A Visit to Islandeady ... and some new information on the O'Malley's of Cloonane

In a previous post, we explored the family history of Charles O'Malley of Cloonane (1779-1871). Charles was reportedly a descendant of Teige, a supposed brother of the famous Grace O'Malley (1530-1603). We had previously thought that this line had died out ... but recent discoveries have suggested that this may not be the case!

I've been travelling around Mayo for the past week or so and on Wednesday (17th August) I decided on an excursion to the beautiful countryside around Islandeady to visit the grave of Charles of Cloonane and pay my respects in person. Islandeady lies half-way between Westport and Castlebar.

Me with my trusty 26-year-old Saab outside the church in Islandeady

The Islandeady graveyard is divided into the old and new sections and it was in the former that Charles and his family have been laid to rest. A company called Irish Graveyards has previously surveyed both sections of the cemetery and there is a handy index of everyone resting there and a map of their locations.

The cemetery map and index to the gravestones

Charles' grave was easy to find and the gravestone clearly states that his wife's name was Alice Bourke, filling in a missing piece of information discussed in the previous post.

Gravestone of Charles O'Malley & Alice Bourke

There were several other O'Malley gravestones of interest in the graveyard, including that of Letitia O'Malley-Keyes (1853-1923) and her family (mother, father, siblings). Letitia was the wife of Middleton O'Malley (1826-1902) of Ross House from Line 1 of the Finding Grace project (reported descendants of Grace's supposed brother Melaghlin).

Letitia O'Malley-Keyes and family

I also found a gravestone within the church for a Martin O'Malley who died on 15th Dec 1811 aged 55 years and would thus have been born about 1756. I'm not sure where he sits in the greater O'Malley Clan Family Tree, or if he is related to Charles of Cloonane, or if he has any living descendants today.

Martin O'Malley 1756-1811

There were several old slabs lying just outside the old church, one of which was for an O'Maly. A partial transcription is on the Irish Graveyards website (plot no. 24) and reveals that Mr O'Maly died in August 1788 aged 82 (hence, born in 1704) and his wife, Catherine O'Malley died in July 1789 aged 96. This would mean she was born about 1693 indicating the O'Malley presence in Islandeady probably extends back into the 1600s at least. 

The name O'Maly is clearly visible on this old gravestone (plot no. 24)

A second slab has a partial transcription on the IrishGraveyards website that reads: James O'Malley died 1790, aged 18. However, there is clearly additional text on the gravestone that would be worth capturing. It would be good to get some gravestone rubbings to help reveal the full extent of the inscriptions. 

Another old O'Malley gravestone (plot no. 17)

I also came across this touching memorial to Fr Thomas O'Malley (son of Charles of Cloonane) in the parish church in Islandeady itself. Father Tom was a much loved parish priest (P.P.) and was very active in fighting for the rights of his parishioners during the land wars of the 1870s and 1880s, saving many tenants from being evicted by their landlord.

Memorial to Fr Thomas O'Malley (1821-1897)

Not far from Islandeady is Jack's Old Cottage in Derrycouraune. This is a charming 200-year-old home that has been lovingly restored to its former glory by Joe & Irene Moylette, and is well worth the visit. The cottage is typical of where our ancestors would have lived 200 years ago. Check out their Facebook page here.

Jack's Old Cottage, Derrycooraune, Islandeady

Joe and Irene are heavily involved in the Islandeady Heritage Group who are actively involved in preserving and promoting the local history, genealogy and heritage. Keep up the good work!

List of achievements of the Islandeady Heritage Group

I spoke to Joe (087 9443626, jacksoldcottage@gmail.com) and he was very helpful in suggesting living O'Malley's to contact whose families have lived in Islandeady for many generations. Some of them are probably related to Charles of Cloonane (1779-1871) so it may very well be that the line has not died out as previously thought. If that is the case, we may be able to test several descendants of Teige, the supposed brother of Grace O'Malley.

There is no substitute for local knowledge!

Maurice Gleeson

August 2022

Finding Grace - update since the Clan Rally

The O'Malley Clan Rally 2022 took place over the weekend of June 24th to 26th and it was such a joy to be able to meet with people face to face after 2 years of virtual gatherings. A good time was had by all - it was a great opportunity to meet old friends, and make new ones.

As part of the rich calendar of events, I gave an update on the Finding Grace project in Westport Town Hall. This was recorded and can be viewed on YouTube here and below.

The goal of the Finding Grace project is to identify the Y-DNA signature of the great great grandfather of Grace O'Malley, the Pirate Queen (1530-1603). Only men have a Y-chromosome, so Grace herself would not have possessed any Y-DNA or passed it on to her descendants. However, her father (Owen) would have had Y-DNA, which he would have received from his father (Cormac), who got it from his father (Owen), who got it from his father (Dermot). Grace O'Malley was born about 1530, and allowing 30 years per generation, her great great grandfather, Dermot, would have been born about 1400 AD, so we refer to him as Dermot 1400.

Using extensive genealogies available from various sources (e.g. Burke's Landed Gentry, the Genealogical Office in Dublin), we have identified 13 reported descendants of this Dermot 1400, who sit on 3 major lines of descent (Lines 1, 2 and 3 in the diagram below). Line 1 represents the O'Malley's of Ross House and Achill, Line 2 is the Kilmilkin O'Malley's, and Line 3 is the O'Malley's of Ballyburke.

The 3 lines of descent from Dermot (born about 1400 AD)
(click to enlarge)

We initially tested these reported descendants with the Y-DNA-37 test. This assessed 37 STR markers on the Y-chromosome and was a useful first step in trying to establish if the test-taker was likely to belong to Group 3a within the O'Malley DNA Project. Group 3a is the largest group within the project and is the most likely to represent the descendants of the O'Malley Clan of Mayo. However, there are eight "Group 3" groups (ranging from 3a to 3g), all with similar DNA signatures, and it is not always easy to say which of these eight groups a test-taker belongs to based purely on the results of their Y-DNA-37 test. This question can really only be answered definitively by doing the Big Y test.

So, after the initial Y-DNA-37 testing, the next step was to upgrade people to the Big Y. This assesses over 800 STR markers and over 200,000 SNP markers and allows the test-taker to be placed on a very specific branch of the Tree of Mankind (a.k.a. Y-Haplotree). And this revealed our first surprise - Line 2 does not belong to Group 3a. 

In fact, Line 2 belongs to Group 3g. The two groups (3g and 3a) are indeed "related" in that they share a common ancestor, but this ancestor would have lived about 1700 years ago, well before the introduction of the O'Malley surname (about 1000 AD). Further analysis revealed that the O'Malley surname has been associated with Group 3g for at least 300 years and probably more like 450 years. Prior to this, there may have been a surname switch from Burks / Burke / Bourke, and there may have been an additional surname switch prior to that. But the Take Home Message was that the Group 3g O'Malley's were a well established lineage that probably goes back to the time of Grace O'Malley herself.

The next Big Y results came back for Line 1 and these identified a new branch underneath the pre-existing FT86146 branch. This new branch was characterised by the SNP marker FTA85293, and also sitting on this branch were the O'Malley's of Michigan. The results for Line 3 arrived the week before the Clan Rally, just in time for a further reconfiguring of the "genetic family tree". These last-minute results revealed not only that Lines 1 and 3 were closely related, but created an entirely new branch for them in the Mayo O'Malley portion of the Tree of Mankind. This new branch falls just underneath FTA85293 and is characterised by the newly-discovered SNP marker FTC67000, and only Line 1 and Line 3 members sit on this branch.

This tells us that the people on Line 1 and Line 3 are more closely related to each other than they are to any other branch within Group 3a. They definitely share a common ancestor with each other, and this ancestor was born after the common ancestor they share with the rest of the group. The question is: is their common ancestor Dermot 1400, the great great grandfather of Grace O'Malley, as described in the extensive genealogies? or is it someone else?

There is always the possibility that the extensive genealogies are incorrect, and we cannot automatically assume that the common ancestor is Dermot 1400. We need additional data before we can arrive at this conclusion. And in this regard there are several lines of enquiry that we can undertake.

Firstly, we can look at the age estimate for the newly identified FTC67000 branch and see if it fits with what is reported in the extensive genealogies. If Line 1 and Line 3 members share Dermot 1400 as a common ancestor, then the FTC67000 branch on which they sit should have an age estimate that is close to 1400 AD.

The recently-introduced "Discover More" feature on the FTDNA website uses a new age estimating technology that provides us with better age estimates for the various branches of the Tree of Mankind. Using this new feature, we can now assign updated age estimates for each of the branches associated with Group 3a. The age estimates are referred to as TMRCA estimates, where TMRCA stands for "Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor". The TMRCA estimate for the new FTC67000 branch reveals that it falls somewhere within a 95% range (Confidence Interval) of 1366 to 1826 with a central estimate of 1643 AD.

TMRCA estimate (with 95% Confidence Intervals) for FTC6700
(Note: CE refers to Common Era and is equivalent to AD, Anno Domini)

So this tells us that the TMRCA estimate for the new FTC67000 branch is "not inconsistent" with a common ancestor born about 1400 AD. The proposed date falls within the 95% range (albeit at the extreme lower end) and this makes it possible that Dermot 1400 was the common ancestor of Line 1 and Line 3. The interesting point to note is that the central estimate differs from the 1400 date by almost 250 years, and this is perhaps unexpected. It could even suggest that the common ancestor between Line 1 and Line 3 was born some time after Dermot 1400. This is a possibility that we need to bear in mind moving forward. And if it is ever proved to be the case, then this would point to the extensive genealogies being incorrect.

The branch immediately above the Line 1 & 3 O'Malley's (the FTA85293 branch, which incorporates the Michigan O'Malley's) has a TMRCA estimate of 1473 AD (95% CI 1187-1678), and the branch above that (the FT86146 branch) has a TMRCA estimate of 1373 AD (95% CI 1167-1535).

However, these TMRCA estimates will continue to evolve over time as more people do the Big Y test and more data accumulates that can be applied to these age calculations. And as this evolution occurs, we may see the 95% range shift, and the central estimate for the new FTC67000 branch may move closer to 1400 ... or may move away from it. Two additional sets of Big Y results are expected within the next 8 weeks and these may alter these TMRCA estimates (which FTDNA update on a weekly basis). This will be an interesting one to watch! 

The second line of enquiry is to attempt the validation of the extensive genealogies by generating proof arguments for each generation in the line of ascent from each test-taker in Line 1 and Line 3 back to their reported common ancestor, Dermot 1400. This means moving step-by-step up each O'Malley pedigree and proving that each person in the direct male line is the son of the father above him. This exercise will be relatively easy for the generations born in the 1900s and 1800s as there are relatively good records available. But once we hit the 1700s and 1600s, the available information will be relatively sparse and proving a connection between reported father and reported son may be a lot more challenging.

This work is already underway and will take many months to complete, but an update on the current status will be shared at the next public lecture on Finding Grace, which will take place in Westport House on Saturday August 13th. Further details are currently available on the Clan website here.

The adventure continues ...

Maurice Gleeson

Aug 2022