George—sometimes referred to in records as George W. McKay, Jr., prompting confusion over his middle name with his father’s middle name of Washington—married Virginia “Jennie” Burnside in 1868 and, with her, had five children. (Jennie was apparently not related to George’s uncle Mathew Burnside, married to his maternal aunt Mahala.) Sometime between the 1880 census (when he was enumerated with Jennie and family) and his father’s death in 1886, he disappeared.

In about 1894, after George had been gone for, apparently, a lengthy amount of time, Jennie had him declared legally dead and, later, married Samuel L. Herron. George resurfaced several years later and reconnected with at least some of his family.

He may have been living with, or near, his brother Thomas Jefferson McKay in Luling at the time of his death.

Jennie was born in Virginia and migrated with her parents and sister to Guadalupe County, Texas. In August 1868, she married George W. McKay, with whom she had five children. Sometime in the early 1880s, George disappeared. Jennie, not knowing his whereabouts, had him declared legally dead in about 1894. She married Samuel L. Herron in about 1895.292