keig/gale

[bramcor]

My friend asked me to find some info on her gr/father, Walter Keig, whose past is a mystery to her & her mother. He was born Walter Keig, son of Thomas Keig & Emily Clark,1887, Port St Mary, Rushen, IOM. However, he was raised as Walter Gale & emigrated to Australia 1912 & enlisted in the Australian Army 1915 as Walter Gale (naming his NOK as mother Margaret Gale of Liverpool).
The family knows that Margaret was a stepmother & that the family moved from Port St Mary to Douglas to Liverpool. There were siblings (including a half-brother Jim who visited Australia).
From that info+ the census material available on FindMyPast + the incomplete BMD records for IOM I have managed to find online (being in Australia restricts me), I believe I have traced Walter from his birth to his time in Australia but there are so many gaps.
I wonder if anyone has access to records that might explain the Keig/Gale problem.
Is there possibly a marriage record between Thomas Keig & Emily Clark that shows their parents? And why are his marriages to Eleanor Gale & Margaret Piercy recorded under Thomas Keig, but in censuses (1891, 1901 & 1911) they appear as Gale?
So confusing but I am hoping the fabulous people on this forum can help.
 

[KGarrad]

Do you have the reference for the 1891 census?
I am having trouble locating Walter.

There is a Walter Gale in Fistard, Rushen, son of Eleanor, and a Walter J Gale, in Port St Mary, son of William & Jane?

[bramcor]

Hi, I believe the Walter with mother Eleanor is our Walter...known here as Gale, rather than Keig. From records I found (& I must admit I cannot verify them with actual certificates), Walter's mother was Emily, & an Emily Keig died 1889; a Thomas Keig married Eleanor Gale in 1889 just a few months later. The children on that 1891 census are a mixture of Emily's & Eleanor's children (unless I've got it all completely wrong, of course). An Eleanor Keig died in 1897; a Thomas Keig married Margaret Pirry (should be Piercy, I think) in 1898. If this is the same bloke, he doesn't hang around - but he's a fisherman & has several young children each time. What I can't explain is why the family has the name Gale when it seems to be the step-mother's name...though I did find one record of their marriage that said his father was John Gale & her James Gale.
Interestingly, the most relevant Thomas Keig I found in 1891 is likely to be the husband of the woman living right next door to Eleanor. There is an appropriate Thomas Gale in 1891. Both men are fishermen & I believe they are the men on boats at Port St Mary at that time.
Our Thomas Keig seems to be marrying people under the name Keig & his children are named Keig but on censuses they are named Gale. The only time Thomas appears with the children is in 1901 when they are in Douglas.
Have I got the men completely confused?
Note: son Willie died in WWI - he too was the child of Thomas & Emily...but he appears on the memorial roll as W Keig, son of Thomas & Margaret Keig, with the same Liverpool address that brother Walter (then known as Gale) used for his (step)mother's address as NOK in 1915.

[bramcor]

Perhaps I should also have said that the record I found for Walter's birth/baptism shows as Fistard, Rushen...son of Thomas Keig & Emily Clark. I believe Fistard is quite close to Port St mary.
But Walter was raised as Walter Gale & appears not to have known his birth name until around WWI. He married in Australia in 1919 & had a family, all named Keig. He visited his family in Liverpool while on leave during the war so maybe he learned the truth then.

[KGarrad]

Thanks! I am beginning to understand now!

Fistard Road, and Fistard Grove can be easliy found on Google Maps.
West side of Port St Mary.

I did find the birth entry for Walter J Gale, so we can eliminate him from our enquiries!

I'll do some more digging, when I can (as I am in the office now!), unless somebody else comes up with something in the meantime.

[KGarrad]

As I see things, a timeline runs like this:

23rd June 1883, birth of Thomas Richard Keig, to Thomas Keig/Emily Clarke
29th November 1885, birth of Emily Margaret Keig, to Thomas & Emily
4th April 1887, birth of Walter Keig, to Thomas & Emily
11th November 1888, birth of Willie Keig, to Thomas & Emily

22nd March 1889, burial of Emily Keig

31st October 1889, marriage of Thomas Keig to Eleanor Gale

4th September 1890, birth of James Herbert Keig, to Thomas Keig/Eleanor Gale

So, the 1891 census shows:
Reference RG12, Piece 4692, Folio 52, Page 21
Fistard, Rushen

Gale, Eleanor  Wife  F  39  Fisherman's Wife
Gale, Annie  Daughter  F  10
Gale, Thomas  Son  M  7
Gale, Eleanor  Daughter  F  7
Gale, Emily  Daughter  F  5
Gale Walter  Son  M  4
Gale, James  Son  M  7 months    all born Rushen

The last 3 children correspond to births mentioned above.
==========================================

14th August 1897, birth of Frank Keig, to Thomas Keig and Eleanor Gale (dec'd)
24th August 1897, burial of Eleanor Keig, age 45
26th October 1897, burial of Frank Keig, age 10 weeks

6th February 1898, marriage, Thomas Keig to Margaret Pirrey

31st July 1898, birth of John Robert Keig to John Thomas Keig & Margaret Piercy

Census of 1901:
Reference RG13, 5305, 46, 8
1 King Street, Onchan

Gale, Thomas  Head  M  41  Fireman on Steamship  b Rushen
Gale, Margaret  Wife  F  40  b Andreas
Gale, Walter  Son  M  14  Butchers Apprentice  b Rushen
Gale, William  Son  M  12  b Rushen
Gale, James H  Son  M  11  b Rushen
Gale, John R  Son  M  2  b Douglas
Piercy, Amelia  Step Daughter  F  12  b England

And again, all the children mentioned here seem to tie up.
===========================================

So, I can't see that you've made any assumptions that aren't correct!

And I can't understand why Thomas kept the surname Gale?
Maybe it was to do with inheritance and property?
I know that women inherited property/land under Manx law - maybe he kept hold of some land/property as long as he kept Eleanor's surname?

Just guessing here - maybe a proper Manxie will have a better idea?

[bramcor]

Wow, you worked all that out in just a couple of hours?? What you have listed I found but it took me quite a bit longer...& the only way it seemed to work was if Thomas Gale & Thomas Keig were one & the same. I don't know anything about the inheritance thing - but I suspect Thomas was calling himself Gale before the marriage to Eleanor. I found a possible Thomas Keig & a Thomas Gale in 1881...before the marriage to Emily Clark...& I think they correspond to the 2 fishermen from the 1891 census whose wives were living next to each other in Fistard. So that would mean our Thomas was using the Gale name well before the marriage to Eleanor.
I wonder if there is any truth to the record I found somewhere that said his father was John Gale. If that were the case, why is he Thomas Keig? I've considered all sorts of possibilities...but haven't found anything to point me in a particular direction.
Nor do I know what happened to Thomas. Margaret was certainly in the census in Liverpool in 1911 & the implication there is that Thomas is still alive somewhere. I really don't know whether to look for deaths for Gale or Keig because he's such a confusion.

[KGarrad]

Wow, you worked all that out in just a couple of hours??

I was bored at work! 
I also used Brian Lawson's incomplete BMD Index to the Isle of Man.
www <dot> iomfhs.im/lawsons/LawsonBMD/Main_Site_index.html

I think that the evidence so far points to Thomas being illegitimate? Parent's surnames Keig and Gale?

Of course, maybe we've both got it wrong, and we have 2 Thomas'?! 

I have been trying to trace him in the earlier census returns.
1888, reference RG11, 5609, 90, 16
Aboard the boat Majestatic

Among the 8 fishermen on board:

Gale, Thomas  Single  M  21  Fisherman  b Rushen,  residence  Rushen
(A very helpful extra column added to the original form!)


1871 census has this:
Reference RG10, 5776, 45, 25
Bigwell Street, Onchan

Gale, John  Head  M  52  Joiner  b Rushen
Gale, Eleanor  Wife  F  50  b Douglas
Gale, Margaret  Daughter  F  22  Domestic Servant  b Douglas
Gale, William F  Son  M  14  b Douglas
Gale, Thomas  Son  M  11  b Douglas

[bramcor]

KGarrad, I think you're working on the same thoughts as I have had. The 1861 census has that same family, with a son Thomas who is 4. However, there is a son William 14 who isn't there in 1861 as I'd expect. One thing I liked about this family is that in 1861, John Gale is a fisherman, though he is a joiner in 1871, & our Thomas becomes a fisherman.
I have considered illegitimacy, foster children, & stepchildren...I had hoped I could find John Gale connected to a woman Keig but not so far.
Am as equally confused by Walter Keig's mother, Emily Clark. The most likely death (could have been burial) record for her said she was born c 1854. Have found some possibilities, my favourite being Emily Clark, 8, b 1853, German, with parents Richard & Catherine, both born Arbory, and living at Kennan or Kennad, German in 1861. She is not with the family in 1871 but by then the father has remarried & all the older children have left. There are several Emily Clark possibilities in 1871 & 1881, none born in German, but if the forms were filled in by the farm owners perhaps they didn't know the details of servants. This would all assume Emily was single when she married Thomas Keig.
Thank you so much for what you've added so far, K...seeing things through someone else's eyes is a huge help. I have generated so much paper on the search for Thomas & his wives, hoping to find connections, & it's all getting very confusing!!