Introduction

William Jeremiah Keays was at once a remarkable man and a tragic man. He was short of stature at 5ft 6in., weighed about 160 lbs., and was a dashing figure with flowing black hair and flashing black eyes. William was well educated for his time. He was well-spoken and used his verbal skills to advantage. People followed William. He was a natural charismatic leader with great ideas to which people gravitated in numbers. But his was a life of tragedy and unrealized ambitions.

This is not a happy story nor does it have a happy ending. But it is a true story of a real life lived over an incredible sweep of time as two countries emerged from wind power to steam power and then to the internal combustion engine. William anticipated these changes and desperately tried to position himself to gain financially from them. With a few exceptions, he failed to meet his ambitions.

William Jeremiah Keays was the third child of my 4xgreat grandparents and the brother of my 3xgreat grandmother. Prior to 2003, I didn't know he'd ever existed. I'd never heard a family story about him. However, when I began examining his mother's diary in some detail, he appeared as a very important part of her life. I felt compelled to research his life.

William was not hidden. Once I started looking, his life appeared almost magically. Here is his story, illustrated by photos of people, places and original documents and by supporting documents in Word form.

Beginnings

William was born in Bytown, Upper Canada (now Ottawa, Ont.) on Jan. 24, 1829. He was the third child of James Forbes Keays and Eliza Emelia Giff. 

His father, James Forbes Keays, was born about 1787 in Tullamore, King's County (Offaly), Ireland. He came to Canada in about 1815 and acquired a job with the British Military's Royal Engineers as Assistant Clerk of Works on 10 Nov 1815 at Cedars Rapids on the St. Lawrence River near the present Ontario-Quebec border. His beginning pay was five shillings per day. This information comes from an 1816 letter requesting a pay raise which you can see (a) as a jpg file or (b) as a Word Doc.

There had been a small British garrison at Cedars Rapids since the British took it from Americans during the American Revolutionary War in 1776. Later, he was posted to Quebec City  and then to Ile aux Noix in the Richelieu River, L.C. where there were additional British fortifications.

William's mother, Eliza Emelia Giff, was born in Waterford, Ireland in 1797/8, the daughter of Jeremiah Giff and "Miss McCowan" who were married in Dec. 1795 in Waterford. Eliza was educated in a private school. Her mother died when she was a young girl leaving her with a small annuity that continued until her death in 1862. Her father remarried and began a second family including a son who later moved to St. Kitts, West Indies. Eliza decided to come to Canada "as a young  girl with a family named Link".

James Keays and Eliza Giff were married 16 Jan. 1818 in Prescott, Upper Canada by Rev. John Bethune. In the marriage register, Eliza was shown as being from Augusta Twp. U.C.. and James was shown as being from Lower Canada.  After their marriage James was posted to Quebec City in 1818. By Sept. 1821, James Keays was stationed at Ile aux Noix, a military outpost on the Richelieu River near the Lower Canada-New York border. There they had their first child, my 3x great grandmother, Eliza Helen Amelia Keays on 27 Sep 1821. (baptismal certificate)