Finding Jane Graham’s Parents: Using Clusters and Records in Three Countries

Tracking the woman who raised Jane’s youngest child leads from California through England to County Tyrone to identify parents. An Irish family case study. Brief Outline Jane Graham was born in Ireland in 1835. Unsourced family lore provided parents’ names. Twenty years of on-and-off research proved the lore was true. Jane and her husband and children were missed in the 1860 census. Her only census appearance was 1870, three years before her death in childbirth. Encountering Jane’s last child another family’s household led to extensive research on Ann Lockren and the discovery that Ann and Jane were sisters. Research on Irish-born Ann led to records of her marriage and children in County Durham, England. After Ann was widowed, she lived in the same household as another Graham family. Tracking those Grahams through clues in family trees to records in England and Ireland led to origins in County Tyrone. Catholic parish registers in Tyrone proved Jane and Ann were sisters, and who their parents were. Case involves multiple surname variants and use of cluster research.