Treasure Chest Thursday: O’Brien-Devereux Family,

In keeping up with my O’Brien research I’ve been posting lately, the will of Delia Lyons certainly yielded a treasure trove of information on her family. I suspect that Daniel O'Brien's wife, Teresa, was Bridget’s sister, who apparently had died by the time Delia wrote her will in Humphrey, Cattaraugus County, New York on 29 January 1879. (If this is indeed the case, this narrows Teresa’s death to the year 1878.) This is based on the fact that Daniel O’Brien was not listed as an heir in Delia’s probate records but his son William O’Brien was listed as her nephew. The 1893 Cattaraugus county history indicates that Teresa’s maiden name was Devereux.
Delia/Bridget gave her husband Peter her “farm of 45 acres” in the town of Humphrey. Other heirs named included her sister Jane Edwards (age 62) of the town of Moate, County Westmeath, Ireland and her sister Mary King (age 74) of Humphrey, New York. Also named as next of kin (no relationship stated unless otherwise noted) were John Devro age 65 of the town of Moate, County Westmeath, Ireland; Owen Devro age 65 of No. 86 Horatio St, NY City; William O’Brien, nephew age 27 of Humphrey; James T. Devro age 35 of Moate, County Westmeath, Ireland; Thomas Keenan of same place and Peter Kelly age 30 at same address as Owen Devro. Her will mentions leaving money to the St. Johns Catholic Church in Utica, New York and to the Green Chapel Church in the town of Moate, County Westmeath, Ireland “where her mother and father belonged at the time of their death.”

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