O'Malley Group 4 - update June 2025

The number of people in Group 4 has not changed since the last update in 2019 - it still consists of three people. And their surnames are Mealey, Meally, and Maley. 

Where is the Group from?

One of the group members has an EKA (Earliest Known Ancestor) on his direct-male line from Tuam in county Galway, and another member goes back to Castlecomer in county Kilkenny. In addition, several of the surnames among Group 4's matches are heavily concentrated in or around Kilkenny (e.g. Whalen, Brazil, Bergin, Hickey, Burgess - see previous update). So Kilkenny is currently the main contender for the point of origin of at least one of their O'Malley ancestors. 

But was this always the case? or did their more distant ancestors come from elsewhere prior to Kilkenny?

How old is the group?

Since the last update, FTDNA have introduced the Discover feature, which has a suite of tools including the Time Tree, and this has proved very helpful in visualising the age of the various branches on the Tree of Mankind, as well as the position of the various genetic groups within the O'Malley DNA Project and their relation to their nearest genetic neighbours on adjacent branches.

Time Tree for O'Malley Group 4 showing BY70535 (red icon)
and nearest genetic neighbours on adjacent branches

For members of Group 4, two of them have done the Big Y test and this has placed them on a branch of the Tree of Mankind characterised by the DNA marker BY70535. The age estimate for this branch is about 1781 (range 1568-1915). You can see this in the Time Tree diagram above (red icon).

We also know that the first and third member of Group 4 share 291cM on Ancestry (and thus are probable 2nd cousins, presumably on their O'Malley lines). Their respective pedigrees are as follows:

1) first member 867092 ... no pedigree supplied

2) second member 268068

1. John Mealey aka Mealy born 1791 Cloneen, Castlecomer, County Kilkenny, IRELAND. m Mary Byrne

2. John Mealey b 18 Feb 1814, d 24 Feb 1873. m Sarah Conners

3. George Mealey b Apr 1816, d 1864. m Margeret Buggy

4. descends

5. MM 268068

3) third member 781053

1. Thomas Maley born 1844 Ireland; died aft 1890 Schuykill Co. PA, USA; m Bridget Tobin b1849

2. James John Maley born 1881; died 1929 Schuykill Co. PA

3. father

4. TJM 781053

Given all the above information it is possible that all three men share John Mealey c1791 as a common ancestor.

Who are the nearest genetic neighbours?

The Group 4 O'Malley's sit on branch BY70535 and they and their nearest genetic neighbours sit on the branch one step above, characterised by the DNA marker BY601. The age estimate for this branch is 545 AD (range 249-793). So the age difference between these two branches is 1781-545 = 1236 years ... and a lot could have happened during that time. So Group 4 O'Malley's sit on a relatively isolated branch of the Tree of Mankind with nearest genetic neighbours with whom they share a common ancestor some 1500 years ago, well before the emergence of surnames in Ireland.

Another version of the Tree of Mankind is FTDNA's Group Time Tree. This is similar to the Time Tree but includes the surnames of test-takers as well as their EKA information. And this could give clues to their deeper origins of the Group 4 O'Malley's. The Suggested Projects associated with BY601 include the "R-CTS1751 and Subclades Project", which in turn has 28 members who sit on the BY601 branch. 

Suggested Projects associate with DNA marker BY601

We can view the BY601 section of this project on the Group Time Tree and this reveals the names of some of the nearest genetic neighbours on the adjacent branches ...

Group Time Tree extract for the BY601 section of the "R-CTS1751 and Subclades" project

These nearest neighbours include several Irish & Scottish surnames:

• Irish: Brazil (2), Bergin (3), Phelan or variant (5)
• Scottish: McKinnon or variant (3), MacMaster (2)

So the genetic origins of this group could either be Irish or Scottish.

Conclusions & Next Steps

The three members of Group 4 are quite closely related. Two of them are probable 2nd cousins and they may be 3rd cousins to the remaining member. The overarching common ancestor / ancestral couple may be Thomas Maley (1844 to 1890+) and his wife Bridget Tobin (born 1849). Or it could be one or more generations before this.

For now, all we can say is that Group 4 has been carrying the O'Malley surname (or variant) since about 1781 (the TMRCA for branch BY70535), but prior to that there is a gap of some 1200 years before the next common ancestor (BY601) for the O'Malley's and their nearest genetic neighbours. What happened in that intervening period is anybody's guess, but it would not be surprising if some sort of Surname Switch or DNA Switch occurred during that time.

It's possible that this group was originally from Mayo (the ancestral homeland of the Mayo O'Malley's), then moved down to Galway (Tuam?), and from there they moved to Kilkenny. And somewhere along the way (possibly in Kilkenny), a DNA switch occurred such that the O'Malley name became associated with the DNA signature it now carries (namely BY70535). It's a theory at this stage - no more. But as time goes by, we will probably accumulate more data that may shed some light on the remaining unanswered questions.

Maurice Gleeson

June 2025