Hays, David

It is almost certain - but not proven - that this David Hays is the David Hays, brother of Elizabeth/Betty Hays, wife of George Hays, our immigrant male Hays ancestor, and chiefly of importance to this story in helping trace the Hays family back to Ireland. According to family tradition as reported by Thomas Hays (1840-1920), and reproduced in the History of Armstrong County (1914), George Hays and his family, including Thomas' father Robert, arrived in the US via Canada around 1821-2 , "continuing their journey to Baltimore, Md., where David Hays, his wife’s brother, had a wholesale grocery business" before settling in Armstrong Co., PA.. Since this was not long before Thomas' birth, it is logical that he would have heard the story from his father and quite possibly have known this David, who died when Thomas was about 30.

We have immigratiopn records for this David, and a census trail that generally matches the history. Equally fortunate is that from 1850 on, we have names of family members in addition to ages in the census records and that David's wife was significantly older than he, making the trail easier to follow. There is no other David Hays in the City of Baltimore in 1830. By the 1840's and later, there were more, but this David is still in the city in 1850, listed as a merchant. Following names and ages, he and his family then end in in the Waterloo/Elk Ridge Landing area, in the 1860 and 1870 censuses, with real estate valued at $115,000, personal estate $13,800 in 1860, increasing to $250,000 and $23,000 in 1870, a sizeable estate for that time.

The one questionable part of this hypothesis is his age as given in the 1822 naturalisation documents was 24, giving him a birthdate of 1797 - 1798, and making his immigration at the age of 18 or 19. This birthdate is quite a bit later than his supposed sister Betty (1778 on her tombstone), although possible. Census records for this David generally indicate a birthdate of between 1794 - 1796. Those for his wife also vary, but are consistantly several years earlier. This leaves several possibilities: this is not the same David, either the census of naturalisation records - and most likely the naturalisation records - are incorrect, or David possibly came with his father, who was the real brother, and who might hae died before 1830, as did Betty's husband George. Given the papertrail, the family history and the knowledge we have that the family was fairly well off in Ireland, it seems likely that this is either the correct David or his son. There are also no other family trees on-line (2017) that claim this person as an ancestor with conflicting facts. Unfortunately to date, we have not been able to locate the family in Donegal.