.
Some preserved stories.
Some simply remembered.
And because they did… we can remember too.
If you have contributed to this story in any way—through records, memories, or shared research—please know that your efforts matter, and are deeply appreciated.