We can find Pop Pop in the U.S. Census 1930 in the household of his father also named John Mathias Lane.
In 1930 Pop Pop was a strapping sixteen year old. His father was 39 and his mother, Mary, was 42 years old. Pop Pop had a brother who was just two years younger than him. His name was Edward.
In that census there is a woman who lives with them who is listed as an aunt. Her name was Elizabeth B. O'Brien and she was 71 in 1930.
Ten years before in the U.S. Census of 1920 things in the household looked much the same but there was a 60 year old man living with the family. His name was James F. McGowan.
McGowan, that must be what Nana Beth wrote down in the family Bible as "McGawn." In the Bible James McGawn is listed as the father of Mary Frances Lane. And James is the husband of Mary Agnes.
So Nana Beth was trying to tell us that Pop Pop's parents were John Mathias Lane and MARY FRANCES Lane who came from (which can be said "nee") the family McGowan.
In our family to this day we still call scalloped potatoes--ELIZABETH'S POTATOES because that's what Pop Pop remembered about Elizabeth O'Brien. She could turn regular old potatoes into something fancy.
Nana Beth (Bartling) and Pop Pop (John Mathias Lane)
