Re-examining the origins of William Kay
Introduction William Kay’s origins have been the subject of careful documentary research; this post builds on that foundation and, for the first time, tests those conclusions against autosomal DNA evidence. William was the father of Ethel May Kay, who married George Killion. My own connection to this story is indirect — George was my paternal grandmother’s first cousin. While the relationship is distant, the research question is not. The uncertainty surrounding William’s origins has persisted for decades and has been thoughtfully explored before. In November 2016, William’s great-grandson published a detailed investigation titled “The Mysterious William Kay or Kirkpatrick.” Drawing on family tradition, cemetery inscriptions, newspaper reports and Tasmanian convict records, he constructed a coherent documentary hypothesis explaining William’s identity. [1] This post does not replace that earlier work. Rather, it builds upon it. Since 2016, five great-grandchildren of William ...