- The GOWDY - GOUDY FAMILY -

It is said that the Gowdy - Goudy family descended originally from the Miller Clan in Scotland and that some time in the 1500's some of them migrated to Ireland and settled near Ulster. After about 4 generations a group of brothers and sisters, staunch Presbyterians of the old Scottish Rite, found they could no longer tolerate the insults of their Catholic neighbors. It was becoming increasingly difficult to continue to pay the excessive rents for the use of the lands so it was then they decided to immigrate to the New World. 'Twas a sad scene on the day of departure as family members looked timidly at the ship ready for departure then tearfully bid goodbyes to loved ones they would never see again.

Arriving in the new world in the mid to late 1600's they settled in Pennsylvania where they cleared woods, built cabins, and opened up roads building up the land that was to be their new home. By the late 1700's they had prospered and their numbers were many. It was about this time that the Gowdy - Goudy families began their migration through the Cumberland gap and down into Kentucky and Ohio. Here it is where we first find documented records of our ancestor William GOWDY and his wife Isabella FLEMING.