About

Many members of the Veatch, Veitch, Veach, Veech family have long been interested in their history.  Civil War General James C. Veatch started gathering family historical data during the 1800’s.  His grandson Dr. Arthur Clifford Veatch, did an extensive amount of research both in America and Scotland and hoped to publish a history of the family.  His untimely death at the age of 60 prevented his realizing this goal. 

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Our family in America has been traced to James Veitch who was born in Roxburgshire, Scotland in 1628 and came to this country in 1651.  He settled on St. Leonard’s Creek, Maryland in the Chesapeake Bay area and served as Sheriff of Calvert County, Maryland from 1653 to 1657.  Many of his descendants served our country in the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War and other wars.  His grandfather, Laird John Vaiche of Dawick (1579 – 1606) married Janet Stewart of the Royal House of Stewart, therefore many of us are descended from European Royalty. 

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Laurence R. Guthrie, whose mother was a Veatch, had published a book on his family genealogy.  Mr. Guthrie completed the original manuscript for We Veitches in 1960.  He worked on the task for many years but he was unable to publish it.

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Wanda Veatch Clark obtained the manuscript and additional material and in 1974 she published a book, titled . . . We Veitches, Veatches, Veaches, Veeches, An Historical Treasury of the Descendants of James Veitch, the Sheriffe.  With the publication of this book, more interest was generated in the family history and a meeting was held in 1976 in Kansas City where the Veitch Historical Society was formally organized with Wayne O. Veatch serving as the first President of the Society.

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Membership had grown throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom from the original 125 in 1976.  An annual international reunion of the Society is held each year somewhere in the United States or Canada.  Three overseas trips, as a group, have been made by VHS Members, twice to Scotland and once to Veitsch, Austria.

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The Veitch Historical Society submitted a formal application to the Lord Lyon of Arms of Edinburgh in November 1981.  When members of the Society were in Scotland in 1983, the Society was presented with its own official coat-of-arms by Malcolm Rognvald Innes of Edingight, Baron of Yeochrie, Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, Writer of Her Magesty’s Signet, Lord Lyon King of Arms.