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Gr father Kelly,Tralee

KerryTralee (Kerry)

I'm looking for my Grandfather who changed his name but has been confirmed as a Kelly by DNA testing. Don't have his christian name, but here's what I do know about him. Born in Tralee, Co Kerry 1858 or there abouts. Said he was Protestant, & had some sort of connection with the Blennerhassetts & the Kitcheners. Was supposed to have been disowned by his family for joining the British Army. Ended up moving to Australia late 1800's where he went by the name Hargreaves, then moved to New Zealand & died in 1935. May have had a twin sister. A real mystery, but hope someone here will be able to help.

Brian

4 replies

Hi Brian,

How exactly were you able to confirm the Kelly surname by DNA testing?  DNA does not always stick to a surname as everyone receives 50% dna from each parent.

If you are confident that your great grandfather was a Kelly you could have a look at the 32 baptisms in Tralee county Kerry that are listed on www.irishgenealogy.ie for the years 1855 to 1858. I can see any twins listed on the site.

 

Mallow CorkIrelandXO Volunteer

Brian:

I will also alert our Tralee parish liaison about your message.

Roger McDonnell

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Hello Mallow Cork.

Thanks for the Irishgeneaology website suggestion. I'll check it out.

In regards to your question in how I know my surname is Kelly. I have used specialised DNA testing which targets the 'Y' chromosome which can only be passed through the male line from generation to generation. I have done the Y-DNA111 test as well as the Big Y test with FTDNA. If you acces the FTDNA website & the following website R DF21 and Subclades - Family Tree DNA  you will get an idea on how it all works. Thanks.

Brian

Hi Brian, I have looked for a Kelly/Hargreaves connection, a Blennerhasset/Hargreaves and a Kitchener/Hargreaves connection and after a quick search I have come up empty handed.

The reason I did this is I remember doing a search some time ago and the person took their mother's maiden name as their new name. However given the fact that many Irish people of that time would have been reared by their grandparents it could be a grandmother's maiden name.

The Blennerhasset family tree is fairly well documented here

http://www.blennerhassettfamilytree.com/

and here

http://humphrysfamilytree.com/Blennerhassett/

but you probably know that already.

I can see 2 possible avenues of research for you

1. Check with Kew Gardens military record for a Tralee man of that time period who served in the army. (long and tedious I know)

2. Via Autosomal DNA testing see if any of those names show up in your matches. Depending on your own birth date, you may come up with some useful matches. You may have already done this but if not then upload your Autosomal DNA results to gedmatch.com and join the Kerry DNA Project Group on Facebook where we are trying to untangle our trees.

Congrats on doing the 'big Y' test. And good luck if you try the Autosomal DNA route. A strong second cousin match could lead you home.

Warm wishes

Martine Brennan

mbrennankerry@…IrelandXO Volunteer

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