The Coming and Going of Jane McCrystal

The 1901 census of Legahorry includes Patrick McAtamney, age 50 (he was 46), his wife Jane, 35, and their three children, Bella (8), John (7), and Minnie (3).

The 1911 census of Brownlow's Derry includes Patrick, still age 50 (he was 56), his wife Jane, 45, and six children, Isabella (18), William John (17), Mary Jane (12), plus Francis, Patrick James, and Joseph Henry.

Patrick was a brother of my second great grandfather, William McAtamney. He and Jane Acheson married on 22nd May 1892 at St. Joseph's RC Church, Edenderry, in Seagoe Parish.

Normally we'd call this done. Sometimes men just don't age, while their wives and children do. Everything else lines up, but follow along here with the mother's name.

Looking at the civil birth records, we find that all of these six children were born to Patrick and Jane.

• Isabella (1893) and William John (1894) were born to Patrick McAtamney and Jane Atkinson of Kilvergan.

• Mary Jane (1898) and Francis James (1901) were born to Patrick McAtamney and Jane McCrystal of Tullygally (near Legahorry). The transcription of Mary Jane's baptism at St. Peter's Church in Lurgan names her mother Jane Christie.

• Patrick James (1908) and Joseph Henry (1910) were born to Patrick McAtamney and Jane Acheson of Tannaghmore West (in Brownslow's Derry).

Atkinson and Acheson are close enough. Acheson is the name used at the marriage. But McCrystal is an outlier, and with several years between each pair of children, born in different locations - yet with the first three on the 1901 census and all six on the 1911 census - there's a story here.