Hi Rathmore & thanks for replying
. I've been a fan of the donegalgenealogy site for ages, but it's taken a looooong time to trace and confirm the correct names & townlands from so many possibilities
My grandfather was born here in Australia. He knew his parents had left their first-born - an infant daughter- behind in Donegal, when they emigrated, intending to bring her out when she was old enough to do so safely.
Sadly, his mother-nee Bridget O'Donnell- & his Australian born siblings all died before his 3rd birthday. His father, John Devir, was last heard of in 1903, in Perth, (3-4 thousand kms or 2-2
1/2 thousand miles away), where he'd gone to work in gold, then copper, mining...but no trace & no death cert. of course...
So it's been a very slow & painstaking process, with wisps of oral history & trickles of info from Irish records, until the release of the R C parish records
A further complication was that my grandfather spent a lot of time, as a child, with 2 of his father's older, by 16 & 18 years respectively, brothers. They had emigrated to Australia 15 & 17 years earlier.
There is evidence that they were from Kilmacrenan, and their father's forename was different to their younger brother's, who was definitely from Magherablad near Creeslough.
There was vague talk that they were half brothers, and that their mother had married 2 Devir men.
Oh, to have time over to converse with those long gone!