----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Hite" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, October 15, 2001 6:54 PM Subject: [KORNEGAY-L] John George Hornigh NOT Kornegay ancestor > Research by Hank Jones, a fellow of the American Society of Genealogists, > has demonstrated that John George Hornigh, who arrived in England in 1709, > was NOT the founder of the Kornegay family in North Carolina. He was listed > among the 1709 arrivals in England as age 38 with his wife (age not given), > two daughters (ages 12 and 10) and two sons (ages 8 and 2). Much has been > published stating that this family that came to North Carolina in 1710 and > that all of them except the eight year old son (said to be George Kornegay) > were massacred by the Tuscarora Indians. Jones's research, however, > published in his 1990 book THE PALATINE FAMILIES OF IRELAND has shown that > John George Hornigh and his family settled in County Wexford, Ireland, where > they became quite prominent. This family's name was most often spelled there > as Hornick. > > Jones is currently working on another three-volume set of books that will > include much information about the Palatine and Swiss settlers of eastern > North Carolina. The section dealing with North Carolina is being prepared by > Lew Rohrbach, another accomplished researcher. They have NOT found the > European home of the Kornegay family, but the book, which will be published > next year, will include information about them in America and also other > German and Swiss families of the New Bern area, some of whose European homes > have been identified. I will notify this list when these books are > available. > > Given that we can now rule out John George Hornigh as the founder of the > Kornegay family in North Carolina, I think that the most likely origin of > the Kornegay surname is the Swiss name "Gnagi." This possibility was first > suggested to me in the late 1980s by the late Dan Fagg of Batesville, > Arkansas. It fits well with the earliest spellings of George Kornegay's > name in Craven County records. The documents assigning him to the care of > Jacob Miller spell his name as "Knege" and "Kneegee". In German, the "G" > and "K" sounds are much more similar than they are in English, so it is easy > to imagine "Gnagi" evolving into "Knege" when English speakers heard the > name spoken by German speakers. Later spellings such as "Kenege" and > "Connegue" would also have a similar sound. To the best of my knowledge, > the "Kornegay" spelling does not appear in any documents until the 1760s, > late in the first George's life. It is worth noting that no "r" in the > first syllable of the earlier spellings. It is true that no one named > "Gnagi" has been found in the lists of Germans that arrived in England in > 1709. But not all of the 1710 immigrants who settled in the New Bern area > had passed through England. A large contingent came directly from > Switzerland with Baron Christoph DeGraffenried. It is possible that this > group included a child named George Gnagi, who would be orphaned within the > year and then placed under the guardianship of Jacob Miller. Once Jones and > Rohrbach's new books are available, it will be worthwhile to check the > records of the European homes of other New Bern area settlers for the > origins of the Kornegay family. > > > ==== KORNEGAY Mailing List ==== > To view Kornegay Family Pages go to > http://www.jbquinn.net/Family_History/index.htm >