My Irish Ancestor
his first American born sons

William or James O'Kelley
and
Elizabeth Dean

Male descendents of Thomas, Charles, and Benjamin have tested their Y-DNA and the results indicate that Thomas, Charles and Benjamin were not brothers but cousins of different degrees. No descendent of Francis or Rev James has tested. I feel certain that Charles and Francis were brothers because they married sisters and lived side by side just south of Comer Georgia near the Collier Baptist Church. The DNA results suggest that Benjamin was likely a 4th or 5th cousin to Charles and perhaps a 6th or 7th cousin to Thomas and Thomas and Charles were likely 1st or 2nd cousins at best. The grandfather they shared was likely born between 1600 and 1650 and because all three men married English women whose families came to America in the 1600s, it seems likely that our grandfather likely arrived in America before 1700 and these three men were likely 2nd or 3rd American born which causes me to wonder if that grandfather to come to America may have been Thomas and Honora Kelly born about 1669 who came to America with 5 minor children in 1690 and settled on the Huguenot John Pleasants plantation located in Henrico Co Virginia along the James River which was very near Manakin Va a place that became a huge Huguenot settlement. Thomas and Honora Kelly and their Huguenot association could account for the acceptance of my native Irish family among Amercan Scots Irish as these two were often bitter enemies in Ireland. Thomas Dean O'Kelley has a connection to the Huguenots at Manakin as his son William and Rev John married Nancy and Elizabeth Chastain and their ancestors traced back to the Huguenot in Henrico Co VA and this is the same area that the Deans first settled before moving into Prince George Co sometime in the early 1700s.

DNA has opened a new chapter in our family journey back in time and what we need now to help complete that journey is for a traceable male descendent of Francis and of Rev James O'Kelley to test their DNA to see where they fit within our family tree.

While DNA proves Thomas and Charles were likely 1st cousins and not brothers, Thomas's grandson Overton and Charles's granddaughter Mary married July 28 1848 in Georgia and they named their first born son Charles Francis Dean O'Kelley after their fathers Charles Dean and Francis Dean and named their second son George Washington O'Kelley after Mary's uncle a named carried down many generation well into the 20th century. Thomas never owned slaves and Charles, Mary's father was a Justice of the Peace and own 1 slave in 1860 but Overton and Mary owned hundreds of slaves in Georgia and Pine Bluff Arkansas and this marriage likely caused some family researching to think that Charles and Charles were brothers.

Authors J Fred O'Kelly, Alethea Jane Macon and Harold Ernest O'Kelley informed their readers that Thomas, George, William, Charles, Benjamin, and Francis were brothers and their parents were the Irish immigrant Thomas O'Kelley and his wife Elizabeth Dean but these three authors provided no supporting documents or sources so in 2010 I did a Y-DNA test to learn the truth and the Y-DNA results of descendents of Thomas, Charles, and Benjamin proves these authors got our family pedigree wrong. I am certain that Elizabeth Dean was a real person and the mother of Charles O'Kelley because he names his first born daughter Elizabeth Dean O'Kelley and because she went by Betsy which is a nickname for Elizabeth I believe the father of Charles died and Elizabeth Dean, Charles mother live with them hence why Charles daughter used a nickname and not her full personal name. My intense investigation which also includes DNA has failed to uncover any proof that a Thomas O'Kelley existed at the time Elizabeth Dean's husband would have lived and because the name is most often represented in the descendants as "Thomas Dean O'Kelley" I think this is solid evidence that "Thomas" originates from Thomas Dean the father of Elizabeth Dean. My investigation concludes that the pedigree for Thomas O'Kelley and Elizabeth Dean and their sons didn't exist in print before 1966 and originated first in J Fred O'Kelly's 1966 and later in Alethea Jane Macon's 1969 publications and based upon their source credits given in their books I believe both authors obtained much of their family pedigree from Effie Kate O'Kelley but I think on the subject of the name of our ancestor because the granddaughters of Effie wrote a paper claiming our ancestor was James O'Kelley and not Thomas that there was likely disagreement between Effie Kate O'Kelley and Alethea Jane Macon and because of this disagreement Alethea Jane Macon gives her "best evidence" as her only statement about it in her book where she claimes that Elizabeth Dean's husband was Thomas O'Kelley. J Fred O'Kelly leaves the subject of our ancestor's name open.

Author Harold Ernest O'Kelley in his 1985 book accepted the conclusion of Alethea Jane Macon that our immigrant ancestor's name was Thomas and he seemed to do so without asking the question, "what proof did Alethea Jane Macon have and why did she not share her proof or as she said in her book her "best evidence" with her readers allowing them to decide? What puzzles me most about the published works of these three authors is if Thomas, George, and William were the names of the first three sons born to my immigrant ancestor, the son's names are overlooked clues as it is well accepted by professional genealogist that the naming tradition was to name the first two sons after their paternal and maternal grandfathers and the third son after his father and since the name Thomas most often appears as Thomas Dean O'Kelley and Dean never appears as a middle name of descendants that were named James, George or William O'Kelley I believe the evidence supports that Thomas, given by these authors as the first born son must have been named after Nancy Dean's father making George who is given as the second born son the name of our immigrant ancestor's father and William given as the third son named after his immigrant father. It is certainly possible that both grandfathers were named Thomas but that name doesn't appear in the sons of Charles and Benjamin. But I don't think our ancestor could be named George as it isn't a name carried down in the first American born grandsons and I don't think George was named after George Washington because at the time of George O'Kelley's birth Washington was a very young man who had done nothing to justify the naming of a son after him; George Washington's popularity and fame came later but George and William O'Kelley seem to disappear so I have great doubts and think it is more likely that George O'Kelley born in 1752 never existed and he was just confused with Charles O'Kelley's son who was named George Washington O'Kelly born 1783 and died in Madison Co Georgia in 1850. Author Harold Ernest O'Kelley found records for George Washington O'Kelly in Georgia and in his book he confused him with the George O'Kelley said to have been born in 1752.

None of the publish authors seem to be aware that about 1908 Dr Thomas K O'Kelley of the Benjamin O'Kelley family copied a family pedigree from an unidentified ancestors bible that names James O'Kelley and Anna Dean as the name of our ancestor to come from Ireland to America but I am now certain he obtained this information from his peer Dr Francis C O'Kelley who was the grandfather of Effie Cate O'Kelley. These authors also seem to be unaware that the niece of Effie Cate O'Kelley, Mary Evelyn O'Kelley wrote a college paper for her Masters Degree in the 60s where she presents:

“There was a man, James O’Kelley, with six sons. (landed in Virginia 1815) Three of the sons were married and the other three did not get married. All three of the married sons moved to the state of Georgia, and all the O’Kelleys that are now in the state of Georgia, and all the O’Kelleys we have been able to trace in ancestry that knew anything about it were traceable back – all the O’Kelleys in the United states that we could find – were traced back to one of those three sons in the state of Georgia.” Note- the 1815 date is how this information came to me but documents dispute this date, he came likely about 1720.

But there are also other sources as none of the published authors seem to be aware that in the Elon University James O'Kelly Collection there exists a Pedigree for the Rev James O'Kelly created in 1936 by John Daniel McCurty that lists William D, Thomas D and John as the brothers of the famed Rev James O'Kelly founder of the Christian Church and that Pedigree gives the date that their father came to America as about 1720 and that he died in Chatham Co NC. Now without a Y-DNA test of a male descendent of Rev James O'Kelley we can not know if he is or how he might be related but there are physical documents in the this university collect that link Rev James O'Kelley with Charles and Francis O'Kelley.

After more than 13 years of intensive investigation and the spending of more than two thousand dollars I have come to conclude that the Dr Thomas K O'Kelley pedigree created about 1908, the John Daniel McCurry Pedigree of Rev James O'Kelly created in 1936, the J Fred O'Kelly's 1966 pedigree and the 1969 Alethea Jane Macon pedigree all contain mostly accurate data, they are about different families that are related as uncles, nephews, and cousins but with the exception of Charles and Francis none were brothers. I conclude that James O'Kelley born about 1710 who appears in the Dr Thomas K O'Kelley 1908 Pedigree was likely the grandfather of Charles and Francis and came from near Tara in Co Meath as Ruth Barton Pullium stated and James O'Kelley's great, great grandfather was Thomas O'Kelley born about 1540 and in the last quarter of the 1500s under the English Tudor Monarchs Tomas Ó Ceallaigh as his name would appear in Ireland at that time was a Gentleman forced under the penalty of confiscation to take the oath of supremacy, abandon his Catholic faith and become Protestant, spell his surname in English as Thomas Kelly and raise his children in the English custom in his attempt to hold on to his lands and his gentry title and I believe that it is this Thomas than Macon confused to be James O'Kelley who left Ireland. Ruth Barton Pullium was the granddaughter of Salina O'Kelley who was the granddaughter of Thomas O'Kelley and Salina O'Kelley was the great granddaughter of our ancestor, she was a forth generation just like Alethea Jane Macon's "Aunt Bettie" so Salina would have been in position to know where we came from in Ireland and my closest DNA matched cousins are found 4 miles from Tomas Ó Ceallaigh so this also support that my ancestors came from the Co Meath area of Ireland. Based upon my intense investigation I think it was as Dr Thomas K O'Kelley pedigree suggests, James O'Kelley came to America likely as a child possibly with an older relative and married Nancy Dean who was also born about 1710 and she was remembered in Dr Thomas K O'Kelley's Pedigree by her nickname "Anna" and they had children and Elizabeth Dean was likely Nancy Dean's niece or great niece and married the father of Charles and Francis O'Kelley.

Rick O'Kelley

Pedigree as suggested by DNA, documents and my research

DNA testing proves my ancestors were native Irish and not Scots Irish and in Ireland these two groups were most often mortal enemies because the Scots Irish were Scottish or English descended people planted in Ireland by both conquest and King James. DNA matches proves my ancestors come from the Clann Kelly of Co Fermanagh who descend from Irish Monarchs who had been in Ireland for thousands of years. We did not descend from the Hy-many O'Kelleys as Alethea Jane Macon suggested in her book, we must go back 5000 years to find the grandfather we share with the O'Kellys of Hy-Many and that was 4000 years before the O'Kelley surname came into use.

Thomas Dean O'Kelley and Rev James O'Kelly may have been brothers . The possibility that Rev James O'Kelly and Thomas Dean O'Kelley were brothers is supported by "Lives of Christian ministers: over two hundred memoirs" by Peter Jeferson Kernolde P 1909 where the author claims that Rev James O'Kelly was the ancestor of Thomas Dean O'Kelley's sons Rev James O'Kelley, Rev John O'Kelley and grandson Rev Francis Dean O'Kelley but I can find no proof, they never live close to each other and Rev James O'Kelly lived in Mecklenburg Co VA at the time Charles and Francis lived there and they both appear in documents at Elon University proving Charles and Francis knew Rev James O'Kelly but Thomas does not appear so how Rev James O'Kelly is related is still not yet know.

If Charles actually named his first born son William as Macon claimed then combined with US Census documents and naming traditions that makes it more likely that the father of Charles Dean O'Kelley was William Dennis O'Kelley perhaps the older brother of Rev James O'Kelly but it should be noted that Francis named his first born son James and the descendents of Francis feel certain the James O'Kelley is the name of the man who married Elizabeth Dean and was the father of Charles and Francis. If this is true then DNA proves the James O'Kelley that Dr Thomas K O'Kelley claimed in his family pedigree was the father of Benjamin is a different man than the one who married Elizabeth Dean.

It is from "A Patchwork of Memories, a Knowles/O’Kelley genealogy" a 1976 book published by Judith Ries a descendent of Dr Thomas K O'Kelley that we learn that James O'Kelley his ancestor was a minister likely born around 1710. It is claimed in the Dr Thomas K O'Kelley Family Pedigree dated in the early 1900s that James O'Kelley married (Nancy) Anna Dean about 1727 and I reference her as Nancy because Anna was a nickname for Nancy and Nancy is the name that appears with some grandchildren. Nancy Dean the monther of Benjamin was likely the daughter or sister of a Thomas Dean and there are two, one Thomas Dean is found in the records living on the James River near the Huguenot settlements and the other in Prince George Co where the Crowders lived. In Lunenburg County, VA i the 1750s is found a Charles Dean a sizeable land owner who was likely the brother of Elizabeth Dean and the reason she named my 4th great grandfather Charles Dean O'Kelley. When the eastern half of Lunenburg was named Mecklenburg Co, Charles Dean O'Kelley and Francis O'Kelley are found living in Mecklenburg County as young men during the Revolutionary War. There is no proof that Thomas Dean was the name of Elizabeth Dean's father, Thomas Dean could have been the name of her grandfather and Charles or Francis Dean could have been the name of her father.

In 1936 John Daniel McCurry a descendent of Rev James O'Kelly created a family pedigree chart which gives the names of 3 of his brothers, William D, Thomas D and John but I am certain that John Daniel McCurry's pedigree isn't complete, that many of Rev James's siblings are missing and until a traceable male descendent of Rev James O'Kelly does a Y-DNA test we have no method to know how accurate McCurry's chart might be.

Rev James O'Kelly says almost nothing about his parents. What we do know is he lived at Mecklenburg at the time that Charles and Francis O'Kelley listed in Macon's Pedigree lived there.

John Daniel McCurry gives Rev James as born in Mecklenburg Virginia but I don't think that can be supported.

DNA Results

The Y-DNA test of male descendents of Thomas Dean, Charles Dean and Benjamin all indicate these three men were cousins and not brothers. Because the Irish reused forenames even in the same families it is possible that all three men had brothers by these names and that is how these three men became confused as brothers and not cousins and the grandfather they share was likely born between 1600 and 1650.

Thomas Dean O'Kelley was said to have been born about 1750, his descendent Samuel Joseph O'Kelley tested 111 markers Y-DNA his results returned Feb 13, 2017. A second descendent, Ronnie O'Kelley also tested.

Charles Dean O'Kelley ** said to have been born about 1756, this is my 4th great grandfather and I first tested 37 markers in 2010 then upgraded the test to 111 markers Y-DNA and completed a Big Y test. Charles's father's name was likely Lt William Dennis O'Kelley or possibly a James O'Kelley who was a different man than the James O'Kelley who was the faither of Benjamin and it seems certain Charles's mother was Elizabeth Dean as Charles named his first born daughter Elizabeth Dean O'Kelley and because she went by Betsy I believe that indicates that Elizabeth Dean lived with Charles and Mary and their daughter was called Betsy as to not cause confusion. There are reasons to believe that Charles father may have died in the Revolutionary War and that his mother was alive and moved with the family to Georgia in the early 1800s.

Benjamin O'Kelley said to have been born about 1758, his descendent James Thomas O'Kelley tested 111 markers Y-DNA and his results returned Aug 11, 2022. His results indicate that Benjamin was a 7th to 8th cousin to Thomas Dean and 4th or 5th to Charles Dean.

Rev James O'Kelly (Family Pedigree of Rev James O'Kelly) founder of the Christian Church has long been a mystery. In the records we find that he has many contacts with Charles and Francis but without a DNA test of one of his male O'Kelley descendents I can not confirm that he was a relative.

Records

Francis O'Kelley. Married Delilah Crowder, her ancestor George Crowder was one of the Founding families of America and shared a great grandfather with Thomas Jefferson. Her old Sister Mary married Charles Dean O'Kelley and Charles Dean and Francis O'Kelley lived on land just south of Comer Georgia that Francis received in the Georgia Land Lottery an indicator that Francis and Charles Dean were brothers.

John O'Kelley proven by Rev James O'Kelly Pedigree and Mecklenburg Marriage record with Charles Kelley as second. I believe he may have been the younger brother of Charles Dean and Francis as John married Frances, the younger sister of Mary Crowder who married Charles Dean and Delilah Crowder who married Francis.

Elizabeth O'Kelley - proven by 1860 Census likely a youger sister of Charles Dean and Francis and named after their mother Elizabeth Dean.

Nancy O'Kelley - I believe Nancy named her son James O'Kelley Daniel Tucker after her father and her father-in-law proven by 1860 Census Daniel Tucker's ancestor was one of the Founding families of America. Nancy is likely the younger sister of Charles Dean and Francis and like named after her great grandmother Annie Dean. Annie is a nickname for Nancy.

Based upon DNA and Records I believe:

Lt William Dennis O'Kelley or James O'Kelley (note - if Elizabeth Dean's husband was James O'Kelley DNA proves that he would be a different James than the father of Benjamin) married Elizabeth Dean and they had the following children:

Charles Dean O'Kelley

Francis O'Kelley

John O'Kelley

Elizabeth O'Kelley

Nancy O'Kelley

I am certain there were other children who died or became lost in time.

Source: Rick O'Kelley **Source for Dean being the middle name of Charles O'Kelley is the Whiteheaddna.com website, I have found no proof nor can the Webmaster tell me his source.

My Irish Ancestors

It has always been assumed that Thomas, Charles, Francis, and Benjamin could not read because they used marks as their signatures but according to Harold B Gill strong> Literacy in Virginia it wasn't uncommon for rural children to be taught to read but not taught to write. I have found references in the Vestry Records of Virginia that the law required parents to teach their children to read and some children were taken from their parents and made wards of others because their parent failed to obey the law. Harold Ernest O'Kelley comments that Rev James O'Kellys writing appeared to be labored and self taught and that is likely how many rural children came to write, they did it by self teaching but we need to remember they had little need to write. Postal services were limited so what would be the need to spend a lot of time learning a skill you would rarely use?

The James O'Kelley and Anna Dean pedigree came to me via Judith Knowles Reis a descendent of Benjamin Kelly in the telling of a story from her father about five pages of paper passed to her that are reported to have been written in the hand of her great grandfather, Dr Thomas K O'Kelley b 1833. We now know from the DNA testing of two descendents of Thomas, one of Charles, and one of Benjamin that these three men are cousins of different degrees. It was said that Dr O'Kelley needed proof of age for his Civil War pension application so he removed from an old dictionary five blank pages which he copied information that he obtained from an unknown ancestor's bible then he slipped the pages into his old family bible and presented it to a notary who created a single page document about his examination of the bible and that was submitted to our government as proof of Dr Thomas K O'Kelley's age for his pension and today that document is in our National Archives. I have examined copies of these five pages and compared the handwriting with known examples of Dr Thomas K O'Kelley's handwriting found within his 1904 Civil War pension application that I obtained from our National Archives. Based upon my training from the Institute of Applied Science in handwriting analysis and my experience as a document examiner while working in law enforcement, it is my opinion that these five pages were likely written by the person who identified himself in his application as Dr Thomas K O'Kelley making these pages the only known documents I have seen written by a grandson of Benjamin O'Kelley. If the copies I have seen are the pages that the notarized document describes as being inside the bible then it is certain that these five pages were created before November 23 1908. Even if they are not, the pages had to be created before Dr Thomas K O'Kelley death in 1923 and that predates the books of J Fred O'Kelly and Alethea Jane Macon by 60 years making these pages the oldest known pedigree written in the hand of an O'Kelley representing our O'Kelley family.

So is the data that appears upon Dr Thomas K O'Kelley's pages valid? We know DNA testing proves that Thomas, Charles, and Benjamin are cousins and not brothers. One might have to go back 200 years to find the grandfather that Thomas and Benjamin share and 100 years for Charles and Benjamin. I have found conflicts with public documents and records and as an experienced Criminal Investigator I remind researchers that the stated motive of Dr Thomas K O'Kelley for creating these five pages was not the same motives of J Fred O'Kelly, Alethea Jane Macon and Harold Ernest O'Kelley. These authors were seeking the identity of our ancestors and their works were subjected to the "peer review" of their relations. Dr Thomas K O'Kelley was said to have created his five pages ONLY to satisfy the proof of age requirements for a pension and he then apparently never shared the data in a public way so his data never received "peer review" but if his data was already widely accepted as true during his lifetime, there would have been no need for him to make it public so I must weigh this and the possibility that some of his data might have just been created or made up maybe from stories he was told, after all the people evaluating his pension application had no ability to determine if Dr Thomas K O'Kelley's data was based in fact or if it was fabricated so there was little incentive for him to seek accuracy. I find no evidence that he continued his family research after he created these documents and that too must be weighed and it is my understanding the pages become public long after Dr O'Kelley had passed and quite by chance. Lastly I am left with questions, "if this data came from an ancestor's bible, why isn't this data more widely known by other family members; what happened to this bible that he was able to find yet no one else has any knowledge or can identify"? These are the questions an attorney might ask in a court if this data was put on trial before a jury. Based upon my four year investigation, I believe the bulk of the data contained upon the five pages that Dr Dr Thomas K O'Kelley created are valid most because all the sons born to our ancestor named a son James and only two named a son Thomas. I think that even Benjamin his son "James Solomon O'Kelley" and the James got dropped he was just known as Solomon and I base my belief on "James Solomon O'Kelley" the son of Hugh Lee O'Kelley who was the second son of Solomon.

Alethea Jane Macon and J Fred O'Kelly both made mention in their books that some believed James was the name of my Irish immigrant ancestor but I must point out that both authors wrote and sought information mostly about Charles and Francis O'Kelley and the related families that intermarried with their descendants. My investigation of Dr Thomas K O'Kelley's James O'Kelley and Anna Dean 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 the same image that Fredrick Henry O'Kelley painted giving copies to his descendants and a photo of his painting appears to the right. The true origin of that image is unknown but it is likely that it became associated with our family by Thomas Dean O'Kelley, the father of Fredrick Henry O'Kelley as Thomas traveled to Ireland in 1883 and in the lifetime of Charles O'Kelly Esq of NewTown in the Co of Galway Ireland and Charles O'Kelly is one of three only known lines of O'Kellys appearing in Burkes Landed Gentry to use this Coat of Arms where the Enfield is Passant or with a leg raised as walking. All the other lines of Irish O'Kellys use a coat of arms with the Enfield is Statant meaning it has all four legs planted firmly upon the ground and while this appears to be a minor detail, it is the minor details that often result in the solving of most investigations.

Thomas Dean O'Kelley was the father of Mrs. Carl C Walker or Kate O'Kelley and she is the only descendant of Francis and Delilah O'Kelley that Alethea Jane Macon thanks in her book and Alethea Jane Macon states on the bottom of page 4 in her book "From the Francis O'Kelley branch of the family have come the names of the six son" so it seems likely Kate O'Kelley Walker is Macon's source for the well accepted O'Kelley Pedigree naming the six brothers; Thomas, George, William, Charles, Benjamin, and Francis but Macon is less clear about the origins of Thomas O'Kelley and Elizabeth Dean causing me to wonder if Kate believed our ancestor was named James as Kate's brother Fredrick Henry O'Kelley had a daughter, Mary Evelyn O'Kelley, and she wrote a college paper for her Masters Degree in the 60s where she presents:

“There was a man, James O’Kelley, with six sons. (landed in Virginia 1815) Three of the sons were married and the other three did not get married. All three of the married sons moved to the state of Georgia, and all the O’Kelleys that are now in the state of Georgia, and all the O’Kelleys we have been able to trace in ancestry that knew anything about it were traceable back – all the O’Kelleys in the United states that we could find – were traced back to one of those three sons in the state of Georgia.” Note- the 1815 date is how this information came to me but documents dispute this date, he came likely about 1748.

The belief that James O'Kelley was the name of our ancestor doesn't just appear in the pages of Dr Thomas K O'Kelley the grandson of Benjamin Kelly but also in the line of Francis O'Kelley but if Benjamin's father was James and Francis father was James DNA proved they were two different men, certainly related but one has to go back many generations to find the grandfathers they share. Both Judith Knowles Reis a descendant of Benjamin and Mary Evelyn O'Kelley a descendant of Francis come from lines with medical doctors and doctors often tend to take an interest in their genealogy and both family pedigrees claim James O'Kelley and not Thomas O'Kelley was our ancestor. Outside of Alethea Jane Macon, I am aware of no pedigrees that name Thomas as the ancestor who left Ireland and came to America.

Rev James O'Kelly and Rev James O'Kelley the son of Thomas

We have a bit of luck as we have a drawing of Rev James O'Kelly who founded the Christian Church in North Carolina and we have a tintype photo of Rev James O'Kelley his nephew and the son of Thomas O'Kelley. They favor in many ways. The eyes, nose, and the same turned own mouth. Even the furrows between the eyes are similar. There heads are shaped closely the same as you can see when I lay one photo on top of the other. Forty and maybe 50 years separate their birth.

Rev James O'Kelly (the uncle) Rev James O'Kelley (the nephew) One on top of the other

In the book "Finding your Irish Roots.." by Stephanie Varney we learn the Irish naming customs.

The oldest son was named after his father's father. Charles named his son William, Frances named his son James and I believe he was named after Rev James O'Kelley the founder of the Christian Church and who was living in Mecklenburg and may have married Francis and Delilah, Thomas named his son Francis, and Benjamin named his son Solomon after Solomon Williams, but there is evidence that suggest he may have named his son James Solomon O'Kelley.

The oldest daughter was named after the mother's mother. Charles named his daughter Elizabeth Dean, Francis names his daughter Martha, Thomas names his daughter Ann, and Benjamin named his daughter Annie.

The second son was named after the mother's father. Charles named his son George Washington which could be after both George Crowder and George Washington, Francis named his son Francis Dean, Thomas named his son Thomas Dean which if DNA continues to indicate Thomas was a cousin I think the Dean name in his descendants supports the possibiity that Thomas may have a a first wife who was also a Dean, and Benjamin named his son Francis Marion who was the second most famous Revolutionary War Hero with George Washington being the first.

The third son was named after the father. Charles named his son Benjamin F likely after the very popular Benjamin Franklin, Francis named his son George likely after George Crowder his father-in-law, Thomas named his son James who later became a minister in the Christian church established by the previously mentioned and famous Rev James O'Kelley the founder of the Christian church and Benjamin named his son Nimrod after Nimrod Williams.

The fourth son was named after the father's oldest brother. Charles named his son James, Francis named his son Thomas, Thomas named his son William, and Benjamin named his son Charles.

The second daughter was named after the father's mother. Charles named his daughter Frances, Francis named his daughter Delilah, Thomas named his daughter Mary, and Benjamin named is daughter Elizabeth.

The third daughter was named after the mother. Charles named this his daughter Mary, Francis named his Mary, Thomas named his daughter Sarah, and Benjamin had no additional daughters.

The fourth daughter was named after the mother's oldest sister. Charles named his daughter Nancy, Francis had no additional daughter, and Thomas named his daughter Nancy.

What we do not know but must consider is we do not know if there were children born before these children, could have been named and then died and were forgotten by later generations. There could have been more wives and more brothers.

I have also noticed that people most often name children as a way of seeking favor. For example if a mother was very fond of her grandfather, a son seeking the favor of his mother may name a child after her grandfather, this seems more true when the father of that son has already passed. Politics doesn't just appear in those seeking office, it also appears in most normal families.

**Source for Dean being the middle name of Charles O'Kelley is the Whiteheaddna.com website.

My Irish Ancestor his first American born sons

My Irish Ancestor
his first American born sons