Two of my great uncles were named David, one from my paternal side and the other from my maternal side. I have already written about David McGill, who after emigrating to the US, became a highly successful businessman until he met his death by drowning in 1935.
What of the other David, David McKay? He was my maternal grandfather John’s elder brother born in 1883 some 5 years before him. From looking at documentation it was John who added the “a” to the family surname. For what reason I have no idea, maybe it looked better when he was dealing with his customers as a pharmacist.
The McKays (I shall use the old spelling) were natives of Aberdeen and were to be found living at 40 Summer Street in Aberdeen when the 1891 census was taken on Sunday 5 April of that year. A question had been added to record the number of rooms in a household in response to concerns about overcrowding in cities. The family were living in a property in which 2 rooms had one or more windows. Judging by the others living at that address it would seem that it was a tenement property now long gone with at least four other households sharing the same address. The number of rooms with windows varied between 2 and 3 per individual flat.
Another first for this census is that women census takers were employed for the first time and in Wales households were asked about their ability to speak Welsh. The total population of England, Scotland and Wales was 33,051,701.
At some stage before the 1901 census the family moved to Dundee. David, aged 17, by this time, had left school and was employed as a saw trimmer. John, his father, was a timber measurer and the family lived at 145 Albert Street in the city. Despite only being 13 my grandfather was listed as a jute can filler. Was this a full time occupation or was it part time whilst he completed his studies at school? Isabella, the eldest daughter was, at 15, a jute bobber winder. The other siblings were either still at school or were of pre school age.
In time the family moved within Dundee settling at 19 Baldovan Terrace. The 1913 Electoral Register tells us that John McKay senior was the tenant and occupant of the property and was employed as a bottler. David, meanwhile, had made the decision to leave for the New World. This he did in April 1906 sailing on the Sicilian from Glasgow bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia. He continued his journey arriving in the Canadian capital, Ottawa. As he had been a saw trimmer at the time of the 1901 census it is very likely that he continued this trade or was at least employed in the lumber industry. From Ottawa he seems to have made his way westward where there would have been plenty of work in the forests of British Columbia.
The Great War not only affected those living in the “mother” country. Thousands of men from the Empire and Dominions had no hesitation in signing up. He joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Vancouver, his attestation papers are dated 21 August 1916. Aged 33years 11 months he stood 5’4½”, had fair complexion with hazel eyes and light brown hair. His religion was Presbyterian. David was given the service number 1048107 and was posted to the 242nd Battalion. This was a forestry battalion principally made up of men who were employed in the lumber industry. The battalion was in time probably absorbed into several companies of the Canadian Forestry Corps. Records of this unit online reveal that he sailed for France on the Mauritania from Halifax in late November 1916. A single man he gave his next of kin as his father, John, back in Baldovan Terrace. The battalion arrived in France in January 1917. I don’t know if the war diaries still exist but I imagine that the forestry battalions were involved in felling tres and using the resulting timber to shore up the vast number of trenches that were under construction.
Following the Armistice the troops returned home. Perhaps the lumber industry in British Columbia was in partial decline as David crossed the border by train to the US eventually becoming a US citizen on 9 December 1919. Perhaps the war had changed him as his description on his US Naturalisation forms stated that his hair was grey! His address was given as 331½ Holly Street, Bellingham. He still worked as a saw filer. In time he must have made at least one return visit to Scotland as he left Southampton on 9 January 1929 on the “President Harding” bound for New York.
David remained a bachelor all his life and died on 30 September 1941 in the Good Samaritan Hospital in Multnomah County, Portland. The death certificate said he had been living in the community for 16 years. Cause of death was principally heart failure and he was buried on 4 October 1941. He was 58 years old.
Family lore had said that one of my mother’s uncles had emigrated to the US. With help from Ancestry and other online sources I have been able to establish which one made the crossing and what he had done in his relatively short, for these days, life.
