O'Kelley Bibles, Family Myths, and other Records
O'Kelley Bibles can be a treasure troves of valuable information. I am interested in every bible record that can be found. It aids my research to see copies of the actual pages as there are many clues that can be learned from the handwriting and spellings in these bible records so the information they present is only part of the treasure.
Known O'Kelley Bible Records ( I have listed them in order by when the records were created):
Francis O'Kelly - 1838
EvidenceThomas OKelley b 1799 Bible Records - dated December 26th and 27th 1838. These bible pages represent Francis O'Kelly b 1761 and follow a line of his family for about 100 years. These are the earliest known records, they show how our name evolved from O'Kelly to OKelley and then finally to O'Kelley and these records are written by several generations of writers but I am certain that much of it was copied from another source and recorded in this bible at one setting probably after 1862. We can see this in the writing on the first page and the writing for Dora on the third page dated 1862 were done by the same hand. The death records are not recorded in order of date of death as one would expect to see it if the records were added as the deaths occurred. What is unique about these bible records is Thomas, his wife, or one of his children recorded Francis as one would presume he spelled his name at that time. We know that Francis nor Delilah made these first entries as the handwriting that recorded their births and marriage also recorded their death. It is logical to assume that this bible belonged to Thomas because in 1838 when the first records were created his oldest child had just turned 8 years old. The writing seems too developed for an eight year old so it is much more likely that Thomas made the entries himself after 1862 but before his own death in 1868. I suspect there may have been a previous family bible that was destroyed during our American Civil War and the original bible was probably replaced and the records copied from another ancestor's bible. I believe this is likely because Thomas's death is recorded in a different hand. My assumption is this bible belonged to Thomas and was handed down to his children and then to one of theirs. Robert Edward O'Kelley is the last to be recorded in the bible. It is unknown who possesses the original bible today but these copies live on.
What additional details can we learn from these copies? What we know is the four pages are numbered beginning with Page 677 and ending with Page 680. A search of the Internet finds that these page numbers with the same exact headings for Family Record Marriages on Page 677, Family Record Births Page 678, Family Record Births and Deaths Page 679, and Family Record Deaths Page 680 appear in an 1816 King James Version of the Bible printed by Mathew Carey making the bible maybe 50 years old before the 1838 entries were recorded sometime between 1862 and 1868. Mathew Carey also printed a much earlier Catholic Bible in America but it is believed only about 500 were printed and because of their rarity I have not been able to learn if these exact pages also appeared in that Bible.
Benjamin O'Kelly after 1851
EvidenceThese bible records are on file with the DAR and they begin with the birth of Benjamin F O'Kelly b 1814.
William Alvin O'Kelley 1852 bible American Bible Society Copyright 1852 - Family Bible Records for William Alvin O'Kelley and Family.
Rebecca Patton after 1852 This record is believed to have come from a bible belonging to Rebecca Patton. Like many of the others is shows the spelling of our last name without the apostrophe and in the records before 1848 without the second "e". George Wellborn O'Kelley 1866
EvidenceFamily Bible pages believed to have come from a bible owned by the George Wellborn O'Kelley Family. It places Charles O'Kelley's birth in about 1760. Francis C O'Kelley 1871 bible
EvidenceJ Fred O'Kelly in his 1966 book states, "Mrs. Carl C Walker, Conyers Ga, a descendant of Francis and Delilah has an old family bible which contains proof that Charles and Francis Kelley of Mecklenburg Co Va were the same men as Charles and Francis O'Kelley of Oglethorpe Co Ga." That bible has been located in the possession of her son, Charles Walker. It was printed in 1871 and begins with the family of Francis C O'Kelley born in 1761. The bible does not explicitly state that Francis Kelley of Mecklenburg is Francis O'Kelley of Oglethorpe but I suspect because the bible gives the same marriage information for Francis O'Kelley of Oglethorpe as the marriage records found in Mecklenburg that J Fred O'Kelly used this to come to his conclusion, one that I think is well founded in fact. I hope to come into possession of copies of the records within this bible and make them available. I suspect this bible likely belonged to Effie Kate O'Kelley's father, Thomas Dean OKelley but it could have belonged to her grandfather, Dr Francis C O'Kelley a contemporary of Dr Thomas K O'Kelley. It is likely Dr Francis C O'Kelley was Dr Thomas K O'Kelley's source for his belief that James was the name of our ancestor. Earnest B OKelly - 1902
EvidenceThe Earnest B OKelly b 1878 bible page is also a remarkable record as it may be the latest handwritten record showing the name spelled as OKelly. It is difficult to know when this bible page was created, it appears almost all of it was written at one time in pencil but there are what might be two later entries written in pen but all of the writing appears to be by the same person. My guess is this had to have been written after the 1902 marriage. It should be noted that James D OKelly the father of Earnest is buried in Oklahoma and his gravestone bears the name of O'Kelley. This is a common theme, we will find records sometimes written in the hand of the ancestor that shows their name spelled one way and find their gravestone with the modern spelling. Earnest B is also buried in Oklahoma and his gravestone as does is son, Raph Leo O'Kelly bears the spelling of O'Kelly. This bible record and gravestones show how some O'Kellys migrated the name to O'Kelley while some in the same family did not. It is unknown who possess the original bible.
Charles O'Kelley - aft 1912
EvidenceI have received copies of four pages that reportedly came from a bible belonging to a Barnett. At the bottom of the first page is the birth record for Charles O'Kelley the son of George Washington and grandson of my 5th great grandfather Charles. Because he is listed in these records the Barnett family tradition is he was either orphaned or a foster child and the Barnetts took him in. There is no evidence this could be true, Charles is well documented, his father and mother lived well into his adulthood, his grandmother lived almost as long as he did and he had two uncles that were Justice of the Peace and almost all his relations in that area owned slaves so I can't see how Charles could be an orphan or foster child. I question if these records actually came from bible pages. They appear to be are flat page scans, there is no evidence of distortion that one sometimes will see when scanning pages from a bound book and another oddity is of the page sizes of the scans. Some are large and some are just clips causing me to wonder if this may have come from a larger collection and the person who scanned them tried to limit the view to only Barnett records and might have mistakenly left Charles in the scan. I also believe all the records were written by the same person but it appears over a life time. It was suggested that the bible might have belonged to a Nancy Harrison Anthony but her death is recorded or at least a Hancy Harrison Barnett Anthony's death is recorded but the marriage record is recorded as Mancy so we know that Nancy could not have made her own entry recording her death and the two different spellings of Nancy isn't something one would expect Nancy to have done.
I am certain that these pages did not come from a bible but from a bible study guide and it was probably used by the church secretary to record membership data and that is why we see the odd page sizes and clips, the scanner was trying to limit who would be in the scans as to provide only those who relate to the person requesting the scans. They may have come from a disassembled book or a library collection. I suspect Charles was a mistake that the person doing the scanning just failed to clip him off the Barnett records and that gave birth to a family myth that Charles was adopted. I also believe Charles was recorded on that page long after his death because he died in 1852 and was probably buried under the spelling of O'Kelly but this record show the more modern O'Kelley spelling that became popular after 1850.
Update March 22 2011 - The connection between the Barnett's and Charles O'Kelley can be found in Alethea Jane Macon's book on page 23. Charles's father, George Washington O'Kelley was a Baptist Minister in Georgia. Also a minister was Lewis Chandler and he married Susannah Barnett. They had a son named Pleasant Barnett Chandler and he married the daughter of George Washington, the sister to Charles O'Kelley, and her name was Mary O'Kelley. It is very likely they all attended church together and that is the true source for Charles's name to appear on the Barnett pages.
Every family has beliefs that are passed from generation to generation as fact but are not based in anything provable, they are myths that have been accepted as fact. Much of the time these are harmless but they can move researchers in the wrong directions so my goal is to identify that which can be proven from that which can not. I am certain that in time the below list will grow but we live in an age that has the ability to use science to prove claims, paper can be dated, ink can be dated, handwriting can be analyzed, and DNA can provide proof so we don't have to guess and wonder any more we have the resources to sort fact from fiction.
William O'Kelley of Caroline Co VA is the father of our Ancestor, Thomas O'Kelley - Can not be confirmed Having invested consider time and expense investigating this claim, I am now certain this family myth was given birth by Harold O'Kelley's conclusions that he published in his 1985 book and his conclusions are not in my opinion based on evidence. Evidence is that which would cause a reasonable person to believe something is true. Harold supposes that because the name William appears in our first American born family and also appears in Charles O'Kelley and Thomas O'Kelley's family that William is likely to be the name of our first ancestor's father. Harold supports this by telling us of a William Kelley and son he found in records in Caroline Co Virginia but he does not tell us how William could be the father of our first ancestor if he was also in America as that would make William our first ancestor and not James or Thomas. I find his story a good read but I find nothing in it that proves William Kelley of Caroline Co Virginia is of our family. It should also not go unnoticed that Harold O'Kelley has a website on the Internet that has survived him and it reports it was last updated November 24, 2000 and that website makes no mention of William being the father of Thomas O'Kelley, so if he was so certain in 1985 when he published his book, it seems that belief or conclusion was no longer promoted in 2000 when he last updated his website.
Harold may have been correct about the name, because Charles and Mary named the first American born grandson William indicting that the person so many believe was Thomas O'Kelley Sr was actually William Kelley. Evidence to support this can be found in the 1782 Virginia Head of Household Census and it tells us about William Kelley living in Mecklenburg, the only Kelley, Kelly, O'Kelley, or O'Kelly family found living in Mecklenburg with ten others in the household. This does not appear to be the William Kelley that Harold O'Kelley found in Carolina Co and we actually have no evidence to prove that our family every lived in King and Queen Co as Harold claims. He supports his belief from a pension application filed by a Benjamin Kelly but that application also states that Benjamin was born in 1761 the same year as Francis who was born August 31, 1761 making it impossible for Benjamin to also have been born in that year. Harold failes to tell his reader about the birth year of 1761 only of the King and Queen Co birth place. I believe the Benjamin born in 1761 in King and Queen Co is of another family and some of his records have been incorrectly connected by mistake to our family and because that application is the cornerstone which Harold builds all his conclusions when it is removed, none of his conclusions can be proven, which out that application our family can only be found in Mecklenburg and never in King and Queen or Caroline Co.Thomas O'Kelley is the name of our first Ancestor - Can not be confirmed I know of not one single piece of evidence that proves Thomas was the name of our first ancestor to come from Ireland. J Fred O'Kelly in his 1966 book tells us it could be Thomas or James and leaves it at that. Alethea Jane Macon tells us the best evidence suggests it was Thomas but she doesn't share that evidence with her readers. Judith Reis the great great granddaughter of Dr Thomas K O'Kelley has shared her family story that claims that Dr O'Kelley copied from an Ancestor's bible a tree that says James and Anna are our first Ancestors and she claims to possess the original pages that her great great grandfather created but to my knowledge no one outside her family has seen such documents nor have they been authenticated to prove they were written by Dr O'Kelley so it seems no one knows conclusively. I have four bible pages displayed above that are dated Dec 26 & 27 1838 that displays James as the name of Francis's O'Kelley first born son and Thomas as his fourth born son and in my opinion and based upon my experience as a homicide investigation copy of a four page bible record is a single solid piece of evidence that seems to support Judith Reis's great, great, grand father's claim that James was our ancestor's name but it is a copy and without the original to be examined for age it too can not be authenticated. I believe there are reasons to think that Francis named is first born son James after rather famous Rev James O'Kelley who was living in Mecklenburg at the time and likely was the minister who officiated the wedding of Francis and Delilah. James O'Kelley and Anna Dean are the true names of our first ancestors. - Can not be confirmed but could become evidence if and when the documents are authenticated to confirm they are what they are presented to be. To title Dr. Thomas K O'Kelley's pages as "bible pages" is in my opinion misleading and to be frank I now believe the only reason they were every referred to as bible pages was to give them some additional clout or authority. Who chose to call them "bible pages" isn't clear but if they were identified as what they are now described to be, as pages an ancestor created on paper, they would have far less authority than titling them as "bible pages". I will try to clear the story up based upon my most recently understanding provided by Judith Ries a descendent of Dr O'Kelley and the reported keeper of the original records and as you read this keep in mind Judith's telling of this story to me has changed over the past year so it may again in the future.
While these pages were represented to me by Judith almost a year ago as "bible pages" to my knowledge no living person has seen an actual bible that these records reportedly originated from. Also to my knowledge no living person outside of Judith and maybe her immediate family has seen the five pages that Dr Thomas K O'Kelley was alleged to have created. My representation of the pages on my website was and continues to be based solely upon written emails and postings in public boards by Judith listing the records claimed to have come from those pages. I was originally told that family tradition claimed that Dr. Thomas K O'Kelley copied from an unidentified ancestor's bible information onto paper and he included that paper with his Civil War pension application where they were on file with our National Archives. To confirm my understanding I asked Judith Ries again on March 9 2011 if anyone had obtained a copy of Dr O'Kelley's pension file and if so were those pages returned with the pension file. Judith confirm that 30 years ago she requested and received the pension file including the pages in question. With her assurance I attempted to independently verify these pages were authentic; I ordered and received Dr Thomas O'Kelley's National Archive pension file and the pages that Judith refers to as "bible pages" were not contained in the documents sent to me by at our National Archives.
No one appears to have direct or actually knowledge of the origins of the five sheets of paper that Judith represents as bible pages but based upon the notarized statement of Dr Thomas K O'Kelley he presented his own personal family bible described by the Notary as printed in 1854. This is likely a bible printed in New York by the American Bible Society and had a full leather hardcover and is 9.75 by 12.25 inches in size. No one seems to know what became of Dr O'Kelley's family bible but I suspect some day it may surface as it is probably in a collection somewhere and I have doubts we will find James and Anna in that bible.
My investigation of James O'Kelley and Anna Dean has brought me to the Fredrick Henry O'Kelley family of Conyers GA. I can connect this family to Macon by the Coat of Arms image that appears in the beginning of Macon's book, that image was created by Fredrick Henry O'Kelley. Fredrick was the brother to Mrs. Carl C Walker one of the people Macon thanks in her book. I believe this family may have been Macon and J Fred's source for their statements in their books that some believed the name of our ancestor was James because Mary Evelyn O'Kelley, a daughter of Fredrick Henry O'Kelley wrote a college paper in the 60s where she presents James as our ancestor. Dr Thomas K O'Kelley was a peer to Dr Francis C O'Kelley the grandfather of Fredrick Henry O'Kelley and it is likely in time the two doctors came to know of one and another and exchanged communications about their families and I believe it is reasonable to assume that Dr Thomas K O'Kelley may have gained the five pages currently in the possession of Judity Ries from a bible in Dr Francis C O'Kelley's family, a bible that indicates that Francis named his first born son James and there may have also been some family lore passed claiming that James may have actually be named after Rev James O'Kelley who was very popular in Mecklenburg at the time James was born. If the above five pages are from the time when Dr Thomas K O'Kelley lived, they may be written in his hand or they may be pages written in the hand of someone within Dr Francis C O'Kelley's family and were mailed to Dr Thomas K O'Kelley and he has been mistakenly credited as the creator of those five pages. Only a lab specializing in paper and ink dating and in handwriting analysis would know but at the time of this post, the descendant in possession of the five pages has no desire to know.
Nimrod's grandfather was a Methodist Episcopal Minister - Can not be confirmed Ronald Lansing on page 207 of his 2005 book titled Nimrod, Courts , Claims, and Killing on the Oregon Frontier presents his readers with a statement that Nimrod's grandfather was a Methodist Episcopal Minister and he seems to credit a article publish in the Oregonian August 1 1886 by S. A Clarke of an interview of T B Odeneal who actual met Nimrod. I contacted Mr Lansing to learn the source of this claim and his response has caused me to believe that he did not obtain it through the 1886 newspaper article but from Alethea Jane Macon's book where she states that some descendants believe that our ancestor was Rev James O'Kelley. I have actually posted excerpts from the original S. A. Clarke article on Nimrod's page and what it says is that Nimrod came from Ireland where he was educated in several languages and trained to be a Catholic Priest. I have yet to find evidence to indicate either claim was true. I don't believe such an inaccuracy takes away from the story of Nimrod but I do believe descendants should view some of these claims with a questioning mind.
I believe this could be further proof that the Benjamin born in 1761 in King and Queen Co was not of our family. It is very possible the claims made in Lansing's book are true if one considers that Nimrod's father was a different Benjamin who was born in King and Queen Co in 1761 but has been confused with our Benjamin born in 1757. Nimrod may not have been of our family.
Records written or signed by the hands or our Ancestors.
Charles Dean OKelley - 1833
Charles Dean OKelley (as he signed his name) was a Justice of the Peace in and for Walton County Georgia. I have found two documents that he wrote and signed.
James OKelley - 1846
James was the older brother of the above Charles Dean OKelley and he was a Justice of the Peace in and for Madison County Georgia. I have found a document that he signed but I am certain he did not write.
Charles William O'Kelley -1889 Rev Charles William O'Kelley was a Baptist minister and the Justice of the Peace for Lancaster Township, Crawford Co Arkansas. He was the grandson of the above Charles Dean O'Kelley.
Letter Written by Stephen Charles O'Kelley
