Mackey Mackay McKie surname in South Shields

[jonwicken]

Hi I am descended from the Mackey family of South Shields and am trying to confirm/recheck the work I did a good few years ago now to see if it is accurate.

My ancestor is Sarah Mackey|Stephenson (1793-1873), daughter of Daniel Mackey and widow Mary Sellars|Cousins|Mackey.

My father's DNA has matches to their son Richard Sellars Mackey born in 1806, confirming the identification of this Sarah.

William Brockie in his 1857 book states of the name Mackey:

'Mackay, Mackey, McKie, mac-Aogh, son of Hugh. Mackay, Pugh, Hewson, and FitzHugh, are in signification the same. Our South Shields and Newcastle Mackeys have a tradition that their ancestors came from Liddlesdale. Their great-grandfather lived at Dunterley, near Bellingham, in the early part of the last century. His son, Matthew Mackey, removed to Ponteland in 1745, and lived to the uncommon age of 105.'

I have been reading a lot about the origins of this surname this week to find out more, but firstly I need to try and work our my Mackey line.

Sarah had a brother Milbourne Mackey baptised in 1813, but he seems from later census and death records to have actually been born before that date.

From the name Milbourne, it looks like the father is probably the Daniel Mackey baptised in South Shields in 1756, son of Daniel Mackey baptised in 1730 in South Shields, who was the son of Daniel Mackey and Sarah Milbourne who married in 1717.

However while the burial of Sarah's mother Mary appears to be in South Shields in 1820, I can't find the burial of her father Daniel Mackey to know his age. He was a mariner so could perhaps have died at sea, but at the moment I have no idea. I need to do a chrck on the other Mackey variants listed above.

There are potentially other pathways from Daniel Mackey and Sarah Milbourne who married in 1717. They had a son John born in 1717 in South Shields and later a John Mackey (probably the same man) married in 1742 and had a son Daniel Mukkie in South Shields in 1744.

There is also a Daniel Mackey son of Thomas Mackey born in 1769 but I think he probably married Dorothy Wilson. So I am trying to workout all the Daniel Mackeys around South Shields and Northumberland which is a bit of a tricky task!

If anyone has any thoughts on the whole Mackey name or indeed the Daniel Mackeys, it would be great to hear from you.

Thanks,
Jon

[Boxeo]

Hi Jon,

I believe we may be related through Sarah Stephenson (my 5th great grandmother) and the Mackey family. Did you manage to find out much about this?

[jonwicken]

Hi Jon,

I believe we may be related through Sarah Stephenson (my 5th great grandmother) and the Mackey family. Did you manage to find out much about this?

Hi Boxeo,

Thanks for the reply. Which of the children of James Stephenson and Sarah Mackey|Stephenson is your ancestor? I descend from their youngest surviving daughter of their twelve known children, Lucy Ann Stephenson|Binns (1832-1909).

You have probably seen the writing of Lucy Ann's husband Fredrick Binns from after her death in 1909, where he writes about the family. Ben Beck has this on his website here: https://benbeck.co.uk/fh/transcripts/frederick_binns_reminiscences.htm. The relevant passage about the Stephenson family is here:

I think Mackie or Mackay was the maiden name of your Grandma on your mother's side. Your Grandfather's name was James Stephenson—he belonged to Hawthorn Hive, nr Seaham Harbour.

They had 2 sons & about 8 daughters—so I think on both sides they were good stock breeders. The names of the married daughters were, Mrs Barry, Mrs Brough, Mrs Lawson, Mrs Harrison, Mrs Hart, Mrs Ridley, & one that went to America Mrs Bullines. I married the youngest daughter.

The oldest son was a Sea-Captain. The last voyage he made—the ship must have gone down with all hands—as he was never heard of any more.

The youngest son was in the Marquis of Londonderry's office at Seaham Harbour. He took consumption, & died in his teens.

This however does not deal with the Mackey family and I have had more luck researching Sarah Mackey|Stephenson's mother's line in the Sellars family. I do however think it most likely that her father was the Daniel Mackey baptised in 1756.

I assume that as Daniel Mackey was a mariner that he was lost at sea after 1820, which is why there is no burial record.

I am wondering if any muster rolls for South Shields survive as these would help work out the ships he was and what happened to him.

The muster rolls for Whitby have survived and are amazing with the detail and can be seen here: https://whitbymuseum.org.uk/muster-rolls-lookup/ but I do not know about South Shields.

There is a petition in the Trinity House petitions for Sarah's mother Mary Sellars|Cousins|Mackey after her first husband was lost at sea around 1789.

So many were lost on these ships, so many. So if you have a seaman ancestor and can't find their burial, it is more than likely that they died when a ship went down.

Sarah Mackey|Stephenson and her husband James Stephenson were both buried at Seaham Harbour
 in the 1870s and I visited there earlier this year. I made a video which I will post here when I put it up on youtube.

Sarah's brother Richard Mackey was also buried in Seaham Harbour with his wife and his grave stone survives and can be seen here: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/211015979/richard-mackey

As it is eroded and he and his wife is at the bottom, I wonder if the top names were James and Sarah Stephenson. I had hoped an earlier transcription of the grave stones at South Shields survives, but I emailed Durham Records Office in December and they said:

For the parish of Seaham Harbour St John we hold burial registers covering 1841 to 1936. These are summarised here:

https://durhamrecordoffice.org.uk/search-options/search-church-registers/church-search-results/church-registers-item/?Keywords=seaham&Variations=N&Parish=0&RegType=0&StartDate&EndDate&Denomination=0&ChurchType=0&Dedication=0&OrderBy=NAME&ItemID=597817

The full catalogue of parish records (ref. EP/SeaH) does not include any further grave registers or grave plans. Nor do we appear to hold any Monumental Inscription Lists for the churchyard.

https://durhamrecordoffice.org.uk/search-options/search-the-catalogue/catalogue-search-results/catalogue-item/?Variations=N&AllWords=ep%2Fseah&ImagesOnly=N&ItemID=165468

Our last survey of the parish office in 2017 also suggests that there is no similar material retained by the parish.

I am sorry we could not be of more help.

I can't believe there are not records of the grave inscriptions anywhere made over time at Seaham Harbour as the stone was probably fully readable not that long ago. The stones were all put up against the wall at some point, and often a record was kept then. However for now I have not come up with anything.

However your reply to this post has brought this ancestral line to the fore again and so I will email the record office to ask about muster rolls at South Shields and see what that brings up.

I will let you know what this brings back.

All for now,
Jon
 

[jonwicken]

However your reply to this post has brought this ancestral line to the fore again and so I will email the record office to ask about muster rolls at South Shields and see what that brings up.

I will let you know what this brings back.

All for now,
Jon

Well the Record Office is not replying to emails until their move to their new location at The Story is complete, so will be unlikely to be receiving a reply to my query!

[Boxeo]

Hi Jon,

Thanks for the quick and informative reply.

I believe my ancestor is their daughter, Sarah Stephenson who married John Barry. I will admit, I haven't put much time into these lines so you've inspired me to go back and properly look at them. Have you done a DNA test on ancestry? I wonder if we are a match.

Thanks very much again.

[jonwicken]

Hi Jon,

Thanks for the quick and informative reply.

I believe my ancestor is their daughter, Sarah Stephenson who married John Barry. I will admit, I haven't put much time into these lines so you've inspired me to go back and properly look at them. Have you done a DNA test on ancestry? I wonder if we are a match.

Thanks very much again.

Yes I have done one, as did my late father and his second cousin. There are a whole load of Stephenson matches on ancestry. Want to private message me your user name? I will do the same for mine.