No,
this is not the name of a rock band. Hugh McKay was my wife’s great-grandfather
and he married twice, both times to women named Isabel. That confused us for a
while as he appeared on censuses from 1851 to 1901 with a wife of that name but on
the 1861 census, both the woman’s age and place of birth changed. That
led us to find the death record for the first Isabel, on February 15, 1856 and
a second marriage for Hugh on May 15, 1857.
Hugh
was born in Banffshire. He had five children between 1847 and 1856, with the
first Isabella: John, Barbara, Hugh, George and Isabella. He had five more
between 1858 and 1869 with the second Isabel: James, William, Robert, Jessie
and Mary. This all seems easy to put together in hindsight. But before we figured it all out,
we were actually looking at a different family, thinking they were connected.
We
had found out his name from the 1869 birth record of his son, Alexander. His
mother was shown as Isabella, nee Scott. That, in turn, led us to their
marriage in 1857. The 1871 census showed Alexander (age 1) along with three
other children: James (12), William (11) and Mary (4). That information helped
us to identify the family on the 1861 census as well. The curious thing was
that the 1861 census showed two children born before 1857, Barbara (13) and
George (9).
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1857
marriage record for Hugh McKay and Isabella Scott in Dallas, Elgin. Hugh was
born in Macduff, Banffshire, Isabella in Edinkillie, Morayshire. (Image from
records obtained through ScotlandsPeople)
We
set out looking for those children and found a family of a Hugh and Isabel in
Gamrie, Banffshire, on the 1851 census, with children named Margret, George,
Isabella and Barbara. The wife’s maiden name, we discovered, was Isabel Smollet. We
actually carried this family on our family tree for a while because, what are
the odds that the father, mother and three children would have the same names
in two different families from the same area. Quite high, as it transpired! A
closer inspection (finally) showed the ages and places of birth were different
than what was on later censuses although we did not recognize this in the
beginning.
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1839
marriage record for the wrong Hugh McKay to Isobel Smollet in Forgue,
Aberdeenshire. This family resided in Gamrie, Banffshire in 1841 which confused
us into thinking he was our Hugh. (Image from records obtained through ScotlandsPeople)
It
all worked until we found a grand-daughter of Hugh and Isabel on the 1891 and
1901 censuses. She had been born in Perthshire in 1887. From the census data,
we found her birth record and parents’ names, George and Ann (nee Phillips).
More searching led us to find that family on other census records. His age
there did not match up with the Hugh McKay and Isabel Smollet family. So they
were all pruned from our family tree.
Finally
we realized that Hugh had married a different Isabel, or rather Isabella Thompson
in 1845. The ages of their children, especially George, were in line with other
data. Not everything fit, however, as the marriage record for George and Ann
showed the maiden names of both mothers as Anderson. That was clearly a
mistake, on the part of the clerk no doubt, since his parents’ forenames were
correct. We have also not found the birth records of the children of Hugh and
Isabella although we know their names from the censuses. That was part of the
problem in identifying the actual family.
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1845
marriage record for Hugh McKay of Gamrie, Banffshire and Isabella Thompson of
Aucterless, Aberdeenshire. Austerless is only 7 miles from Forgue and both are
about 20 miles from Gamrie. The marriage was also recorded in the parish
register of Gamrie and Macduff. (Image from records obtained through ScotlandsPeople)
We
are pretty confident that we have the right relationships now even though not all
records have been obtained. What is clear is that at least two Hugh McKays had
an attraction to women named Isabel! And also to children’s names of Barbara,
George, Isabella and William!
Wayne
Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program in
England, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He has
published a number of articles about various aspects of genealogy and is a past
Editor of Chinook, the quarterly
journal of the Alberta Family Histories Society. Wayne also provides
genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated
