MichaelRunyon.com – All Things Geek

The Internet is really changing everything. People are coming together and information is spreading so rapidly, sometimes it is truly unbelievable. Runyons from all over facebook are contacting me and inviting to join groups of them. 

This summer, I was unable to go with my dad’s side of the family to a reunion in West Virginia. The reunion primarily focused on the Lester side of the family (my paternal grandmothers family). My paternal grandfather had passed away the summer previous and the trip was especially meaningful to those who were able to attend, as much of the elder family members are starting to thin out as time goes on. 

Then, randomly, I remembered at one time someone saying that my paternal great-grandmother was a McCoy (from the infamous Hatfield-McCoy feuds of the late 1800s). I decided to try and find out if this was true, and if so, how I was related to the events that happened. The McDowell Co Historical Preservation Society’s website was instrumental in finding the familial relationships of the Lesters and McCoys, along with a couple of other websites related to WV history.

My great-grandmother Rose Nell McCoy was born on Sep 9, 1907 to Wayne McCoy. Wayne McCoy was the 13th child of Selkirk McCoy. Selkirk McCoy was the firstborn of Asa McCoy, son of Samuel McCoy. Asa was the cousin of Randolph and Asa Harmon McCoy, the two brothers that started the feud with the Hatfield family. According to Wikipedia, the feud officially started when a band of ex-Confederate soldiers killed Asa Harmon McCoy, a Union soldier returning home. 

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatfields_and_McCoys ); 

“The uncle of Devil Anse, Jim Vance, and his “Wildcats” despised Hans Hall McCoy because he had joined the Union army during the American Civil War. Harman had been discharged from the army early because of a broken leg; several nights after he returned home, he was murdered in a nearby cave.”

So, therein we come to the very start of the feud, and also a famous event in history (well, semi-famous) that we/I can trace our family tree to. My great great great great great grandfather, Asa McCoy, was the cousin of Hans Hall McCoy, who was murdered to start the feud. So, Hans Hall McCoy, the origin of the feud, would be my 1st cousin, 6 times removed (Many thanks to a relationship calculator provided by Stephen Morse).

I won’t pretend that this association makes me in any way special. I am 6 generations away from the events that happened; those involved in the circumstances probably spawned thousands of descents in the years since. My great great grandfather, the last male McCoy in my family tree, was the 13th child in his family. Randolph, who was eventually killed in the feud, married my great great great great great great aunt Sarah, and had 16 children over a span of 23 years. Amazing! Our times have changed so much since then. 16 kids in a family today would literally be national news. Following our train, even if all of the other McCoys were much less fertile, and each successive generation spawned only half as many kids, that would still be 6,000 descendants with the same relationship to Asa McCoy (and Randolph McCoy) that I share.

Again, I cannot express how impossible this would’ve been without the Internet. It would’ve taken many phone calls and probably a physical trip or two to some archive to find out how we were all related.  And yet, it took me inside of an hour to make this connection. What a wonderful tool…no matter who you are, how savvy you are, how old/young you are, the communications ability of this technology (which is only just beginning) is just staggering. Our ability to bring together and communicate today is so much greater than anything we could’ve imagined even just a few years ago.

Maybe there’s someone famous in your family’s past. With the power of the Internet, and a little determination, there is almost no limit to what can be known.�