William Barclay Keay

This image of a gravestone at Wellshill, Perth was taken when I went to see the grave of my direct ancestors. It was the neighbouring plot, which made us wonder if they were a closely related family.








I'll transcribe the text for you here:

Erected by
William B Keay
in memory of his daughter
WILLIAMINA
who died 10th Sept, 1885
aged 19 years.
his wife
HELEN ANDERSON
died 30th Jan 1899, aged 73 years
and his son
JOHN
died 24th April 1900, aged 39 years
The above
William BARCLAY KEAY
died 18th March 1902, aged 76 years

So who are they, and are they related?!

William Barclay KEAY would've been born in ~1826.
His wife Helen ANDERSON would've been born in ~1826.
John Keay would've been born in ~1861. {Suse tells me that he died by drowning in the River Isla.}
Williamina Keay would've been born in ~1866.

They also had a child in 1856, Margaret, who died as an infant. Also a daughter, Helen who was born in 1858.

Suse also very kindly passed on the death cert for William Barclay Keay (March 1902) which shows us he was 75 years old and died of Morbus cordis *. He lived at 232 High St, Perth at the time. The certificate also gives us his trade (House Painter), that he was widower of Helen Anderson, and that he was the son of John Keay (Sheriff Officer) & Margt Keay (nee Haggart) (both deceased, see more on John & Margaret in this post). The informant for the death cert was a nephew of William Keay, who was living at Keay buildings, Perth in 1902.

* A site where we can look up any of these medical terms (antiquusmorbus.com) is one I found useful here. Morbus cordis means Heart disease (so why don't they just say that!!!?). I found a line the author uses to incite help with his research, "I rely on your help to make this website accurate, thorough and interesting by including your input and feedback." - and thought that was something that fits here on TrunkCalls. I may well apply it.

So that shows us nicely that indeed the owners of these neighbouring headstones were closely related - our John was William's nephew.