Who exactly was James Doyle’s wife ? Well, we do have a nice picture of Ellen with James, but what has been baffling for a while now was .. what was her family name?

One cousin’s handwritten sketch of the family seems to spell her name Kilbee.

And there were Kilbys in the Ottawa area. One, by the name of Francis, was about the right age to be a brother. But his obituary fails to make mention of Ellen.

As I slowly put together the list of children of James and Ellen, and collected documents and transcripts of records, another possibility seemed to appear. Son William’s marriage license lists him as son of James Doyle and “Ellen Kelly.” Hmmm.

Its part of the detective work that makes family history both interesting and challenging!