Welcome to Ui Ceallaigh of Eirinn (Ireland)
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O'Kelley of Bregia shares an ancestor with Hy-Many from about 4500 years ago, about 3500 years before surnames came into use. 
Table of Contents

I have attempted to used spellings reflective of
the time period and not necessarily the spellings
used by the source documentation. 

My O'Kelley DNA Research

 

The purpose of this website is to document as many of the Irish Ua Ceallaigh members as possible and to encourage others to contact me and add their family lines.   There are many errors and that is expected because I am attempting to document an Irish line that goes back about 1700 years before my birth beginning with Colla-da-Chrioch the first king of Orgial as from him it was said came many different lines of O'Kelly.

I am O'Kelley of Bregia but for about 150 years it was believed my family were O'Kelly of Hy-Many.  and my Investigation concludes that this came from Thomas Dean O'Kelley born 4 September 1856, after graduating college in 1883, he traveled to Europe with his college professor and Ireland was one of the places they visited. He came back with the Hy-Many Coat of Arms and a story that all O'Kelleys descend from the HY-Many which at that time they might have believed that true after all some of the Hy-Many O'Kellys did come to America in the 1600s.  This belief was written in at least three books written by my family and the O'Kelly of Hy-Many Coat of Arms that Thomas Dean O'Kelley brought back from Ireland was associated with my family.  In 1997 my aunt as me to take on the family genealogy and find out where we came from in Ireland..  This effort took me down many rabbit holes so in 2010 I turned to DNA and my 37 marker test indicated that we might be of Hy-Many and that put me in contact with Annie Beirne a traceable descendent of William Boy and she asked her male Kelly cousin to allow me to submit his DNA for comparison.  Our tests were expanded to Big Y allowing me to compare the two and determine that the ancestor that I share with the O'Kelly of Hy-Many lived about 4500 years ago likely in, near, or around Yorkshire England.  That was 3500 years before surnames came into use. 

My Big Y results opened doors matching me to Pollnagollum 911 and Treanmacmurtagh 116 both R-FGC11134 putting my Y-DNA in co Fermanagh about 4200 yrs ago and co Sligo about 4015 yrs ago and many more recent matches in Bregia combined with family tradition stories it  allowed me to determine that my family descend from the O'Kelley of Bregia and our surname came from Cellach the High King of Ireland.  

 

 

Lines of the Connaught
Ui Maine O'Kellys
In order of descent
 
 
 
 
 
Contact Information

Chief Investigator

Rick O'Kelley

Much of what appears on this website is taken from Dr. O'Donovan's 1843 book, "The Tribes and Customs of Hy-Many, Commonly Called O'Kelly's Country". 

 

 
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