The Finding of my Ancestors
My 14 Year Journey

 
I stand upon the shoulders of W E McClenny and his book about Rev James O'Kelly, Mary Evelyn O'Kelley and her college paper she wrote in the 60s, J Fred O'Kelley book about James Stamps O'Kelley, Alethea Jane Macon book about my family, and Harold Earnest O'Kelley book about his line of our family. When I started 14 years ago, I already had a huge head start because in 1997 my aunt Kathleen O'Kelley gave me her data that allowed me to create the largest and most complete O'Kelley Genealogy Website on the net.  



How to create a Genealogy Break Through


I have an advantage, I have decades of experience based in training investigating cold cases.  Rarely is a single record going to solve a cold case. What solves a cold case is how one looks that the data they have available.  I am most familiar with researching the Irish but I am sure much can be used with any genealogy research so In 2010 I turned to science, I submitted a 37 marker Y-DNA test to Family Tree DNA and then upgraded it to 67 markers, then 111 markers and while my matches help me know that my family was not Hy-Many as all those books written about my family claim, the matches and records of my matches indicated that we were Clann Ceallaigh of County Fermanagh but I still didn't have proof.  That came later when I upgraded to Big Y 500 and then to Big Y 700 and as the Family Tree Data base grew new database tools became available.  Now 14 years later I have the proof I needed.  My Biy Y 700 matches to Pollnagollum 911 R-FGC11134 who lived about 4200 years ago and was found in the Pollnajollum Cave in Co Fermanagh and Treanmacmurtagh 116 R-FGC11134 who lived about 4000 years ago found in a cist burial inside a cairn in Co Sligo cements my Y DNA in the right places and the right time and combines with the records and family stories of my 111 marker matches suggest strongly that I am of the O'Kelley of Bregia who may have moved to Corvally Co Monaghan Ireland in 1592 to receive a land grant for becoming a Protestant.