Francis McKenna, son of Ardel and Elizabeth

[AuntieMomo]

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help with a Francis McKenna that I'm looking for.  He was born in Ballingry, Fife on 10 April 1864, often cited wrongly as Benary, Fife.  There's been a post or two about his parents, my G-G-Grandparents Ardel and Elizabeth McKenna who moved to Scotland from County Tyrone.  They had 2 sons that died, probably before they moved to Scotland, where they had a further 10 children. I've found records for almost all the other children: birth, marriage and death certificates for William, Roseann, Margaret, James, John, Elizabeth (died age 2), [Francis], Elizabeth, Patrick, Catherine. 

The name Francis is in brackets as he was born in between the 2 Elizabeths.  He was with the family age 7 in the 1871 Census of Scotland, when they lived in Dunipace, Stirlingshire, however he was not with the family in the 1881 Census.  I can't find any further record of him.   Ardel, the name of his father, is very distinctive and usually helps narrow down the records, but I can't find any definite records of Francis and I don't know if he died, or emigrated, was in jail or even worse, married a Protestant! Not that I can find any record of that either.  There's loads of Francis McKennas on Scotland's people but I don't have the money to investigate each record.  I'm going through Ancestry with a fine toothcomb on a Worldwide search but with a similar lack of success.
Does anyone have any ideas of what I could try next?  As I have no knowledge of any marriage or descendants, I'm searching 'forwards' and I just don't know where to go next.  Any suggestions appreciated.

[Milliepede]

Could he have died 1871-1881 but be under a similar first name ie Frank?  If the surname and age matches up it might be him.

[AuntieMomo]

Hey Milliepede, I did manage to think of that, and have tried to search under name variants, but maybe I should just put in a Frank and see what pops up.  Trouble is, there were a few Francis McKenna born in 1864, and quite a few of the ages match up.  There aren't enough fields in the Scotland's People search results that can help me narrow it down.  There's nothing for Dunipace/Denny where he lived, and I have no knowledge of where else he could have gone!

[Milliepede]

When did his parents die?  He could be remembered on a headstone of theirs even if he died before they did 

There are a couple of trees with him on but no more info than you already have.

[Forfarian]

There are only seven Francis McKennas born 1864 plus or minus one year and died in Scotland after 1871.

You can dismiss the one who died in Campsie in 1909 because he was in Campsie in 1881, 1891 and 1901, and his parents were Francis and Mary.

It should be possible to track others by comparing ages and where they were in successive censuses; you can search the indexes free of charge on Scotland's People.

[AuntieMomo]

Sorry, just to say, I guess I'm also asking if anyone has a relative called Francis McKenna born on the date give 

[AuntieMomo]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Milliepede: re the headstones, I'm actually from Denny and on one visit home I did try to find the headstones of the graves.  I had very little success, in fact only found the location of a grave of one of the sisters, with no headstone and other graves around it.  I'm assuming the family were too poor for that sort of thing.  Plus the mother, Elizabeth, outlived many of her children.

Forfarian: I have tried the Indexes and tried to narrow it down, but it costs 6 credits to look at anything and I'm already down £60.  I try to cross-reference with Ancestry.co.uk but that isn't much help.  As an example, a brother of Francis was born in Ireland in 1846, called James McKenna and baptised on 30 August.  A relative of mine found the record through Roots Ireland. On Ancestry, there are a few James McKennas born in 1846, and one even baptised on 30 August that it not my relative.  And it's the same for Francis, a couple of them born within months of each other in Scotland.  One of his brothers randomly turned up in Dumfries where he was married, but it was a leap of faith to identify that.  None of the locations for Francis match what I know, so I'd end up having to look through each one, because there are no descendants of him identified so far.

Having said that, I can't have thought of everything, so any other suggestions, keep em coming... and thanks to everyone for reading 

[AuntieMomo]

After doing an hour or two of cross-referencing between Ancestry and Scotland's people, I ruled out about 5 Francis McKennas in the death records.  Then I just took a punt on a Francis McKenna who was in the Kelvin area of Glasgow, age 15.  No particular reason as the rest of the family had been either in Stirlingshire or Lanark, but anyway, it was him.  He died age 15 in Glasgow Western Infirmary from blood on the brain caused either by violence or a fall from a height.  It was referred to the Procurator Fiscal. A sad end to my research...

[Milliepede]

I had a feeling he had died young but at least you found him.