I would be grateful for any help in establishing a family relationship, or not, with the forebears of Hall Caine. My mother was a Kaighin (Victoria Jane Kaighin) descended from Thomas Kaighin and Jane Caine who migrated to Visctoria, Australia in the mid 19th C. I am grateful to Greg Kaighin who has done marvellous work in establishing the Kaighin/Kaighen lines in both Australia and the US. I attach his email. I grew up with the family belief that we were in some way related to Hall Caine. and I wanted to find out whether there was any relationship between my Caine forebear and the Hall Caine family.

Hello Milton,

I do know that Hall Caine talked about visiting relatives in Ballaugh (the parish north of K. Michael) at the age of 5. Frances Coakley wrote about his possible Manx genealogy here: www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/people/writers/thc.htm. Your connection to him would obviously have been through Jane Caine, wife of your immigrant ancestor Thomas Kaighin. She resided at Ballagyr prior to marrying Thomas, which is a small farm just outside the town of Peel, where Hall Caine seems to have been most comfortable with.

I would suggest if you want to follow up, posting a query on the Manx Genealogy bulletin board with Jane’s particulars. She was born about 1821 probably at Ballagyr and likely would have been christened at K. German. I’m sure with that information, someone will be able to provide you with her parent’s names and from there a connection to Hall Caine might be made.
Aloha,
Greg