Help requested finding mysterious 19th century Canadian cousins

[CelticAnnie]

I was very excited to discover two new ancestors in the 1901 Census of Canada in the household of Margaret McKay (Mackay) born about 1855 in Quebec. They are listed as cousins of Margaret.  With all the wonderful info. that the 1901 provides, I thought I'd have no trouble finding more records on them, especialy records of birth, which would tell me who their parents were.  But, bizarrely, despite extensive searching, I haven't found anything that records their existances beyond this census entry.  This is what I have from the 1901:

JAMES MCKAY (Mackay)    25    born 25th November 1875  in Ontario
ANDREW MCKAY (Mackay) 20    born 12th August 1880 in Ontario

I should be extremely grateful if anybody out there who likes a challenge fancied having a hunt for them.   I feel like I've run out of places to look!  Have even begun to wonder if, rather than cousins, they were actually just a couple of 'toy boys' Margaret had in who were unfortunately caught by the census enumerator and had to make up a story to make their presence in her house look respectable!!!!!

Possible fathers (although there may be others I don't yet know about) are Lachlan, John or Thomas (Thomas m Elizabeth Bywater).  This is the first suggestion I've had that any of these brothers emigrated to Canada from Scotland; but since James and Andrew are listed as being born in Ontario, their parents must have done.  So I'm very eager to find out who they were.

It's possible, of course, that James and Andrew are not brothers but are cousins of each other.  However, I think that this is unlikely.

Very grateful to anyone who fancies trying to help.

Thanks for reading this.

CELTIC ANNIE

[JDC]

Hi Celtic,

Do you know where in Ontario, it is a big place and Mackay is a common name? Where was the 1901 census taken? Have you looked at the 1911 census - this is available at www.automatedgenealogy.com? Perhaps we can start with this.

JDC

[valeriec]

1901/Quebec/Montreal (City)/Saint Antoine
McKay, Margaret, head, b. Ont. Aug 16, 1854, Church of England
McKay, May (Mary) sister, b. Que. Aug 20, 1864, Church of England
Mullery, Margrt, domestic, b. Que. Feb 24, 1862, Roman Cath
McKay, James, cousin, b. Ont. Nov 25, 1875, Presbyterian
McKay, Andrew, cousin, b. Ont. Aug 12, 1880, Presbyterian
all are single

1911/Quebec/Montreal St. Antoine Ward
McKay, M
apt 36b, can't make out the street
head, single, b. aug 1854, age 56, Ontario
she is living by herself.

I wasn't able to find any of the others from the 1901 census under either McKay or MacKay anywhere is Montreal.

[Jacquie in Canada]

The Drouin Collection has a death for an Andrew MacKay on 28 Feb 1904 in the Montréal (Presbyterian Knox) parish records. He was buried 2 Mar 1904 in Mont Royal Cemetery. The witnesses were James MacKay and Alex MacKay. Unfortunately there is no age or other identifying information to confirm if this is your Andrew.

Jacquie

[JDC]

Good morning,

Perhaps an email to the cemetery administrator will answer that :-)

JDC

[CelticAnnie]

Good morning, y'all!   

I am so sorry not to have gotten back to thank my responders earlier, but I'm on Texas time and was asleep when you were posting.  Many thanks for your greatly-appreciated help.  So I'm glad it's not just me, then, that can find no record of their births -- thought I was going mad!   But the cemetary reference does indeed look interesting -- the boys have other cousins buried there, so it certainly was a facility used by the family.  I will definitely follow this up by trying to contact them and will let you know if I have any success. 

Thank you again. 

CELTIC ANNIE

[cosmac]

Lillian E. Loring, 36, b. Grand Rapids MI, widowed, d/o Thomas McKay and Elizabeth Bywater
married 27 July 1907 Essex County, Ontario to William S. Bronson, violinist.

This couple might be on the 1910 US Census in Grand Rapids MI with son Earl born 1900 MI and married daughter Anna Gregory b. 1893.  William's profession is music teacher.

Your McKays might have come to Canada and then crossed into the U.S. with their Canadian born children.  Do you have parents for Thomas, Lachlan etc.

Debbie

[CelticAnnie]

Cosmac/Debbie, this is brilliant, brilliant, brilliant -- thank you so much!!!!

So Thomas and Elizabeth came across the Big Pond from Scotland, then!  Doesn't make them necessarily the parents of James and Andrew, of course; but that's still a really useful advance to have on the family tree.  A lot of my family emigrated from Scotland to Canada, but I've lots of 'spare' siblings of those I know definitely emigrated floating around back in Scotland still to account for -- and you've just sorted out one of them for me.  How interesting.

Yes, I do know who Thomas/Lachlan/John's parents were (even know a bit about their maternal grandparents!) which is how I've been able to find all these siblings.  Their grandparents had eleven children and most of these had several children, so I've a lot of people to account for!   

Thank you so much for helping with this one.
 
CELTIC ANNIE

[cosmac]

Who are the parents of Thomas etc. and roughly when were Thomas etc. born.  Marriage records/death records can be included or excluded based on parental information.

Debbie