James and Jane O'Kane

 In the first UHF report,  a family for James and Jane Kane is found a census for the local Roman Catholic church parish, dated 1886-1887. UHF also questioned the age of James, 24, noting that the parents were only 40, and thought it likely that the age was incorrect.

Let me digress a bit, and state that James, the husband of Jane,  would be James Jr, son of James O'Kane who was born in  1798. This James is the 'John' in the will of his father. This, then, would make James Jr's son, James, in the picture to the left, James the third. James Jr. inherited property #7 in 1901 according to the Valuation Revisions books.



Marina made contact with descendants of James and Jane's daughter Jennie through Ancestry.com. They shared some of the pictures with her and we now have them here. They also have been researching the O'Kane line.

Now, back to the parish census....Earlier this year, while doing some family research for our Puerto Rican ancestors, I was looking through Ancestry.com's Puerto Rico, Social and Population Schedules, 1935-1936. I noticed that the young children's ages were, sometimes, listed by age and months - denoted by placing how many months over 12.

2nd column to last for ages. There are 2 examples - 4 1/12 and 4 6/12.

When I was looking at this, I thought of James and Jane's family and pulled up the UHF report.

What if the ages were written like this?

James, 40

Jane, 40

Mary Anne, 3

James, 2 years  4/12 months (instead of 24)

Bernard, 1 year  4/12 months (instead of 14)

Bernard, 42

Then I pulled up the Irish 1901 Census, to take a look at the family.

• Census Years 1901  Antrim  Ballyclug  Crebilly

 Let's compare, using the PR's year and month system.

                                                                    1886-1887            1901

James                                                              40                       50

Jane                                                                 40                  deceased

Mary Anne ( aka Minnie)                                 3                       17

James                                                             2y4m                   16

Bernard                                                          1y4m                   15

Catherine                                                     not born                 14

Jennie (aka Jane)                                         not born                   8

Willie John                                                  not born                   4

Bernard                                                           42                        60

All of a sudden....the kids' ages work! Father, James, and brother/uncle Bernard's don't, but who's counting their ages, not them ;)

Once I matched the ages, and realized we had a match, there was more info to be found. I could see that Jane and the first three kids were born in Armagh. Knowing that, generally, a marriage took place where the bride resided, I recently was able to locate a marriage record for James and Jane in Armagh on Groni. Doing so, gave me Jane's surname of Brannigan.

The O'Kane/Brannigan marriage record from GRONI. James' father's name is listed, James and Jane's father, also a James. ;)

A note about Bernard:

Having the church parish census clarified the 1901 census 'relation to head of house' description of Bernard. He is noted to be a brother to James in church record and an uncle in census record. I think Bernard was actually described as "the uncle" of the house and not as "my uncle" thus meaning James' uncle. This also, in my mind anyways, verifies that James is the the "John" in the will of James Kane, 1872. Otherwise, why would James and Bernard be living in the same house? They were both willed the property by their father.

And lastly, James' sister, Annie O'Kane Glumaz, is long gone to America and is living in San Antonio, Texas.