Our immigrant ancestor was John Devlin b Dec 12, 1821 in Londonderry to Patrick Devlin and Bridget Henry. John had a least one sister named Bridget Devlin, b. 1830 in Londonderry. According to John's biography 1882, his father Patrick Devlin was a tenant farmer and shoemaker; John left his "farther's roof" for Scotland about 1840, then went to America, where he arrived in Maryland in 1841. John married Margaret Monaghan, of Scotland, July 1, 1844, in Baltimore, Maryland. He worked for the railroads and then on the Mississippi River as a woodman. They lived in St. Louis, Missouri, and he bought land in Guttenberg, Iowa in 1848. They moved to Guttenberg, grew the farm to 220 acres, had 8 children and lived there until they died. We just learned that John had at least one sister, named Bridget Devlin, b. 1830 in Londonderry also. She was married to Arthur Fahie (b Tipperary) in the Catholic Church in Portland, Oregon in 1852. She and her husband lived out their lives in Portland, Oregon. At least one child married an O'Neil in Portland. Both John Devlin and Mr. Fahie traveled to Australia and to California for the Gold Rush. We think they probably have relatives in Australia. We have been unable to find any documentation that names the parish or townland that John and his sister, Bridget Devlin were from. Since the names are so common, our only hope is to find some connection through a website such as this. John Devlin's surviving children moved from Iowa, across the Mississippi River and married and lived in Wisconsin, most as farm families initially. Their surviving children were named John, Mary Ann, Charles, William and Louis. Mary Ann married Jacob Henry in Wisconsin. I am hoping that someone will have some information about our Ireland relatives Patrick Devlin m. to Bridget Henry and of their family.
