Liz, I can’t find a marriage for William Robert Oates and Ann. However, Ann would only have been age 33 when Kathleen Annie was born in 1917 (assuming she was born in 1884 as you state), so not “too old” to have a child.

If you don’t already know this, there are several photos of your Ballasalla blacksmith Oates family on the imuseum site. One of them is labelled “W Oates, Frank Oates, Blacksmith, Ballabeg circa 1900”. It shows 3 people, a middle aged man and 2 young men----one of them could be William Robert Oates b 1887 who would have been an apprentice for his father at that time.

Jean C