Introduction by Barry McKee
James W. Devitt was born in 1914 in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, and lived for 13 years with his grandfather, John Devitt3, at Herron Hill. In later life he gathered and published family histories of his Devitt and Haslam families, and also Boyd and Lockhart histories. In doing this he included history from allied families in and near Loughros Point, Co. Donegal, such as Boyd, Blain, Cochran, Dobbyn, Elliot, Lockhart, Love, McClintock and McKee families.
We have PDF files of two of James Devitts books here: Boyds and Lockharts of Donegal (1987) and Devitt and Haslam Families (1989). Click on these links to open and browse them. A third book from 1994, Boyds of Loughros Point, The Rosses, America, Australia, and New Zealand, used to be available for reading on the web but now brings up a copyright notice.
There was an especially close relationship with the McKee family in Loughros Point. As James tells the story, his gr-gr-grand father John Devitt1 married Alice McKee, a sister of my gr-grandfather, Alexander McKee. Another McKee sister, Susan, married John’s brother Andrew Devitt.
The son of John1, John2 had lived with Charles McKee for the last few years of his life, and was buried in an unmarked grave next to Alexander McKee, in Kilcashel cemetery. It was this John Devitt2 who left his wife and child (John3) for 20 years and went to California, and returned in 1867 to buy a house from Robert Boyd (the Methodist) who was off to Australia with his family.
As might be expected in family history more than 20 years old, there are a few omissions: my Canadian McKees are not included and the Boyd history is not complete: but now we have this McKee Website for updates, and Nancy Leinweber’s book “Boyd Hunting in America – Descendants of Robert Boyd and Jane Ramsey of County Donegal, Ireland and Coshocton County Ohio” is available as a Boyd update (see our Aug 2016 What’s New Item). In any case, thank you to James Devitt for this huge contribution to his own and other allied family histories!