When Margaret Elizabeth Beckstead was born on 6 June 1863, in Williamsburgh, Dundas, Ontario, Canada, her father, William Abner Beckstead, was 24 and her mother, Elizabeth Madden, was 25. She married David Simon Duvall on 7 June 1886, in Stormont, Ontario, Canada. They were the parents of at least 3 sons and 1 daughter. She died on 25 November 1945, in Lanark, Ontario, Canada, at the age of 82, and was buried in Morrisburg, South Dundas, Stormont Dundas and Glengarry, Ontario, Canada.