O'Kelley Migration
It is sometimes helpful to look at visuals to
obtain a better understanding of the movements of our ancestors.
The first documented location for Charles and
Francis and Rev James O'Kelly is in southern Mecklenburg County Virginia where it
joins with North Carolina. On the North Carolina side of
the border joined Granville and Warren County places that Thomas
and Benjamin are found but today these counties are
separated Vance County which was formed from the portions of
Granville and Warren Co where they came together alone the
Virginia border. It was possible that Charles and Francis
could live in Mecklenburg Co Virginia, Thomas live in Granville
Co North Carolina and Benjamin live in Warren Co North Carolina
and they could have live within eyesight of each other.
That area is represented in the center of the below map, the
labeled Virginia and North Carolina may be the exact location
where Thomas, Charles, Benjamin and Francis lived with their
families for almost two decades before they moved southward
mostly all to Georgia. All that area is at the bottom of a
lake today but in their time iit was the Roanoke River and its
southern contributory.
So where did Charles and Francis O'Kelley
come before they are found in Mecklenburg Co VA? I think
they originated in the place as George Crowder and this two
daughters, Mary and Delilah, the women these two men married.
I suspect Charles married
Mary Crowder while they were still living
in Bristol Parish Prince George Co and they moved with her
father George Crowder soon after to Mecklenburg Co Virginia.
I think it likely that Francis probably followed
Charles to Mecklenburg, he may have
worked for George Crowder for a time then he married Delilah in
Mecklenburg.
My theory seems supported by a Bristol Parish Prince George
birth record for Mary Kelly born to William and Sarah Kelly Sept
22 1925. I suspect William and Sarah are the grandparents
of Charles and Francis O'Kelley and
likely the parents of Rev James O'Kelly
as Prince George Co borders Surry Co Virginia a place that it
has been said that Rev James
O'Kelly and his wife Elizabeth Meeks
were married. Also found in Surry Co are the land records
for a Thomas Dean who I suspect is the father of Elizabeth Dean
and the maternal grandfather of Charles and Francis O'Kelley.
Our ancestors migration south began in the Mecklenburg Co Virginia
North Carolina area which is represented as A
in the below map and ending at Oglethorpe Co Georgia represented
as D on the below map is by our modern roads of today 413 miles
and expected to take a little less than 8 hours on our modern
highways but such a
trip for our ancestors would take six weeks and maybe longer.
Around 1800 when they made their migration there were not many
roads and only a few bridges. Benjamin migrated from Warren
County North Caroline which was just across the Virginia North
Carolina to Buncombe, North Carolina which appears just above
the B on the below map as Asheville. Some of Benjamin's
children and grandchildren moved from Buncombe, North Carolina
to Pickens which is represented as B on the below map and from
there some went on to Seneca South Carolina which is represented
as C on the below map. The visual shows how the O'Kelleys
moved mostly along the same line and once they were in Georgia
we find then spreading out, some going north to Habersham Co
George, some to Hall Co and many to Athens Georgia. The
times they appear in these other counties correspond with the
Georgia Land Lotteries so it seems clear these moves were
accomplished so they would meet the resident requirements
allowing them to take part in the land lotteries that were held
in those Georgia Counties. As one can see our ancestors
were so much more than just names on a page, just as we do
today, they were taking advantage of the opportunities in their
goal to provide a better life for their families. My 3rd
great grandfather was Charles Dean O'Kelley
the son of Charles O'Kelley and no long
after he and Mary Stamps married in 1820 they moved to Walton
County likely to meet the resident requires for the coming
Walton County Lottery. So it was the promise of free land
that kept our ancestors on the move, it was likely that same
promise that caused our Irish ancestor to leave his native
Ireland and migrate to Virginia giving all his descendants alive
today their foothold in the great nation to have ever existed.
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My 2nd great grandfather James Stamps
O'Kelley as an adult left his father's Walton County home
represented as A on the below map and he moved to the Gordon Co
Georgia area about the time of the last Georgia lottery and he
like his ancestors likely did so to qualify for that land
lottery. H was like most in his time a farmer but during
the Civil War he did the smart thing and worked in a wagon
factory building wagons for the Confederacy. At some point the
factory was closed by the invading Union Army and my grandfather
was permitted to return home where he shoed horses. Those traits
appeared in my father and uncles as most my uncles were
carpenters and my father was an auto body repair or body and
fender as most people referred to them. At one time my father
worked at Armbrusters in Ft Smith building stretch Limos so in a
way he too followed the path of his great grandfather. Unlike
his father and grandfather, James Stamps
O'Kelley never owned slaves but life was so difficult in
Georgia after the war that in December 1870 my grandfather
hitched two oxen named Logan and Darb to a covered wagon and
brought his family to Crawford County Arkansas arriving Feb 3,
1871. Why Arkansas? J Fred tells us that Lucy's kin
had moved to Crawford Co and they helped them secure a farm but
James Stamps O'Kelley's adult son, Charles
William O'Kelley my 1st great grandfather also came and he
homesteaded property just north of the 81 Community near Rudy
Arkansas. By modern roads the trip is 804 miles and is
estimated to take 13 hours and 45 minutes. It took my
grandfather and family almost 3 months. On my 58 birthday
in 2010 my oldest son Shawn and I drove almost the exact same
trip when we visited Stone Mountain Georgia. It is likely
we cross some of the same ground and at the same places as our
ancestors did more than 140 years before us.
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