Welcome

This is the home page of Bill and Karen McKay’s personal families’ website. Retired since 2017, we live in the village of Kirkliston lying to the south of the Queensferry Crossing over the river Forth, between Linlithgow and Edinburgh. We’re just 15 minutes from Edinburgh Airport by car – go to the contact page for more location detail if interested. We ourselves did not have children, but have an ongoing interest in identifying and sharing branches of family with anyone who also shares that interest. Various threads of information have been gathered across different and disparate family lines, independently of each other, and comparison of details from various sources can be interesting.

There will always be more research to do for those bitten by the ancestry bug and much detail already exists back to circa 1700 not yet uploaded, mostly as yet undiscovered. It is therefore a work in progress. Corrections, queries and contributions are welcome (use the contact page if you don’t have direct contact details).

The McKay and Lynch families (from whence comes “kaylyn” for the website name) have at least one thing in common – as a rule they don’t contact each other often or at all these days by any means other than social media which, of course, might as well be psychic media for those who choose to subscribe selectively or not at all. This website however welcomes all visitors without restriction or subscription – contact is welcome, however distant or uncertain your link to our families might be.

All families are prone to ‘gilding the lily’ or skewed/biased memories (surreptitiously or innocently of course), however family ties and information reflected on this website aims to present the information honestly and as accurately as possible, or to state clearly where there could be uncertainty or where information is missing.

This website draws heavily, in parts, from preparatory work done earlier by various family members (primarily on the McKays side currently) and in particular with gratitude to Isobel Calder (‘birth name’ Mann – originally from Keith, now in Helensburgh, daughter of Mary Mann (‘birth name’ McKay)), who compiled a family history booklet from the various sources within the family. The booklet has the title “The McKays of Montgrew” and will be of interest to branches of the family with roots in Montgrew farm near Keith, Banffshire. The booklet is downloadable from the Montgrew Page on this website covering John and Ida McKay’s family heritage.

Bill’s maternal family line (Coull) also stems from the rural north east of Scotland and will be included on this website as much as is available currently.

Karen is a Lynch from the east end of Glasgow, born in Melbourne Street close to the Meat Market off Duke Street, where Karen’s father was a one-time employee. The Meat Market no longer exists. We are pursuing details of missing Lynch forebear connections who ‘immigrated’ from County Donegal, Ireland. Karen’s paternal great great grandparents (both of them) settled in Glasgow from Ireland in the 1850-1860’s (the whole of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom until 1922 so strictly speaking here the term immigrant is just used to emphasise significant change of location), and her maternal family line (Gordon) comes from the NorthEast of Scotland.

The information contained herein will always be subject to scrutiny and correction. We welcome new and additional information. Bill’s time spent occasionally at Register House in Edinburgh has so far helped to corroborate some family details, and can be a fascinating pastime. If you would like him to pursue any particular line of enquiry, please get in touch via the contact page on this website or through social media if appropriate.

Needless to say, as generations of family continue to evolve and expand it can never be seen as a work completed. No families are without blemish however, self (Bill) very much a self-confessed prime example of imperfection in many ways, but there are amongst us fine upstanding people we can be proud of, blemishes and all, and we should continue to have hope for future generations. Sinners or celebrities, lone wolves or prolific breeders, you could be one of us.

Bill McKay, 2026