Post #2: Sarah Boyd , born 1848 Ballintoy, daughter of James Boyd and Jennet Kane, married William Hugh Percy 22 Nov 1867 in Larne, County Antrim. William Hugh Percy was the son of William Percy and Jennet McMaw. (We show the parents of Jennet Kane as Andrew Kane & Sarah Thompson (1792-1865.) Everything we have found so far points to the Percy men as expert stonemasons. William Hugh Percy and his two brothers were, and all three emigrated to the USA. When Sara Boyd Percy's family arrived in the USA in 1886, her 18-year old son was already experienced in shaping stone & building with it and her younger sons also became stonemasons. We thought Sarah's father might also be in the quarry/stone business, although we have no hard proof. Today there is a James Boyd & Sons Quarries in Newtownabbey, Antrim but we don't know that they are related. Our thought was that Edward may have first moved to Ayrshire to work the quarry at Stevenston which mined marble-like stone and whinstone – hard, dark stone like basalt and dolerite – rock notoriously difficult to work with. If this was the case, he must also have been a talented stonemason. Do you know anything about him? Do you have the birth year for Edward & Rachel's son John, born 24 May in Antrim? Do you know what any of Edward's sons did for a living? We know only that James Boyd was born 1816 and married to Jennet Kane, and his daughter was very proud of the Boyd name. It seems both the Boyd and Percy families owned as well as leased lands, and they seem to have spent their lives in the Ballylinny/Ballintoy area of Antrim County. Would love to know how or when they got there or any other additional information about James Boyd b 1816.
