Havey or Harvey from Ireland

Location: Ireland
Surnames/tags: Havey Harvey Heavey

Contents 1 Surname origins and variants 2 Havey surname frequency 3 A Havey puzzle: was Mrs. De Worth a Havey or a Harvey? 4 The Havey sisters of Ireland and Bordentown 5 Other Haveys in New Jersey

Surname origins and variants

Havey is a very rare surname in Ireland. It does not appear in MacLysaght's comprehensive book The Surnames of Ireland.

It may be a spelling variant of a more common surname, such as Heaphy, Heavey, Heavy or Harvey. (WikiTree allows only three of these to be used as tags for this page.) The rootsireland.ie surname matching algorithm treats Havey and Harvey as synonyms.

Havey surname frequency

There are only four Havey occupiers in the whole country in Griffith's Valuation, one in Roscommon, one in Mayo and two in a single townland in Cavan. Again there are only four households in the 1901 census of Ireland with Haveys.

As of 10 September 2021, WikiTree had the following end-of-line Havey ancestors born in Ireland:

• Katherine (Havey) De Worth, said to be b. March 1848 in County Clare, migrated to Bordentown, New Jersey.
• Bridget (Havey) Harrington, said to be b. Abt December 1842
• Patrick Havey, said to be b. 1815 in County Roscommon
• James Havey, said to be b. Abt 1808 in County Sligo
• Andrew Havey, said to be b. Abt December 1765

A Havey puzzle: was Mrs. De Worth a Havey or a Harvey?

Many sources render Mrs. De Worth's maiden surname as Harvey rather than Havey. This page was created as a repository for evidence which might solve this mystery.

As of 20 October 2021, Katie has just one source on WikiTree, in which her surname is Harvey. In her marriage date, some appear to have misread "two" as "five" in the year, which was 1872, not 1875.

There are so few Harveys in County Clare that it would be worth investigating whether Katie might be related to any others.

There appears to be no source bar oral tradition for the County Clare birthplace. No county is given on Find A Grave: Memorial #42267258.

Records which may refer to Mrs. De Worth include the following:

• this passenger list including a Harvey family

• the Kilmurry Ibrickan baptismal register from County Clare, including a Catherine Harvey with parents John Harvey and Mary Clancy baptised on 29 January 1843
  • There was no Harvey left in Kilmurry Ibrickan parish by Griffith's Valuation in 1855.
  • At least one of the family in the Kilmurry Ibrickan baptismal register appears to have ended up in Woodbury County, Iowa:
    • FamilySearch.org 1
    • FamilySearch.org 2
    • FamilySearch.org 3
    • FamilySearch.org 4
    • FamilySearch.org 5

Katie's greatgranddaughter Irene Cornish was in the national news in the U.S. in mid-2021, all starting from this Facebook post on 27 July, referring to Katie Ha(r)vey's marriage certificate.

There are news reports at the following links:

• 11 August: The Hunt is Over

• 13 August: People and Miami Herald

• 24 August: Lost Piece of Family History Found

• 26 August: Thrift Store Marriage Certificate

• 10 September: YouTube

Irene Cornish is on WikiTree, GEDmatch, 23andMe, FTDNA and AncestryDNA. Does she match any of the descendants of the County Clare Harveys?

The Havey sisters of Ireland and Bordentown

Irene Cornish and her ancestors were the subject of the WikiTree Challenge for the week of 20-27 October 2021. In her notes to the WikiTree Challenge team members and private messages, Irene wrote that her main focus was to learn more about her great grandmother (Katey, Catherine/Katharine Havey) and her sister, Annie Havey (who married a man with the last name Kane). She found Katey and Annie on the 1870 census and then found Katey on later census and other records after she married William Tindall DeWorth. She never could find Annie again. The two Havey sisters worked for related families in 1870: Moses Wills and Edward Wills. There were no other known siblings. According to Irene's mother (also Irene), Annie and her family (husband and two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth) lived in the house next door to her sister Katey in a house they owned (120 Second Street, Bordentown, NJ). It has proved impossible as of 27 October 2021 to document that information with a census. Perhaps they only lived next door for a period less than 10 years and they weren’t living there when census data was collected. Likewise, it has proved impossible to find any documents about Katey and her sister Annie’s immigration to the US. There are possible matches, but never enough data to be certain. Irene's mother said that Katey came to the US from Ireland at the age of 17 to work as a domestic servant. She said that Katey was born and raised in County Clare. It has been suggested that Clare might have referred not to the county but to some other similarly named place, such as the parish of Claregalway or the barony of Clare, both in County Galway. Katey and her sister, Annie, were raised by their mother’s two sisters after their parents died. Both orphan sisters migrated from Ireland to the United States, but it is not known whether one came first or they both came over together. It is not known by whom or how they were sponsored to be brought to Bordentown, New Jersey. The two sisters were in Bordentown together in 1870 working as domestic servants. They were only a year apart in age (if census estimates are accurate). It is not known why the Havey sisters settled on Burlington County when they chose to emigrate. Who recommended that area to them and who did they know when they arrived there?

Other Haveys in New Jersey

• Was Michael Havey (b. Abt 1820), who had several children who settled in and around Bordentown, New Jersey, related to Katharine De Worth née Havey (b. Abt 1848), who settled in Bordentown along with her sister? Katharine's sister is said to have married a Kane or Cain. The guests] at Michael's granddaughter's wedding in Trenton in 1902 included Mr. and Mrs. F. Cain, Mrs. P. Cain, Madey Cain and Celia Cain, but no DeWorth.

• Leo Joseph Havey (1894-1959)

• For more on Haveys in New Jersey, see this page.