Hello, I wanted to let folks know that my brother William Wertz and myself (Charles Wertz) recently visited the Library of Virginia in Richmond with our friends Jim and Debbie Firebaugh of Richmond. Our goal was to see if we could find our mysterious 4th great grandfather, father of our 3rd great grandfather Shepherd McCoy. Shepherd lays at rest on the family farm outside of Elkton, VA.

Less than 1 hour after entering the library we had our answer in the written marriage record. The father of Shepherd McCoy and our 4th great grandfather was Enos McKay. Up to this point there was only speculation and no proof. Many refuted the possibility. Also listed as the mother was E. McKay, presumed to be his mistress Elizabeth Templeman who was several decades his junior.

I can tell you our search began with a misspelled entry Mc"R"ay on page 367 of the 16 mm microfilm reel of an alphabetized list of the last names of the husbands of marriages in the state of Virginia. In this case you could see the transcriber clearly changed a "K" to an "R". Shepherd's unique name and the date of the marriage confirmed the record. We found the list to not be alphabetized completely correct much less the challenges with the spellings and interpretations of letters. Cursive "L's" looked like "S's". We actually found the Shepherd McRay entry while panning to the left of the listing of McCoys. This page of the record then directed us to page 162 on a 35 mm microfilm reel of marriages by county beginning in 1853. We were told if we got to this reel it would reveal the parents of the newlyeds. We went to page 162 on the second microfilm reel and clearly found the parents of Shepherd McCoy listed as Enos & E. McKay. E. McKay is believed to be Elizabeth Templeman who is listed with a young Shepherd in the 1830 and 1850 census records from Page County. Shepherd's bride to be is listed as Lucinda Harvy (looked like "Harry" as written) and her parents were listed as L. & E. Harvey. Shepherd is listed as a farmer. He and Lucinda were each 24years old in 1855 and they were married by A. J. Coffman.

Our new 4th great grandfather was apparently both a bit of a challenge and charitable. Quaker Hopewell Meeting House minutes from June 4, 1796 show Enos to have "repented" for "misconduct and other disunity". We now he joined a militia and this did not go over well with the pacifist Quakers. At the same time he donated the bell on top of the Page County courthouse in Luray.

Enos had legitimate children from his first marriage to Catharine Henry. She died in 1831. He must have been having relations with the much younger Elizabeth Templeman prior to the death of Catherine because our Shepherd was born in 1830. Was Elizabeth Templeman a house servant to help with an ill Catharine? Shortly after Catherine's death Enos married an Eleanor Elizabeth Kirk with whom he had legitimate daughters Ann and Virginia. It is also in the record that Enos willed his slaves Rose, Gill and Isabella to his second wife Eleanor.

Curiously, the 1830 census shows his mistress Elizabeth Templeman to be living with 2 free white males under under the age of 5. Presumably one of those young boys was was our 3rd great grandfather Shepherd, who is listed with her in the 1850 census of Page Co., VA. Also at that time in 1830 she had 2 female slaves under 5 years of age living with her. Did Enos provide his mistress with these slaves? We know the 23 year old female living with 46 year old Elizabeth Templeman in the 1850 also had the name Isabella. Could she have been one of the slaves or was she simply Shepherd's older sister named after one of Enos's favorite slaves?

In closing, I hope this finding that Enos McKay is in fact the father of Shepherd McCoy, puts an end to decades of speculation by the McCoy generations who simply want to know from whence they came. We now know definitively it is in the record. It is my intention to share this information with the Samuels Library in Front Royal, VA where an extended bound copy of the McKay History and Genealogy is housed. Perhaps they will review the evidence and include the information on the 6 or so generations of people descended from the illegitimate Shepherd McCoy. Currently their is no record of this lineage included. History should be true and accurate wherever possible. You can reach me at chaswertz@verizon.net or cell 717-639-9357.

P.S. I have tried to attach pdf's of the document