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McDevitt Research

JMcDevitt

James McDevitt baptism

Welcome to the McDevitt research page! This page is where Tim is organizing notes on several McDevitt families that came from Ireland to America in the mid 1800's. While the name is pretty common, this page focuses on those families showing some pattern of connectedness to Tim's John McDevitt (c1840-c1901) and Ellen's Mary McDevitt (1837-1885) who married Michael Carney. Consider joining the Facebook Termon and Gartan, Ireland Genealogy group.

The interesting part is that Mary appears in Michael Carney's family bible as follows: "Mary Carney, Co Donegal, Parish of Termon, Ireland [born] Dec 25, 1837". Other records establish her surname as McDevitt, such as children's Edward Carney and Elizabeth Carney (Blanck)'s death certificates. The parish is now called Gartan and Termon Parish.

The family connection is strong between Mary McDevitt Carney and John McDevitt. At John McDevitt's (c1840-c1901) son James's (1873-1858) baptism in Philadelphia in 1873 are the baptismal sponsors "Michael Carney and Marie Carney". This would seem to be Michael Carney and wife Mary McDevitt (1837-1885) from across the bridge in Gloucester, New Jersey.

It's also interesting that John McDevitt's daughter Kate (1865-1938), married Samuel Blanck. Samuel's brother George married Elizabeth Carney (1872-1937), a daugther of Michael Carney and Mary McDevitt.

Besides the Gloucester, NJ/Philly group, there are several DNA matches to a group of McDevitts that migrated from Macoupin County, Illinois. Since the three McDevitt families arrived at about the same time in an obscure farming area in Illinois suggests some family relationship. Catherine McDevitt Lyons spent several years in New Jersey before moving to Illinois, but it's unclear if the others did. When William died in 1893, some of his children were placed in an orphanage.

In September 2018, it was noticed that there are many DNA matches to a group of descendants of Hugh Gallagher and wife Margaret from the same area in County Donegal in Ireland. These people all tend to match each other and the McDevitt descendants. The relationship between the groups is yet unknown.

bible

Mary (McDevitt) Carney's entry in Michael Carney family bible


McDevitt DNA Reseach

Radio Telescope

The Power of Multiple Detectors

Want to help with the McDevitt family research? Read on. As you probably know, the Irish poured out of Ireland in the mid 1800's during and after the Potato Famine. It was a time of great stress on our Irish ancestors and the are few records to fill in the blanks. There are no available church parish records for the Termon area in the early 1800's. It's been very difficult to make any progress using census records.

Much progress has been done in expanding the McDevitt family tree with the help of Ancestry DNA Volunteers. As you may know, ancestry shows each person other people with significant common DNA ammounts. It also shows those other people who are common to both you and the other person. But, it only shows those "shared matches to people" up to the 4th cousin level. It also doesn't show the cM match level between the other person and the "shared match". By finding other cousins, it expands the number of possible source documents, and aids in sorting out people with the same names on ship lists.

In order to see all of the matches, including those beyond 4th cousin, one needs to authorize that information in what used to be called a "Guest Share", which allows another person to see all of your matches as well as the closeness of the matches. To date, several McDevitt cousins have done this and we've made quite a lot of progress. If you would like to help also, you would need to do the following:

Note, this does not allow the other person access to your actual DNA code - it only allows someone to see DNA matches and their levels. Particpant's DNA ID will not be posted, but any participant can review their combined matches at any time. If you would like to use Tim's account to expand your own research, please contact him (he can and will only share his own matches to other researchers).

The abilty to find these lost connections benefits from the number of contributors. Since each descendent receives random DNA segments amounting to half from each parent, only close cousins have statistically likely chances of showing a match (eg, 2nd cousins or better). Having multiple accounts boosts the power of searches, just like using multiple radio telescopes in astronomy to improve reception and elimate "noise".


As of September, 2018, there are 5 participating ancestry DNA accounts, 42 confirmed or likely McDevitt DNA descendant matches identified. Shown below is a view of the spreadsheet tracker consolidating the match information.

McDevitt DNA

If you have questions about the DNA project, contact Tim.


USA McDevitt Family Groups

The common McDevitt families based on DNA matches appear in a few clusters based on DNA match levels and geography. It's unclear at this point how they all connect. Click on the names below to see their family tree on ancestry.com.

Margaret McDevitt/Hugh Gallagher Group

Name Years Spouse Origin Immigrated DNA Matches Residence
Frances Fannie Gallagher c1833-1917 Thomas Doyle Church Hill bef 1857 Y (1) Chester, PA (1857)
Patrick Gallagher 1837-1917 Catherine McDevitt Donnegal bef 1863 Y (3) Philadelphia, PA (1863)
Marjory Gallagher c1841-1923 Daniel O'Donnell Church Hill NA Y (5) kids moved to Wilmington, DE
Daniel Gallagher c1841-1917 Catherine Carr Kerr Church Hill NA Y (1) kids moved to Philadelphia, PA

There is an unknown relationship to these families (descended from Hugh Gallagher and wife Margaret) from Churchhill in Donegal and the McDevitt's from the same area. See DNA matches.

McDevitt Philadelphia, PA Group 1

Name Years Spouse Origin Immigrated DNA Matches Residence
Mary McDevitt 1837-1885 Michael Carney bef 1857 Termon Parish Y (8) Gloucester, NJ (1857)
John McDevitt c1840-1901 Susanna Dougherty/Doherty Church Hill (wf immig) abt 1866 Y (13) Gloucester, NJ (1870), Philadelphia, PA (1872)

John McDevitt's children's baptisms:

Note, since 4 of the DNA search accounts are descended from John McDevitt above, most of the matches are to this family.

McDevitt Philadelphia, PA Group 2

Name Years Spouse Origin Immigrated DNA Matches Residence
John J McDevitt c1864-1901 Mary E Welsh ? bef 1884 Y (2) Philadelphia, PA (1884)
William McDevitt #2 c1849-1888 Bridget E Killian ? bef 1873 Y (2) Philadelphia, PA (1873)


McDevitt Macoupin County, Illinois Group

Name Years Spouse Origin Immigrated DNA Matches Residence
William McDevitt #1 c1835-1893 Susan A ? bef 1863 Y (3) Macoupin, IL (1863)
Catharine McDevitt c1838-aft 1880 Thomas Lyons ? bef 1854 Y (3) NJ (1854), Macoupin, IL (1870)
Edward McDevitt c1850- Christina Simons ? bef 1870 Macoupin, IL (1870)

Note that Edward was living with Catherine in 1870. William showed up in the exact same area in 1863.


Other Families

Other McDevitt families (weaker DNA matches)

Delaware County, PA

Philadelphia County, PA

Philadelphia County, PA (turned out to not be DNA matches, but keeping around)

Here is how these families are organized for now, based on DNA match levels across many people (6/16/19).

Father McDevitt b1790
  Mr A McDevitt b1800
    Catharine 1837-1904 and Thomas Lyons (IL) [DiGal]
    Edward 1850-? and Christina Simons (IL) (lived with Catharine)


  Mr B McDevitt b1810
    Mr C McDevitt bc1820
      William2 1849-1888 and Bridget Killian [PatR]
    Mr D McDevitt b1830
      John2 J 1860- and Mary Welch [PatF]
    William1 1835-1893 and Susan A (IL) [none]
    Mary1 1837-1885 and Michael Carney [Ellen]
    John1 1839-1901 and Susan Dougherty [Tim...Sue]

  Margaret b1810 and Hugh Gallagher [none]

Misc (not placed yet):

John3 McDevitt bc1800? and Hannah McMongle (daughter Catharine b1840 and Patrick Gallagher, s/o Margaret above)
Patrick bc1820? and Ellen McMunigal [JHess]
William3 b1829-1866 and Bridget Dougherty [FAcosta]
Mary2 1831-1902 and William McIlhenny [FAcosta]

Maps

Click on the maps below to see full size. They show the various names the are represented in the records. The boundaries in the overlay are approximate (and our ancestors lived at the border of three parishes).


Ulster (province)
Raphoe (diocese)
Londonderry (probate district)
20 Gartan (civil parish)
42 Termon (RC parish)

Also shown in the 4th picture are 34 (Kilmacrenan civil parish) and 11 (Conwal civil parish).

Also shown in the 5th picture are 30 (Kilmacrenan RC parish) and 31 (Letterkenny RC parish).


Links