Kane, and O'Kane are the most common anglicised versions of the Irish Ó Catháin, from a diminutive of cath, meaning "battle".

Kane and O'Kane are most frequent in Ulster, where Ó Catháin arose as a surname in the Laggan district of east Donegal, as part of the Cenel Eoghain, the large group of families descended from Eoghan, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, the fifth-century monarch who founded the Uí Neill dynasty and was supposedly responsible for the kidnapping of St. Patrick to Ireland.

In the twelfth century these Ulster Ó Catháin conquered a large territory to the east of their original homeland around Coleraine and Keenaght in what is now Co. Derry and remained powerful and important in that area down to the wars of the seventeenth century. Their last chief died in the Tower of London in 1628. Two other common surnames, McClosky and McAvinney, are offshoots of Ó Catháin, stemming respectively from the twelfth-century Bloskey Ó Catháin, and Aibhne Ó Catháin. Kane remains particularly common in the Coleraine district of Co. Derry, and in the adjoining county of Antrim.

While some doubt is raised by the headstone of Mary Lynn (nee O'Kane) (see insert) giving her birthplace as Castletown it is certain that in the 1850s the O'Kanes were living in the townlands of Kilcurry & Casheltown in Co. Antrim - this is near the northern tip of Lough Beg.

While there are several possible locations for Castletown in Co. Antrim:

• a name for Ballycastle on the North coast of Antrim (see Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837, opp.)
• the name of a townland in the Parish of Island Magee, just north of Belfast
• the name of a townland in the Parish of Ballynure, on the west edge of Belfast

these places are extremely unlikely.

The townland of Casheltown is adjacent to Kilcurry, in fact on the same road where John and Mary Lynn later lived.

It is easy to see how such a mistake could be made by the family (or perhaps the undertaker), with a strong Irish accent, Casheltown sounds much like Castletown.

A number of O'Kanes are listed in townlands near Kilcurry / Casheltown in Griffith's valuation of 1847-1864:

• Aughnahoy: James and Felix O'Kane occupying land leased by REV. William C. O'Neill
• Aughnahoy: William Kerr occupying land leased by Felix O'Kane
• Carmagrim: James, Bernard, Felix and Daniel O'Kane occupying a number of blocks, sharing several with a Bernard M'Lernan, leased by REV. William C. O'Neill
• Carmagrim: Henry M'Knight occupying land leased by James O'Kane
• Killygarn: John O'Kane occupying land leased from REV. William C. O'Neill
• Bracknamuckley: Roger O'Kane occupying land leased from REV. William C. O'Neill
• Bracknamuckley: William Cannon occupying land leased from Roger O'Kane

The townlands can be seen in this map (display the townlands for Portglenone).

• Killcurry and Cacheltown are in the south
• Carmagrim and Killygarn can be seen to the north of Kilcurry
• Aughnahoy is north of Carmagrim, just south of the Portglenone township
• Bracknamuckley is to the north of Portglenone.

John and Mary (nee O'Kane) Lynn probably lived on Clooney Road in the Casheltown Townland (see the marker on the map) and the farm of Mary O'Kane's family (right) was on the corner of Killcurry and Lough Beg Roads on the southern edge of the Kilcurry townland (see the marker on the map).

It is interesting to note that the Walls family lived close by on in the Ballymaguigan township in Derry (marked on the map just south of The Creagh, which is only about 10km from Kilcurry.

Next, see the family of John Lynn and Mary O'Kane.

Very little is known about the Connery's apart from Nancy Connery being Mary O'Kane's mother.

King is one of the most common surnames in Ireland, and is distributed throughout the country. In Ulster, many, though not all of those of the name will be of English stock, bearing the English surname which originated simply as a description of someone of kingly bearing. The majority, however, are of native Irish origin, since King was used as a (mis)translation of a number of Irish names which contained sounds similar to ri, "king". Among the many such names are Mac Fhearadhaigh ("McAree/McGarry") in Co. Monaghan, Ó Maolconaire and Ó Conraoi ("Conroy/Conry") in Co. Roscommon, Mac Conraoi, ("Conroy") in Co. Galway (where the change to King was almost total), Ó Conaire ("Connery") in Munster. In Ulster, in counties Antrim, Tyrone and Down, Mac Fhinn ("Maginn") was also changed, by phonetic misrepresentation rather than mistranslation, to King.