Our story of the Kinzie-Gordon family includes the tale of John Kinzie (1763-1828), the first male in the line of the clan who carried the “Kinzie” last name.
John was the product of his mother, Anne Tyne Haliburton McKenzie Forsyth’s, second marriage. Anne wed British military chaplain William Haliburton and gave birth to their daughter, Alice, in 1758, right before the family set sail for her husband’s new assignment in Quebec. It was the height of the Seven Years’ War, known in the British colonies as the French and Indian War, a perilous time for a young wife with a baby to be travelling to North America. Even worse, William came down with an illness aboard ship that took his life shortly after their arrival at their new posting.
Stuck in a new land with a baby, no husband, and no safe way to return home during wartime, Anne, described as “a lady of remarkable beauty and accomplishments,” remained in Quebec. She eventually remarried Major John McKenzie, a military surgeon of Scottish descent, by whom she gave birth to John in December 1763. Shortly afterward, Anne became a widow once more. She later married New York innkeeper William Forsyth, who survived for many years and with whom she had more sons.
Somewhere along the way Anne changed the spelling of her oldest son’s last name to “Kinzie.” While the name “McKenzie” had various spellings among many different branches of the clan (Mackenzie, McKinsey, etc.) it is unclear why Anne made this deliberate change for John. Perhaps she wanted a more anglicized-sounding name for the Americas? We just don’t know.
What we do know from the existing records is that young Johnny Kinzie had a strained relationship with his stepfather and a burning desire to learn more about his birth father, whose memory seemed to have been erased along with the “Mc” from his last name. These factors would inspire a daring adventure that the boy undertook to find his roots.
More on that story another day . . .
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