Our McKee family connection:

Our  McKee mini-clan was founded by Thomas McKee. Not this Thomas McKee, but his father. As the family legend goes: Thomas McKee came from north of Leith, Scotland and was at the end of the 18th century a professor in the Scotland University at Glasgow, where he served for eight years. (Sadly, the University of Glasgow is unable to verify this information.) During the religious persecution of the Presbyterians, he fled to the north of Ireland and finally settled in Belfast. There he met a French woman, Margaret Cahoon.  They were married in Belfast, and had the following children: Robert, Ann and Margaret, born in Belfast. In 1812 Mr. McKee came to America bringing his family with him. Enroute to America, a daughter, Eliza was born. They settled in New York City, where Mr. McKee taught school. Because of the war with England in 1812, they moved up the Hudson River to New Windsor, near Newburg. In moving, the family record was (supposedly) lost overboard in a storm.  Note: On the 1880 census their son Thomas McKee reports that both his parents were born in Ireland contradicting the timing of the Scotch and French ancestry.

This blurb included in a Rootsweb newsletter May 3, 2006 may explain the McKee history:

A man emigrating from Ireland landed at Ellis Island in New York.
The official asked him his nationality. He replied, "Scottish."
The officer seemed confused and said, "But your papers say you 
were born in Ireland."
The proud immigrant squared his shoulders and explained. "If a man 
is born in a barn, that doesn't make him a horse."
He entered his new homeland as a Scotsman.
<>Thomas McKee, the second and pictured, was born at New Windsor, N. Y. on June 24th, 1814. Robert, the eldest brother, went to Troy at about this time to teach school. In later years, Thomas went to Troy as Robert's assistant. They both came to Albany and taught in the Albany Female Academy and lived near St. Peter's Church on the corner of State and Lodge streets. Reportedly, there is or was a tablet in the Albany Female Academy stating: Rev. Robert McKee, A.M., Prof. of Math and Nat. Sci. in this institution. Died July 1840, Aged 41. Erected by his pupils. From Albany, Thomas McKee went to Schodack and taught there for a number of years. After leaving Schodack he went to Coeymans where he taught school and later purchased and edited the Coeymans Gazette, a weekly newspaper. He was married on June 3, 1873 to Kate E. Briggs, who was born at Coeymans in 1840.

Thomas McKee took his wife to Greenbush, N. Y. and lived on Riverside Ave. The town was renamed Rensselaer and took in Bath and East Albany. In 1874 Marie McKee was born but lived only a short time. They built a house at 12 Riverside Avenue and there Thomas Cahoon McKee was born  October 15, 1876. Paul Robert McKee November 4, 1878 and George Scott McKee in December 1880. Mr. McKee established and edited the Rensselaer County Gazette until his death October 31, 1881. His obituary published in his newspaper is here. The offices and premises were destroyed by fire shortly after his death, the loss being a total one. Shortly thereafter, Mrs. Kate E. McKee moved west and lived there for a few years. She returned in 1887 and while at the old home, George Scott was drowned in the Hudson RIver in front of the house May 24, 1887. Pictured are Thomas C. McKee on the bicycle and Paul R. McKee on the velocipede.

The State of New York honored Thomas McKee with a historical marker. When I went looking for it, it was in the shop for repair. Hopefully, in the near future it will be repainted and reerected in the Coeymans community.

Thomas McKee (1814-1881) and Kate E. Briggs McKee (1840-1891) and three of their children are buried in the Albany Rural Cemetery, Menands NY. Kate's parents  (Albert & Maria Andrews Briggs) are reportedly buried in Coeymans and her grandparents are buried in nearby Alcove NY.

My grandfather, Thomas Cahoun McKee (1876-1946), married Hortense Eliza Meyeur in Albany NY
in 1905. Hortense grew up in Gouverneur NY and was named for her father's mother Hortense Trudeau
and her mother's (Victoria Fosgate) mother Eliza Bignall. While we have 1920s reunion photos taken
in Gouverneur we have no idea if the people are Meyeur, Fosgate, Trudeau or Bignall relatives.