There are many reasons to suspect that John
Kelley belongs in my family.
1. In the Rev James
O'Kelly files at Elon University is found the
1936 family Pedigree chart for John Daniel McCurry a
descendant and he proposes that Rev James had three
brothers, a William D and Thomas D who served in the
Revolutionary War and a John who is said to have been a
wealthy tobacco merchant. Most who have researched
Rev James O'Kelly claim he came
from Surry Co Virginia.
2. John Kelley is found in the Albemarle Parish
Vestry Records for Surry Co Virginia. Between 1747
and 1767 he appears 7 times sometimes as a land owner
but sometimes as part of the Vestry administration.
He clearly is a man of wealthy and power and is likely
the John Kelley that appears in the
1936 family Pedigree chart.
3. Also appearing in 1752 in the Albemarle Parish
Vestry Records for Surry Co Virginia is a Mary Dean.
This is the first time I have been able to place a Dean
and a Kelley living in the same Parish and County in the
time frame that Elizabeth Dean and her husband would
have lived. A Thomas Dean who I suspect was Mary
Dean's husband and the father of Elizabeth Dean appears
in the records receiving a 100 Acre Land Grant Feb 22
1724 in Surry Co Va. I suspect sometime after his
children were born and the appearance of Mary Dean in
the Vestry Records in 1752, Thomas died leaving Mary
widowed.
4. John was the name given to
Thomas O'Kelley's first born
grandson and it was the name that Thomas gave to his
last born son . Thomas is
believe to have been Elizabeth Dean's first born son.
Rev James O'Kelly also named a son
Rev James O'Kelly so the name John does appear in my
early family. |
| |
|