McKay Distant Relatives
The following relatives are not direct ancestors but are more distant relatives (i.e., directly related to our direct ancestors but not directly related to us).
If you are in the McKay familiy tree you can find out how you are related to any of these people by:
- typing their name in the Search to the left,
- if you get more than one name click on the one you want,
- click on the Relationship tab above their personal information, that will be Person 1
- Next to the Calculate button is a link to "Search for other connections". Click on that link
- A new search opens and you choose Person 2. If you are in the family tree, you can find yourself by clicking on the Find button and entering your name
- If you are not in the family tree, find someone who is and is closely related to you. Click on the "Find" button and type in their name
- click on "Calculate" button.
This will show all the ways that these two are related including through spouses (i.e., not blood relations)
Note: You can also find more direct connections to ancestors that you are directly related to by using the Relationship tab and following the same instructions as above
Distant Relatives
Because so many McKay lines first immigrated in Colonial times, there is a rich and extensive relationship to many U.S. Presidents and First Ladies.
U.S. Presidents:
- Barack Obama through James Harrington,
- Bill Clinton through George Soule,
- Jimmy Carter is the 7 x great grandson of Christopher Almy,
- Richard Nixon through John Deane,
- Warren G Harding is the 7 x great grandson of John Tripp, Jr.,
- George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush through John Clarke,
- William Howard Taft through Josiah Chapin,
- Chester Arthur through John Martyn,
- William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison through Thomas Howard,
- Ulysses S. Grant through Matthew Grant,
- James Madison through James Taylor,
- Theodore Roosevelt through Maria du Trieux,
- Abraham Lincoln through William Preston Sr.,
- Franklin D. Roosevelt through John Townley,
- Zachary Taylor through Col. James Taylor,
- Calvin Coolidge through Dr. Comfort Starr,
- John Adams and John Quincy Adams through John Alden,
- Thomas Jefferson through Bernard Rogers.
- George Washington through Nathaniel Pope
- Franklin Pierce through Josiah Richardson
- Gerald Ford through Humphrey Pinney
First Ladies:
- Eleanor Roosevelt through Marie du Trieux,
- Dolley (Payne) Madison through William Ruthven.
Statesmen:
- Daniel Webster through Edward Bray,
- Winston Churchill through Joseph Hawley,
- Samuel Adams through Ann Doane.
Infamous characters:
- Lizzie Borden, who was charged with killing her father and step-mother with an ax in 1892 in Fall River, Massachusetts, through Thomas Cornell.
- Alaska Ex-Governor Sarah Palin through Ann Doane.
- Benedict Arnold, Revolutionary War general turned defector to the British Army, through Alice Gulley.
- William Shakespeare through John Whalesborough,
- Nathaniel Hawthorne through John Tripp, Sr.,
- Ralph Waldo Emerson through John Humphrey Allen.
- Ernest Hemingway through Uzal Wardwell, and
- Robert Frost, the American poet, through Henry Freeman.
- Samuel Pepys, English diarist, through Joan Beaufort Plantagenet. His diaries from 1660 to 1669 provided eyewitness accounts of great events, such as the Great Plague of London, the Second Dutch War, and the Great Fire of London.
- John Dryden, an English poet, is related through Thomas Greene.
- Laura Ingalls Wilder, American author, through John Martyn.
Businessman:
- Bill Gates through Thomas Cornell.
Adventurers:
- William Clark through William Clerke,
- Meriwether Lewis through John Blennerhassett,
- Amelia Earhart through Thomas Cornell.
- Sir Walter Raleigh, instrumental in the English colonization of North America, is related through his great grandfather Walter Raleigh and others.
Military:
- General Nathanael Greene was a general in the American Revolution who also served in the Rhode Island assembly. He fought with George Washington at the battles of Trenton, Brandywine, Germantown, and Valley Forge. He is related through Dr. John Greene.
- The McKays are also related to the General that fought on the British side during the Revolutionary War, Charles Cornwallis through William Cornwallis.
- General Robert E. Lee is related through Adam Bland and Thomas Molyneux.
- General Samuel Houston, first president of Texas, through John McLung Huston.
Others:
- Stephen Austin, known as the "Father of Texas," through Agnes Herling
- Captain William Bligh of mutiny on the Bounty fame through John Arscott.
- Queen Elizabeth II is a very distant cousin through John de St John.
- Elizabeth's great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria is an even more distant relation through King Edward Plantagenet of York and King James Stewart, V.
- PrincessDiana Spencer is related through Richard Knightly
- For an esoteric bit of historical connection, Edward Larkin [MD] is the great-great grandfather of the guy who provided Paul Revere a horse for his famous midnight ride.
- John Chapman better known as Johnny Appleseed, was an American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees throughout the Midwest and is buried in Fort Wayne, Indiana through Samuel Morse, Joseph Morse, Isaac Stearns, and John Dresser.
- Jane (Wells) Baldwin sister of Thomas Welles, the only man in Connecticut's history to hold all four top offices: governor, deputy governor, treasurer, and secretary. Her son Sylvester died en route to America.
- Elizabeth Fones was the subject of the book, The Winthrop Woman, Anya Seton's 1958 historical novel.
- McKay ancestor Theophilus Whaley and Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, share the same grandfather, Henry Cromwell. Oliver Cromwell is the same guy that caused many of our ancestors to leave England.
- Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556), son of Thomas Cranmer, was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and, for a short time, Mary I. He helped build the case for the annulment of Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, which was one of the causes of the separation of the English Church from union with the Holy See. Along with Thomas Cromwell, he supported the principle of Royal Supremacy, in which the king was considered sovereign over the Church within his realm. After the accession of the Roman Catholic Mary I, Cranmer was put on trial for treason and heresy. Imprisoned for over two years he died a heretic to Roman Catholics and a martyr for the principles of the English Reformation.
- Joseph Smith the founder of the Mormon Church through Henry Howland.
- Rowland Taylor was ordained by Thomas Cranmer and was charged with heresy under the reign of Queen Mary and burned at the stake. Rowland is also connected to another family martyr, William Tyndale. William’s niece was Rowland’s wife.
- Stephen Bachiler's life in colonies was filled with controversy. He was 70 years old when he reached Boston in 1632, and gathered his followers to establish the First Church of Lynn (then Saugus). He incurred the hostility of the Puritan theocracy in Boston. After being removed from a number of church ministerships, he married in 1648 (as fourth wife) a young widow, Mary Beedle of Kittery, Maine. In 1651, she was indicted and sentenced for adultery with a neighbor. Some have suggested that Mary’s life story became the inspiration behind Nathaniel Hawthorne’s best-selling novel of 1850, ‘The Scarlet Letter’. Bachiler finally returned to England about 1653.
