Yelverton P., Edward W., and Joseph C. Key were among the 13 children of John Bernard Key (1799-1870) and Paulina Carter Overstreet (1804-1885). Records show that all of the brothers were born in Bedford County, Virginia.

Yelverton P. Key was born October 29, 1829. In the 1860 federal census, he appears as a farm laborer, living in the Bedford County home of his parents. On March 3, 1862, he enlisted as a private in Company G, 34th Virginia Infantry (aka 4th Virginia Heavy Artillery). He was later promoted to corporal and was wounded at the Battle of Chester Station. Following the war, he returned to Bedford County and married Nannie B. Freeman (1842-1885) on November 29, 1866; and in 1886, married Nancy Jane Veal. Yelverton P. Key died in Bedford, Virginia on April 11, 1911, and was buried in Suck Spring Baptist Church Cemetery.

Joseph Cephas Key was born May 7, 1841. He appears in the 1860 federal census as a farm laborer, living in the home of his parents. On March 3, 1862, he enlisted in Company G, 34th Virginia Infantry. Records list him in the hospital at Farmville, Virginia, at the end of the American Civil War. Key returned to Bedford County after the war and married Rebecca Jane Beard (1848-1930) on November 26, 1868; the couple would have four children. The 1880 census shows the Keys living and farming in Liberty, Virginia. Joseph C. Key died January 21, 1884, and was buried in Key Family Cemetery, Bedford.

Edward Willoughby Key was born January 17, 1835. He appears in the 1860 federal census as a farm laborer, living in the home of his parents. On December 20 of that year, he married Elizabeth Frances "Fannie" Wheat (1838-1921). The couple would have seven children. Key enlisted in Company G, 34th Virginia Infantry on March 3, 1862. He was captured near Farmville, Virginia, on April 6, 1865, and was released July 1. The 1880 census lists the Keys as farmers residing in Liberty (Bedford County). Edward W. Key died in Bedford County on November 17, 1904, and was buried in Key Family Cemetery.

Forest Davis Wheat, father of Elizabeth Frances Wheat and father-in-law of Edward Willoughby Key, was born in Maryland on December 18, 1800. He married Jane Dooley (1799-1872); the couple would have eight children. By 1850, the Wheats were living in Bedford County, Virginia. Forest Wheat died in Bedford County on September 15, 1864.

Estelle Spencer Key, youngest child of Edward W. and Elizabeth Frances Wheat Key, was born in Bedford County, on September 4, 1884. She married Ira Felix White (1881-1926), a salesman, in Bedford on April 27, 1904; the couple would have two children. The federal census shows the Estelle Key White living in Roanoke, Virginia from 1910 through 1930. Following the death of Ira White, she married Walter Holcomb Howard (1880-1946) on September 28, 1932. She continued to live in Roanoke until her death on September 30, 1955. She was buried in Roanoke.