several Virginia counties. Her most well known publication is "A Tabulated Genealogy of The Family of Robert and Ann (Brown) MacKay Sr." This publication, as well as much of her other work, can be found in many LDS Family History Centers and genealogy libraries all over the United States.

Dee Ann Buck, Michael McKay, their late uncle, Hunter B. McKay, and other family historians have documented and established the ancestral line of their McKay family ancestors back to Robert MacKay Sr. who according to their estimates, was born about 1680 and lived in Freehold, Monmouth County, New Jersey. There is a belief that Robert MacKay Sr. was of Scottish origins, but as of yet, there is no valid proof to document whether he was born in Scotland, America or elsewhere.

However, the place of origin of the "MacKay" family surname was Scotland. The "a" dropped from the surname over time and the common spelling became "McKay" by the second generation of Robert MacKay Sr. descendants. Over the years, there have been many variations of the name that appeared in historical documents including: MacCay, McCay, McCoy, Mackey, McKey, McKee, McKie, Mackie and others.

Robert MacKay Sr. had 3 wives and 9 children (all with first wife). He moved his family from New Jersey to the Pennsylvania/Maryland border area--and then to Virginia when he and 4 other men received a land grant in 1731 from the Colonial Governor and the Council of the Virginia Commonwealth for 100,000 acres in the Shenandoah Valley on the condition that they settle 100 families on the land within 4 years..

Robert Sr. gave and willed thousands of acres of land to his children. With these great amounts of land available for cultivation and farming, many McKay family descendants utilized slavery. Documentation shows that Robert MacKay Sr. and his family were Quakers (Friends) when they first arrived in Virginia. In the early 1800s, the Quakers banned the slave practice from its members. If a Quaker did not stop the slavery practice, they were removed from the "meeting" (church). Many McKay family members changed their religion to Baptist or Methodist (South) and continued to practice slavery.

However, some McKay family members who remained Quakers, moved to Ohio where slavery was prohibited and took freed slaves with them. They also used their property in Ohio as part of the "underground railroad" network that allowed runaway slaves to hide and escape farther north--to as far away as Canada.

I found information about Asa McKay on the "Robert MacKay Clan" web site forum and I posted questions and information about Asa and started a dialogue with Dee Ann and Michael. They were aware of the existence of Asa and his children Edith, James and John, but did not know the family had moved to St. Charles, Missouri.

Asa McKay was one of the great-grandsons of Robert MacKay Sr. One of Asa McKay's younger brothers was Jacob McKay Jr. who was the common 5th great-grandfather of Michael McKay and 4th great-grandfather of Dee Ann Buck.

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