Mc Cabe family Rockville Street Belfast.

[Gerry Burroughs]

Yes I can see how difficult things can be when his service record shows Monaghan first then Fermanagh and Jim at first thought that the DI recommendation was for that county but he was able to find additional information that showed the DI was actually in Inniskilling !! Patience of saint needed for the job you do.

[Gerry Burroughs]

Hi everyone, firstly many thanks for the fantastic effort in trying to sort out the story of Annie ? and James Mc Cabe. I guess we shall ever know what happened back then and the only people who did know are now deceased. A few days ago we received the only surviving photo of the people involved from my wife’s cousin in England. The photo includes Kitty May and John Mc Cabe who buried Annie as Mc Cabe in 1936. If it is permissible as all in the photo are a deceased I will try and post it but I will only do this if it doesn’t break any rules. Thank you everyone for all your help. G

[aghadowey]

No problem posting the photo here and it would be lovely to see it as we feel we practically know them now 

[Gerry Burroughs]

Kitty on left large hat with sister May behind her. John Mc Cabe with his wife Alice to the right  with their children. The child in the centre is my wife’s dad James Mc Cabe and the child to the right with mop of black hair is James big brother Jack.

[Wexflyer]

1901 directory- James McKee, sailor, 44 Burnaby St.
1901 census (31 Mar.)- https://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/St__Anne_s/Burnaby_Street/982126/ Annie McKee (c1863 Co.Antrim, hemstitcher at home); Mary McKee (c1897 Belfast); John J. McKee (c1900 Belfast); Kathleen McKee (c1902 Belfast)

How could the 1901 census include Kathleen, born c.1902??

[Wexflyer]

A comment about the "mystery" of James McCabe the RIC man and his unofficial wife, as mentioned in his obituary notice.

My understanding - not 100% certain, but I believe this to be accurate - is that RIC constables needed permission to marry (officially that is). They had to be in the force for a certain length of time (7 years?), but also, I seem to recall, there may have been some vetting involved. That is, the prospective wife had to be of good character. 

Would Annie have been considered to have met such a standard, if she had children by a previous relationship, or relationships? I doubt it.

That led to the situation where RIC constables would marry, but not officially - meaning their marriage was not noted in the official RIC records. Or perhaps, as in this case, not marrying at all.

[bbart]

Lovely photo, Gerry.  Thanks for posting it;  as Aghadowey pointed out, it's like we know them now!  I was hoping that was Annie, not Kitty, sitting on the ground; she looks so much older than her siblings!

I don't know if your wife is interested in using a DNA approach. It would be a lot of work for you, and some expense.  It won't sort out who was living with who in the McKee/McCabe confusion, but it may jump you over the confusing generation, to see what names pop up in a generation before them, just to get the right surnames.  It will not answer the question of whether or not Kitty and May were full siblings to Jack.  There is a dedicated DNA board on this forum to help you, should you both decide to go this route.  https://www.rootschat.com/forum/ancestral-family-tree-dna-testing/

Back to the photo, though!
To me, looking at their faces, it seems that just in the very moment the picture was taken, Aunt May has a sly grin, and must have said something funny to make everyone smile, but the niece beside her with her big grin, was about to break out in laughter over it.  Mother Alice is saying "shhhh!"  Meanwhile, little James has a cookie hidden in his hands;  probably a bribe to keep him still for the picture!

[Gerry Burroughs]

I have thought in recent days about James Mc Cabe the RIC man. The RIC gazette said friends from Monaghan came and collected him for his interment. My friend Jim Herlihy says he was known to the DI in Enniskilling and lived there. If he had family there and there are relatives still there I wonder if they know the story of James Mc Cabe and Annie. As I drove to Lisburn yesterday I passed a road called Mc Kinstry Road and immediately thought of Annie. This road is within 15 minutes of the area she lived. I suppose I am becoming paranoid now about this story.

[gaffy]

Great photo, it brings the names to life.  For me it also serves to reinforce the passage of time, if we're correct about constable James McCabe, then at the time of that photo in the mid 1920s he was already an unknown, Alice never met him and as far as the children were concerned, it was down to whatever, if anything at all, that their father John told them about him.  Fast forward about 100 years from that photo and it's no wonder we're struggling to make sense of it all.