The Keys Family in England Circa 1878

I’ve been planning on posting this photo for about six years.  I posted an inferior version of the photo in September of 2016.  That one came from a print in the Edith Keys Segraves’ book “Cook-Keys Family: Two Centuries in England and America.”  It looked like a Xerox copy of an old photo.  It was tolerable, but I wanted better.  Thankfully, Edith Keys Segraves took good care of the photo and passed it down to her children.  In 2017 I got in touch with one of her daughters, who graciously let me borrow several photos so I could scan them and photograph them.  (Thanks again, Carolyn!)

The Keys family that I’m talking about include my great great grandparents Henry Keys and Martha Cook Keys.  Before they were married, they each had their own professions.  Henry was a tinsmith for many years, while Martha had a successful dress shop in London.   Some people may have thought that Henry was a confirmed bachelor, because he was single until the age of 47.  But then at some point probably in the late 1860s, he met Martha Ann Cook.  Martha was no spring chicken herself – she was 32 or 33 at that time.  It must have been love.

They were married on November 8, 1869, at St. James Church in the Parish of Shoreditch.  I believe it was part of the Church of England.  After their wedding, they made their home at 6 Field View Terrace in Hackney.  Shoreditch is a district in the East End of London in England and forms the southern part of the London Borough of Hackney.  Both Henry and Martha continued their chosen professions, and while doing so they started a family.  How very modern of them!  Henry Alfred Keys (later known as “The Judge” by his family in Kinder, Louisiana) was born March 18, 1870.  (She had a very short pregnancy! 😉 ) Their next child was another son.  He was also their last son.  Leonard James Keys was born on April 16, 1873.  (He would later become the father of Edith Keys, the family historian.) 

Henry, Martha, Henry Alfred, and Leonard welcomed a new addition to the family on April 20, 1876.  Finally, they had a little girl.  They named her Daisy Henrietta Martha Keys.  Her middle names came from Martha and her younger sister Henrietta.  Henrietta had a Keys family of her own – she was married to Henry’s younger brother William.  So Daisy was born into a large family.  She had her parents, her brothers, several aunts and uncles, and many cousins including eight double first cousins.  Her double first cousins lived in the London area as well, though in the Islington area.  Of importance to me is that Daisy would later be the mother of my maternal grandmother Myrtle Phenice Bucklin – the source of my mitochondrial DNA.  But you can just refer to her as my great grandmother.

Next to join the family was Rosetta Ruth Keys.  Ruth was born on Jan. 13, 1879.  She was the last of the children to be born while the family lived at 6 Field View Terrace.  In about 1880 the family moved to 70 Tiverton Road in Tottenham.  I suppose they must have moved to a larger house to make room for their growing family.  It’s what families usually do.  Tottenham, like Islington, is in North London.  The family would be closer to Henrietta and William’s family.  It is also closer to Walthamstow, which is where Martha and Henriette’s Cook family were from.  There could be other family connections that I’m not aware of.

The last child of Martha and Henry was born December 8, 1881.  She was named Mabel.  I guess they decided five children would be enough.  Every family should have a fifth!  I just say this because I’m a fifth.  I’m not sure if Mabel had been born yet when this photo was taken.  The information I saw about it says that it was taken before 1884 in Hackney.  I’m thinking that if it was taken at the Keys home in Hackney, it would have been taken before 1880.  They moved to Tottenham after that.

Even though this photo is clearer than the first version I had, it’s still a bit blurry.  Henry looks rather dapper standing up in front just behind the iron fence.  He looks as though he may have been smoking a pipe.  This could just be a smudge on the photo.  I can’t tell for sure.  Martha is sitting down to the left of him.  There is nothing of her face to make out.  She does look like she was dressed nicely.  I can make out Henry Alfred standing in front of the window.  He is decidedly older than the boy to the right of him who must be Leonard.  The only other person I think I can make out is a little girl sitting to the right of the photo within the fenced area.  That would be little Daisy when she was a young girl!  

I’m thinking the photo was taken around 1878.  That’s before 1884, so I’m not contradicting the information I was given.  The next few years were probably an ideal time for little Daisy.  Her two little sisters were born, and she was probably learning to sew from her mother.  It was said that they learned at a very young age.  They had some good years before the tragic death of her father when she wasn’t quite 10 years old.  This photo was a view back to that sweet time in the family’s life.  That’s probably why it survived the years.  I’m glad it did.