Alan Makey in his 20s
MAKEY POSTAL SURVEY
A Success Story
Alan Robert Makey
This article was published in the Kent Family History Society Journal in September 1994.
IN 1991 I like so many others before me decided to commence a Family History Book and went about searching for my many ancestors. Perhaps some might say I was fortunate, as I have an unusual name, which I understand from an American publication, appears only 242 times out of some 220 million names that were researched over several Continents.
During October, 1992, I began a postal survey in the U.K. after research in the local library and found only 76 Makeys in the telephone books. The response was patchy but finally 24 fellow historians replied and from these nine were related to my own family tree, (three by marriage) and, of course, added a wealth of information to the evergrowing "clan".
In March, 1993, I managed to trace another American publication which listed all Makey Families in the U.S., Canada, Australia and
New Zealand and would hopefully prove to be a well spent investment. Enter once again the Royal Mail and my trusty typewriter and eventually some 133 letters went out to Makeys across two Continents and as they slipped into the post box I wondered, what rate of return would come from all this effort; only time would tell.
Not until July 1993 would I have the answer and although only 11 responded, each of them brought further family trees back and of course were carefully filed under Awaiting Connection. My first letter was from Bob and Alma Makey in Auckland, New Zealand, and by the time all the New Zealand families had sent in their trees it was amazing to find that they all had one common ancestor, namely, William who was born in London in 1845. He had married a Mary Ann Robson in the Parish Church, Poplar, in 1870.
They had decided to emigrate to New Zealand and they set off in late 1871 or early 1872 (Mary was already expecting a happy event). En route William became ill, and they had to disembark at Melbourne, Australia, where he died a few days later in May, 1872. Mary gave birth to William junior a few days after the death of his father and after Mary regained her strength, they continued on to their original destination - the North Island of New Zealand, and not quite the new life she and Williai:i had planned.
Now the search was on to find William's falher (1845-1872), would luck he on our side? Within a month he was traced and turned out to be Richard Makey, first-born son of my four times great grandfather, John Makey. Now we had so many new found Kiwi cousins and also connected to the Makeys in Australia. Can you imagine the excitement? Especially when photographs arrived of the very adventurous William courtesy of our new found cousins.
Could we repeat such a success story with the Makey Clan in the United States and Canada? Only time would tell. Once all this information had been sorted it was discovered that the entire North American names split into two family groups. The first were all offsprings of one Edward born on the 29th of February, 1824, in Ulceby, Lincolnshire. The others were from a William born in 1826/7 in England, believed to be in either Hastings, Sussex, or Devonshire.
After some eleven months had elapsed we were still no further forward in tracing either Edward or William. Letters had been flowing quite freely between Faversham and the U.S.A. and Canada, when in December, 1993, a letter from Spike Makey in Florida arrived. He said he had come across an Anthony Ryan in Wyoming, who he thought had married a Makey and was thought to have been researching the family name for some time. My express letter went off to Spike within hours to be followed by a few nail biting days awaiting his reply. When it came he started by saying "I regret I do not have much, but what little I do have you are welcome to". Words to be worth their weight in gold. He listed a William born in 1827 who married in 1851, in Wingham, a Sarah Adams. They had emigrated to Ontario in 1852 or 3 but again tragedy struck, Sarah died just after the birth of their first-born daughter in 1853, and the baby was put up for adoption.
This information had the pulses racing as I had a William born in Nonnington in 1827 and who was according to the 1851 Census then aged 23 and unmarried. Enter then the researcher's faithful friend, John Pringle of the Dover Register Office. Sure enough he found the Marriage Certificate for William and Sarah at the Wingham Independent Chapel. William later married Catherine (Kitty) Huffman and the Makey Clan was to later emerge across the U.S.A. and Canada. William's father was Richard (1793 - 1860) who was connected to my branch of the family tree to my six times great grandfather - his brother Richard was also William's great, great
grandfather. Suffice to say this connection had us all on a "high" from which we have still not come down.
Amongst the many items of interest that have been passed on to me have been letters written amongst the Makeys in the U.K. and U.S.A. during the period 1964 and 1979. They were all looking into the origins of the Makey family but never at the time solved the problems. It took another thirty years and some extensive research for me to get this far and still many more lucky strikes will be required to place many of the Makeys, but if my luck continues as it has over the past year I will be more than delighted.
Finally, I cannot claim all the credit for the success as it was my cousin Derek Denne in Yeovil, Somerset, whom I only found by chance in 1991, that has done much of the research and was instrumental with the key for the New Zealand connection.
To all family historians I say, you may not be as lucky as me with Postal Research but it is certainly worth considering, particularly if your name is unusual like mine. Should any Member come across any Makeys anytime, anywhere during their research I would welcome the item.
A Success Story
Alan Robert Makey
This article was published in the Kent Family History Society Journal in September 1994.
IN 1991 I like so many others before me decided to commence a Family History Book and went about searching for my many ancestors. Perhaps some might say I was fortunate, as I have an unusual name, which I understand from an American publication, appears only 242 times out of some 220 million names that were researched over several Continents.
During October, 1992, I began a postal survey in the U.K. after research in the local library and found only 76 Makeys in the telephone books. The response was patchy but finally 24 fellow historians replied and from these nine were related to my own family tree, (three by marriage) and, of course, added a wealth of information to the evergrowing "clan".
In March, 1993, I managed to trace another American publication which listed all Makey Families in the U.S., Canada, Australia and
New Zealand and would hopefully prove to be a well spent investment. Enter once again the Royal Mail and my trusty typewriter and eventually some 133 letters went out to Makeys across two Continents and as they slipped into the post box I wondered, what rate of return would come from all this effort; only time would tell.
Not until July 1993 would I have the answer and although only 11 responded, each of them brought further family trees back and of course were carefully filed under Awaiting Connection. My first letter was from Bob and Alma Makey in Auckland, New Zealand, and by the time all the New Zealand families had sent in their trees it was amazing to find that they all had one common ancestor, namely, William who was born in London in 1845. He had married a Mary Ann Robson in the Parish Church, Poplar, in 1870.
They had decided to emigrate to New Zealand and they set off in late 1871 or early 1872 (Mary was already expecting a happy event). En route William became ill, and they had to disembark at Melbourne, Australia, where he died a few days later in May, 1872. Mary gave birth to William junior a few days after the death of his father and after Mary regained her strength, they continued on to their original destination - the North Island of New Zealand, and not quite the new life she and Williai:i had planned.
Now the search was on to find William's falher (1845-1872), would luck he on our side? Within a month he was traced and turned out to be Richard Makey, first-born son of my four times great grandfather, John Makey. Now we had so many new found Kiwi cousins and also connected to the Makeys in Australia. Can you imagine the excitement? Especially when photographs arrived of the very adventurous William courtesy of our new found cousins.
Could we repeat such a success story with the Makey Clan in the United States and Canada? Only time would tell. Once all this information had been sorted it was discovered that the entire North American names split into two family groups. The first were all offsprings of one Edward born on the 29th of February, 1824, in Ulceby, Lincolnshire. The others were from a William born in 1826/7 in England, believed to be in either Hastings, Sussex, or Devonshire.
After some eleven months had elapsed we were still no further forward in tracing either Edward or William. Letters had been flowing quite freely between Faversham and the U.S.A. and Canada, when in December, 1993, a letter from Spike Makey in Florida arrived. He said he had come across an Anthony Ryan in Wyoming, who he thought had married a Makey and was thought to have been researching the family name for some time. My express letter went off to Spike within hours to be followed by a few nail biting days awaiting his reply. When it came he started by saying "I regret I do not have much, but what little I do have you are welcome to". Words to be worth their weight in gold. He listed a William born in 1827 who married in 1851, in Wingham, a Sarah Adams. They had emigrated to Ontario in 1852 or 3 but again tragedy struck, Sarah died just after the birth of their first-born daughter in 1853, and the baby was put up for adoption.
This information had the pulses racing as I had a William born in Nonnington in 1827 and who was according to the 1851 Census then aged 23 and unmarried. Enter then the researcher's faithful friend, John Pringle of the Dover Register Office. Sure enough he found the Marriage Certificate for William and Sarah at the Wingham Independent Chapel. William later married Catherine (Kitty) Huffman and the Makey Clan was to later emerge across the U.S.A. and Canada. William's father was Richard (1793 - 1860) who was connected to my branch of the family tree to my six times great grandfather - his brother Richard was also William's great, great
grandfather. Suffice to say this connection had us all on a "high" from which we have still not come down.
Amongst the many items of interest that have been passed on to me have been letters written amongst the Makeys in the U.K. and U.S.A. during the period 1964 and 1979. They were all looking into the origins of the Makey family but never at the time solved the problems. It took another thirty years and some extensive research for me to get this far and still many more lucky strikes will be required to place many of the Makeys, but if my luck continues as it has over the past year I will be more than delighted.
Finally, I cannot claim all the credit for the success as it was my cousin Derek Denne in Yeovil, Somerset, whom I only found by chance in 1991, that has done much of the research and was instrumental with the key for the New Zealand connection.
To all family historians I say, you may not be as lucky as me with Postal Research but it is certainly worth considering, particularly if your name is unusual like mine. Should any Member come across any Makeys anytime, anywhere during their research I would welcome the item.
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