The O'Kelley
Name
Gaelic - Ceallach
(The Kelley),
Mac Ceallaigh
(son),
Ua Ceallaigh
(grandson)
Nic Ceallaigh
(daughter)
Ni Ceallaigh
(grand daughter)
Ó Ceallaigh
(descendant)
Late Middle English translation (before 1600) - Kellie,
Killia
(son),
O'Kelley
(descendant of
Kelley)
Modern English translation (after 1600)
- Kelly &
O'Kelly
It is commonly accepted
that "Ceallach" or Kelly as it appears in English means "War"
, "Strife", "contention", or "bright head".
The family surname O'Kelley means "descendant or grandson of Ceallach
(Kelly)" and more than one
native Irish has informed me that my last name's double "e" spelling has
never been used in Ireland but I have discovered evidence that the
spelling of many Irish names and words into English were determined by the time
period and circumstance when they were translated from Gaelic into
English and the earliest translation of our name was "Kellie",
"Calley","o Kelley",
"O Killia" and
later sometimes "O'Kelley" and of course when English was
reduced to remove a lot of unnecessary letters mostly the extra "e" it
was translated into O'Kelly.
I think it worth of mention that
my ancestor arrived in American in 1748 with his Irish surname of "O
Kelley" intact and the 1815
Estate Records of my 4th great grandfather Charles O'Kelley prove
that my family was using O'Kelley in 1815. His grandfather came
from Ireland with the story that he was from Co Meath and
descend from the "Old Kings of Ireland".
While it is commonly
believed that all O'Kellys and O'Kelleys originated from
Ceallach of
the Hy-Many O'Kellys, Ceallachh was a common name and the Kelley DNA
Project has proven there are many lines of Kelly
and O'Kelly who did not originate from the Hy-Many O'Kellys.
The O'Kelleys of Co
Cork, Waterford, Meath, Dublin, and even Tyrone appear in the early records as double "e" Kelleys and
most reduced their name to Kiely or Kelly. It seems certain that the lines
of O'Kelley who lived closest to Dublin were more likely to use an
English spelling in the time when extra letters mostly extra "e" were in use so I am certain that our double "e" spelling is one of the
earliest translation of Ceallaigh into English and the single "e"
spelling is the later more modern and common reduced form. Think about it; are we to
believe that in a time when all other names and words were being reduced
to remove unneeded extra letters, our name started out in a reduced form
and was later expanded by Americans or English shipmasters by adding
another letter? Of all the Irish names translated into English
then later reduced to remove extra letters, only O'Kelly or Kelly were
perfect in their original English translations? I think not.
Our family name would have followed all the others, the early
translations would have had more letters than needed just like all the
rest but over time like other names it too was reduced to O'Kelly.
I believe some American families may have resisted the reduction as a way to
maintain some of the customs of their former home land and that is the
reason some early Kelleys coming to America appear with the second "e" when
the name was being reduced in Ireland and England but for my family how
many "e"s or how we spelled out name seems to be moot as the
evidence indicates they likely could not read and would had no
ability to know the difference between the spellings and it wasn't until
the second America born generation that we see our name taking the form
it is today. It is difficult to know how the spelling of my
families name came to be as
Harold B Gill
Literacy in Virginia states it wasn't uncommon for
rural children to be taught to read but not taught to write so while my first American born
members of my family made Xs or marks
it is difficult to know if they could read and maybe spell their names. Rev James O'Kelly could read and write and we find him in a
Mecklenburg Co VA deed dated Feb 8 1783 as James OKelly giving freedom
to his 35 year old slave, Dinah. He appears again in 1790 records as Kelly but he appears as James OKelly in 1799
records so the spelling is determined by the person who is recording the
name. Thomas said
to have been born about 1750 appears in the records in North Carolina as
Kelly but he appears in the 1800 Oglethorpe GA Census as
Thos. OKelly so what ever caused either the addition or the return of the O
to my family's name, it seems to
have occurred after 1790 and before 1799 as we also find in
Charlotte Co Va in 1800 a James OKelley who I suspect was the son of
Rev James O'Kelly so it seems that not long after the O was added, the
second "e" began to appear. Some claim that the second "e" was added in the 1800s to distance
my
American born protestant family from our Catholic cousin flooding into
America but I suspect it had more to do with evolving American English
language rules and it had nothing to do with how our ancestors names may
have been spelled in Ireland or their protestant faith. Read my
History of Irish names page for
more detailed information about Irish naming customs and why names and
words were reduced. Also my page Gaelic to
English provides some common Gaelic to English information.
The evidence to support my belief that the earliest spellings of
O'Kelley can be found in many places. In
the
1665 Co Antrim Hearth Money Rolls the researchers have given us both
the modern spelling and the exact spelling as it appears on those 1665
records. More than a dozen appear as Kelley or O Kelley.
There is one Mc Kelley and only a couple of O Kellys. Two out of
more than this dozen have an apostrophe the rest have spaces between
the O and Kelley.
The English language has
always been in flux, as a living language it is always changing and one
can view this page from a 1577 Geneva Bible to see how words like Holy
were once spelled as "Holie" just as Calley and Kellie transformed
into Kelley and Kelly and much of this transformation occurred mostly because of
the influence of the printing press which standardized the language and
helped establish common spellings. What should be understood
by the researcher is our name appeared as Ua Ceallaigh and later Ó
Ceallaigh in our native Irish language and how it might appear in
another language was totally dependent upon that language rules at the
time of the translation and the training of the person doing the
translation. If we find an English author translating
our name as "o Kelley" that doesn't necessarily mean that our ancestor
spelled his name in English that way if he used an English translation, it only means that the training of
the person recording the name is being reflected in the spelling but if we find a
government document, church record,
or entry in an early family bible reflecting different spellings that
may indicate that is how that ancestor translated and used his name in
the English world at the time the record was created.
The English during the reign of Queen Elizabeth
actively used measures such as property forfeiture to force the land
gentry Irish O'Kelley to use Kelly, the Queen believed the Irish customs and
names were the cause of the disaffection the Irish had for the murdering
and plundering English.
There are other
official records as well in the
Calendar of Patent and close rolls of chancery in Ireland dated
1627:
Livery of the possessions of Edmond
O'Kelley, of Moyvannan, in the county of Roscommon, to
Feagh O'Kelly, his son and heir; and pardon
of an alienation, made by Sir Francis Annesley, of lands in the King's
County, to William Sarsfield, Lisagh O'Connor, and others, with a grant
of the mesne rates.—Dublin, March 22, 3°
The above provides us with an early example from an
Irish government record of how some of the "old Irish" generation may
have translated their name into English as early as 1627 when they used
the double "e" spelling and how the younger generation reduced our name
to the more modern single "e" spelling that is common in Ireland today. Charles
Bridger's 1867 book titled "An Index to Printed Pedigrees: Contained in
Country and Local Histories" gives us even more concrete proof
as one can see this author is listing the pedigree for Col Charles O'Kelly's grandfather,
Colla who was "O'Kelley of Screen" or a double "e" O'Kelley.
He also lists single "e" O'Kellys making us aware there is a difference
and this is not a mistake. Perhaps one of the most puzzling
discoveries I have made is the
current living descendent of
Hy-Many descended from the
O'Kelley of Gallagh yet the descendants of this line living in
Ireland use the single "e" spelling.
My family has a tradition that our double "e" spelling
is how the old Irish spelled our name and because my DNA indicates that
we descend from the
O'Kelly
of Breagh who lived on the north side of Navan in Co Meath, this
tradition story may have some truth in it as these O'Kelleys would have
used an English spelling before most other O'Kellys in Ireland because
they lived so close to the English. The
O'Kelly
of Breagh took their O'Kelley surname from
Ceallach (Kelley) mac Ailello the Abbot of Kildare when he became the Abbot of Kell
in the mid 800 AD. The abbey at Kell was along the northern border
of the
O'Kelly
of Breagh lands.
Given Names that appear in our family
There are some given names that appear in our family
that have historic origins.
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George Washington O'Kelley is clearly named
after George Washington. I do not find this name in use in
the Gaelic Irish but it does appear in some of the Old English
Irish. It likely that George Washington was the source of
the name in our family.
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Benjamin F or Benjamin Franklins were clearly named after
Ben Franklin who was very popular in America well before our
revolution. As a publisher he was perhaps the best known
American. I do not find this name in use in the Gaelic
Irish, it was used in the Old English Irish, Rev John Chetwode's
brother was named Benjamin. The Deans were of old English
but because there are no Benjamin Dean O'Kelleys in our family I
do not think this name originated from the Dean family.
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William has long been a popular name with the
native Irish and the English. In Gaelic it appears as Liam. There are
several very popular William O'Kelleys in Dr. O'Donovan's book
about Hy-Many Ireland but these early Williams would have used
the name Liam Ua Ceallaigh, Dr O'Donovan was writing a book for
the English reader so he translated the Gaelic names into modern
English spellings. Because William was so popular it should not be a surprise it is a name that appears in our
American family. William is widely accepted among descendents as
the Irish father of our ancestor who come from Ireland but
because of a
1752 Lunenburg Co Tithe Census,
1769 Lunenburg Co Virginia Tithe Census, and a later
1782 Mecklenburg Co Virginia State Head of Household government census
document and two Mecklenburg land deeds dated Feb 8 1783 that use
William Kelly's land as the border description, I think it is certain that this was the
name of our ancestor who came from Ireland. These are
government documents, this is as good as it gets and the 1782 census
occurred just three years after
Charles
Kelley appeared on the Mecklenburg Militia roster the same
year his son, the first grandson to be born in America was born
and Charles and Mary named him
William. Charles
does not appear in this head of house hold census nor does any
of his brothers the explanation is he and his wife and two
children were living as the native Irish were accustom, they all
lived in the household of their mother and father,
William and Elizabeth Kelley.
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Thomas was used in the native Irish but it
appears as Tomas or Tomhas in the Gaelic Irish Catholic
families. The Thomas spelling is an English spelling and I
suspect it originates in our family from Thomas Dean the father
of Elizabeth Dean who is said to have married our ancestor
giving cause for the Dean name appearing as a middle name in so
many descendants. A Thomas Dean appears in several land
records in Co Prince George and Sury Virginia in the time when
Elizabeth Dean's father would have lived.
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Francis does not appear in the Gaelic Irish that
I can find. It does appear in the English. Francis
Bacon was a famous Englishman who promoted the protestant
plantation of Ireland by the Scots and English.
Francis Drake was
a famous sea captain and could have been the source as well.
It is not a name one would expect to find in a native Gaelic
family but because it appears most often as Francis Dean I
suspect it originated Elizabeth Dean's family.
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Charles does appear in the 1600s in the Gaelic
Irish family of Colla O'Kelley. Col Charles O'Kelley was
the grandson of Colla and the 9th Lord of Screen. The
O'Kelley of Screen
family was deeply loyal to the English Royal family changing
religions when the English Royals changed theirs but because we
most often see Dean following the name I suspect it is a name
that originated from the Dean family but Charles is a name that
appears often in the Irish Newtown O'Kelly line but in the Co
Sligo 1749 Elphin Census three Charles Kellys are found in the Co Sligo area.
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Dean is a middle name that appears often in our America family
but I think its origins have been misunderstood. The Deans
were one of the 14 tribes of Galway Ireland who originated from
English and came to Ireland and established Galway during the
Norman invasion of Ireland. Some claim that Elizabeth Dean
was born in America and while that may be true, if our ancestor
truly came to America about 1740 and married Elizabeth Dean then
because of the contention between the English and Irish I think
Elizabeth Dean would also had to been Irish born as it would be
very unlikely her father would have permitted her to marry and
Irish born man. If she was Irish born then I suspect she
was born in Co Mayo or Co Sligo Ireland as many Deanes appear on
the 1858 Griffith Valuation Census in Co Mayo Kilcommon Parish.
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The
name James appears as Séamas in Irish Gaelic. Some native
Irish have told me the James spelling was used only by the
English or Irish protestant and was deeply hated by the Irish
Catholic and this could be true as the Irish deeply hated King
James for his plantation of Ulster and what they believed was
his perversion of the true faith. The first Irish O'Kelly
I have found was James O'Kelly an Irish Gentry died in the battle of Aughrim
in 1691 and in the 1749 Elphin Co Sligo Census there are four
James Kellys.
Time Line
1394 |
Maurice O'Kelley |
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Translated to Tuam Earliest known use of the double "e"
spelling. Source
William Brady in his 1876 book titled
"The Episcopal Succession in England Scotland and Ireland
Volume 2" |
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1415 |
Bishop Thomas O'Kelley |
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Promoted to Tuam Note- Early Irish priest married and had
children. The double "e" spelling predates the printing
press. Source
William Brady in his 1876 book titled
"The Episcopal Succession in England Scotland and Ireland
Volume 2" |
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1476 |
Printing Press |
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First printing press appeared in London and the London
Publishers began to mass produce books greatly influencing
language and spelling. I suspect because words became
money, many spelling shortcuts were invented as to conserve
valued space and make the language less complicated for the
under educated. I also suspect this is the source of my
family tradition that our family spelled the name O'Kelley
as the "Old Irish" did, meaning the new Irish embraced the
more efficient single "e" spelling. For my family to have
been spelling O'Kelley in English there had to be a
motivation. People don't just do this. I suspect our
family may have been involved in trade with the English
either as exporters or importers and just as the business
class in China today learn English even in the time of our
early ancestors, English was probably the language of
money. They needed to be able to read and write English and
have a name that could be written and read in English. If
my theory holds true, I suspect we originated on the east
coast of Ireland because that was close to the English trade
but may have been forced to the west. |
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1533 - 1540 |
Henry VII |
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Henry VII breaks with the Roman Catholic Church because the
Pope would not allow him to divorce his second wife chiefly
because she did not bear him a son. Henry commissioned the
creation of his version of the Bible and he had a great
number of his subjects tortured and killed when they refuse
to embrace his new faith. This began religious strife that
continues in Ireland today. Prior to this time the Irish
mostly fought against each other seeking power and fortune. |
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1558 |
Queen Elizabeth |
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During her reign as Queen, many
Irish lost their homes, their lands and their lives as
the
Protestant English Church sought to conquer and force its
authority over the people of Ireland. |
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abt 1601 |
Colla Kelly |
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Queen Elizabeth wrote him a letter offering to reward
him with lands, manors, and title if he dropped the "O" from
his name, learned and spelled his name in English and
converted to Protestantism. This could be the line we come
from as it would explain how our ancestor arrived in America
as a Protestant and not the more traditional Irish Catholic
which most Irish were at that time. It could also explain
why he could have arrived with the Kelly name. Colla's line
is well documented so if we descended from this line, we
probably descended from a cousin or uncle of Colla. Colla
lived at Castle O'Kelly near Galway Ireland and was the
Seventh Lord of Screen (Scrine). He is the first confirmed
Ceallach to change the family name to an English spelling
and according to
Charles Bridger's 1867 book that spelling was O'Kelley.
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1611 |
King James |
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King James Bible is completed. This was Version one
with many revisions to follow. |
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1635-1735 |
Immigration Records |
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Many Kelleys
arrive in Virginia from Ireland If the Kelley double
"e" spelling was never used in Ireland as some native Irish
claimed, where did all these early Kelley's come from? Are
we to believe that very early on these were all
misspellings? I don't think so, I think this is more
evidence that very early Gaelic to English translations used
the double "e" spelling and this is the source of my
family's tradition story that we spell our name like the
"Old Irish did".
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1692 |
Col Charles O'Kelly |
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Publish his book
Macariae Excidium
and Dennis Henry listed O'Kellys, Kellys, and four
Kelleys. |
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1705 |
O Kelley in Ireland |
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Sir James Ware publish a book in Dublin Ireland titled " The
Antiquities and History of Ireland" and in his book we
find O Kelleys living near Galway and O Kelly as well as an
O.Kelly living in Ireland before the time our ancestor came
from Ireland. This opens the possibility that Family
Tradition that O'Kelley is the old Irish spelling of our
name could have some truth to the claim. The apostrophe was
not used in the English language the way it is used now, you
will find in the book where it is only used to denote the
past tense of a word. The period was used at least once and
a space between the "O" and the surname was the common way
to display the name.
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abt 1730 |
William Kelley |
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It is believed that our ancestor was
born in Ireland around Galway and arrived in America
sometime in the second quarter of the 18th Century. I
believe our ancestor descended from the Irish land owning
Gentry class and he met and married Miss Dean while in
Ireland and she is of the Galway Deanes who are one of the
14 tribes of Galway. They were probably married in
Ireland and lived there and some of their early children
could have been born there. I believe our ancestor may have come to
America as Kelley probably because of the pact made
between Colla Kelly and Queen Elizabeth or it could be of an
earlier agreement. Such an agreement and a marriage to
the Galway Deanes would explain how our
ancestor arrived in America from Ireland as a protestant and
why he would name many of his first America born children
the names used by English Kings and Queens. I
believe the 1782 Virginia Census of Mecklenburg VA proves
our ancestor's name was William Kelley and it was not James
or Thomas. |
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abt 1776 |
Charles and
Benjamin Kelly |
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Appear in Revolutionary War rolls serving with the 8th
Virginia Reg as Kelly.
Charles gravestone does bear the name O'Kelley but that
was reportedly set by the Daughters of the American
Revolution and they did not exist until almost 80 years
after Charles's death and in a time when the O'Kelley name
was well established and in use. Charles's wife Mary died
in 1842 and by the time of her death the O'Kelley spelling
of the name was more widely used so her gravestone can not
be taken as fact. |
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1777 |
William Denis O'Kelley |
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Lt William Denis O'Kelley signed his
name
Wm. D. Kelly. William was the adjutant. It
would have been his job to create the records and on most of
his service records that he likely created the name appears
as Wm. D Kelly |
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1779 |
Charles Kelley |
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Appears on the
Militia Roster for Mecklenburg Co Virginia. Newly
married (1778) a new father, it appears he hired a
substitute. |
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1782 |
William Kelley |
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Appears in the
1782 Virginia
Head of Household Census for Mecklenburg Co VA with ten
other people. Since Charles is
married, living in Mecklenburg and has two children it seems
clear that William is the father of Charles and they are
living as was the Irish custom, everyone in the same home
providing an explanation as to how Charles and his family
could be living in Mecklenburng and not appear on this
census. |
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1783 |
Thomas Kelly |
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Appears on a
North Carolina Militia pay voucher as Thomas Kelly. |
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1785 |
Thomas Kelley |
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Appears as
Kelley on the marriage record to Elizabeth Wyers |
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1785 |
Francis Kelley |
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Appears as
Kelley on the marriage record to Delilah Crowder. |
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1818 |
Thomas OKelly |
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Appears in his Madison Co Will as Thomas OKelly. Thomas
had to make his mark so it appears he and his wife were
unable to read and write and that could have influenced how
the name was spelled in the will. |
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1820 |
Elizabeth OKelly |
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The widow of Thomas OKelly, she appears in Madison Co
Census as an OKelly, but her son
James appears on the line above her as an OKelley. I
think it is very unlikely the census taker made a mistake as
one can clearly see in the original census the histation
mark the taker made as he paused at the place where the
second "e" would have appeared in Elizabeth's last name as
if someone was spelling it for him. |
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1832 |
Benjamin Kelly |
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Used Kelly on is American Revolutionary War Pension
application.
Benjamin made a mark on his application so it is
unlikely he could read or write. |
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1833 |
Charles Dean OKelley b 1795 |
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Was a Justice of the Peace in Walton Co and he signed
two documents dated Oct 24, 1833 as Charles D OKelley
without the apostrophe.
Document 1 and
Document 2 |
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1838 |
Francis O'Kelly |
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Appears in an
1838 bible that appears to have belonged to Thomas his
son. The name is spelled as O'Kelly. This appears to be
the earliest Family Bible records. |
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1838 |
Thomas O'Kelly b 1799 |
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Beginning with the children of Thomas O'Kelly the 1838
bible pages show their names as OKelley and without the
apostrophe. John D was the first child born an he was
born in 1830 |
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1838 |
Dr Francis C OKelley b 1833 |
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The grandchildren of
Thomas O'Kelly appear in the
1838 bible pages as O'Kelley. |
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1842 |
James OKelley b1792 |
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Was a Justice of the Peace in Oglethorpe Co GA and on
May 7, 1842 he signed his name as James OKelley without
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apostrophe. |
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1846 |
Rev James O'Kelley |
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In almost every document Rev James is listed as
O'Kelly. He died in 1826 and about twenty years after his
burial his friends put a
gravestone on his grave and it bears the name of
O'Kelley. |
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1850 |
Benjamin O'Kelly |
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Appears in an
1850 NC Census as O'Kelly. |
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abt 1853 |
James D OKelly b1833 |
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A
single bible page shows James D OKelly spelled with a
single "e" and no
apostrophe. James is
buried in Oklahoma under the name of O'Kelley. |
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1853 |
Benjamin OKelley |
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Signed an affidavit for his deceased father's
Revolutionary War Pension application as OKelley. |
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1860 |
James Pendleton O'Kelley |
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Descendent of
Rev James O'Kelley appears in 1860 Fayette TN Census as
an OKelley with the double "e" and no
apostrophe |
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1865 |
Dr Thomas K O'Kelley |
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It is not known when Dr O'Kelley copied from an
ancestor's bible the information he put on paper. Family
tradition says he did it to include the information with his
Civil War Pension application and a copy is suppose to be on
file at the National Archives. National Archive Records
show his pension application was filed in 1904. Thomas and
three of his brothers served together in the Union Arkansas
Calvary during that war and National Archive documents show
that all four spelled their name as O'Kelley. |
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1867 |
Charles Bridger |
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Purblishes his book "An
Index to Printed Pedigrees: Contained in County and Local
Histories" and on page 232 we find the family of Colla,
O'Kelley of Screen, Roscommon. |
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1867 |
James Stamps
O'Kelley |
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Signed his name on an
Oath and he does not include the apostrophe. |
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1880 |
James Pendleton O'Kelley |
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Descendent of
Rev James O'Kelly appears in 1880 Fayette TN Census as
an O'Kelley with both the double "e" and
apostrophe. I believe it is very unlikely that two
different census takers, one in 1860 and another in 1880
would have made the same spelling mistake. |
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1889 |
Charles William O'Kelley |
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Justice of the Peace for Lancaster
Township, Crawford Co Arkansas. He
signed a complaint without the apostrophe. |
Here
is a good explanation about Irish names.
Here is
a good explanation as to how and why surnames were transformed.
http://www.mcconville.org/main/genealogy/census1602.html
Notice the apostrophe is not used
Rick O'Kelley
November 1, 2010
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