Preface

Over the years Ken Breakey has sent me an untold number of ‘brown packets’ containing pages and pages of research data, and his contribution to the history of the Breakey family in Ireland has been invaluable. However, in the past four years he has out done himself for now it is up to me to decipher, organize, and compile his research on the Breakey families of Scotland.

A few words are necessary about the enormity of this project at hand due to the number of pages involved. I will be working with legible printed copies, and with facsimiles of original handwritten documents. The data will be presented in no particular order other than the one I establish as I retrieve the information from each brown envelope. Hopefully I will be able to compile all individual or family data under the entry of their place of residence. Further, this is a project that will not be completed all at once, but is a task that I can do piece-meal and, hopefully, add to each week throughout the year. With each update of new additions to the web site, I will alphabetize the entries by place of residence in order to make the article more ‘user friendly.’

As the researcher who has long entertained the possibility that the Irish family of Breakey came from Scotland, I am especially pleased to include this new manuscript in The Breakey Collection, particularly in view of the following:

The 1672 marriage of William Breaky to Janet Duncan in Lasswade, Midlothian, Scotland. [See “Documented Dates of Marriages & Deaths,” The Breakey Collection].
The 1692 birth of Sarah Breakey in Dunluce, Antrim, Northern. [See “In Search of the ‘Boyne’ Soldiers,” The Breakey Collection].[1] Might this documentation be evidence that the Breakey family of Scotland immigrated to Ireland?
The reference in the sermon eulogy for Rev. Andrew Breakey of Killyleagh that he was a descendant of a Breakey from Scotland. [See “Rev. Andrew Breakey of Lismagonway & Killyleagh,” The Breakey Collection].

[Note: For readers who wish to visualize the proximity of places of residence for the Breakey families of Scotland, I recommend downloading a county and parish map of Scotland that can be found via www.scotsfamily.com/county-map.htm]

Lastly, I wish to note that, unless otherwise stated, the research data in this article was completely funded by Ken Breakey. And once again, my deepest gratitude to Ken for willing to be part of this search for the heritage of the Breakey family.

Marilyn J. Breakey

March 2007

[1] One concern I expressed in the stated article is the omission of Breakey surnames in the public records of Scotland following the birth of children in 1673 and 1674 to William Breaky and Janet Duncan. However, it must be remembered that registration of births, marriages and deaths didn’t begin in Scotland until 1 January 1855. Some Old Parish Registers do exist, as can be seen in Ken’s research, and will be documented as such by, ‘OPR’.