McCoy

Thinking of my grandma last night made me think of where we came from...

My grandma had a lot of brothers..more than sisters *it was a lot of them*..

But I remember people in our family saying they don't want none of us..cuz we are the real McCoy..

From what I gathered from being a child is that we came from this family down in Kentucky who got into it with this family the Hatfields. 1878 is when the shit hit the fan. I learned that it was possibly started when one of the Hatfields wanted to marry one of my people. Of course the McCoys wasn't having it..and all hell broke loose. Then the Hatfields and McCoys got into it over a hog. Hatfields said it was theirs, and of course "we" had to dee-bo it..lol
The final straw was when one of the chicks from the McCoys..left and went to move to West VA to be with one of the Hatfield boys. The chick eventually went back home to the McCoys, but when she realized that she wasn't going to let them dictate her life...the McCoy men kidnapped her man. The guy who got kidnapped said this was too much, and married his ex's cousin...also a McCoy :)

The feud ended in 1891 after it had attracted media attention..the state government from both KY and VA stepped in. By the time it was over dozens of people were dead from both sides.

Okay..

So this is where I get my "whiteness" ya'll. My grandma had grey eyes, and the rest of her brothers and sisters either had hazel or blue..yes blue..I have one uncle now who is still living..High yellow with baby blue eyes....

But what I found while reacherching the feud was....

There has been some recent speculation in the press (Associated Press, April 6, 2007) that the feud may have been fueled in part by a rare tumor, pheochromocytoma ("pheo"), that sometimes leads to "hair-trigger rage and violent outbursts." In the McCoy family, pheos are one of the consequences of a rare disease known as Von Hippel-Lindau disease (VHL), which is prevalent among McCoy descendants.[9] The condition sometimes produces tumors of the adrenal gland (pheochromocytomas), leading to excess adrenaline production. According to the National Cancer Institute, most people interpret these surges as panic attacks or palpitations. Pheos occur also in the general population, and in families with any of five other genetic mutations.[10] wikipedia.com

And then...

Several genetic experts have known about the disease plaguing some of the McCoys for decades, but kept it secret. The Associated Press learned of it after several family members revealed their history to Vanderbilt doctors, who are trying to find more McCoy relatives to warn them of the risk.

Affected family members have long been known to be combative, even with their kin. Reynolds recalled her grandfather, “Smallwood” McCoy.
“When he would come to visit, everyone would run and hide. They acted like they were scared to death of him. He had a really bad temper,” she said.

"Medical folks like to find these kinds of explanations. Like the Salem witchcraft thing. That book came out about how that was caused by wheat that was grown that had this parasite or mold or fungus or something that caused everybody in Salem to go nuts,” she said.


Anyway...I just thought I would share a bit about where I originated from...we'll the one side at least..


I'm a real McCoy...