https://alison-stewart.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-descendants-of-william-anderson.html
Samuel Keating (1799 - 1870) and his (probable) brother William Keating (1801 - 1885):
Agnes Keating, who married William John Anderson in 1877, descended from the Keating family of Ballyhay.
The earliest identifiable member of her Keating family, who cluster in the Ballyhay townland immediately west of Donaghadee town, Co. Down, is Samuel Keating (1799 - 1870), Agnes Keating's grandfather, who was born in 1799 and who farmed in the Donaghadee townland of Ballyhay - he is commemorated by a headstone in Donaghadee Church of Ireland churchyard. Some of the inscription is illegible:
'Erected by Agnes, Susanna and Thomas Keating of Ballyhay in memory of their father Samuel Keating who died 5th Novr. 1870 aged 71 years. Also their brother William Keating who died 2(1)st Dec (18)60 aged 31 years. Also their mother Margaret (Keating) who died....Also (Susanna) who died...'
So Agnes Keating's grandparents were Samuel Keating (1799 - 1870) and Margaret Keating (1797 - 1878) of Ballyhay, Donaghadee. There was a second Keating family and both seem to be interlinked - one had its origins in our Samuel Keating and the other in William Keating (1801 - 1885). The two men were contemporary and were most likely brothers, both having had very strong links with the Ballyhay townland just outside of Donaghadee.
A lease dated 29th April 1823 for Killaughey, Donaghadee, the townland which immediately adjoins Ballyhay, was made between Sir James Bristow and a John Keating, and was for the three lives of John Keating, Eliza Keating and Susanna Keating.
The Tithe Applotment Books for the area were drawn up in 1834, and reveal Samuel Keating (1799 - 1870) farming 3 acres in Ballyhay.
'...I leave to my son, Robert John McCully, the money that is indebted to me...with this understanding that he is to give my sons, George and William James, £5 each three years after my decease...to my son, Robert John, I also leave the potatoes belonging to me, at present stored in Ballyhay. To my daughter, Margaret, I leave the sum of £20, to my daughter, Agnes and Isabella, £20 each, and my daughter Eliza Jane £4. I leave to the before named Margaret all my furniture and household effects...'
8) James Keating, son of Samuel Keating (1799 - 1870) of Ballyhay, married Mary Brown, the daughter of Hugh Brown of Herdstown. The wedding took place in Ballycopeland Church on 16th December 1848 and was witnessed by William Keating and David Cree.
Samuel Keating (1833 - 1895) son of farmer Samuel Keating (1799 - 1870) and Margaret of Ballyhay:
'Erected by Agnes, Susanna and Thomas Keating of Ballyhay in memory of their father Samuel Keating who died 5th Novr. 1870 aged 71 years. Also their brother William Keating who died 2(1)st Dec (18)60 aged 31 years. Also their mother Margaret (Keating) who died....Also (Susanna) who died...'
So Agnes Keating's grandparents were Samuel Keating (1799 - 1870) and Margaret Keating (1797 - 1878) of Ballyhay, Donaghadee. There was a second Keating family and both seem to be interlinked - one had its origins in our Samuel Keating and the other in William Keating (1801 - 1885). The two men were contemporary and were most likely brothers, both having had very strong links with the Ballyhay townland just outside of Donaghadee.
A lease dated 29th April 1823 for Killaughey, Donaghadee, the townland which immediately adjoins Ballyhay, was made between Sir James Bristow and a John Keating, and was for the three lives of John Keating, Eliza Keating and Susanna Keating.
The Tithe Applotment Books for the area were drawn up in 1834, and reveal Samuel Keating (1799 - 1870) farming 3 acres in Ballyhay.
Margaret Keating, the widow of a farmer (ie: Samuel Keating) died aged 81 on 11th September 1878 at 1 & 3 Third Street; her daughter Susanna Keating was present at her death.
The known children of farmer Samuel Keating (1799 - 1870), and wife Margaret (1797 - 1878):
1) Agnes Keating, born 1824, and mentioned above on the headstone. In 1901 she was living with her sister, Margaret McCully, at 21 My Lady's Road, Belfast.
2) Susanna Keating (1831 - 1883) Mentioned on the family headstone, Susanna was present at 1 & 3 Third Street on 11th September 1878 when her mother, Margaret Keating, died there. Susanna herself died aged 52 at 1 Third Street on 2nd November 1883 - this was registered by her brother Thomas Keating who follows.
3) Thomas, born 1820s and mentioned on the headstone. He was the Thomas Keating, grocer, who was living at 1 and 3 Third Street, Belfast in the 1870s - on 1st February 1878, his niece, Margaret Jane McCully was born at his house, 3 Third Street, to shoemaker, George McCully and Margaret Keating.
4) William born 1829, died 1860, as named on the family headstone.
5) Samuel Keating Jr (our immediate ancestor), born circa 1833 - 26th February 1895. See below.
6) John Keating (1837 - 4th February 1912) , son of farmer Samuel Keating (1799 - 1870) and Margaret of Ballyhay:
On November 5th 1859, John Keating, the son of Samuel Keating (1799 - 1870) of Ballyhay, married Ann Jane Keating, the daughter of William Keating (1801 - 1885) of Ballyhay. This was witnessed by Samuel Keating and Mary Gordon. The bride and groom seem to be first cousins.
The children of John Keating and Ann Jane Keating include:
a) Samuel Keating, born in Ballyhay on 1st April 1864; in 1864, John Keating was working as a farmer in Ballyhay. In Ballycopeland in 1884, a Samuel Keating, labourer/carter of Ballyhay, son of labourer John Keating, married Mary Kerr of Ballyhay, daughter of carpenter William Kerr. A son, Victor, was born to the couple in Killaughy Street, Donaghadee, on 14th July 1899; a son Samuel Keating was born at Drumawhey on 1st December 1888.
b) Susanna Keating born in Ballyhay on 2nd January 1867.
c) Eliza Letitia Keating, born 8th Jan 1868 in Ballyhay.
d) Margaret born in Ballyhay on 28th July 1870 - I believe this was the Maggie Keating, daughter of shopman, John Keating, who married William McClelland of Cottown, Bangor, son of James McClelland, on 10th July 1891 in Ballygrainy, Bangor; the witnesses were William St. George Keating, nephew of Anne Jane and John Keating, and a Maggie Cooper.
e) John born in Ballyhay on 8th February 1873.
f) William Thomas Keating - on 10th September 1890 in Ballycopeland, Donaghadee, William Thomas Keating, son of carman John Keating of Ballyhay, married Jane Strain of Ballyhay, daughter of farmer Alexander Strain of Ballyhay. The witnesses were James Strain and Agnes Crothers.
William Thomas Keating and Jane Strain settled in Cottown, Bangor, Co. Down.
The 1901 shows up their children - William born circa 1891, John Alexander born on 16th July 1895 at Herdstown, Eveline born 9th June 1897 in Herdstown, Maggie Jane born circa 1896, Agnes Hood Keating born circa 1900. Only four of the children survived, according to the later census.
The youngest, Agnes Hood Keating, died aged only one year, of laryngitis on 2nd February 1902, while son James Keating died aged 16 of TB in Newtownards Workhouse on 11th June 1909. William Thomas Keating's wife, Jane Strain, died of TB in William Street, Newtownards, on 8th May 1904.
On 24th September 1917 in Ballygrainy Church, daughter Eveline Keating married the carpenter John McMahon, son of John McMahon of Cottown. The witnesses were an Alexander Moore and Fanny Keating, who was possibly Eveline's sister Agnes.
Margaret Jane Keating, daughter of William Thomas Keating, married, in Ballygrainy on 14th July 1920, David Harry McKee of Cottown, the son of James McKee - this was witnessed by John McIlwaine and by Letitia Jane Keating, who had been born to Elizabeth Keating of Ballyhay on 14th September 1891.
Carman John Keating spent time in Belfast city working as a breadserver like his brother Samuel - he appears in the Street Directory for 1892 at 13 Caroline Terrace and also in 1895 and 1896 as a breadserver in Harper Street, but by 1901 has moved to 16 Georges Street in Newtownards, where both John and his second wife, Annie J. Keating, were working as cardrivers, an early form of taxi-driver.
Wife Anne Jane Keating, (daughter of William Keating 1801 - 1885), died in Belfast in 1881, aged 42.
In Newtownards on 14th March 1882, John Keating, widowed breadserver of Belfast, son of farmer Samuel Keating of Ballyhay, married the widowed Ann Jane McDonald, shopkeeper of Newtownards, daughter of farmer Alexander Reid. Witnesses were James Skilling and Jane Filson.
(Ann Jane McDonald's daughter, Eliza Jane McDonald, was married to John Keating's nephew, John George McCully, the son of Margaret Keating and George McCully.)
According to the 1911 census, John Keating and Anne Jane Reid McDonald had no children together.
In 1901, John Keating and second wife, Anne Jane McDonald, were living in Newtownards along with two of Anne Jane's daughters by the late Robert McDonald, and also one of her young grandchildren. Mary McDonald, aged 20, was there, as was Eliza Jane McCully, aged 30. This was the wife of John George McCully, John George being the son of Margaret Keating and George McCully, Margaret Keating being the brother of carman John Keating who was now married to Anne Jane Reid-McDonald-Keating!
Also present in the house in Newtownards in 1901, was John Heron, the 3-yr-old grandson of Anne Jane. His mother was Charlotte Anna McDonald, who had married James Heron, watchmaker, the son of Alexander Heron, widower and watchmaker of Newtownards, on 4th March 1897. The witnesses were Samuel Heron and Mary McDonald.
In 1901, this Heron family were living at 9 North Street, Newtownards. Alexander was a dealer; by 1911 he was a fruit merchant. By 1911 they were living in Conway Square, Newtownards, and they had five children, including John who had spent the night of the 1901 Census with his grandmother, Annie Jane, and her husband, John Keating.
Carman John Keating of Wallace's Street, Newtownards, died aged 70 on 6th February 1912; wife Anne Jane Keating, née Reid, was there.
7) Margaret Keating (1839 - 1907), daughter of Samuel (1799 - 1870) and Margaret Keating (1797 - 1878).
Margaret Keating, the daughter of farmer Samuel Keating (1799 - 1870) and Margaret, had married George McCully , the son of farmer Robert McCully, on May 8th 1866.
In 1901 the McCully family were living just around the corner from Margaret McCully's niece, Agnes Keating Anderson, at 21 My Ladys Road, along with Margaret's unmarried sister Agnes. This older Agnes Keating was one of the three siblings who had erected the headstone for their parents, Samuel and Margaret Keating, in Donaghadee Churchyard.
George McCully and Margaret Keating also had two sons, Thomas McCully, born 18th November 1867 in Ballyhay, and Jean George (Jack) McCully, born as John George McCully in Killaughy Street, Donaghadee on 18th December 1869, and who left Ireland for California at some stage.
George McCully and Margaret Keating also had a daughter, Margaret Jane, who had been born on 1st February 1878 at 3 Third Street, possibly the home of the baby's maternal uncle, the grocer Thomas Keating who appeared at this address in the Belfast street directories of the 1870s. Margaret Jane McCully later married the widowed clerk, William Boyd, son of farmer Samuel Boyd, on 4th July 1900 by special licence at home in 10 Mersey Street; the ceremony was performed by James McConnell of Megain Memorial Church, and was witnessed by our Agnes Keating, the bride's cousin, and by an Ellen Bowman. William Boyd had been born in about 1863 in Ballykeel, Co. Down.
In 1911 William and Margaret Jane Boyd were living at 4 Batley St., Belfast, and William Boyd was working as a timekeeper's clerk. They would have nine children one of whom, Anne Boyd, married an Englishman by the name of Dixon, and their daughter is Cynthia Lapaque who kindly passed me on a precious family photo showing (standing in the centre) Margaret Jane Boyd, née McCully, her mother, Margaret McCully née Keating, and one of her aunts, either Susanna/Sassie Keating or perhaps Agnes Keating.
The second son of George McCully and Margaret Keating, John George McCully, a shoemaker of Newtownards, married Eliza Jane McDonald on 21st May 1889 in Newtownards 1st Presbyterian Church. The witnesses were his brother, Thomas McCully, and her sister, Essie/Esther McDonald.
Eliza Jane McDonald, who married John George McCully in 1889, was the daughter of a sailor, Robert McDonald, and of Anne Jane Reid who came from the Ards Peninsula. Their children were Esther McDonald, born Greyabbey, 14th October 1867, Eliza McDonald, born 11th April 1869, later the wife of John George McCully, Robert McDonald, born Greyabbey, 8th March 1871, Charlotte Anna McDonald, born 13th May 1873, and Mary McDonald, born Little Francis St., Newtownards, 16th November 1876.
The girls’ father, the sailor Robert McDonald, died young, and their widowed mother, Anne Jane Reid, remarried to John Keating, who was the son of farmer Samuel Keating and Margaret of Ballyhay - John Keating has already been discussed above.
Margaret McCully, neé Keating, died aged 68 on 11th September 1907 at 4 Castlereagh Street.
George McCully was buried in the City Cemetery - he died, aged 72, at 17 Cumberland Street, on 21st June 1927. Also in the same plot was his daughter, Margaret Jane Boyd, who died aged 77 at 24 Sydenham Drive.
In the same plot, were three members of the Anderson family - Agnes Anderson who died aged 49 on 13th June 1892 at 13 Little Georges Street; Eliza Anderson who died aged 65 on 26th July 1888 at 19 Little Grosvenor Street; Ellen Anderson who died aged 53 on 16th December 1901 at Beerbridge Road.
The known children of farmer Samuel Keating (1799 - 1870), and wife Margaret (1797 - 1878):
1) Agnes Keating, born 1824, and mentioned above on the headstone. In 1901 she was living with her sister, Margaret McCully, at 21 My Lady's Road, Belfast.
2) Susanna Keating (1831 - 1883) Mentioned on the family headstone, Susanna was present at 1 & 3 Third Street on 11th September 1878 when her mother, Margaret Keating, died there. Susanna herself died aged 52 at 1 Third Street on 2nd November 1883 - this was registered by her brother Thomas Keating who follows.
3) Thomas, born 1820s and mentioned on the headstone. He was the Thomas Keating, grocer, who was living at 1 and 3 Third Street, Belfast in the 1870s - on 1st February 1878, his niece, Margaret Jane McCully was born at his house, 3 Third Street, to shoemaker, George McCully and Margaret Keating.
4) William born 1829, died 1860, as named on the family headstone.
5) Samuel Keating Jr (our immediate ancestor), born circa 1833 - 26th February 1895. See below.
6) John Keating (1837 - 4th February 1912) , son of farmer Samuel Keating (1799 - 1870) and Margaret of Ballyhay:
On November 5th 1859, John Keating, the son of Samuel Keating (1799 - 1870) of Ballyhay, married Ann Jane Keating, the daughter of William Keating (1801 - 1885) of Ballyhay. This was witnessed by Samuel Keating and Mary Gordon. The bride and groom seem to be first cousins.
The children of John Keating and Ann Jane Keating include:
a) Samuel Keating, born in Ballyhay on 1st April 1864; in 1864, John Keating was working as a farmer in Ballyhay. In Ballycopeland in 1884, a Samuel Keating, labourer/carter of Ballyhay, son of labourer John Keating, married Mary Kerr of Ballyhay, daughter of carpenter William Kerr. A son, Victor, was born to the couple in Killaughy Street, Donaghadee, on 14th July 1899; a son Samuel Keating was born at Drumawhey on 1st December 1888.
b) Susanna Keating born in Ballyhay on 2nd January 1867.
c) Eliza Letitia Keating, born 8th Jan 1868 in Ballyhay.
d) Margaret born in Ballyhay on 28th July 1870 - I believe this was the Maggie Keating, daughter of shopman, John Keating, who married William McClelland of Cottown, Bangor, son of James McClelland, on 10th July 1891 in Ballygrainy, Bangor; the witnesses were William St. George Keating, nephew of Anne Jane and John Keating, and a Maggie Cooper.
e) John born in Ballyhay on 8th February 1873.
f) William Thomas Keating - on 10th September 1890 in Ballycopeland, Donaghadee, William Thomas Keating, son of carman John Keating of Ballyhay, married Jane Strain of Ballyhay, daughter of farmer Alexander Strain of Ballyhay. The witnesses were James Strain and Agnes Crothers.
William Thomas Keating and Jane Strain settled in Cottown, Bangor, Co. Down.
The 1901 shows up their children - William born circa 1891, John Alexander born on 16th July 1895 at Herdstown, Eveline born 9th June 1897 in Herdstown, Maggie Jane born circa 1896, Agnes Hood Keating born circa 1900. Only four of the children survived, according to the later census.
The youngest, Agnes Hood Keating, died aged only one year, of laryngitis on 2nd February 1902, while son James Keating died aged 16 of TB in Newtownards Workhouse on 11th June 1909. William Thomas Keating's wife, Jane Strain, died of TB in William Street, Newtownards, on 8th May 1904.
On 24th September 1917 in Ballygrainy Church, daughter Eveline Keating married the carpenter John McMahon, son of John McMahon of Cottown. The witnesses were an Alexander Moore and Fanny Keating, who was possibly Eveline's sister Agnes.
Margaret Jane Keating, daughter of William Thomas Keating, married, in Ballygrainy on 14th July 1920, David Harry McKee of Cottown, the son of James McKee - this was witnessed by John McIlwaine and by Letitia Jane Keating, who had been born to Elizabeth Keating of Ballyhay on 14th September 1891.
Carman John Keating spent time in Belfast city working as a breadserver like his brother Samuel - he appears in the Street Directory for 1892 at 13 Caroline Terrace and also in 1895 and 1896 as a breadserver in Harper Street, but by 1901 has moved to 16 Georges Street in Newtownards, where both John and his second wife, Annie J. Keating, were working as cardrivers, an early form of taxi-driver.
Wife Anne Jane Keating, (daughter of William Keating 1801 - 1885), died in Belfast in 1881, aged 42.
In Newtownards on 14th March 1882, John Keating, widowed breadserver of Belfast, son of farmer Samuel Keating of Ballyhay, married the widowed Ann Jane McDonald, shopkeeper of Newtownards, daughter of farmer Alexander Reid. Witnesses were James Skilling and Jane Filson.
(Ann Jane McDonald's daughter, Eliza Jane McDonald, was married to John Keating's nephew, John George McCully, the son of Margaret Keating and George McCully.)
According to the 1911 census, John Keating and Anne Jane Reid McDonald had no children together.
In 1901, John Keating and second wife, Anne Jane McDonald, were living in Newtownards along with two of Anne Jane's daughters by the late Robert McDonald, and also one of her young grandchildren. Mary McDonald, aged 20, was there, as was Eliza Jane McCully, aged 30. This was the wife of John George McCully, John George being the son of Margaret Keating and George McCully, Margaret Keating being the brother of carman John Keating who was now married to Anne Jane Reid-McDonald-Keating!
Also present in the house in Newtownards in 1901, was John Heron, the 3-yr-old grandson of Anne Jane. His mother was Charlotte Anna McDonald, who had married James Heron, watchmaker, the son of Alexander Heron, widower and watchmaker of Newtownards, on 4th March 1897. The witnesses were Samuel Heron and Mary McDonald.
In 1901, this Heron family were living at 9 North Street, Newtownards. Alexander was a dealer; by 1911 he was a fruit merchant. By 1911 they were living in Conway Square, Newtownards, and they had five children, including John who had spent the night of the 1901 Census with his grandmother, Annie Jane, and her husband, John Keating.
Carman John Keating of Wallace's Street, Newtownards, died aged 70 on 6th February 1912; wife Anne Jane Keating, née Reid, was there.
7) Margaret Keating (1839 - 1907), daughter of Samuel (1799 - 1870) and Margaret Keating (1797 - 1878).
Margaret Keating, the daughter of farmer Samuel Keating (1799 - 1870) and Margaret, had married George McCully , the son of farmer Robert McCully, on May 8th 1866.
In 1901 the McCully family were living just around the corner from Margaret McCully's niece, Agnes Keating Anderson, at 21 My Ladys Road, along with Margaret's unmarried sister Agnes. This older Agnes Keating was one of the three siblings who had erected the headstone for their parents, Samuel and Margaret Keating, in Donaghadee Churchyard.
George McCully and Margaret Keating also had two sons, Thomas McCully, born 18th November 1867 in Ballyhay, and Jean George (Jack) McCully, born as John George McCully in Killaughy Street, Donaghadee on 18th December 1869, and who left Ireland for California at some stage.
George McCully and Margaret Keating also had a daughter, Margaret Jane, who had been born on 1st February 1878 at 3 Third Street, possibly the home of the baby's maternal uncle, the grocer Thomas Keating who appeared at this address in the Belfast street directories of the 1870s. Margaret Jane McCully later married the widowed clerk, William Boyd, son of farmer Samuel Boyd, on 4th July 1900 by special licence at home in 10 Mersey Street; the ceremony was performed by James McConnell of Megain Memorial Church, and was witnessed by our Agnes Keating, the bride's cousin, and by an Ellen Bowman. William Boyd had been born in about 1863 in Ballykeel, Co. Down.
In 1911 William and Margaret Jane Boyd were living at 4 Batley St., Belfast, and William Boyd was working as a timekeeper's clerk. They would have nine children one of whom, Anne Boyd, married an Englishman by the name of Dixon, and their daughter is Cynthia Lapaque who kindly passed me on a precious family photo showing (standing in the centre) Margaret Jane Boyd, née McCully, her mother, Margaret McCully née Keating, and one of her aunts, either Susanna/Sassie Keating or perhaps Agnes Keating.
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| Margaret Jane McCully flanked by her mother and her aunt |
The second son of George McCully and Margaret Keating, John George McCully, a shoemaker of Newtownards, married Eliza Jane McDonald on 21st May 1889 in Newtownards 1st Presbyterian Church. The witnesses were his brother, Thomas McCully, and her sister, Essie/Esther McDonald.
Eliza Jane McDonald, who married John George McCully in 1889, was the daughter of a sailor, Robert McDonald, and of Anne Jane Reid who came from the Ards Peninsula. Their children were Esther McDonald, born Greyabbey, 14th October 1867, Eliza McDonald, born 11th April 1869, later the wife of John George McCully, Robert McDonald, born Greyabbey, 8th March 1871, Charlotte Anna McDonald, born 13th May 1873, and Mary McDonald, born Little Francis St., Newtownards, 16th November 1876.
The girls’ father, the sailor Robert McDonald, died young, and their widowed mother, Anne Jane Reid, remarried to John Keating, who was the son of farmer Samuel Keating and Margaret of Ballyhay - John Keating has already been discussed above.
Margaret McCully, neé Keating, died aged 68 on 11th September 1907 at 4 Castlereagh Street.
George McCully was buried in the City Cemetery - he died, aged 72, at 17 Cumberland Street, on 21st June 1927. Also in the same plot was his daughter, Margaret Jane Boyd, who died aged 77 at 24 Sydenham Drive.
In the same plot, were three members of the Anderson family - Agnes Anderson who died aged 49 on 13th June 1892 at 13 Little Georges Street; Eliza Anderson who died aged 65 on 26th July 1888 at 19 Little Grosvenor Street; Ellen Anderson who died aged 53 on 16th December 1901 at Beerbridge Road.
Robert John McCully was the brother of shoemaker George McCully, both being the sons of farmer Robert McCully and of Isabella Smith. Robert John McCully of Ballyhay married Susanna Anderson in Ballycopeland on 18th March 1876. She was the daughter of William Anderson of Ballyvester and the wedding witnesses were William Anderson and Matilda Tanner. William Anderson, a baker of Donaghadee, had married Ann Jane Tanner on 29th April 1854 in the Methodist Chapel in Donaghadee. Ann Jane Tanner was the daughter of a baker Robert Tanner.
Griffiths Valuation of 1864 shows up a Robert McCully in Ballyhay, near Donaghadee, the same townland where the Keating family had their origins. The Ros Davies website identifies Robert McCully as having been originally of Loughriscouse. He married Isabella Smith/Smyth; they baptised their children in Newtownards 1st Presbyterian Church:
1) George McCully (who married Margaret Keating) was born 23rd December 1845 and baptised 8th January 1846.
2) Margaret McCully, born 2nd May 1849, baptised 13th May 1849.
3) Samuel McCully, born 22nd July 1851, baptised 10th August 1851.
4) Mary McCully born 31st May 1853, baptised 3rd July 1853.
5) Robert John McCully, born 20th September 1855, baptised 6th January 1856.
6) Eliza Jane McCully born 29th December 1857, baptised 7th march 1858.
7) William James McCully, born 14th June 1859, baptised 6th September 1859.
Two further children were picked up by civil registration records:
8) Agnes McCully was born on 30th April 1868 in Ballyhay to farmer Robert McCully and his wife Isabella Smith. Agnes would be present when her father died in Newtownards in 1895; she married David James McRoberts of Loughriscouse on 13th October 1898.
9) Isabella McCully was born on 29th December 1868 in Ballyhay to farmer Robert McCully and his wife Isabella Smith.
Isabella, the wife of Robert McCully, died in Ballyhay aged 63 on 11th November 1890, while her widower, farmer Robert McCully, died aged 72 on 20th December 1895 at Mark Street, Newtownards. The following is the will of Robert McCully, of Newtownards, father of George McCully, who died 20th December 1895, and whose son, Robert J.McCully of Ballyhay, was the executor:
'...I leave to my son, Robert John McCully, the money that is indebted to me...with this understanding that he is to give my sons, George and William James, £5 each three years after my decease...to my son, Robert John, I also leave the potatoes belonging to me, at present stored in Ballyhay. To my daughter, Margaret, I leave the sum of £20, to my daughter, Agnes and Isabella, £20 each, and my daughter Eliza Jane £4. I leave to the before named Margaret all my furniture and household effects...'
8) James Keating, son of Samuel Keating (1799 - 1870) of Ballyhay, married Mary Brown, the daughter of Hugh Brown of Herdstown. The wedding took place in Ballycopeland Church on 16th December 1848 and was witnessed by William Keating and David Cree.
Samuel Keating (1833 - 1895) was our immediate ancestor.
Samuel Keating Junior (1833 - 1895) married Agnes Jamieson (various spellings) of Newtownards in Carrowdore Presbyterian Church on June 26th 1856. Agnes' parents were Robert and Veronica Jamieson of Ballyhay.
Samuel Keating was farming in Ballyhay at the time of the wedding, and the witnesses were James Jameson and William Keating, possible brothers of the bride and groom.
There is mention of a Jamieson family living in the neighbouring Killaughey area of Donaghadee in the early 1600s so the family must have originated in Ayrshire, Scotland, and were among the original wave of settlers who made the move to Ireland with the adventurers Hamilton and Montgomery.
The 1834 Tithe Books show a cluster of Jamesons farming in Killaughey - Samuel Jameson, 10 acres; John Jameson, 9 acres; D. Jameson, 7 acres; James Jameson, 10 acres. There were another two in Ballyvester townland - J. Jameson Junior, 1 acres, and his father James Jameson who was farming less than an acre.
On Griffiths Valuation of 1863 we find Robert Jamison leasing 18 acres from Louisa Webb in the Ballyhay district of Donaghadee. William Keating is leasing eight acres from the same Louisa Webb in the same townland.
Samuel Keating (the elder one, I'm presuming) is leasing fourteen acres of land plus a house and outbuildings from Daniel Delacherois, and is sharing an acres of turbary, or bog, with Ann Gilmore, leased from the same landlady Louisa Webb. Ann Gilmore is leasing a house three doors down from Robert Jamison.
Samuel Keating Junior is leasing a house in Newtownards which is about ten miles south of Donaghadee.
Samuel Keating Junior (1833 - 1895) and Agnes/Nancy Jamieson (circa 1833 - 1873) had several children while they were living in Newtownards:
a) Agnes Keating, who would marry William John Anderson in Belfast in 1877, from whom we descend directly, was born circa 1858, but civil registration didn't begin till 1864. They stayed in Belfast.
b) William Robert Keating, born 14th December 1862.
William Robert Keating, who was born on 14th December 1862 in Belfast to the baker, Samuel Keating, and his wife, Nancy Jamieson, died on 14th April 1925 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.
He worked as a baker in the county hospital. His wife, who he married in Chicago on 16th April 1890, was Martha M. Nagel who had been born in Pammern, Germany to Adolph Nagel and Albertina Denz.
The children of William Robert Keating and Martha Nagel were all born in Illinois:
The son of George Frederick Keating and Martha Nagel, George Frederick Keating (1901 - 1961) married Helen Carol Clarke (1898 - 1992), the daughter of James McKenzie Clark of Skene, Aberdeen, and of Bridget Quinn of Strokestown, Co. Roscommon. George Frederick Keating and Helen Carol Clark also had Constance Keating who married Earl Burton, and Carol Keating (1919 - 2010) who married Frank Witte.
c) Margaret Jane Keating born 29th March 1865 in Movilla Street, Newtownards, to cardriver Samuel Keating (1833 - 1895) and to Agnes Jamison.
Margaret Jane Keating, married Robert McWilliams in Westbourne Presbyterian Church in South Belfast on 8th June 1887. Robert McWilliams, a pawnbroker, was the son of a land steward, also Robert McWilliams. The wedding witnesses were Martha McWilliams and W.J. Leeds.
By the time of the 1901 Census the couple were living off the Woodstock Road - on My Lady's Road where my father, Paul Cuthbert Stewart (great-grandson of Agnes Keating and pawnbroker William John Anderson) was later born in 1935 - with their eight children, one of whom had been tellingly named William John Anderson McWilliams in honour of the baby's uncle, the pawnbroker William John Anderson. Margaret Jane's husband, Robert, was also working as a pawnbroker's assistant. My Lady's Road is immediately adjacent to Jocelyn Street where Sarah Agnew Keating was living with her children - she was the widow of Samuel Keating, the son of baker Samuel Keating (1833 - 1895) and Agnes Jamieson.
The children of pawnbroker Robert McWilliams and Margaret Jane Keating were born as follows:
1) Florence Eveline McWilliams, born at 11 Madrid Street on 7th June 1888.
2) Ethel May McWilliams, born at 5 Harper Street on 5th July 1889.
3) Robert Jamieson McWilliams at 39 Beechfield Street on 24th December 1890.
4) Lizzie McBride McWilliams at 34 Beechfield Street on 3rd March 1892.
5) Maggie McWilliams at 57 Altear Street on 15th February 1893.
6) Samuel McWilliams at 2 Laburnum Terrace on 30th November 1894.
7) William John Anderson McWilliams at 5 Brook Terrace on 6th December 1896.
8) Norman McWilliams at 140 Templemore Avenue on 6th April 1899.
9) Veronica McWilliams born at 5 Mafeking Terrace, My Lady's Road, 17th August 1901.
Robert McWilliams, pawnbroker, died of typhoid fever at 5 Mafeking Terrace, My Lady's Road, on 7th October 1901 aged only 36 - the informant was his brother-in-law, pawnbroker William John Anderson of 412 Woodstock Road.
The widowed Margaret Jane McWilliams, née Keating, moved her family to Chicago in 1902. Her father, the widowed baker Samuel Keating, along with three of his sons, had already moved there in about 1884.
The widowed Margaret McWilliams, née Keating, married Edward Mueller in Cook County, Illinois, on 1st March 1905. The LDS has the Chicago 1910 census details for the family - Edward Mueller, had been born in Germany in about 1857 and had emigrated to the States in 1892.
The following stepchildren of Edward Mueller, the head of the household, are all named on the return as ‘Mulree’ although they correspond to the McWilliams children of My Lady’s Road, so I believe this to be an error. Perhaps a neighbour filled the form out for them and was unsure of the correct family name - Florence Mulree, born 1889 in Ireland, Ethel Mulree, born 1890 in Ireland, Robert Mulree, born 1891 in Ireland (Robert Jamieson McWilliams was naturalised in the US in 1928), Lizzie Mulree, born 1892 in Ireland, Maggie Mulree, born 1893 in Ireland, and Samuel Mulree, born 1895 in Ireland.
The following stepchildren go correctly under the name of McWilliams and correspond to the earlier 1901 Irish Census - William McWilliams, born circa 1897 in Ireland William John Anderson McWilliams was naturalised in the US in 1928), Norman McWilliams, born circa 1900 in Ireland, Veronica McWilliams, born circa 1902. There was also a Louis or Louisa Mueller, aged 4, a daughter who must have been born to Edward Mueller and Margaret Jane Keating McWilliams, and a 2-yr-old Edward Mueller, although the return states that both his parents had been born in Germany. I think this census return may have been carelessly filled out since his mother, Margaret Keating, had been born in Ireland.
Finally, a step-granddaughter, Agnes Mulree, aged 1 year and 1 month, born to Irish parents in Illinois...see below.
The daughter of Robert McWilliams and Margaret Keating, Florence Eveline McWilliams, had married William Mulree in Chicago on 29th April 1908.
William Mulree had been born on 21st December 1880 to James Mulree and Agnes Murland in Kirkcubbin on the Ards Peninsula. He emigrated to the US on board the ‘Majestic’, arriving in New York on 11th May 1905. He died in Cook County, Illinois, in January 1968. The Mulree family of Kirkcubbin were living in St. Leonard Street in Belfast in 1901 - another of the family was William Mulree’s younger brother, James, who also emigrated to Chicago, and who died there in August 1917; he had been a labourer in a packing house.
William Mulree, who married Florence Eveline/Evelyn McWilliams, was a bricklayer. Their children were all born in Chicago - Agnes Louise Mulree, born 20th April 1909, Margaret Lenore Mulree, born 5th February 1911, Ethel Mae Mulree, born 3rd August 1912, the twin of William Robert James Mulree, also born 3rd August 1912, but who died a year later at 6642, So. Paulina Street, Ward 29, Chicago. He was buried in Mt.Hope Cemetery. There was also Florence Elizabeth Mulree, born 29th August 1913, and William Mulree, born 6th August 1916.
The 1920 Census follows the Mueller family, still in Chicago. By now, Edward Mueller had also died and Margaret, née Keating, is once again widowed. Her children have reverted to their correct name of McWilliams - Ethel McWilliams, Margaret McWilliams, Norman McWilliams, William McWilliams, Veronica McWilliams, Louise Miller (or Mueller), and Edward Miller.
Who was missing? Florence Eveline had, of course, married William Mulree. Her sister, Elizabeth, named as Lizzie McBride McWilliams in 1901, died in Chicago on 28th September 1912. She had been born on 3rd March 1892 to Robert McWilliams and his wife, named only as ‘Keating’,in Ireland, and had been working as a clerk; her address at the time of her death was 6627 Hermitage Avenue. She was 20 years, 6 months and 25 days old when she died. She was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery.
But where sons Robert and Samuel McWilliams? There was an Irish-born Samuel McWilliams working in California at this time, but, once again, there’s not enough information at the moment to definitively confirm this is the correct man.
d) Samuel Keating born circa 1866 in Newtownards to Samuel Keating (1833 - 1895) and Agnes Jamieson:; he married Sarah Agnew, and stayed in Belfast. The younger Samuel Keating remained in Belfast when his widowed father and four siblings emigrated to Chicago.
This younger Samuel Keating married Sarah Agnew in Holywood, Co.Down on 28th December 1885 and gave his profession as a breadserver like his father. Sarah's father was a gardener of Bangor, Alexander Agnew - Sarah had been born circa 1858 in Co. Down. The witnesses to this wedding were Samuel's sister, Agnes Keating, and her husband William John Anderson, the grandparents of my paternal grandmother, Agnes Keating Wilson.
The Street Directories of 1890 shows up Samuel Keating, breadserver/baker of Memel Street. He died young, aged 39, at 13 Harper Street on 29th December 1899; the informant was his brother-in-law, pawnbroker William John Anderson of 122 Albertbridge Road. Samuel Keating was buried in the Borough Cemetery.
By the time of the 1901 Census, the widowed Sarah Keating, nee Agnew, was living with her five children in 42 Jocelyn Street, adjacent to the Woodstock Road. Her son, William, aged 16, is working as a pawnbroker's assistant while his younger brother, Samuel (Samuel Keating Number 4!) aged 14, is working as an apprentice pawnbroker. Given the incredibly sociable nature of these Belfast families, I'm quite certain that the enterprising pawnbroker William John Anderson had provided work for his nephews in one of his establishments.
The children of Samuel Keating and Agnes Agnew were:
a) William Robert Keating, born at 3 Cross Street on 27th November 1884.
b) Samuel Keating, born at 14 Memel Street on 14th November 1886.
c) Walter Keating, born at 14 Memel Street on 16th May 1889 - on 24th January 1913 in St. Anne's, Belfast, Walter Keating, salesman of 85 Euston Street, married Sarah Agnes Hughes of 21 Carlisle Street, the daughter of farmer Charles Hughes. The witnesses here were Robert Gamble and Elizabeth Rea.
d) Evelyn Keating, born at Harper Street on 18th July 1891 - on 6th June 1921 in Fisherwick Presbyterian Church, Evelyn Keating, blousecutter of 85 Euston Street, married journalist James Stuart Blacke of 50 Ava Road, son of commission agent Joseph Blacke. The witnesses were William and Jane Blackwood.
e) Sarah Keating, born at 13 Harper Street on 26th May 1897. On 1st April 1931 at 85 Euston Street, Sarah (Sadie), the youngest daughter of the late Samuel Keating, died. ('Northern Whig', 2nd April 1931.)
Sarah Keating, née Agnew, died on 24th April 1935 at her son-in-law's home, 15 Adelaide Avenue, Whitehead.
Sarah Agnew's parents were Alexander Agnew, a retired gardener who had been born in 1834 in Strandtown, Holywood, Co. Down, and Maria Magee/McKee. (Griffiths Valuation of 1863 shows up both an Alexander Agnew and a Grace Agnew in Knocknagoney, Holywood, as well as Hugh, Charles, James and Robert Agnew in Strandtown, Holywood.) In 1911 Alexander Agnew was living in Belfast at Colchester Street, along with his second wife, Jane McCracken, aged 70, and his sister-in-law, Margaret McKee, a widow of 71.
Alexander Agnew, gardener of Holywood, Co. Down, married his first wife, Maria Magee/McKee, before 1858 when their daughter, Sarah Agnew, was born. They had a further two children, both of them born in Holywood, Co. Down - Thomas Agnew was born there on 10th June 1864, while Eliza Agnew was born there on 18th May 1866.
The death of a Maria Agnew, who had been born in 1833, was registered in Belfast in 1870, and may possibly be the mother of Sarah, Thomas and Eliza Agnew.
According to the 1911 census, their father, the gardener Alexander Agnew, married his second wife, Jane McCracken, in about 1874. They had two children,one of whom was Margaret Agnew who had been born in Strandtown on 16th June 1876.
e) James Keating born 8th May 1867 in Bow St, Donaghadee, to the baker Samuel Keating (1833 - 1895) and Nancy/Agnes Jamieson.
f) Thomas Keating born 26th September 1869 in South Street, Newtownards to the baker Samuel Keating (1833 - 1895) and Agnes Jamison; he married Hattie Irvine in Chicago.
Thomas Keating, a clerk, born 26th September 1869 to Samuel Keating and Nancy/Agnes Jamieson, died on 1st March 1941 and is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Cook, Illinois. He had emigrated to Chicago along with his father and brothers in about 1884 and had married Hattie Irvine on May 8th 1895 in Cook County, Illinois.
The couple seem to have divorced shortly afterwards, but were living together still in Chicago in 1900. Thomas was a factory worker and the couple had had two children, Maud Keating in 1896 and Thomas Junior in 1899. Only Maud survived childhood.
Hattie Irvine, who had been born to the Belfast-born John Irvine and Missouri-born Los Angelos Welch in Streator, Illinois on 25th November 1876, remarried before the 1910 census. Her second husband was Axel Patrick Johnson of Sweden, and the couple would go on to have a daughter, Gladys Ely Elizabeth Johnson, in 1908.
g) Jessie Jamieson Keating born circa 1870. An unnamed son was born on 28th May 1872 at 5 Stanley Lane, Belfast, to the breadserver Samuel Keating and Agnes Jamison.
Jessie Jamieson Keating was also known as John Jamieson Keating; he married Elizabeth Schmidt in Chicago.
Jessie/John Jamieson Keating was married to Elizabeth Schmidt and also spent his adult life in Chicago, dying there on 7th March 1949 at age 79. He worked as the treasurer of an association in 1910 and as restaurant proprietor in 1930.
The children of James Jamieson Keating and Elizabeth Schmidt were:
a) Frederick Sturgeon Keating, born in Chicago on 9th May 1893. He worked as an accountant and statistician, and married the English woman Florence - they had two sons, Robert Warren Keating in 1920 and Kenneth Keating in 1923. Kenneth kindly contacted me with further details of his family. His brother, Robert Warren Keating graduated as a chemical engineer from MIT in 1941 and spent the war years managing an industrial site which was a vital part of the war effort; he died in 2010 in Tajunga, California. Kenneth served with the US Navy from 1942 till 1946, and married Charlotte Adele Matthews in 1947; he graduated from Stanford in 1955 and worked, firstly, for Motorola in Phoenix, then as a professor in the College of Mines, University of Arizona, Tucson, where he still lives.
b) William S. Keating.
c) James Alfred Keating (4th December 1897 - 2nd October 1976). He married Ruth Zimmermann and worked as a investment banker, at one time with Harris Bank of W. Monroe Street, Chicago. His draft registration papers for the First World War make mention of the fact that James Alfred Keating had already served for three years as a sergeant in the infantry. His nephew, Kenneth Keating has confirmed to me that James Alfred had volunteered to join up before America had entered, and went into US Army Air Service, where he could be attached as a volunteer to the RAF, and where he learned to fly Airco DH.9 bombers. He received his commission with the RAF in February 1918 and was attached to the 49th Squadron in June. Designated as an American air ace, he scored his first victory during a raid on Bettencourt, and scored a further four during a raid on the bridge at Falvy; he received the US Distinguished Service Cross and the UK Distinguished Flying Cross as a recognition of the role he played.
He had a daughter, Corinne Keating, in about 1929 in Chicago. James Alfred Keating died on 2nd October 1976 in Fort Lauderdale.
d) George Dewey Keating, born 8th May 1898. A car salesman, in 1920 he married Indiana-born Betty/Elizabeth Jane Van Briggle, and moved to Madison, Dane, Wisconsin, where they had George B. Keating in 1925 and Nancy J. Keating in 1929. By 1940, George Dewey Keating was the manager of a music store in Madison, Dane, and had had another daughter, Sharon Keating in 1933.
The Emigration of Samuel Keating (1833 - 1895):
In 1870, the street directories note Samuel Keating at South St, Newtownards - he was listed under the heading of 'Bakers & Flour Dealers'.
The next reference to Samuel Keating (1833 - 1895) is on his daughter's marriage certificate (Agnes Keating) in 1877 when he gives his occupation as a driver. He can be traced in the Belfast Street Directories as a bread server which was the Victorian term for a delivery man for a bakery. Later, his sons in Chicago stated that their father, Samuel Keating, had been a baker and this too is confirmed in the Street Directory for 1880 when the entry for Samuel Keating gives his address as the bakery of 27 - 29 Carlow Street which is between the Shankill Road and the Falls Road of central Belfast.
The 'Belfast Weekly News', 25th January 1873, noted the death in the General Hospital, Belfast, of Agnes, née Jamison, wife of Samuel Keating, late of Ballyhay, Co. Down. The official registration of death notes that she had died of typhoid in the General Hospital - a note in the registration book states that her age should have been recorded as being 37 years and not the 48 years as originally written. This was confirmed by her husband, the bread deliverer Samuel Keating, before the presiding justices in Belfast.
Samuel Keating (1833 - 1895) and three of his sons emigrated to Chicago in about 1884. He applied to the Cook County Court for naturalisation on 30th April 1890, and this was witnessed by his son, William Robert Keating.
The Chicago Street Directories record Samuel Keating, labourer, at 3601 Laurel Street in 1888, 1889 and 1890. Son William Robert Keating was at 3819 Halsted Street in 1890, while a Thomas Keating, possibly another of the sons, was recorded in 1889 at the rear of 3729 Laurel Street.
The Chicago Voters Lists also record Samuel Keating of Ireland at 3601 Laurel Street in 1892 - it was noted that he had been in Chicago for the previous 8 years. William Robert Keating of Ireland was noted at Taylor Street, having lived in Chicago for 9 years. Thomas Keating was at 3601 Laurel Street and had also been there 9 years.
Born 1833 in Ireland, Samuel Keating died in Chicago aged 62 on 26th February 1895; at the time of his death he was working as a carpenter.
The Belfast Newsletter of 20th March 1895 recorded Samuel Keating's death -
"Keating - Feb 26 1895 at his residence, Laurel Street, Chicago, US America, Sam'l Keating of Ballyhay, County Down, late of Belfast, aged 62."
................................................................................................................................................
William Keating (1801 - 1885) farmer of Ballyhay and Mary Buchanan:
But to return to Ballyhay, Donaghdee, Co. Down. Another Keating family of Ballyhay, Donaghadee, descended from William Keating (1801 -1885) who was the the brother - I believe - of Agnes Keating's grandfather, farmer Samuel Keating (1799 - 1870) of Ballyhay. Both men were approximately the same age and lived in the same townland.
William Keating (1801 - 1885) , farmer of Ballyhay, died in Ballyhay on 26 July 1885, aged 84 with his will administered by Samuel Buchanan Keating, a child of Ballyhay. A fellow researcher on the internet confirms that William Keating had married a Mary Buchanan. They had at least two children in Armagh - James Alfred Keating and Samuel Keating - before settling in Ballyhay where they had further children. I detail the children of William Keating and Mary Buchanan below.
James Alfred Keating:
The son of William Keating and Mary Buchanan, James Alfred Keating, had been born in Armagh on 9th August 1826. (John Jamieson Keating, the grandson of farmer Samuel Keating 1799 - 1870 of Ballyhay, also named a child as James Alfred Keating on 4th December 1897 in Chicago.)
James Alfred Keating, the son of William Keating of Ballyhay, married Eliza Gordon on 12th March 1859 in Donaghadee. Eliza was the daughter of Robert Gordon of Ballyhay and the wedding was witnessed by Robert and Jane Gordon.
Amongst their seven children were William Robert Keating, born 9th March 1864, John Keating born 1st January 1866 in Ballyhay, a second John Keating born 7th November 1871 Ballyhay, Margaret Gordon Keating born Ballyhay 6th July 1867 and Susannah Keating born 17th June 1873.
The family of James Alfred Keating and Eliza Gordon emigrated in about June 1873 to Blythe, Ontario, but, in 1879, they headed to Adair County, Iowa; they would have thirteen children in total.
(Eliza Gordon, who had married James Alfred Keating in 1859, was the daughter of Robert Gordon of Ballyhay, 1797 - 18th February 1892, and of Elizabeth Moorehead. They baptised six children in the First Presbyterian Church of Donaghadee - Eliza who married James Alfred Keating was born 13th Aug 1834, Robert Gordon was born 14th September 1836, William Gordon was born 1st May 1838, James Gordon was born in 1840, Jane Gordon was born on 3rd January 1842, and Margaret was born on 3 Jan 1844.
Daughter Jane Gordon married James Jamison on 25 Nov 1864, and this might be a member of the Jamieson family of Agnes Jamieson who married the baker Samuel Keating from whom I descend.)
Another son of William Keating and Mary Buchanan was the carpenter Samuel (Buchanan?) Keating, who had been born in Armagh, (1834 - 1902) and who had died aged 68 in Ballyhay on 2nd March 1902; brother John Bleany Keating was present.
The Keating brothers were living together in Ballyhay in 1901, along with sisters, Elizabeth Letitia Keating, Susanna Matilda Keating, Eliza Letitia's son, Robert Henry, niece Eliza Keating, nephew William George Keating (son of Susannah Matilda), nephew Robert H. McKee, and grandniece Jane Keating. In 1911 they were joined by nephew Ernest Keating and John Keating.
On 10th November 1859, Samuel Keating, the son of William Keating (1801 - 1885) and Mary Buchanan of Ballyhay, married Charlotte Carson, the daughter of Alexander Carson of Donaghadee; this was witnessed by David Beatty and Eleanor Davidson. Did Charlotte die before official registration began in 1864?
On 21st June 1849, Mary Keating, the daughter of William Keating of Ballyhay, married William Gordon, son of William Gordon Sr. of Ballyhay. This was witnessed by James Alfred Keating and Elizabeth Buchanan who must have been a relative of the bride's mother, Mary Keating, née Buchanan.
The unmarried daughters of William Keating and Mary Buchanan all gave birth to children in Ballyhay, which must have been quite the scandal in that era. Susannah Matilda Keating had William George Keating on 29th November 1870 - Anne Jane Keating was present, presumably the sister of Susannah Matilda and wife of carman John Keating.
Eliza Jane Keating was born to Margaret Keating on 7th July 1874 in Killaughy - Eliza McKeown was present.
Mary Keating was born in Ballyhay on 14th January 1877 to Susannah Matilda Keating - Anne Jane Keating was present again.
Robert Henry Keating was born in Ballyhay on 9th August 1878 to Eliza Laetitia Keating - sister Susannah Keating present.
On 18th August 1880, another James Alfred Keating was born at Ballyhay to Eliza Keating; Susanna Matilda Keating was again present at the birth.
Later, a Letitia Jane Keating was born to Elizabeth Keating in Ballyhay on 14th September 1891 - this was possibly the Letitia Jane Keating who witnessed the 1920 marriage in Ballygrainy of Margaret Jane Keating, the granddaughter of carman John Keating and Anne Jane Keating.
The 'Belfast Newsletter' of 20th July 1888 reported that William St.George Keating (1846 - 1910), John B. Keating, William Thomas Keating and Samuel B. Keating, farmers of Ballyhay, had stolen four cows from the bailiff who had previously seized them. I'm sure it was a terrible misunderstanding....I believe that William Thomas Keating was the son of carman John Keating and Anne Jane Keating, and the cousin of the other three mentioned here.
In Newtownards Church on 3rd December 1884, the farmer (later a gardener) William St. George Keating of Ballyhay, son of William Keating, farmer, and of Mary Buchanan, married Anna Bella Kerr of Newtownards, daughter of farmer William Kerr. The witnesses were Ellen Keating and William Savage.
Gardener William St. George Keating (1846 - 1910), and Anna Bella Kerr had James Alfred Keating on 4th May 1891 in Ballyhay; he died 5th March 1895 at 34.2 Lilliput Street, aged 3. They also had William St. George Keating Jr. on 25th March 1885.
Soldier Ernest Keating, son of late gardener William Keating of Ballyhay, married in Helen's Bay, Bangor, Helen Lightbody, daughter of Hugh Lightbody of Portavo. Witnesses: James Lightbody and Alice Woods. The wedding took place on 8th December 1917.
Anna Bella Keating (1865 - 1902), née Kerr, wife of gardener William Keating of Ballyhay, died aged 37 on 15th June 1902; husband William Keating was present. William St. George Keating died aged 64 in Ballyhay, a widowed Loft Man, on 23rd April 1910; nephew William Keating was present.
Elizabeth Keating, daughter of gardener William (St. George) Keating, died aged 14 of lung disease in Ballyhay on 23rd August 1903; grandfather William Kerr was present at her death.
John Bleany Keating, son of William Keating and Mary Buchanan, of Ballyhay county Down farmer died 13 March 1928 Probate Belfast 13 September to his nephew Robert Henry McKee, farmer.
Samuel Keating was farming in Ballyhay at the time of the wedding, and the witnesses were James Jameson and William Keating, possible brothers of the bride and groom.
There is mention of a Jamieson family living in the neighbouring Killaughey area of Donaghadee in the early 1600s so the family must have originated in Ayrshire, Scotland, and were among the original wave of settlers who made the move to Ireland with the adventurers Hamilton and Montgomery.
The 1834 Tithe Books show a cluster of Jamesons farming in Killaughey - Samuel Jameson, 10 acres; John Jameson, 9 acres; D. Jameson, 7 acres; James Jameson, 10 acres. There were another two in Ballyvester townland - J. Jameson Junior, 1 acres, and his father James Jameson who was farming less than an acre.
On Griffiths Valuation of 1863 we find Robert Jamison leasing 18 acres from Louisa Webb in the Ballyhay district of Donaghadee. William Keating is leasing eight acres from the same Louisa Webb in the same townland.
Samuel Keating (the elder one, I'm presuming) is leasing fourteen acres of land plus a house and outbuildings from Daniel Delacherois, and is sharing an acres of turbary, or bog, with Ann Gilmore, leased from the same landlady Louisa Webb. Ann Gilmore is leasing a house three doors down from Robert Jamison.
Samuel Keating Junior is leasing a house in Newtownards which is about ten miles south of Donaghadee.
Samuel Keating Junior (1833 - 1895) and Agnes/Nancy Jamieson (circa 1833 - 1873) had several children while they were living in Newtownards:
a) Agnes Keating, who would marry William John Anderson in Belfast in 1877, from whom we descend directly, was born circa 1858, but civil registration didn't begin till 1864. They stayed in Belfast.
b) William Robert Keating, born 14th December 1862.
William Robert Keating, who was born on 14th December 1862 in Belfast to the baker, Samuel Keating, and his wife, Nancy Jamieson, died on 14th April 1925 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.
He worked as a baker in the county hospital. His wife, who he married in Chicago on 16th April 1890, was Martha M. Nagel who had been born in Pammern, Germany to Adolph Nagel and Albertina Denz.
The children of William Robert Keating and Martha Nagel were all born in Illinois:
- Samuel H. Keating born August 1891, who died in 1965 having married Minnie Chance.
- William R. T. Keating born April 1893.
- Stella E., or Estelle was born in 1896 and died in 1962 - she married twice, first to Fauntleroy Flynn, then to Norman Volz.
- Arthur J. Keating born August 1898 - he died in Chicago, aged 26, on 15th March 1925.
- George F. Keating, born 10th May 1901 in Chicago, and died 6th December 1961 in Los Angeles.
- Martha Agnes, born 29th August 1904 in Chicago, and who died in 1992.
- Edward Keating born 17th February 1908; he married Edla Johansson and died in 1994.
The son of George Frederick Keating and Martha Nagel, George Frederick Keating (1901 - 1961) married Helen Carol Clarke (1898 - 1992), the daughter of James McKenzie Clark of Skene, Aberdeen, and of Bridget Quinn of Strokestown, Co. Roscommon. George Frederick Keating and Helen Carol Clark also had Constance Keating who married Earl Burton, and Carol Keating (1919 - 2010) who married Frank Witte.
Margaret Jane Keating, married Robert McWilliams in Westbourne Presbyterian Church in South Belfast on 8th June 1887. Robert McWilliams, a pawnbroker, was the son of a land steward, also Robert McWilliams. The wedding witnesses were Martha McWilliams and W.J. Leeds.
By the time of the 1901 Census the couple were living off the Woodstock Road - on My Lady's Road where my father, Paul Cuthbert Stewart (great-grandson of Agnes Keating and pawnbroker William John Anderson) was later born in 1935 - with their eight children, one of whom had been tellingly named William John Anderson McWilliams in honour of the baby's uncle, the pawnbroker William John Anderson. Margaret Jane's husband, Robert, was also working as a pawnbroker's assistant. My Lady's Road is immediately adjacent to Jocelyn Street where Sarah Agnew Keating was living with her children - she was the widow of Samuel Keating, the son of baker Samuel Keating (1833 - 1895) and Agnes Jamieson.
The children of pawnbroker Robert McWilliams and Margaret Jane Keating were born as follows:
1) Florence Eveline McWilliams, born at 11 Madrid Street on 7th June 1888.
2) Ethel May McWilliams, born at 5 Harper Street on 5th July 1889.
3) Robert Jamieson McWilliams at 39 Beechfield Street on 24th December 1890.
4) Lizzie McBride McWilliams at 34 Beechfield Street on 3rd March 1892.
5) Maggie McWilliams at 57 Altear Street on 15th February 1893.
6) Samuel McWilliams at 2 Laburnum Terrace on 30th November 1894.
7) William John Anderson McWilliams at 5 Brook Terrace on 6th December 1896.
8) Norman McWilliams at 140 Templemore Avenue on 6th April 1899.
9) Veronica McWilliams born at 5 Mafeking Terrace, My Lady's Road, 17th August 1901.
Robert McWilliams, pawnbroker, died of typhoid fever at 5 Mafeking Terrace, My Lady's Road, on 7th October 1901 aged only 36 - the informant was his brother-in-law, pawnbroker William John Anderson of 412 Woodstock Road.
The widowed Margaret Jane McWilliams, née Keating, moved her family to Chicago in 1902. Her father, the widowed baker Samuel Keating, along with three of his sons, had already moved there in about 1884.
The widowed Margaret McWilliams, née Keating, married Edward Mueller in Cook County, Illinois, on 1st March 1905. The LDS has the Chicago 1910 census details for the family - Edward Mueller, had been born in Germany in about 1857 and had emigrated to the States in 1892.
The following stepchildren of Edward Mueller, the head of the household, are all named on the return as ‘Mulree’ although they correspond to the McWilliams children of My Lady’s Road, so I believe this to be an error. Perhaps a neighbour filled the form out for them and was unsure of the correct family name - Florence Mulree, born 1889 in Ireland, Ethel Mulree, born 1890 in Ireland, Robert Mulree, born 1891 in Ireland (Robert Jamieson McWilliams was naturalised in the US in 1928), Lizzie Mulree, born 1892 in Ireland, Maggie Mulree, born 1893 in Ireland, and Samuel Mulree, born 1895 in Ireland.
The following stepchildren go correctly under the name of McWilliams and correspond to the earlier 1901 Irish Census - William McWilliams, born circa 1897 in Ireland William John Anderson McWilliams was naturalised in the US in 1928), Norman McWilliams, born circa 1900 in Ireland, Veronica McWilliams, born circa 1902. There was also a Louis or Louisa Mueller, aged 4, a daughter who must have been born to Edward Mueller and Margaret Jane Keating McWilliams, and a 2-yr-old Edward Mueller, although the return states that both his parents had been born in Germany. I think this census return may have been carelessly filled out since his mother, Margaret Keating, had been born in Ireland.
Finally, a step-granddaughter, Agnes Mulree, aged 1 year and 1 month, born to Irish parents in Illinois...see below.
The daughter of Robert McWilliams and Margaret Keating, Florence Eveline McWilliams, had married William Mulree in Chicago on 29th April 1908.
William Mulree had been born on 21st December 1880 to James Mulree and Agnes Murland in Kirkcubbin on the Ards Peninsula. He emigrated to the US on board the ‘Majestic’, arriving in New York on 11th May 1905. He died in Cook County, Illinois, in January 1968. The Mulree family of Kirkcubbin were living in St. Leonard Street in Belfast in 1901 - another of the family was William Mulree’s younger brother, James, who also emigrated to Chicago, and who died there in August 1917; he had been a labourer in a packing house.
William Mulree, who married Florence Eveline/Evelyn McWilliams, was a bricklayer. Their children were all born in Chicago - Agnes Louise Mulree, born 20th April 1909, Margaret Lenore Mulree, born 5th February 1911, Ethel Mae Mulree, born 3rd August 1912, the twin of William Robert James Mulree, also born 3rd August 1912, but who died a year later at 6642, So. Paulina Street, Ward 29, Chicago. He was buried in Mt.Hope Cemetery. There was also Florence Elizabeth Mulree, born 29th August 1913, and William Mulree, born 6th August 1916.
The 1920 Census follows the Mueller family, still in Chicago. By now, Edward Mueller had also died and Margaret, née Keating, is once again widowed. Her children have reverted to their correct name of McWilliams - Ethel McWilliams, Margaret McWilliams, Norman McWilliams, William McWilliams, Veronica McWilliams, Louise Miller (or Mueller), and Edward Miller.
Who was missing? Florence Eveline had, of course, married William Mulree. Her sister, Elizabeth, named as Lizzie McBride McWilliams in 1901, died in Chicago on 28th September 1912. She had been born on 3rd March 1892 to Robert McWilliams and his wife, named only as ‘Keating’,in Ireland, and had been working as a clerk; her address at the time of her death was 6627 Hermitage Avenue. She was 20 years, 6 months and 25 days old when she died. She was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery.
But where sons Robert and Samuel McWilliams? There was an Irish-born Samuel McWilliams working in California at this time, but, once again, there’s not enough information at the moment to definitively confirm this is the correct man.
d) Samuel Keating born circa 1866 in Newtownards to Samuel Keating (1833 - 1895) and Agnes Jamieson:; he married Sarah Agnew, and stayed in Belfast. The younger Samuel Keating remained in Belfast when his widowed father and four siblings emigrated to Chicago.
This younger Samuel Keating married Sarah Agnew in Holywood, Co.Down on 28th December 1885 and gave his profession as a breadserver like his father. Sarah's father was a gardener of Bangor, Alexander Agnew - Sarah had been born circa 1858 in Co. Down. The witnesses to this wedding were Samuel's sister, Agnes Keating, and her husband William John Anderson, the grandparents of my paternal grandmother, Agnes Keating Wilson.
The Street Directories of 1890 shows up Samuel Keating, breadserver/baker of Memel Street. He died young, aged 39, at 13 Harper Street on 29th December 1899; the informant was his brother-in-law, pawnbroker William John Anderson of 122 Albertbridge Road. Samuel Keating was buried in the Borough Cemetery.
By the time of the 1901 Census, the widowed Sarah Keating, nee Agnew, was living with her five children in 42 Jocelyn Street, adjacent to the Woodstock Road. Her son, William, aged 16, is working as a pawnbroker's assistant while his younger brother, Samuel (Samuel Keating Number 4!) aged 14, is working as an apprentice pawnbroker. Given the incredibly sociable nature of these Belfast families, I'm quite certain that the enterprising pawnbroker William John Anderson had provided work for his nephews in one of his establishments.
The children of Samuel Keating and Agnes Agnew were:
a) William Robert Keating, born at 3 Cross Street on 27th November 1884.
b) Samuel Keating, born at 14 Memel Street on 14th November 1886.
c) Walter Keating, born at 14 Memel Street on 16th May 1889 - on 24th January 1913 in St. Anne's, Belfast, Walter Keating, salesman of 85 Euston Street, married Sarah Agnes Hughes of 21 Carlisle Street, the daughter of farmer Charles Hughes. The witnesses here were Robert Gamble and Elizabeth Rea.
d) Evelyn Keating, born at Harper Street on 18th July 1891 - on 6th June 1921 in Fisherwick Presbyterian Church, Evelyn Keating, blousecutter of 85 Euston Street, married journalist James Stuart Blacke of 50 Ava Road, son of commission agent Joseph Blacke. The witnesses were William and Jane Blackwood.
e) Sarah Keating, born at 13 Harper Street on 26th May 1897. On 1st April 1931 at 85 Euston Street, Sarah (Sadie), the youngest daughter of the late Samuel Keating, died. ('Northern Whig', 2nd April 1931.)
Sarah Keating, née Agnew, died on 24th April 1935 at her son-in-law's home, 15 Adelaide Avenue, Whitehead.
Sarah Agnew's parents were Alexander Agnew, a retired gardener who had been born in 1834 in Strandtown, Holywood, Co. Down, and Maria Magee/McKee. (Griffiths Valuation of 1863 shows up both an Alexander Agnew and a Grace Agnew in Knocknagoney, Holywood, as well as Hugh, Charles, James and Robert Agnew in Strandtown, Holywood.) In 1911 Alexander Agnew was living in Belfast at Colchester Street, along with his second wife, Jane McCracken, aged 70, and his sister-in-law, Margaret McKee, a widow of 71.
Alexander Agnew, gardener of Holywood, Co. Down, married his first wife, Maria Magee/McKee, before 1858 when their daughter, Sarah Agnew, was born. They had a further two children, both of them born in Holywood, Co. Down - Thomas Agnew was born there on 10th June 1864, while Eliza Agnew was born there on 18th May 1866.
The death of a Maria Agnew, who had been born in 1833, was registered in Belfast in 1870, and may possibly be the mother of Sarah, Thomas and Eliza Agnew.
According to the 1911 census, their father, the gardener Alexander Agnew, married his second wife, Jane McCracken, in about 1874. They had two children,one of whom was Margaret Agnew who had been born in Strandtown on 16th June 1876.
e) James Keating born 8th May 1867 in Bow St, Donaghadee, to the baker Samuel Keating (1833 - 1895) and Nancy/Agnes Jamieson.
f) Thomas Keating born 26th September 1869 in South Street, Newtownards to the baker Samuel Keating (1833 - 1895) and Agnes Jamison; he married Hattie Irvine in Chicago.
Thomas Keating, a clerk, born 26th September 1869 to Samuel Keating and Nancy/Agnes Jamieson, died on 1st March 1941 and is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Cook, Illinois. He had emigrated to Chicago along with his father and brothers in about 1884 and had married Hattie Irvine on May 8th 1895 in Cook County, Illinois.
The couple seem to have divorced shortly afterwards, but were living together still in Chicago in 1900. Thomas was a factory worker and the couple had had two children, Maud Keating in 1896 and Thomas Junior in 1899. Only Maud survived childhood.
Hattie Irvine, who had been born to the Belfast-born John Irvine and Missouri-born Los Angelos Welch in Streator, Illinois on 25th November 1876, remarried before the 1910 census. Her second husband was Axel Patrick Johnson of Sweden, and the couple would go on to have a daughter, Gladys Ely Elizabeth Johnson, in 1908.
g) Jessie Jamieson Keating born circa 1870. An unnamed son was born on 28th May 1872 at 5 Stanley Lane, Belfast, to the breadserver Samuel Keating and Agnes Jamison.
Jessie Jamieson Keating was also known as John Jamieson Keating; he married Elizabeth Schmidt in Chicago.
Jessie/John Jamieson Keating was married to Elizabeth Schmidt and also spent his adult life in Chicago, dying there on 7th March 1949 at age 79. He worked as the treasurer of an association in 1910 and as restaurant proprietor in 1930.
The children of James Jamieson Keating and Elizabeth Schmidt were:
a) Frederick Sturgeon Keating, born in Chicago on 9th May 1893. He worked as an accountant and statistician, and married the English woman Florence - they had two sons, Robert Warren Keating in 1920 and Kenneth Keating in 1923. Kenneth kindly contacted me with further details of his family. His brother, Robert Warren Keating graduated as a chemical engineer from MIT in 1941 and spent the war years managing an industrial site which was a vital part of the war effort; he died in 2010 in Tajunga, California. Kenneth served with the US Navy from 1942 till 1946, and married Charlotte Adele Matthews in 1947; he graduated from Stanford in 1955 and worked, firstly, for Motorola in Phoenix, then as a professor in the College of Mines, University of Arizona, Tucson, where he still lives.
b) William S. Keating.
c) James Alfred Keating (4th December 1897 - 2nd October 1976). He married Ruth Zimmermann and worked as a investment banker, at one time with Harris Bank of W. Monroe Street, Chicago. His draft registration papers for the First World War make mention of the fact that James Alfred Keating had already served for three years as a sergeant in the infantry. His nephew, Kenneth Keating has confirmed to me that James Alfred had volunteered to join up before America had entered, and went into US Army Air Service, where he could be attached as a volunteer to the RAF, and where he learned to fly Airco DH.9 bombers. He received his commission with the RAF in February 1918 and was attached to the 49th Squadron in June. Designated as an American air ace, he scored his first victory during a raid on Bettencourt, and scored a further four during a raid on the bridge at Falvy; he received the US Distinguished Service Cross and the UK Distinguished Flying Cross as a recognition of the role he played.
He had a daughter, Corinne Keating, in about 1929 in Chicago. James Alfred Keating died on 2nd October 1976 in Fort Lauderdale.
d) George Dewey Keating, born 8th May 1898. A car salesman, in 1920 he married Indiana-born Betty/Elizabeth Jane Van Briggle, and moved to Madison, Dane, Wisconsin, where they had George B. Keating in 1925 and Nancy J. Keating in 1929. By 1940, George Dewey Keating was the manager of a music store in Madison, Dane, and had had another daughter, Sharon Keating in 1933.
The Emigration of Samuel Keating (1833 - 1895):
In 1870, the street directories note Samuel Keating at South St, Newtownards - he was listed under the heading of 'Bakers & Flour Dealers'.
The next reference to Samuel Keating (1833 - 1895) is on his daughter's marriage certificate (Agnes Keating) in 1877 when he gives his occupation as a driver. He can be traced in the Belfast Street Directories as a bread server which was the Victorian term for a delivery man for a bakery. Later, his sons in Chicago stated that their father, Samuel Keating, had been a baker and this too is confirmed in the Street Directory for 1880 when the entry for Samuel Keating gives his address as the bakery of 27 - 29 Carlow Street which is between the Shankill Road and the Falls Road of central Belfast.
The 'Belfast Weekly News', 25th January 1873, noted the death in the General Hospital, Belfast, of Agnes, née Jamison, wife of Samuel Keating, late of Ballyhay, Co. Down. The official registration of death notes that she had died of typhoid in the General Hospital - a note in the registration book states that her age should have been recorded as being 37 years and not the 48 years as originally written. This was confirmed by her husband, the bread deliverer Samuel Keating, before the presiding justices in Belfast.
Samuel Keating (1833 - 1895) and three of his sons emigrated to Chicago in about 1884. He applied to the Cook County Court for naturalisation on 30th April 1890, and this was witnessed by his son, William Robert Keating.
The Chicago Street Directories record Samuel Keating, labourer, at 3601 Laurel Street in 1888, 1889 and 1890. Son William Robert Keating was at 3819 Halsted Street in 1890, while a Thomas Keating, possibly another of the sons, was recorded in 1889 at the rear of 3729 Laurel Street.
The Chicago Voters Lists also record Samuel Keating of Ireland at 3601 Laurel Street in 1892 - it was noted that he had been in Chicago for the previous 8 years. William Robert Keating of Ireland was noted at Taylor Street, having lived in Chicago for 9 years. Thomas Keating was at 3601 Laurel Street and had also been there 9 years.
Born 1833 in Ireland, Samuel Keating died in Chicago aged 62 on 26th February 1895; at the time of his death he was working as a carpenter.
The Belfast Newsletter of 20th March 1895 recorded Samuel Keating's death -
"Keating - Feb 26 1895 at his residence, Laurel Street, Chicago, US America, Sam'l Keating of Ballyhay, County Down, late of Belfast, aged 62."
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William Keating (1801 - 1885) farmer of Ballyhay and Mary Buchanan:
But to return to Ballyhay, Donaghdee, Co. Down. Another Keating family of Ballyhay, Donaghadee, descended from William Keating (1801 -1885) who was the the brother - I believe - of Agnes Keating's grandfather, farmer Samuel Keating (1799 - 1870) of Ballyhay. Both men were approximately the same age and lived in the same townland.
William Keating (1801 - 1885) , farmer of Ballyhay, died in Ballyhay on 26 July 1885, aged 84 with his will administered by Samuel Buchanan Keating, a child of Ballyhay. A fellow researcher on the internet confirms that William Keating had married a Mary Buchanan. They had at least two children in Armagh - James Alfred Keating and Samuel Keating - before settling in Ballyhay where they had further children. I detail the children of William Keating and Mary Buchanan below.
James Alfred Keating:
The son of William Keating and Mary Buchanan, James Alfred Keating, had been born in Armagh on 9th August 1826. (John Jamieson Keating, the grandson of farmer Samuel Keating 1799 - 1870 of Ballyhay, also named a child as James Alfred Keating on 4th December 1897 in Chicago.)
James Alfred Keating, the son of William Keating of Ballyhay, married Eliza Gordon on 12th March 1859 in Donaghadee. Eliza was the daughter of Robert Gordon of Ballyhay and the wedding was witnessed by Robert and Jane Gordon.
Amongst their seven children were William Robert Keating, born 9th March 1864, John Keating born 1st January 1866 in Ballyhay, a second John Keating born 7th November 1871 Ballyhay, Margaret Gordon Keating born Ballyhay 6th July 1867 and Susannah Keating born 17th June 1873.
The family of James Alfred Keating and Eliza Gordon emigrated in about June 1873 to Blythe, Ontario, but, in 1879, they headed to Adair County, Iowa; they would have thirteen children in total.
(Eliza Gordon, who had married James Alfred Keating in 1859, was the daughter of Robert Gordon of Ballyhay, 1797 - 18th February 1892, and of Elizabeth Moorehead. They baptised six children in the First Presbyterian Church of Donaghadee - Eliza who married James Alfred Keating was born 13th Aug 1834, Robert Gordon was born 14th September 1836, William Gordon was born 1st May 1838, James Gordon was born in 1840, Jane Gordon was born on 3rd January 1842, and Margaret was born on 3 Jan 1844.
Daughter Jane Gordon married James Jamison on 25 Nov 1864, and this might be a member of the Jamieson family of Agnes Jamieson who married the baker Samuel Keating from whom I descend.)
Another son of William Keating and Mary Buchanan was the carpenter Samuel (Buchanan?) Keating, who had been born in Armagh, (1834 - 1902) and who had died aged 68 in Ballyhay on 2nd March 1902; brother John Bleany Keating was present.
The Keating brothers were living together in Ballyhay in 1901, along with sisters, Elizabeth Letitia Keating, Susanna Matilda Keating, Eliza Letitia's son, Robert Henry, niece Eliza Keating, nephew William George Keating (son of Susannah Matilda), nephew Robert H. McKee, and grandniece Jane Keating. In 1911 they were joined by nephew Ernest Keating and John Keating.
On 10th November 1859, Samuel Keating, the son of William Keating (1801 - 1885) and Mary Buchanan of Ballyhay, married Charlotte Carson, the daughter of Alexander Carson of Donaghadee; this was witnessed by David Beatty and Eleanor Davidson. Did Charlotte die before official registration began in 1864?
On 21st June 1849, Mary Keating, the daughter of William Keating of Ballyhay, married William Gordon, son of William Gordon Sr. of Ballyhay. This was witnessed by James Alfred Keating and Elizabeth Buchanan who must have been a relative of the bride's mother, Mary Keating, née Buchanan.
The unmarried daughters of William Keating and Mary Buchanan all gave birth to children in Ballyhay, which must have been quite the scandal in that era. Susannah Matilda Keating had William George Keating on 29th November 1870 - Anne Jane Keating was present, presumably the sister of Susannah Matilda and wife of carman John Keating.
Eliza Jane Keating was born to Margaret Keating on 7th July 1874 in Killaughy - Eliza McKeown was present.
Mary Keating was born in Ballyhay on 14th January 1877 to Susannah Matilda Keating - Anne Jane Keating was present again.
Robert Henry Keating was born in Ballyhay on 9th August 1878 to Eliza Laetitia Keating - sister Susannah Keating present.
On 18th August 1880, another James Alfred Keating was born at Ballyhay to Eliza Keating; Susanna Matilda Keating was again present at the birth.
Later, a Letitia Jane Keating was born to Elizabeth Keating in Ballyhay on 14th September 1891 - this was possibly the Letitia Jane Keating who witnessed the 1920 marriage in Ballygrainy of Margaret Jane Keating, the granddaughter of carman John Keating and Anne Jane Keating.
The 'Belfast Newsletter' of 20th July 1888 reported that William St.George Keating (1846 - 1910), John B. Keating, William Thomas Keating and Samuel B. Keating, farmers of Ballyhay, had stolen four cows from the bailiff who had previously seized them. I'm sure it was a terrible misunderstanding....I believe that William Thomas Keating was the son of carman John Keating and Anne Jane Keating, and the cousin of the other three mentioned here.
In Newtownards Church on 3rd December 1884, the farmer (later a gardener) William St. George Keating of Ballyhay, son of William Keating, farmer, and of Mary Buchanan, married Anna Bella Kerr of Newtownards, daughter of farmer William Kerr. The witnesses were Ellen Keating and William Savage.
Gardener William St. George Keating (1846 - 1910), and Anna Bella Kerr had James Alfred Keating on 4th May 1891 in Ballyhay; he died 5th March 1895 at 34.2 Lilliput Street, aged 3. They also had William St. George Keating Jr. on 25th March 1885.
Soldier Ernest Keating, son of late gardener William Keating of Ballyhay, married in Helen's Bay, Bangor, Helen Lightbody, daughter of Hugh Lightbody of Portavo. Witnesses: James Lightbody and Alice Woods. The wedding took place on 8th December 1917.
Anna Bella Keating (1865 - 1902), née Kerr, wife of gardener William Keating of Ballyhay, died aged 37 on 15th June 1902; husband William Keating was present. William St. George Keating died aged 64 in Ballyhay, a widowed Loft Man, on 23rd April 1910; nephew William Keating was present.
Elizabeth Keating, daughter of gardener William (St. George) Keating, died aged 14 of lung disease in Ballyhay on 23rd August 1903; grandfather William Kerr was present at her death.
John Bleany Keating, son of William Keating and Mary Buchanan, of Ballyhay county Down farmer died 13 March 1928 Probate Belfast 13 September to his nephew Robert Henry McKee, farmer.
Great research! I've emailed you with some more data about the Robert Gordon family. Daughters married into the Keating and Jamieson families, and the Gordon gravesite in Donaghadee was continued by James Jamieson.
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