John, thank you for your post and for the most amazing information that it contained! It is all very exciting!

I have the marriage record for James Kelly and Jane Cowin.

They were married Oct 22, 1864 in the parish church of Maughold. James was of full age, Jane by counsel of her parents. James was a bachelor, Jane a spinster. James' occupation was a weaver. James was living in Maughold. Jane in Lonan, James father's name was John Kelly, a weaver. Jane's father's name was John Cowin a shoemaker. The Vicar was B Harrison. I cannot make out one of the witnesses names, the other looks like Monica? or maybe Mona? Looney.

I had no idea that John James and Mona lived in Butte. There was not much history passed down from my grandparents to their children about their life on the Isle of Man. It is a common phenomenon here in the United States. The Immigrant generation most often did not talk about their lives before immigration therefore the next generation knew very little. The trend that we see now is the grandchildren are tracing their family history. In my case my grandparents passed away when I was a child, my father died when I was quite young. My father's brother and sisters had bits and pieces of information but not much. My father's brother told me that his mother wrote letters to someone named Mona, he thought she was a cousin, on the Isle of Man. The other Kelly family story was the story about my grandmother's brother "Bobby" being killed in a mining accident. My grandmother's sister aunt Minnie Kelly Comaish remained in contact with my grandmother until my grandmother died. She is buried in the church cemetery in Lonan.

I really don't know if John James was killed as a result of helping with the rescue of the Snaefell miners or not. It is just a theory that I formulated. We know that a John James Kelly did assist with the rescue. He is in the famous photo of the rescuers with Captain Kewley. I just don't know which John James Kelly it was. Our John James died of a lung condition and exhaustion just a little over a month after the disaster. He was only 32 so it seems unlikely that he had chronic obstructive lung disease or miners lung at such a young age but of course it can't be ruled out.

When I was visiting the Isle of Man in 1997, I met a woman who was a descendant of Captain Kewley. She had a historical display of Captain Kewley and the mine disaster at the Laxey fair. She told me that the John James Kelly that was with the rescue team was her grandfather. I don't remember her name. Maybe someone reading these postings knows who she is.

Of curious note. I discovered years ago that my grandmother's sister Catherine Kelly, immigrated to the United States in 1892 and settled in Butte. She would have been 17. I could not imagine what a 17 year old girl from the Isle of Man was doing in Butte in 1892. Butte Montana was still somewhat of a wild western mining town, mellowing a little by that time but still not a desirable place for a young woman unless of course she had family connections there. The fact that her brother was living there puts that puzzle piece in place.

I always thought that it was interesting that was interesting that John James and Mona had a daughter Helena. Helena is the capital of Montana.

Thank you for posting, I will be making a trip to Butte soon to do some digging for birth records for John James and Mona's children born there. I will post what I find.