Category: Keys

It’s time for another get together with your Keys relatives!  At least it is for the Keys family that I belong to.  We’ve gotten back into the good habit of meeting together every two years at a somewhat central location.  It’s happening on June 20 at the Catholic Church in Raymond, Louisiana.  That’s in Jefferson Davis Parish, if that helps.  It will be from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.  Two hours either side of noon.  Everyone brings tasty food and drink for all to indulge in.  I don’t know all the particulars as far as what kinds of activities will take place, but it is always enjoyable.  I enjoy seeing family members from near and far.

Henry Alfred “The Judge”, Leonard, Daisy Keys Phenice, Ruth Keys Bryan, and Mabel Keys Miller came from England in 1887 with their mother Marha Ann Cook Keys.

It’s held in Raymond because that’s the area that the first generation of the Keys family lived after they immigrated to the United States from England in 1887.  The matriarch of the family was the widow Martha Cook Keys.  Her husband Henry Keys died in 1886 when they were discussing the possibility of moving to America.  After Henry’s death, she decided to follow through with the plan.  She moved her five children to southern Louisiana where her uncle William Horsnell lived.  With the help of friends and neighbors, a house was built and they were made to feel welcome in the hamlet of Hathaway.

Martha had some heart issues which ultimately led to her death in 1896 at the age of 59.  None of her grandchildren had been born yet.  In fact, none of her children had even gotten married.  That changed a few years later when Daisy married Harry Clifton Phenice in 1900 in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  They settled in Hathaway and had seven children, including my mom’s mom Myrtle Phenice Bucklin.  One of the reasons I wrote this blog today was because of a milestone anniversary earlier this week.  On Monday (April 20, 2026), it was the 150th anniversary of the birth of Daisy.  My niece Alex shares that birthday.

Ruth was the next to marry.  She married Bert Bryan in 1901 in Jennings.  They had six children together and lived in Raymond Louisiana.  They later lived in Jennings.  Our family moved to Jennings in 1963, but I don’t think I ever met her.  I have a vague memory of a family member dying back then at a nursing home in Jennings.  My great grandmother died there, but it was in 1952.  I wasn’t around then.  Ruth died in 1967 in Jennings.  I may have confused the two deaths after hearing about Daisy dying at a nursing home.

Henry Alfred “The Judge” married Eugenia LaFosse in 1902 in Jennings.  They settled in Kinder, Louisiana, which is just a few miles west of the Raymond/Hathaway area.  They had a dozen children altogether.  With all of those children, I’m sure some of their descendants are still in the Kinder area.  It would be good to have some of them come to the reunion this year.  Leonard married Edessa Havenar in 1907 in Raymond.  They settled in Elton, Louisiana, and they had five children together.  I always mention family historian Edith Keys Segraves when talking about this family.  I also want to mention Edward Russell Keys.  He was in the military during World War II.  He was killed in action at D-Day in 1944.

The last to get married was the youngest.  Mabel married Abraham Miller in 1910 in China, Louisiana. China, Hathaway, and Raymond are all parts of the same community in Jefferson Davis Parish.  Mabel and Abraham settled in Kinder, and they had four sons together.  So like I said at the beginning of the post, the first generation lived around Raymond/Hathaway.  Daisy and Ruth lived there for some time.  Ruth moved around ten miles south to Jennings.  Mabel was about ten miles north in Elton, while The Judge and Mabel lived fifteen or so miles west in Kinder.  They were not too far spread out at that time.

The descendants are spread out all over the country now.  But they’re still invited to come to the reunion.  Make plans now!  Come visit a spell with the family.

The most recent immigrant in my family tree is my maternal grandmother’s mother Daisy Henrietta Martha Keys Phenice.  She came to America with her family in July of 1887 from London, England.  They settled in southern Louisiana, and she and her siblings went on to marry and have children, grandchildren, and so on.  They are all over the place now.  I’m not going to explore all of those places now.  I’m going to look back further in time to see the family of Daisy’s father Henry Keys.  He died before the family moved from England.  It was his brave wife who brought their five children across an ocean to start a new life.  I’ve written more about her since she was the one that made it to Louisiana.  I’ve even taken a selfie with her grave.

Henry Keys circa 1880.

I thought I’d start the story with Henry’s parents.  They’re the ones that had all of those Keys children in Chipping Ongar.  Chipping Ongar is a market town in the Epping Forest district, which is in the county of Essex in England.  It’s where George Keys from Wethersfield and Elizabeth Crouchman from Moreton (both places are in Essex County) set up a home and started a family.  They were married in Chipping Ongar on October 21, 1807, at the St. Martin of Tours Church of England.

There are no photos of George and Elizabeth that I know of.  I have said that about other great, great, great grandparents of mine and have later found them.  George and Elizabeth lived until the 1860s, so it is a possibility that there are photos of them.  We can only hope.  But I do have a few details about the way they looked.  George is said to have tan hair, blue eyes, and very fair skin.  I’ve never heard anyone use the color tan to describe hair, but I would assume it would be light brown.  I’m sure my sister Karen would have agreed with me when I say that ‘tan’ is a better description of light brown hair than ‘mousy brown.’

Elizabeth, on the other hand, had black hair, blue eyes, and very fair skin.  They were English, so I’m sure they did have fair skin.  At least it wasn’t described as pale or pasty.  From the photo/painting of their son Henry, it looks like he also has fair skin.  His hair looks very dark, so he probably got that from his mother.  No mousy brown hair for him!  If both of his parents had blue eyes, it’s likely that he had blue or light eyes as well.  That’s always difficult to tell from old photos unless they are distinctly light in the photo.

George and Elizabeth’s first child was born in 1809.  Eliza Keys would later marry John Reading, and they stayed in England.  George James Keys was born in 1812.  He married Elizabeth Jane Rose, and they immigrated to Ontario, Canada.  I’m glad they moved away, because this George and Elizabeth (Rose) Keys would easily be confused with his parents if they stayed in the same area.  Elizabeth Keys was born in 1814.  She married George Little, and they immigrated to Victoria, Australia.  Amelia Keys was born in 1816.  Nothing more is known about her.  Jane Keys was born in 1818.  She married George Bedford, and they stayed in England.

The next two children born to George and Elizabeth were James and Henry Keys.  They were born in 1822, and they were identical twins.  We all know that Henry married Martha Ann Cook and their children came to America.  James was never married and had no children.  The last child of George and Elizabeth was William Keys, who was born in 1824.  I’ve written about him before because he was married to Martha Cook’s younger sister Henrietta.  They stayed in England.  A few of their children immigrated to the U. S.  

My main impetus for choosing the topic of this post was a new DNA match that showed up this week.  The matching DNA was attributed to our common ancestors.  Ancestry showed that we had common ancestors of George Keys and Elizabeth Crouchman.  But they were wrong.  I definitely have ancestors by the name of George Keys and Elizabeth Crouchman, and so does the DNA match.  But it is not the same George Keys and Elizabeth Crouchman!  And they lived in the same area.

I had seen this before.  It was very confusing at first until I realized that there were two couples with the same name from the same area.  With the help of the records from my mom’s cousin Edith Keys Segraves, and with input from more distant cousins still in England, we were able to figure it out.  In case you didn’t know, the names George and Elizabeth were very common names in England at that time.  It had to do with royalty or something.  It seems like every generation of those English families repeated the names.  That’s how it ended up with cousins with the same names.

In this situation, our George Keys, who was born in 1780, had a nephew with the name of George Keys born in 1812.  Our Elizabeth Crouchman, who was born in 1781, had a first cousin by the name of John Griffith Crouchman.  His first daughter was born in 1810, and she was named Elizabeth.  And sure enough, George (1812) Keys married Elizabeth (1810) Crouchman.  And to make things even more confusing, let’s look at the names of their first few children.  As you’ve seen from our George and Elizabeth, their first three children were Eliza, George (who married an Elizabeth), and Elizabeth (who married a George).  Then George (1812) and Elizabeth (1810) had children by the names of George (married an Anne – had a son named Henry) and Elizabeth (who married a George).  Way too many common names!

So those of you who are related to me through this couple, remember that you come from the original George Keys and Elizabeth Crouchman, not from the copycats!

Ruth, Daisy (sitting), and Mabel Keys in 1894 in Louisiana.

I was determined to write a post about the Keys this week.  I looked to see if there were any photos that I haven’t posted yet, and I couldn’t find any.  I can’t let that stop me from writing about my Keys ancestors, especially since there will be a Keys Reunion in a couple of weeks.  It will be on June 15th at the Hathaway/Raymond Catholic Church Hall.  Ask me for more details if you want to attend.

So this week I will share a photo that I’ve shared before.  But I have improved the photo from the last time you saw it.  I got the original image from my Aunt Loris a few years ago.  It was just a snapshot of an old photo in a round frame.  The photo was cropped in a circle, so some of the details were missing.  

I worked on it to fill it in for a square photo.  I like the way it came out, except for the plant on the right side of the photo.  In my first edit, I cloned the bottom leaves of the plant and it went all the way to the top of the photo.  It looked like a small version of Jack and the Beanstalk.  I used it anyway, because I didn’t know what the original setup was.

Then I was looking through Edith Keys Segraves book about our Keys ancestors and I came across this same old photo.  But the version in the book has the curtains like you see in the right side of the photo I’m posting today.  So I did some blending and copying from photo to photo and came out with this better version.  I did this a few months ago and liked the results.  The original photo in that book also shows them all full length.  In other words, their feet are showing and so is the floor.  Maybe I’ll find a good copy of that photo and you’ll see this photo in yet another version!  Lucky you.

Maybe you don’t like this photo as much as I do, but I’m partial because the Keys sister in the middle is my great grandmother Daisy Keys Phenice.  She and her mother and siblings came to America from England in 1887.  They left during Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee.  One of the things about this move is that it separated Daisy’s mom Martha Ann Cook Keys and her sister Henrietta Cook Keys.  It seems like they were very close.  They lost their father when they were young children and they later married two of the Keys brothers in England.  But this move to America put a big distance between the sisters.

Daisy and her sisters did not do the same thing.  They all settled in southern Louisiana.  Daisy was the oldest of the sister, having been born in 1876.  She was the third child, though.  There were two older brothers – Henry Alfred and Leonard.  They stayed in southern Louisiana as well.  Daisy lived in Hathaway, Louisiana, where she raised a family with Harry Clifton Phenice.  Ruth, who was born in 1879, married to Herbert Bryan and they raised a family in Jennings and surrounding areas.  Mabel, born in 1881, married to Abraham Miller and they lived in Kinder, Louisiana.  All five of the Keys siblings lived within 30 minutes or so from each other.  A much easier visit to make than crossing the ocean! 

Even though the subsequent generations have spread out to many states, I’m hoping to see a nice group of cousins at the upcoming Reunion.

The Keys at their home in the London area of England, in late1870s.

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.