Migration, Queries

Margaret and Ann Devey (Devy, Davy, McDavie)

A reader is looking for information about her Devey (Devy, Davy, McDavie) ancestors, who presumably emigrated from Ireland to Canada in the 1820s.

Margret/Margaret Devey was born about 1820, possibly in Ireland, possibly in the Bytown (Ottawa) area. On 8 September 1839, she married William Hitsman, son of Peter Hitsman (Hitzman) and Elizabeth (“Betsey”) Tuttle. The marriage took place in Bytown, and the officiant was Rev. John Cruikshank, Presbyterian minister. The couple lived in Russell, Ontario, where the first four of their five known children were born, before moving to the United States. In the US, they lived first in St. Lawrence County, New York, where their fifth child, Margaret, was born in 1857, and then in Michigan. William Hitsman died 9 August 1893 in Lee, Midland, Michigan. The place and date of Margaret Devey’s death is unknown.

Margaret had a sister Ann Devey who was born about 1832, presumably in Canada. In 1852, in Rossie, St. Lawrence, New York, Ann married Nelson Hitsman, younger brother of the above-named William Hitsman. The couple had a family of ten known children, all born in St. Lawrence, New York.

In religion, Margaret and Ann Devey were Protestant, with the denomination not quite clear. While Margaret and William Hitsman were married by a Presbyterian minister, at least some of their children were baptized in the Wesleyan Methodist Church.

Any information on the parents (or other relations) of Margaret and Ann Devey would be greatly appreciated.