Last Updated on August 9, 2022 by Michelle McIver
Our knowledge of the “first family” stems largely from the detailed history compiled by Sister Mary Charles McIver for the 1964 first edition of the McIver Family History book. As historical records become more readily available publicly, we have continued to conduct research to confirm the dates and facts presented from past oral histories, as well as attempt to find prior generations in Ireland.
Hugh McKeever and Mary Quinn were born in Ireland. The oral history indicates that they were married in Ireland, then travelled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1826, where their oldest three children, John, Hugh, and Owen, were born. They returned to Ireland, where Anne, Charles and Michael were born. It is thought (although not confirmed) that Hugh and Mary returned to Ireland as there was a canal being built, and therefore there was potential for good employment.
Around the time that the family emigrated from Ireland to Prince Edward Island in 1839, there were a large number of families from County Monaghan, Ireland, settling in the area. This had begun in 1830, when Father John MacDonald, who had inherited a large amount of land on the Island, offered grants of 100 acres of land to each family who emigrated with him. Thirty-two families emigrated with Father MacDonald at that time, however he sent his agent, James Trainor, back to Monaghan to continue recruiting emigrants, and therefore emigration continued until about 1848.1
It is unknown whether the family had an agreement for the lease of land prior to arriving on the Island, or whether this was established following their arrival. The family settled in the area now known as Newton, Prince Edward Island, at some point between their arrival in 1839 and 1841, as the 1841 Census shows that Hugh was leasing 100 acres of land by verbal agreement. At that time, three acres of land were areable, and the family was producing 100 bushels of potatoes, and owned 2 cattle and 10 hogs.
Over the next few years, four more children were born for a total of eleven children.
Over the next eighteen years before Hugh died in 1857, the family members would have worked together to clear the land and establish homesteads. When Hugh died, at 56 years of age, the children ranged in age from eight to thirty-two. It appears the only one to marry before his death was Anne, to Francis McKenna, in 1855. Charles had also died in an accident on the farm before Hugh’s death in 1857.
Mary (Quinn) McKeever seems to have followed her son, Michael, to live in Hampton following the death of her husband. She died there in 1876, the same year as her daughter, Anne (38 years).
Hugh’s will stipulated that Farm No. One on Lot 26 (the “original homestead”, in 2009, this was the home of the Late Eugene McIver) was to go to his wife Mary and that on her death the farm and contents were to be divided between his sons Michael and Peter. His eldest son John received the farm beside the original homestead (in 2009, this was the residence of Fred McIver). A third son, Owen, received Farm Number Three which was the second property to the east of the original homestead (a close family friend, Bernard McCourt, owned the intervening property). In 2009, this was owned by Hugh John McIver’s sons).
Later, the 1880 Meacham Atlas indicated that John had ownership of the original homestead as well as the farm he received in the will. Michael had a farm in Hampton (Lot 29). Owen was listed as still owning his willed property. The 1881 census listed this residence as having two adults, Owen and Susan McKeever. One of their sister’s children, Charles William McKenna, 12 years old, was living with them as his mother Anne McKeever had died in 1876. The records indicate that Charles left for the United States in his mid-teen years. In 1881, Peter was living with Michael and his family in Hampton.
At some point in the 1800s, through a land grant or other official transaction, the family name was changed from McKeever to McIver.
On-going Research
To date, unfortunately, we have not been successful in locating parents or siblings of either Hugh McKeever or Mary Quinn, or to confirm their dates of birth, although we continue to follow leads. We have, however, located baptismal records in both Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Ireland, which we believe are those of their children.
We have attempted to locate passenger lists for the ships that they would have travelled on to and from Ireland, and Pennsylvania, again, without success.
One area of research currently being pursued relates to this Irish Flax Spinning Wheel, which is still in possession of the family, and which we believe the family brought with them from Ireland. In the late 1700s, the Irish Linen Board awarded spinning wheels based on the number of acres of flax planted, and a list of all flax producers was published in 1796.
Children of Hugh McKeever and Mary Quinn
John McIver (1825-1899)
Owen McKeever (1827-1883)
Hugh McKeever (1829-1871)
Anne McKeever (1834-1876)
Charles McKeever
Michael McIver (1837-1910)
Peter McIver (1839-1921)
Catherine McKeever (1842-1900)
Mary McKeever (1844-1918)
Susan McIver (1847-1918)
Margaret McKeever (1849-1951)
John McIver
John McIver was the first of eleven children born to Hugh McKeever and Mary Quinn. John was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1825, based on the baptismal record located at St. Augustine Church. He returned with his parents to Ireland, around 1833-34, and in 1839 settled on Prince Edward Island. John was about fourteen years of age when he arrived on the Island.
John, with his siblings and parents, would have worked to clear the land. The 1841 Census on PEI indicates his parents had 100 acres of land leased by verbal agreement and that three of these acres were areable. When his father died in 1857, John was thirty-two years of age and still living at home as there was no house in the 1880 Meacham Atlas on the land he inherited from his father. The homestead was willed to become Michael and Peter’s when their mother died. In the 1880 Meacham Atlas, Michael is in Hampton and John has possession of both the farm he was willed and the original homestead.
It looks like he married Emily Harrington between1857-1859 as the first child, Frances, was born in 1860. Emily was the seventh of eight children born to John Cornelius Harrington and Johanna McGrath. John, Johanna and their two oldest children emigrated from County Cork, Ireland to Prince Edward Island and settled in the Hampton area. Years later John’s brother, Michael McIver bought the farm next to the Harrington homestead. All of John and Emily’s ten children were born in Newton on the original McIver homestead, presently owned by the family of the late Eugene McIver. Peter D., the youngest of their children, also raised his own family in the original farmhouse, but that was replaced in 1939 by the present structure.
Seven of their ten children remained in PEI. Minnie and Charles never married or had children, whereas Fannie, Hugh, T.A. (Theodore Augustine), Georgiana and Peter D. all married and had large families. Faustina (Sister Damien) and Emily (Sister Mary Charles) entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in St. Paul, Minnesota. John Adrian married and settled in Contra Costa, California.
John died in 1899, in Newton, Prince Edward Island, and is buried in St. Malachy’s Cemetery in Kinkora.
Click here to view John McIver’s full record in our electronic family tree.
Back to list of Children of Hugh McKeever and Mary Quinn
Owen McKeever
Owen McKeever was initially believed to be the third of eleven children born to Hugh McKeever and Mary Quinn, born in 1831. However, a baptismal record was located at Old St. Joseph’s Church in Philadelphia, which indicates that he was born on January 10, 1827, and baptized on January 20, 1827. He returned to Ireland with his parents, and would have been twelve years old when his parents, once again, crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1839 to settle in Newton, Prince Edward Island.
Like the other members of the family, Owen would have been an active member of the settlement clearing and development.
When his father died in 1857, he was provided with Farm Number Three. The 1880 Meacham Atlas shows he had two properties. One of these properties in the Atlas had a building located on it. This first property is the farm that later would be inherited by Annie Kelly McCarville. The second property is the field on the southwest side of the crossroads.
Owen died in 1883. Owen is buried beside his father’s close friend, Bernard McCourt, in St. Malachy’s Cemetery in Kinkora.
Click here to view Owen McKeever’s full record in our electronic family tree.
Back to list of Children of Hugh McKeever and Mary Quinn
Hugh McKeever
Hugh McKeever was the third of eleven children born to Hugh McKeever and Mary Quinn. He was born in 1829 while his parents were residents of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Later, he would travel back to Ireland with his parents and two siblings. In 1939, he was ten years old when he, his parents and other siblings crossed the Atlantic Ocean once again.
Hugh would have been an integral part of the clearing of the land and the development of the settlements on the three farms his father was in possession of when he died in 1857.
His father died in 1857 when Hugh was twenty-eight years old. His father’s will stated, “to my well beloved son Hugh McKeever the sum of one hundred pounds currency to be raised and levied out of my property and paid to him by my Executors hereafter named on the first day of January, Eighteen hundred fifty eight.”
Little research has been conducted on Hugh. To date the only record that has been found is “Country store license in Crapaud, issued to Hugh McKever January 13, 1865, license book number 6, page 246.” His sister, Anne, married to Frank McKenna, was living in the area at that time.
Hugh died in 1871 from pneumonia.
Click here to view Hugh McKeever’s full record in our electronic family tree.
Back to list of Children of Hugh McKeever and Mary Quinn
Anne McKeever
Anne McKeever McKenna was the oldest girl and fourth of eleven children born to Hugh McKeever and Mary Quinn. She was one of the children born in Ireland, and came with her parents and five brothers to Newton, Prince Edward Island in 1839. In 1856, she married Francis (“Frank”) McKenna.
Frank McKenna went to California at the time of the Gold Rush. He did not come home empty handed. He bought a large farm and built a spacious home. His lawns and gardens, patterned after what he had seen in California, were the envy of the neighbours at that time. To this home he brought Anne McKeever. They were married in St. Joseph’s Church in Kelly’s Cross when Anne was 22 years of age. Anne and Frank were married the year before her father died. She and her brother, Charles, are the only family members who are not mentioned in his will.
Anne and Frank had eleven children, three of whom died in infancy. Anne died on December 28, 1876 when her eight living children ranged in age from 2 1/2 years to 15 years. The 1881 Census indicates that, at that time (five years later), the McKenna children were living among various members of the family and friends throughout the Island. Veronica (age 10) was living with John Shields and Annie Shields on Lot 26. Charles (age 12) was living on Lot 26 with his mother’s siblings, Peter and Susan, (just down the fields from where Anne was raised). Maggie (age 14) and Mary (age 20) were living in Lot 19 with John and Mary Mullin (Anne’s sister and husband). Mary was a school teacher at the time. Lavinia (age 6), Francis (age 8), and Ada (age 16), were living with their father in Lot 29.
Three of the girls (Ada, Margaret, and Veronica) became members of The Sisters of Charity, while Mary Ellen, Fannie (Jane Frances), and Lavinia married and raised their children in PEI. Anne’s two sons, Charles and Francis, both established their families and careers in Massachusetts, though Charles later moved to New Hampshire.
Anne is buried in St. Malachy’s Cemetery in Kinkora. Her headstone is still standing and is located beside her brother, Owen, and Bernard McCourt who was a long-time family friend.
Click here to view Anne McKeever’s full record in our electronic family tree.
Back to list of Children of Hugh McKeever and Mary Quinn
Charles McKeever
Based on information found in the 1841 Census, it is most likely that Charles was born in Ireland, between the birth of his sister, Anne, in 1834, and that of his brother, Michael, in 1837. The oral history provides that Charles died as a child in an accident on the farm. This occurred at some point before Hugh’s death in 1857, as he is the only unmarried child not named in Hugh’s Last Will and Testament.
Click here to view Charles McKeever’s full record in our electronic family tree.
Back to list of Children of Hugh McKeever and Mary Quinn
Michael McIver
The baptismal record for Michael McKeever was found in County Monaghan, Ireland. This record includes the following information:
“Michael McKeever, son of Hugh McKeever and Mary Quinn from Drumagelvin townland, Parish of Tyholland, was baptized 25 January 1837. The sponsors were Bernard McCourt and Mary McKeever. The priest was Rev. Arthur Holland”
Discussion with a genealogist (Theo McMahon) in County Monaghan indicates that the church in which the baptism took place was newly opened in 1837 and is still open and in good condition. Family members have visited this church and pictures of the church will be placed on the web site. When the genealogist was asked why the family would have come back to Ireland, his response was that they were building a new canal in the area where the family was located and there was probably hope for work.
Michael was 20 years of age when his father died in 1857. In his father’s will, he is designated to share Farm No. One in Lot 26 with his brother Peter when their mother died. Until that time, she was to own the property. His brother John was to have the farm joining to Farm No. One in Lot 26. In the 1880 Meacham Atlas both of these farms are in the possession of John, and Michael has a farm property in Hampton. It is not known at this time when Michael moved to Hampton and under what circumstances. It is interesting that it appears his mother continued to live with him, as it was in Michael’s home in Hampton where she died in 1876. At this time, Michael was married to Susan McKenna and they had one child. Michael and Susan went on to have nine children.
As per the 1900 US Census, Michael, Susan, and two of their children, Charles Hugh and Zita, immigrated to the United States in 1898, and were living in Caribou, Maine, on a farm owned by Michael. In 1901, they were back in Hampton, Prince Edward Island, where their son, Michael J. was identified as the head of the household in the 1901 Census of Canada. Michael and Susan’s other children appear to have been under the care of Michael J. while they were in Caribou, Maine.
Michael and Susan’s children all left the Island. Zita returned to Caribou, Maine, and both Josie (Josephine) and Michael J. Immigrated to nearby Van Buren, Maine. Josie settled in Massachusetts following her marriage, and Michael J. returned to PEI where he stabbed large potato farms based on the knowledge he brought back from the US. Laura (Loretta) and Charles Hugh settled in Massachusetts, and Mary Ann, Cecelia and Margaret all settled in San Francisco, California. Eugene seems to have travelled the most, living in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, followed by Butte, Montana. He returned to PEI following the death of his first wife, later travelling to the US with the intention of settling in Massachusetts, however he finally returned and settled in PEI.
Michael and his wife Susan are buried in St. Malachy’s Cemetery in Kinkora, Prince Edward Island, where there is a beautiful headstone that also has their son Eugene’s name on it.
Click here to view Michael McIver’s full record in our electronic family tree.
Back to list of Children of Hugh McKeever and Mary Quinn
Peter McIver
Peter McIver was the seventh child born to Hugh McKeever and Mary Quinn. He was born in November 1839 on Prince Edward Island, which is confirmed by his baptismal record from November 24, 1839 at St. Dunstan’s Basilica, which noted that he was 10 days old when he was baptized. It was previously thought that Peter was born in Ireland, until the baptismal record was located for Peter in Prince Edward Island. In the record, his name is shown as Peter McEver.
Peter was eighteen years old when his father died in 1857. Hugh’s will stipulated that Farm No. One on Lot 26 was to go to his wife Mary and that on her death the farm and contents were to be divided between Peter and Michael. However, the 1880 Meacham Atlas indicated that John had ownership of the original homestead as well as the farm he received in the will.
The 1881 Census shows that Peter was living with his brother Michael, at Michael’s farm in Hampton (Lot 29). Following his brother Owen’s death, Peter and Susan were residing on Lot 26, and in 1886, they welcomed a two-year-old youngster into their home, Annie Kelly, daughter of their sister and her husband, Margaret McIver and Francis Kelly. Annie remained in this home all her life.
In 1911, Annie married John A. McCarville, who grew up on the farm next door. Susan died in 1918 and Peter died in 1921. When Peter died, he willed the farm to Annie Kelly McCarville. Peter, Susan, Annie and John are buried together in St. Malachy’s Cemetery in Kinkora, Prince Edward Island.
Click here to view Peter McIver’s full record in our electronic family tree.
Back to list of Children of Hugh McKeever and Mary Quinn
Catherine McKeever
We do not have much information about Catherine McKeever. She was born in 1842, and was the eighth of eleven children born to Hugh McKeever and Mary Quinn. Catherine resided at the Prince Edward Island Hospital for the Insane until her death on April 7, 1900. She is buried at St. Malachy’s Cemetery in Kinkora, Prince Edward Island.
Click here to view Catherine McKeever’s full record in our electronic family tree.
Back to list of Children of Hugh McKeever and Mary Quinn
Mary McKeever
Mary McKeever was the ninth of eleven children born to Hugh McKeever and Mary Quinn. She was born in Newton, Prince Edward Island in 1844 and was thirteen years of age when her father died in 1857. She married John Thomas Mullin from the Kensington area. Based on the date of the birth of their first child, they likely married around 1875 which would leave her in her early thirties.
John and Mary worked a 150-acre farm outside Kensington on which they raised eight children. One of Mary’s older sisters, Anne McKeever McKenna died in 1876 leaving behind eight children. In the 1881 Census, John and Mary have five children of their own and have two of their sister’s children living with them, Maggie (age 14) and Mary (age 20). They later had another three children. There are no living descendants in this family line.
It was only Annie, their oldest daughter, who had a family of her own, however, this is where the family line ended as none of Annie’s children had any children of their own. Annie, and her siblings, Peter, Minnie and George remained in PEI. Lena (Angelina) married and settled in Massachusetts. John Jr. spent part of his time in Massachusetts, however he died in Detroit, Michigan. Charles settled in Vancouver, British Columbia, where his brother Isadore joined him before moving to Los Angeles, California, to train as a dentist. Unfortunately, Isidore died shortly after moving there.
John and Mary were known as successful farmers and attended church at St. Mary’s in Indian River. They were both 74 years of age when they died and they are buried in Indian River. Their farm was inherited by their oldest son, Peter Edwin Mullin.
Researched by Desmond McIvor
Click here to view Mary McKeever’s full record in our electronic family tree.
Back to list of Children of Hugh McKeever and Mary Quinn
Susan McIver
Susan was born in April 1847 in Newton, Prince Edward Island, and was the tenth of eleven children born to Hugh McKeever and Mary Quinn. She remained single and lived with her brother, Peter, in the house that is presently (2004) owned by James McIver. It was a most pleasant place to visit and the nieces or nephews visiting them would frequently return home with jams, pickles and vegetables. In 1886, their niece, Annie Kelly, was brought to their home to live with them. Annie married John McCarville and following Peter’s death, the farm was inherited by Annie and her husband, John. John’s father owned the adjoining farm on the east side.
Susan is buried alongside her brother, Peter, and Annie and her husband John, in St. Malachy’s Cemetery in Kinkora, Prince Edward Island.
Submitted by Eileen McAvinn (with updates)
Click here to view Susan McIver’s full record in our electronic family tree.
Back to list of Children of Hugh McKeever and Mary Quinn
Margaret McKeever
Margaret McKeever Kelly was the youngest of the eleven children born to Hugh McKeever and Mary Quinn. She was born in 1849 on Prince Edward Island. Margaret was nine years old when her father died.
The marriage register shows Margaret married Francis Kelly on January 26, 1880 in Desable, Lot 65. They were married by Father James A.E. MacDonald and the witnesses were John Bradley and Susan McIver. They had seven children. The family home was in Borden, PEI and was on land known as Kelly’s Point. In the early 1990s this property became the staging ground for the construction of the Confederation Bridge.
Frank Kelly was born at Kelly’s Cross, PEI. He was a carriage builder, a trade he worked at all his life. He worked in a carriage shop in Shamrock and in a shop owned by Dan Noonan at Bedeque. He also spent a short time in the Western United States. He eventually had his own shop at Borden. He also built the tread mills that were used for power in those days. They used horses or other animals as a source of power on those mills. He could do many things with wood, even making his own pipes for which he used roots of apple trees.
Frank was a real scrappy Irishman! When he had a few nips, he wasn’t a bit modest about his abilities in this field. He loved horses and dearly loved to get out on the road with a good stepping horse, even when he was nearly ninety years of age.
The home at the Kelly’s Shore became the gathering place for the McKeever women. They would bring children and grandchildren to the beautiful shore and entertain each other.
Margaret died in 1931 at the age of eighty-two years. Two of their seven children, Maud and Emmett, stayed at home and cared for their parents in their older years. Annie and Frank Jr. also remained in PEI, where they married and raised families. The youngest three children, Fanny, Maggie, and Joe, all settled in Massachusetts. Only Joe married and had a family.
Margaret and Francis are buried in St. Peter’s Cemetery at Seven Mile Bay.
Researched by Desmond McIvor
Click here to view Margaret McKeever’s full record in our electronic family tree.
Back to list of Children of Hugh McKeever and Mary Quinn
1 O’Grady, Brendan. Exiles and Islanders: the Irish Settlers of Prince Edward Island. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2004.