Home Page for the Society of Genealogy of Durkee

The Society of Genealogy of Durkee

4100 East Theresa Street

Long Beach, CA 90814-1758

phone: 562 438-5582

Founded 1977. Incorporated 1984.
William Durkee (Durgy) was born in Ireland about 1632 and may have been the first Irishman to settle in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He arrived on Nov. 9, 1663 as the indentured servant of Thomas Bishop, having been in the Barbadoes, probably as a slave of Cromwells. Martha Cross was born Feb. 14, 1643 of Robert and Anna/Hannah (Jordon). Martha was probably employed in the household of Thomas Bishop. They married in Ipswich, Mass. on Dec. 20, 1664 after Robert Cross sued William for abusing his daughter and William countersued Robert for withdrawing his consent to marriage after giving it. Two weeks later, their first child John was born. Son Thomas was born in 1666, daughter Martha in 1668, and son William in 1672. Elizabeth born about 1670, Mercy, Anna born about 1680, Mary, Jane, and Henry? were also probably children of William and Martha. Since William would not renounce his Catholicism, he could not own land. Almost all Durkees in the United States and Canada are descended from the three sons: John, Thomas, and William. One exception are a small group in Wisconsin descended from Herman and William Durkey who arrived there about 1870 from Germany. Another exception spell their name Durgy and descend from John Durgy who married Hannah (Conger) in 1784 in Fairfield, Conn.
Cornelius E. Durkee began work collecting Durkee information about 1875. By 1915 he had 5000 names with extensive cross references. In 1925, at age 88, he sent his work to Joseph Durkee, who intended to publish it. Joseph's daughters and a son-in-law started putting these records into manuscript form by 1947. Eventually, the manuscript ended up in the hands of the Society's President and Editor by 1977. Since then, steady progress toward publication of the genealogy of Durkee has been made, with publication in the near future.

Membership:

Membership gives you a year's subscription to The Durkee Family Newsletter. Make your check or money order payable in $US to: The Society of Genealogy of Durkee and remit to the address above. 1998 completes volume 17 with 4 issues per volume. ISSN 0892-208X. Back issues are available at $2.00 per issue or by the year at the original subscription price ($5.00 Vol. 1-3; $6.00 Vol. 4-8; $7.50 Vol. 9-?). An index is also available. Your tax-free donations are also appreciated. See also the late 1998 acquisition of the durkee.org and durkee.net(?) domain names by a savvy relative.
This page maintained by Keith G. Calkins: calkins@andrews.edu.
URL: http://www.andrews.edu/~calkins/durkeefa.html
Text copyrighted, 1999, The Society of Genealogy of Durkee. Revised -- July 21, 1998.