Posted: 2:23 PM - May 26, 2013
Hey there!
I was so excited to find your site this morning when looking up my family's farm on Google Maps. Our farm is the McKay homestead across from the McKay family cemetery on New Burlington Road. (Are there other McKay homesteads in the area?) I understand it was a land grant. My father, Robert William Keiter (1919-1998) was a nephew of the farmer I knew only as Uncle Joe, who I believe married Georgia McKay. Dad was from Dayton and Toledo. He worked at GE in Evendale, so we lived just north of Cincinnati in Greenhills, where I grew up. We used to go to the farm every chance we could, since it was only an hour's drive away. It was our refuge from the city. We would also meet his sister's family there, since it was also only about an hour from Columbus, where she raised her family. Dad's father, William Hendred (Henry) Keiter (1876-1973) was born in Xenia, and lived in Dayton, then Toledo, where he is buried. Dad's ashes (and Mom's and my baby brother David's) are at the family cemetery on New Burlington Rd. My family traditionally meets at the cemetery for Memorial Day, so if any of you are ever around then, you may see someone there attending to the grave stones.
My sister has much of our family history, and if anyone is interested in more you may reach her initially through me via e-mail. You may write me at ellen@ellensarts.com. I live in Massachusetts now, about an hour south of Boston, and don't get back to Ohio often, but would be more than happy to give you whatever family info I have, or connect you with those who have the rest of it. I'd also be happy to talk to anyone about the family, which has now spread to the other side of the country.
I'm right now in the midst of reading the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, which starts out in Scotland at the beginning of the Jacobite rebellion. It's historical fiction and excellent, engrossing writing. Fascinating. Fabulous characters that you might just fall in love with. Just a warning, tho, that these books are hugeabout 1000 pages eachbut well worth the investment of time. And speaking of time, there's also some time traveling in there, too. Anyway, now I know how many of the Scots got to America.
Thank you for having this website. I've wondered often about some of my family history, being a home-grown Buckeye, and am thrilled to find others who are interested, too.
Blessings,
Ellen J. Keiter
I was so excited to find your site this morning when looking up my family's farm on Google Maps. Our farm is the McKay homestead across from the McKay family cemetery on New Burlington Road. (Are there other McKay homesteads in the area?) I understand it was a land grant. My father, Robert William Keiter (1919-1998) was a nephew of the farmer I knew only as Uncle Joe, who I believe married Georgia McKay. Dad was from Dayton and Toledo. He worked at GE in Evendale, so we lived just north of Cincinnati in Greenhills, where I grew up. We used to go to the farm every chance we could, since it was only an hour's drive away. It was our refuge from the city. We would also meet his sister's family there, since it was also only about an hour from Columbus, where she raised her family. Dad's father, William Hendred (Henry) Keiter (1876-1973) was born in Xenia, and lived in Dayton, then Toledo, where he is buried. Dad's ashes (and Mom's and my baby brother David's) are at the family cemetery on New Burlington Rd. My family traditionally meets at the cemetery for Memorial Day, so if any of you are ever around then, you may see someone there attending to the grave stones.
My sister has much of our family history, and if anyone is interested in more you may reach her initially through me via e-mail. You may write me at ellen@ellensarts.com. I live in Massachusetts now, about an hour south of Boston, and don't get back to Ohio often, but would be more than happy to give you whatever family info I have, or connect you with those who have the rest of it. I'd also be happy to talk to anyone about the family, which has now spread to the other side of the country.
I'm right now in the midst of reading the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, which starts out in Scotland at the beginning of the Jacobite rebellion. It's historical fiction and excellent, engrossing writing. Fascinating. Fabulous characters that you might just fall in love with. Just a warning, tho, that these books are hugeabout 1000 pages eachbut well worth the investment of time. And speaking of time, there's also some time traveling in there, too. Anyway, now I know how many of the Scots got to America.
Thank you for having this website. I've wondered often about some of my family history, being a home-grown Buckeye, and am thrilled to find others who are interested, too.
Blessings,
Ellen J. Keiter