The subject of adoptive families is always intriguing. How does a family made up of disparate parts meld together and make a cohesive whole, and if the effort is unsuccessful, who pays the price? Michael and Mary Devine immigrated from Ireland in 1850 or so and by 1870 they had adopted a young boy and possibly had one of their own. James Devine's adoptive history was noted when he married Lillian Grampp in 1899. Records for James were not consistent. In 1870 his birthplace was given as Ireland, but in 1880 it was noted as Illinois. His death record states his birthplace was Sangamon County. He could have been an orphan from the famed orphan trains if he was truly born in Ireland. Another son who was noted in the 1870 and 1880 census was Francis. Francis was born in 1869 and died in 1888 of typhoid fever. Because Francis was so young when he first appeared in the census, he would not be an orphan train child. He could have been a natural born child, or a local orphan. A massive family monument stands in St. Mary's Cemetery for Michael, Mary and Francis. James died in 1944 and shares a memorial with his wife.
One year after Francis' death in 1888, Michael and Mary welcomed another child into their home. This time they chose a little eight year old girl named Marie June Tavormina. Records at the University of Illinois from the New York Juvenile Asylum note she was left with the Devines in 1889. The New York Juvenile Asylum was one of the institutions in New York that removed children from the streets and sent them by train to Illinois.
On January 11, 1900 the wedding of James Frawley and May (Marie) Devine was reported in the Pantagraph. May's adoptive status was front and center on that date: "The bride is a beautiful young Italian girl who was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Devine years ago, and has been brought up as their own." After the wedding, May lived in Holder on the Frawley farm.
In 1899, when the Devines were saying good bye to Marie as she married, Michael and Mary took in another child from the New York Juvenile Asylum. Annie O'Brien was ten or eleven years old. Annie appeared in the 1900 census as their ward with the occupation of "house maid." No further record of her life could be found in census records or the newspaper. Mary died in 1906 and Michael died in 1913, when Annie would have been old enough to be married or working elsewhere.
Although the Pantagraph called the Devines "prominent" farmers when Michael retired from farming and moved to Bloomington in 1899, no obituary could be found in the Pantagraph at the time of his death or at the time of Mary's death. What this record would have said about their children would have been very interesting.
The Devines opened their homes to at least three orphaned children and two of them went on to have families of their own. James and Marie each had four children with their spouses and had prosperous lives. James continued farming in the same area, and may even have continued farming the Devine farm. May, or Marie as she was later known, lived until 1974, outliving two brothers and a sister. The note of her adoptive brothers and sister in her funeral notice indicates that the family bond between them was acknowledged even after the deaths of Michael and Mary.