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Hello all,

In response to Annie's inquiry about school attendance in Perth, we thought our Dad went to school there but found no record at the schools his brothers attended--our oldest uncle, James, attended Craigie Primary briefly in Perth (1934) and then Morgan Academy (1934-37) and Uncle Richard attended Morgan Academy (1935-1937). As the family resided in Glasgow before moving to Perth, we assume our dad and uncles all attended school in Glasgow for a few years.

We believe in all of the years that our Dad spent in Scotland before emigrating with Robert and Margaret to Canada in 1948, he was never publically acknowledged as their son--we found a newspaper article in the Dundee Courier reported by Mrs Thomas Malcolm of 50 Rose Crescent Perth, that stated our grandfather and his wife would sail from Liverpool to Canada to join their two sons, James and Richard, who were already in Canada. We know Dad travelled with them as we have found the ship records and the three of them shared a stateroom. And we know that pretty much from the time they arrived in Canada, my Dad used the name Kaye Burke Harvey--no more Alexander Reid McKay. So to us there isn't much doubt in our minds that he was our Grandmother's natural son.

Don't know if this information will be useful but can't hurt.

And thanks again for everyone's interest, ideas and help. I'll continue to answer any questions anyone has that might help us get closer to this. I have written to the City of Fife inquiring about  school records from Buckhaven to see if the Alexander McKay who graduated from there in 1948 was our Dad--shot in the dark but we'll see!

Hello all,

Thank you for all the responses, ideas, and questions. Here's what else I can tell you in response to those questions posed--tried to keep it brief: 

Our Dad Alexander Reid McKay was born 07/02/1923, three years before the marriage of our grandfather, Robert Cochrane Harvey and Margaret Harvey, (04/05/1926)--that was an irregular" marriage--she was shown as Spinster--so not married previously to someone who might have been Alexander's Dad as someone speculated. They gave birth to their son James when they were living at 52 Main St, Thornliebank on 10/11/26 and son Richard 11/06/1930--same address. By then Robert was managing Alhambra Theatre in Perth and living in the White Horse Hotel there. It appears that sometime in the early 1930s our Dad, Alexander, came to live with them.  Our Uncle James told a friend that our Dad was dropped off by a strange lady at their house when James and Richard were young--not yet in school--that is how we've come to suspect our Dad was seven or eight at the time he came to live with them.

 In 1934 Robert was appointed Manager of Kings Theatre in Dundee and the family were living there by then as my Uncles attended Craigie Primary school and Morgan Academy (from 1934-1937). There was no record of our Dad Alexander attending either of those schools. We know the family was in Inverness at some point as well as our Grandfather Robert was later appointed northern Supervisor for Caledonian Associated Cinemas. We wonder if maybe our Dad, Alexander, may have stayed in Glasgow with Aunt Lizzy (Elizabeth Burke) as he commented that he used to wait after school in the tearoom where she worked (she was a cook not a waitress as I earlier suggested), and then would walk home with her.

In 1945 we know Aunt Elizabeth Burke and Uncle Willy Burke both lived at 22 Summerlea Road, Thirnliebank--they were brother and sister and neither ever married.

One other question posed was where the name Kaye Burke Harvey came from--I asked our Dad that when I was little and he told me that his mother gave him that name because she liked it--we now assume it came from McKay. And Burke was her maiden name. Kaye was pronounced Kye.

Hope this additional detail helps. And thanks again for all your suggestions and questions. So very much appreciated.

I can supply additional information on the Burkes and Harvey's if it would be helpful. Our grandfather had four brothers, not three as I said earlier. And Margaret had an older brother, Thomas, as well as Elizabeth and William.

Hello,

Thank you all for your interest. We have a birth certificate showing that our Dad was born Alexander Reid McKay on Feb 3, 1923 on Albert Street, Glasgow to a Margaret McKay, tea room waitress. No further information on the certificate. He came to live with Robert Cochrane Harvey and Margaret Ann Burke Harvey in Glasgow sometime around 1930--we knew them to be our grandparents.  They had two younger sons, our uncles James Harvey and Richard Harvey. Our dad immigrated with his "parents" to Canada in 1948--his brothers had come earlier to go to university. My grandfather died in Canada in 1955, and my grandmother and uncles returned to Scotland in their later years and all died there. My Dad was very close with his maternal aunt, Elizabeth Burke--who he listed as his next of kin on his RAF information, and her older brother Willy Burke. They remained in Scotland their entire lives. We suspect either his Aunt Lizzy or his "adopted" mother, Margaret Ann Burke Harvey, may have been his birth mother. Coincidentally like the Margaret McKay shown on his birth certificate, both our Great Aunt Lizzy and grandmother, Margaret McKay were tearoom waitresses. They worked at Lockhart's tearoom. We have had no luck finding the Margaret McKay of his birth certificate. Our grandfather Robert Cochrane Harvey had three other brothers, who lived in Glasgow and one of those brothers Hugh Harvey, a grocer in Glasgow, had three or four daughters. His other uncles and his Aunt Elizabeth had no children, nor did his brothers. So we are a very small family, just my sister and I left. It seems much of what he told us about his life in Scotland was not true, such as the schools he attended--we have checked with those two schools and there was no one registered by that name. Our grandfather was a theatre manager who travelled around Scotland opening new theatres, hence the possibility that Alexander Mckay who graduated from a school in Fife in 1938 was our Dad. We would love to unravel this mystery, mainly how he came to live with the Harvey's around 1930 and where he was before that. I will add one more thing--although he came over to Canada using his birth name, it seems he changed his name immediately on arriving here with his parents and from that day forward he was known by a different name, Kaye Burke Harvey.  I'm happy to supply any other information and thank everyone for their interest and help.

Thank you Dorrie. I've written to the Archivist at Morgan Academy so hopefully I'll get an early response.