Brian McDuffie's Genealogy
Welcome to my Geneology Home page! When I realized I was the last male in the line of this branch of the McDuffie family,I thought it might be wise to create this web page for the many female descendants in my family. I intended to be married by now. But, though I've been asked seven times now, I've made no serious proposals. For the
female descendants of the family, and my possible descendants, this pagehas been created.
My mother claims that part of our family came over on the Mayflower, and that she's a direct descendant of John Paul Jones---whatever Mom! All this American superpatriotism is, well, whatever it is, probably b&!!%$*#. My maternal family originates from the English (central part) of the island of Great Britain---a place called Sticklepath. It's a thriving metropolis, I am sure. Although there is some Scottish blood in there from time to time, the Yeo's were mostly descended from the English through and through with names like Cooper and Smith. My grandmother's maiden name was Francisco, and her mother's maiden name was Dutch, Sturdevant. Go figure!
My family (father's side) originally came to Boston from Ireland in the latter part of the seventeenth century, migrated south into Virginia and Maryland, and eventually ended up in Kentucky. From there the family branched out into two portions, one going South in the
Carolinas and Georgia and one going West into Kentucky. In the 1930's, a part of the Kentucky branch headed by Henson
McDuffie moved north into Mecosta County, Michigan into a little logging village that had just been named Leonard to become a district clerk just before Michigan became a state in 1837. The name was changed to Big Rapids by one of the county commissioners in 1838 who was a logger baron, and owned the sawmill on the east side of the Muskegon river. Can you understand why they changed the name? It's sort of like naming a town Sylvester; (you expect to see Tweety Pie painted on the sign).
But, the real reason the name was changed was because the loggers were perplexed by the big rapids just north of the sawmill. Logs were continually hung up on the very brisk rapids in the shallow waters near what is now the Big Rapids Middle School. Log jams were frequent, and cost considerable headaches, thus the name the place at the big rapids. But, to continue:
Reference:
Who am
I?