robertmackayclan

Moses McKay & Abigail Shinn had a son named Robert S. McKay. I have looked in vain for legal documents as to what his "S" stood for and I have found none.

In 1987 I exchanged letters with George C. Seward as to what evidence he had that the "S" stood for Shinn. His answer was "Family Tradition"; his middle name for his mother's maiden name.

Following that path, said Robert S. McKay & his second wife Nancy Antrim McKay named one of their 10 children: Amanda Shackleford McKay. Was her middle name a maiden or family name ? Answer NO. How do we not know said Amanda was given her father's middle name.

Now on the internet said Robert S. McKay is listed as Robert Aaron Shinn McKay; and I have no idea where that came from.

I believe the "Aaron" part came from Ohio traditions.

I have Hinshaw's six volume Quaker Encyclopedia and I'll go and look for Robert S. McKay's listing if he's there.

I never thought about the Shackleford name.

Another one of question was his son Robert M. McKay. It has been said his name was "Meredith" but since I'm not aware of an actual document that actually confirms that I guess it will have to remain a possibility.

I remember the controversy over Great-great-granddad, William Buck McKay's name. When it was said to be "Buchannon" some folks said "absolutely not!! It's BUCK!!"

The reasoning there was based on a wedding invitation.

However, I mentioned that it could easily be both. He was called "Buck" during his life but that could always be a shortened form of "Buchannon".

We do know that Oscar McKay was named Oscar TAYLOR McKay but later was called Oscar CALEB McKay, presumably after his uncle of that name.

I'll have to make note of the Robert Shinn McKay situation for future reference in these records.

1. Robert S. McKay given an additional name as Aaron by our OH cousins does not surprize me. Robert never left VA how might they know the facts about his life. The fact still remains I am not aware of any legal document which states what the "S" stands. He was a Justice of the Peace for Warren Co. VA. Always wrote his name as Robert S. McKay or just R.S. McKay.

2. As far as Robert S. McKay's son--Robert McKay (husband to his cousin Lucy B. Buck) was named just Robert McKay. This is his name on his marriage record, census, land deeds & grave marker. No middle name of any kind.

3. I have no idea for whom Amanda Shackleford McKay was named. She could have just been named for a person Robert S. & Nancy McKay knew.

4. As far as your Wm. B. McKay, the man just did not like having a middle as "Buchannon", so he changed it to Buck. That does not change the fact the name listed on the Warren Co. VA Birth Registry is as William Buchannon McKay.

I think week after next I am going to visit the Regional Library in Middleburg, Loudoun Co. VA and the two Quaker Meetings Houses in Loudoun Co. VA. Hope to find a new well to drawn upon.

I believe the "Aaron" part came from Ohio traditions.

I have Hinshaw's six volume Quaker Encyclopedia and I'll go and look for Robert S. McKay's listing if he's there.

I never thought about the Shackleford name.

Another one of question was his son Robert M. McKay. It has been said his name was "Meredith" but since I'm not aware of an actual document that actually confirms that I guess it will have to remain a possibility.

I remember the controversy over Great-great-granddad, William Buck McKay's name. When it was said to be "Buchannon" some folks said "absolutely not!! It's BUCK!!"

The reasoning there was based on a wedding invitation.

However, I mentioned that it could easily be both. He was called "Buck" during his life but that could always be a shortened form of "Buchannon".

We do know that Oscar McKay was named Oscar TAYLOR McKay but later was called Oscar CALEB McKay, presumably after his uncle of that name.

I'll have to make note of the Robert Shinn McKay situation for future reference in these records.

Not sure of the actual year, but the Quakers in the 1820's decided if their members wanted to remain in the Society of Friends they could not keep slaves.

So our Jacob McKay kept his slaves and became Baptist. Robert S. McKay had the largest number of slaves among us in VA. He might have been born into the Society, but he did not remain as a Quaker.

1. Robert S. McKay given an additional name as Aaron by our OH cousins does not surprize me. Robert never left VA how might they know the facts about his life. The fact still remains I am not aware of any legal document which states what the "S" stands. He was a Justice of the Peace for Warren Co. VA. Always wrote his name as Robert S. McKay or just R.S. McKay.

2. As far as Robert S. McKay's son--Robert McKay (husband to his cousin Lucy B. Buck) was named just Robert McKay. This is his name on his marriage record, census, land deeds & grave marker. No middle name of any kind.

3. I have no idea for whom Amanda Shackleford McKay was named. She could have just been named for a person Robert S. & Nancy McKay knew.

4. As far as your Wm. B. McKay, the man just did not like having a middle as "Buchannon", so he changed it to Buck. That does not change the fact the name listed on the Warren Co. VA Birth Registry is as William Buchannon McKay.

I think week after next I am going to visit the Regional Library in Middleburg, Loudoun Co. VA and the two Quaker Meetings Houses in Loudoun Co. VA. Hope to find a new well to drawn upon.

Either George R. Vernon or Katherine A. Hackney Luby placed the full name of Robert S. McKay as Robert Shinn McKay. I do not agree that his middle name was Shinn. There is no legal evidence one way or the other. If someone has legal documents please just say so.

However, the way the computer bank is set up, when my computer disk arrived in Salt Lake, it was mixed with their information, my information was changed to match their and my name added to the listing of sources.

Robert S. McKay was a justice for Warren Co. VA. Anyone who cares to look at public records, he signed his name thousands of times, always as Robert S. McKay or just R.S. McKay, never as Robert Aaron Shinn McKay or R.A.S. McKay.

Another researcher send me a pedigree chart with an additonal name for him as: Robert Aaron Erin Shinn McKay. Now Erin was the name of his house. The other two were made up as well.

Either George R. Vernon or Katherine A. Hackney Luby placed the full name of Robert S. McKay as Robert Shinn McKay. I do not agree that his middle name was Shinn. There is no legal evidence one way or the other. If someone has legal documents please just say so.

However, the way the computer bank is set up, when my computer disk arrived in Salt Lake, it was mixed with their information, my information was changed to match their and my name added to the listing of sources.

When I was in Ohio this past Summer I got the chance to see some documents pertaining to our cousins who settled in that region. I do recall seeing either Robert A. or S. McKay (or perhaps Aaron was spelled out I'm not sure). However, it was crossed out which either indicated that it was an error on the part of the person putting that document together or Robert S. had his name changed.

I agree in that we can't say with certainty that his name was "Shinn" without any concrete proof that it is.

I would like to go back and have a look at some of those things I saw while in Ohio. These things are very old and must be handled with extreme care but I believe they contain a wealth of information on our Ohio cousins.

I really would like to encourage more dialogue with our relatives over there. It would be a mutual benefit for all of us involved.

These papers may contain some info. on Robert S.'s full name but being that I do not have copies of them in my possession I'll have to say from an investigator's point of view that we (in Virginia) do not truly know his full given name and therefore must write only what we know and that is that we know him as "Robert S. McKay".

I hope that some of our Ohio cousins will read this and can come up with documented evidence that either supports or denies that his middle name was "Shinn", "Aaron Shinn" or whatever. If the "S." stood for "Shackleford" I'd like to know. But until then the "S." will remain a mystery in my records until the evidence surfaces.

For all intents and purposes we only know that wherever he signed his name or whenever he was spoken of in documents we are aware of he was always referred to as "Robert S. McKay" or "R.S. McKay" as indicated by the wills and memorabilia I have displayed on this website. If anyone can produce something substantial that says different I'd really like to see it.

1. Robert S. McKay given an additional name as Aaron by our OH cousins does not surprize me. Robert never left VA how might they know the facts about his life. The fact still remains I am not aware of any legal document which states what the "S" stands. He was a Justice of the Peace for Warren Co. VA. Always wrote his name as Robert S. McKay or just R.S. McKay.

2. As far as Robert S. McKay's son--Robert McKay (husband to his cousin Lucy B. Buck) was named just Robert McKay. This is his name on his marriage record, census, land deeds & grave marker. No middle name of any kind.

3. I have no idea for whom Amanda Shackleford McKay was named. She could have just been named for a person Robert S. & Nancy McKay knew.

4. As far as your Wm. B. McKay, the man just did not like having a middle as "Buchannon", so he changed it to Buck. That does not change the fact the name listed on the Warren Co. VA Birth Registry is as William Buchannon McKay.

I think week after next I am going to visit the Regional Library in Middleburg, Loudoun Co. VA and the two Quaker Meetings Houses in Loudoun Co. VA. Hope to find a new well to drawn upon.

>>>4. As far as your Wm. B. McKay, the man just did not like having a middle as "Buchannon", so he changed it to Buck. That does not change the fact the name listed on the Warren Co. VA Birth Registry is as William Buchannon McKay.<<<

I kinda figured that was the case. That's basically what I told others in my branch that he could easily have been born William Buchannon but simply shortened it to "Buck" when he was older. He was always called "Buck" by those who knew him. His grandson was named after him "William Buck McKay II". He was also called "Buck".

Another one in my branch who did a major name change was my great-grandfather LeHew McKay.

He was born Jonathan LeHew McKay but wasn't too fond of "Jonathan" so he dropped that when he was older and simply went by Le Hew McKay. He signed his papers as L.H. McKay and was often called "Hugh" by those who knew him. But, we know he was born Jonathan LeHew McKay.

A question I have is what was the full name of his oldest brother S. C. Lewis McKay? We only knew him as Lewis but I remember seeing him listed in your genealogy records as S.C. Lewis McKay.

Not sure of the actual year, but the Quakers in the 1820's decided if their members wanted to remain in the Society of Friends they could not keep slaves.

So our Jacob McKay kept his slaves and became Baptist. Robert S. McKay had the largest number of slaves among us in VA. He might have been born into the Society, but he did not remain as a Quaker.

I believed that to be the case even though I never actually had evidence that our branch left the Society of Friends because of this. I've heard of those in the Meeting who were disowned for "owning slaves for which he/she refuses to give up".

I recommend reading a book I recently purchased called "The Truth About Slavery" (or alternate title "Slavery and the Coming War") by Mr. Gary C. Walker.

You can find his website linked to this one on the section I set up for Civil War related links.

It's http://www.geocities.com/mckyrbnsn/civilwar.html

His is the first link there. His site contains an order form I believe.

This book has been an eye-opener for me regarding that period in time which we in today's time really know little about. It can give some glimpse into the world in which our McKay & Sowers ancestors who were around in that time lived. Some of whom were slave owners.

I think it's a must read.

When I was in Ohio this past Summer I got the chance to see some documents pertaining to our cousins who settled in that region. I do recall seeing either Robert A. or S. McKay (or perhaps Aaron was spelled out I'm not sure). However, it was crossed out which either indicated that it was an error on the part of the person putting that document together or Robert S. had his name changed.

I agree in that we can't say with certainty that his name was "Shinn" without any concrete proof that it is.

I would like to go back and have a look at some of those things I saw while in Ohio. These things are very old and must be handled with extreme care but I believe they contain a wealth of information on our Ohio cousins.

I really would like to encourage more dialogue with our relatives over there. It would be a mutual benefit for all of us involved.

These papers may contain some info. on Robert S.'s full name but being that I do not have copies of them in my possession I'll have to say from an investigator's point of view that we (in Virginia) do not truly know his full given name and therefore must write only what we know and that is that we know him as "Robert S. McKay".

I hope that some of our Ohio cousins will read this and can come up with documented evidence that either supports or denies that his middle name was "Shinn", "Aaron Shinn" or whatever. If the "S." stood for "Shackleford" I'd like to know. But until then the "S." will remain a mystery in my records until the evidence surfaces.

For all intents and purposes we only know that wherever he signed his name or whenever he was spoken of in documents we are aware of he was always referred to as "Robert S. McKay" or "R.S. McKay" as indicated by the wills and memorabilia I have displayed on this website. If anyone can produce something substantial that says different I'd really like to see it.

About those papers I saw while staying in Ohio for the Collett-McKay Picnic.

I really do not remember what the exact nature of these documents were. They could have been land deeds I was looking at or they could have been something else entirely different.

Either way, I would have to see them again and take notes as to what they represented.