Hi, my name is Richard Hite and I am new to this list. This is my Kornegay lineage: George Kornegay (died 1773, Craven County, NC). Wife allegedly Mary Fisher. His son: George Kornegay, Jr. (died 1808, Duplin County, NC). Wife said to be Margaret (Downing) Lullum but if any documentation of this has ever turned up, I am unaware of it. His son: Jacob Kornegay (died 1815, Wayne County, NC). Married Elizabeth Wiggins, daughter of Willis Wiggins and Mourning Stevens. Their son: Marshall Kornegay (1812-1853), married Catherine Cogdell (1815-1885) daughter of Lewis Cogdell and Ann King. Lived near Suttontown in Sampson County, NC, very near the Wayne County line. Their son: David Marshall Kornegay (1851-1928) married Sallie Ann Ophelia King (1851-1901) daughter of David Cogdell King and Rosa Ann Manly. Lived near his parents' home and later lived in it. Later in his life, Marshall moved to Florida where he died. Their daughter: Laura Susan Kornegay (1874-1947), married James Claudius Williams (1860-1943) of Godwin in Cumberland County, NC. Their son: Robert Wesley Williams (1905-1972) married Melba Grogan (1909-1987) of Reidsville, NC. Their daughter: Mary Susan Williams (born 1934), married first to John Lee Hite (born 1932) of Topeka, Kansas. their son: Richard Wesley Hite (me, born 1961).

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.