Re: Divney/Devaney Co Clare, Ire to IL 1870s
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In reply to:
Divney/Devaney Co Clare, Ire to IL 1870s
Frank Dolan 3/25/01
Hi, Frank.I have recently learned about my Devaney ancestors, and they may be connected to yours.Thadeus (Tady) Devaney (sp?) was a schoolmaster in Ennis, County Clare.He left his family in Ireland and booked passage to America but died enroute, ostensibly from typhoid.He was buried at sea.He and his widow, Bridget McNamara, had three children (two daughters and a son).One of the daughters was my great great grandmother, Mary.
Mary had an aunt who lived near St. Louis, MO.Following Tady's death, the aunt returned to Ennis to visit and, upon her return to America, brought Tady's and Bridget's daughter (Mary) with her.Mary was 9 years old at the time, so this would have been 1850 or 1853.
According to IL marriage records, on 1/24/1859 Tady's daughter Mary DIVINEY married Sylvester McDonald in La Salle, IL.(Bridget later told a family member that Mary was 15 when she married, but Mary always contended she was 18, and she stated in the 1860 census that her age was 19.)
I have been told that among the 11 McDonald children that Mary and Sylvester had were a son named Patrick who did not survive childhood.
Five of the surviving nine children were born in La Salle.Two were born in Madison County, IL, and two were born in Iowa.Judging by the birth dates, it appears the family lived in Madison around 1860, then La Salle in the early to mid 1860s, then went to Des Moines around 1870, then back to La Salle in the mid-1870s.Of course, St. Clair County adjoins Madison County, both right across the river from St. Louis.
Mary Devaney McDonald was eventually widowed in the late 1890s in Illinois and moved to Montana where most of her children by now lived.In 1920 she moved with a daughter to San Diego, CA, where she died in 1933.
So there you have it.I hope this will give you some leads.Keep me posted on your search.
Steve Bowman
Midlothian, VA