Person:Jane Hill (53)

Jane Hill was born about January 1827 in Northern Ireland. She was most likely born in County Tyrone, which her brother Hugh named as his place of origin when he was naturalised. Her parents were John Hill and Sarah McPhillomy. Jane's family name seems to have been closer to McAlhill when the family came to America but over the years it was simplified to Hill (e.g. Jane's name appears as McAlhill on her death record but her brothers' children went by "Hill"). Jane's census records indicate she had trouble reading and writing which may help to explain the simplification. Jane had at least two brothers, Thomas and Hugh. There may be other siblings that haven't been connected yet, and autosomal or yDNA testing may help to clarify links between early Vermont Hill families.

Many people from County Tyrone emigrated to the Dorset and Rutland areas of Vermont in the 1840s-1860s. The Great Famine in Ireland was 1845-1852, but life had been tough for some time before that with high unemployment and appalling housing and living conditions. "Their decision to go to America was less a choice than an imperative. Stay and starve, or leave and survive. They were more refugee than immigrant."^S11 It's not yet known whether Jane's parents immigrated to the United States. Jane arrived in Philadelphia on the ship "Superior" on 15 Sep 1853. Her brother Hugh arrived in New York on the "Excelsior" in 1855 and Thomas arrived on the "Isaac Might" in New York in 1857. Thomas settled in Dorset but Hugh moved around the state, living in Dorset, Rutland, and Middlebury.

Jane married marble worker John McDevitt before December 1858 when their first child, a son, was stillborn. John and Jane settled in Dorset and went on to have four more children, three of whom lived to adulthood. John and Jane's eldest son Patrick was married to Catherine Regan in October 1882 and just over 9 months later they welcomed their first grandchild to the world. John's three children went on to have large families of their own, giving Jane a total of twenty grandchildren.

Jane died in 1901, aged 75, from tuberculosis. She and John are buried in St. Jerome's Cemetery in East Dorset.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Bennington, Vermont, United States. 1860 U.S. Census Population Schedule
   Dorset, p. 40, dwelling 315, family 322.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Bennington, Vermont, United States. 1870 U.S. Census Population Schedule
   Dorset, p. 24, dwelling 206, family 202.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Bennington, Vermont, United States. 1880 U.S. Census Population Schedule
   Dorset, enumeration district (ED) 27, p. 16, dwelling 169, family 175.
4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 Find A Grave
   Saint Jeromes Catholic Church Cemetery, East Dorset, Bennington, Vermont, United States, Jane McDevitt, 1826-1901, http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=68479507.
   
5. ↑ Dorset (Vermont). Town Clerk. Records of births, marriages, and deaths, 1856-1994: indexes to births, marriages, deaths, 1734-1994. (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1995)
   Dorset, Bennington, marriage register 76, Malloy-McDevitt, 1896.
6. ↑ ^6.0 6.1 Vermont, United States. Vital Records, 1720-1908
   Dorset, death index cards: 183, Jane (McAlhill) McDevitt d. 18 Jan 1901.
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1 7.2} Bennington, Vermont, United States. 1900 U.S. Census Population Schedule
   Dorset, ED 29, sheet 7A, dwell. 148, fam. 157.
8. ↑ Vermont State Archives and Records Administration. Vermont Death Records, 1909-2008. (Ancestry)
   death certificate 47 (1959), William F. Mc Devitt.
9. ↑ Vermont State Archives and Records Administration. Vermont Death Records, 1909-2008. (Ancestry)
   death certificate 163 (1930), Patrick J. McDevitt.
10. ↑ Vermont State Archives and Records Administration. Vermont Death Records, 1909-2008. (Ancestry)
    death certificate 13 (1928), Sarah McDevitt Molloy.
11.   Feeney, Vincent E. Finnegans, Slaters and Stonepeggers : A History of the Irish in Vermont.
12. ↑ Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1800-varies. (Ancestry.com (database online))
    manifest, Superior, 15 Sep 1853, Jane McElhill aged 26.