HANAGIN, James ²

   Cause of his death was epiliptic (as written) convulsions over 2 years.⁵

   Other names for James were HANAGAN, James,³ HANAGAN, Jas,³ HANEGAN, James,⁶ HANIGAN, James,^{1 4} HANNAGAN, James ¹ and HANNIGAN, James.⁵

  General Notes:

James Hanigan was the informant of his first child's birth before the registrar at Neilston, Renfrewshire, on 26 October 1855. The child, also James, had been born on 9 October 1855 and his father, the record states, was present where the birth occurred (though not necessarily at the birth itself).

The certificate of birth for 1855 was a larger more detailed affair than later birth certificates, providing more information about the parents than we are at present accustomed to. It recorded that James Hanigan, the father of the child, was a quarrier aged 32 years and that his birthplace was County Monaghan, Ireland. he and his wife married in Barrhead in 1854 and this is their first child. His wife Susan Docherty was aged 21 years and was born in County Donegal, Ireland.

When James Hannigan died in 1875 he was recorded in his death certificate as a 'Freestone Quarrier married to Susan Dougherty'. His age at death was recorded as 56 years. His parents were deceased. ^{4 5}

  Research Notes:

AGE

it is quite often a difficult task to determine accurate ages from information provided by non-literate people from an oral culture. Their sense of time passing and age increasing was not as rigid and mechanical as our modern awareness. This is not to attribute fault, merely offered as an observation.

James Hanagan is a case in point:

1841 census age 28 years birth year 1812-1813
1851 census age 26 years birth year 1824-1825
1855 birth c. age 32 years birth year 1822-1823
1861 census age 38 years birth year 1822-1823
1871 census age 48 years birth year 1822-1823
1875 death c. age 56 years birth year 1818-1819

  Medical Notes:

John M. Brennan, surgeon, certified the cause of death.

Susan Hannigan, widow of the deceased man, gave notice of her husband's death before the registrar at Pollokshaws on 22 April 1875 and made her X mark. ⁵

James married Susanna DOCHERTY on 20 October 1854 in Neilston parish, Renfrewshire, Glasgow.¹ (Susanna DOCHERTY was born about 1833 in County Donegal, Ireland ^{4 7} and died after 21 April 1875 ⁵.)