O'Kanes/ Mulholland

Dear Sue

Have you contacted the Public Record Office (PRONI) in Belfast about this yet?

www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni

Best wishes

Clare Doyle

Genealogy Support 

I am not quite clear where the writer of the 15th June 1846 letter was living. But if it was in Ireland, then there is a town called Swatragh in Co. Londonderry. That looks very like Swatara to me. Swatragh is about 5 miles south of Garvagh so fits with the information you have. So that might be where the family lived.

O’Kane/Kane is an extremely common name in the county with about 1500 households in the 1831 census. However Ezekiel and Echlin are rarer. (Indeed I have never come across Echlin before).  I searched the 1831 census but did not see either. However that census only named heads of household so that’s not conclusive. In Swatragh itself, there were 3 households, headed by John, Thomas & Sally. All were RC.

I think the Royal Belfast Academical Institution has very old admission records. It might be worth contacting them to see if they have any record of Henry.

Swatragh is in the parish of Maghera. You don’t say what denomination the families were but the Church of Ireland has records from 1785, Methodist baptisms from 1825 (their marriages would likely be in the Church of Ireland); there are 4 Presbyterian churches (Culnady, Curran, Maghera & Swatragh) None has nay records before the 1840s. RC records also start in 1841. So if they were Church of Ireland there are records in PRONI but otherwise no denomination has any for the period you need.

If the families were farmers then they would likely appear in the tithe applotment records. Here’s a link for all those in the tithes in Maghera parish in 1828:

http://www.irishgenealogyhub.com/derry/tithe-applotments/maghera-parish.php#.WJrl2xR2ug0

Note that the O’ & Mc prefixes in Irish names are detachable and often dispensed with. So you need to include Kane as well as O’Kane when searching records. (In Ireland, Kane is far more common than O’Kane).

http://www.irishgenealogyhub.com/derry/tithe-applotments/maghera-parish.php#.WJrl2xR2ug0

thank you Elwyn for your reply.  They were indeed Roman Catholic but I know that I should also check those other records too. Looking at the Tithe records, in Swatragh  the names of  James and John both appear.  If Irish naming practices where upheld by my family,  which by all indications it seems that they did,  then John would be the name of the father of my Nancy O'Kane who was born in Ireland in 1825.  There was also a  Thomas and a Hugh living in the United States at the same place my relatives lived which I also see reference to in Swatragh.  You might have put me on the right track.  

Thank you again for your help