Researching Robert Kay
Research the background of Robert Kay using the links below. We hope you find this information useful!
![]() | Did you know that in the 1881 UK census there were 15559 people with the Kay surname? In that year Kay was ranked number 249 for popularity in the UK. |
Good news! There is already a One Name Study on the Kay surname.

The name Robert means "bright fame" and is of English origin.
Records of Robert Kay on Ancestry
Ancestry is a major source of information if you are filling out the detail of Robert Kay in your family tree. With over 30 billion records and 100 million family trees to search, Ancestry is one of the key websites to visit to help you trace your family tree back in time. Free trials are normally available and are a good way to fill out a lot of your tree quickly.
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DNA
Sometimes you can run into a brick wall in your tree and you just don't have enough evidence to make that next step back in time. A DNA test can sometimes help to make a link to a particular family name if you find you share common DNA with people who have the same or similar surnames as each other. If you are lucky then you may get a match within a few generations and discover some Kay ancestors. Additionally, the modern DNA test can give you a breakdown of your ethnic mix - you may be surprised at the results!
Have you reached a brick wall in your Kay Tree?
Birth, Death and Marriage Records for Robert Kay and the Kay Family History
Birth, Death and Marriage records are often the best method of making the links to the Kay Genealogy that will form part of your family tree. Although records vary from country to country, they are normally the most formal record of a person's relations. From the sources listed below it will be possible to locate a birth record and, from that record, a birth certificate may be obtainable which is likely to list the names of the parents, therefore taking you back another generation. A marriage certificate may also list the names of the respective fathers of the bride and groom which may then help you to find them earlier in life on a census record enabling you to fill out more detail in the Kay family tree.
Check out Parish Records for Robert Kay at Find My Past.
Search for the UK registered births, marriages and deaths of Robert Kay using the FreeBMD database.
Check out Genealogy Bank for Robert Kay records.
Investigate MyHeritage for Robert Kay information.
Look at the LDS Database for records about Robert Kay.
Research the Kay surname using fold3 Military Archives and view images of original Kay Military records.
![]() | Did you know that there are currently 16664 people with the Kay surname in the UK? Kay is now ranked number 330 for popularity in the UK. |
Kay Genealogy Databases
Another way to build your tree quickly is to use the research other people have already done. This can help to confirm or refute your own deductions - however, be wary of taking this data at face value as other researchers may not have been as meticulous as you. Always try to back up deductions with some definitive sources rather than relying too heavily on others.
Explore the WikiTree database for user contributed records for Robert Kay.
Study MyTrees for information on the Kay family and people looking to contact living Kay relations.
Search One Great Family for Kay records submitted by people who are already researching the Kay Family Tree.
Find Robert Kay from Ireland on findmypast.ie
Kay Forums
There are a number of forums which are dedicated to rearching particular surnames. These can be good places to share your findings and also to tap into the knowledge that others may already have. These can sometimes be a good way of finding living relations as these tend not to show up on the other sources of information for privacy reasons.
Research the Kay surname using Genealogy.com forums .
![]() | Did you know that there are currently 24306 people with the Kay surname in the USA? Kay is ranked number 149 for popularity in the USA. |
Miscellaneous Kay Databases
Explore the Ellis Island Database for information on Robert Kay. This database contains over 25 million immigration records detailing passengers arriving in the United States of America.
Some Famous People called Robert Kay
Robert Kay (politician)
__NOTOC__Sir Robert Newbald Kay (6 August 1869 – 24 February 1947) was an English solicitor and politician, based in York. He was also Liberal Member of Parliament for Elland from 1923 to 1924, and Lord Mayor of York in 1925.
The second of five children of William Kay and his wife Ann (née Newbald) of Bossall, Kay passed his final Law Society examinations in 1892 and the next year he founded the law firm of Newbald Kay in York which had its offices at Lendal adjacent to the Mansion House, where he lived as Lord Mayor.
Along with his wife Alice May, daughter of the Wesleyan minister, Thomas Thornton Lambert, Kay was a prominent Methodist, being for a time a member of the Methodist Conference and funded the construction of a chapel in Acomb, North Yorkshire.
For his wartime services as Sheriff of York, 1914–1915, and chairman of the local recruiting committee, he was knighted in the 1920 New Year Honours.
He was Lord Mayor of York in 1924/25, and his sheriff was Stanley Slack, headmaster of Elmfield College.
Source: Robert Kay (politician), Wikipedia, The Free EncyclopediaRobert Kay (inventor)
Robert Kay (1728–1802) was an English inventor, best known for designing a drop box to improve the capability of weaving looms.
Robert Kay was born in 1728 to John Kay and Ann Holt. He became a shuttlemaker in his native Bury, Lancashire, married in 1748 and had several children. His father emigrated to France in 1747 and was joined there by Robert and two other sons, James and John. The flying shuttle, also known as the wheel-shuttle, had been invented by John senior around 1733 but his commercial acumen did not match his engineering ingenuity and financial problems may have contributed to the move abroad. Robert had returned to Bury probably in 1759 and in either that year or 1760, he designed a method for deploying multiple shuttles simultaneously, enabling the use of wefts of more than one colour and so making it easier for the weaver to produce cross-striped material. These shuttles were housed at the side of the loom in what became known as the drop box. He did not patent the invention but went on to produce other improvements to the shuttle that assisted in producing checked material and ticking for beds, as well as a mechanism for manufacturing the cards used in carding machines.
The drop box probably caused an increase in the use of the flying shuttle: combining the two made the weaving mechanism more complex, but it greatly increased the production speed of even fairly complex cloths.
Source: Robert Kay (inventor), Wikipedia, The Free EncyclopediaOther names that sound a bit like Kay
Family names can get corrupted over time, particularly where literacy was not as good. The following list contains some names that have similar sounds so you may want to also look at one or two of the more likely possibilites.
Kah Kai Kaia Kauiaa Kawa Kawaue Kawewehi Kaye Kayhoe Kea Keahey Keay Kee Keh Kehoe Keogh Keough Kew Key Keyhey Keyho Keyhoe Kio Ko Koe Koh Ks Ky





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