Group 3a is the largest group within the O'Malley DNA Project. Currently there are 61 members in this group and this accounts for 47% of all project members who have been allocated to Groups 1 to 7 inclusive.
Surname variants within the group are as follows:
- O'Malley (46), O'Malley-Keyes (1), Malley (3), Maley (2), Melia (2), Mealue (2).
Birth locations for the Earliest Known Ancestors (EKAs) were recorded for 20 participants and of these 14 (70%) had origins in Mayo.
Given the above, Group 3a likely represents the descendants of the O'Malley Clan of Mayo, as described in the medieval genealogies and historical texts (see also the last section of this previous post). And of course, among their number is Grace O'Malley, the Pirate Queen. So every member of Group 3a can claim kinship with Grace O'Malley.
Of the 61 members, 40 (66%) have done the Big Y test and the results of these tests have allowed us to create a comprehensive genetic family tree for the Mayo O'Malley's that reveals an extensive branching structure. This is illustrated in FTDNA's Group Time Tree. The diagram is quite big so it has been appended in 3 parts to the end of this article (with dates and some notes from me - click each part to enlarge it). Some recent data (branch FTF13789) has not yet been added to the Time Tree so this has been inserted manually by me.
The overarching DNA marker for this group was BY35730 as it encompassed all men with the O'Malley surname. However, there's a problem.
Back in June 2022 the age estimate for this branch was 1029 AD, which is well within the Surname Emergence Era (roughly 950-1150 AD). However, all estimates evolve over time (as more data becomes available) and this particular estimate (1029 AD) was refined to 885 AD by August 2022 and 802 AD by September 2022. And now (in July 2025) it has been further refined to 711 AD, well before the Surname Emergence Era. So this suggests that the Maley surname of the single individual on the BY35730 branch may have arisen independently of everybody else in Group 3a.
But we cannot be certain that this is indeed the case, because the range (i.e. 95% Confidence Interval) around the current estimate (711 AD) is 362-993 AD ... and the upper end of this range does fall within the Surname Emergence Era (950-1150 AD). So we will have to wait and see how this situation evolves over time as more data is added to the Time Tree and the age estimates are further refined.
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| The age estimate for the previous over-arching DNA marker is now 711 AD. The Surname Emergence Era is indicated by the green bar. Click to enlarge |
If however this is the case (i.e. that the surname of the single Maley man on the BY35730 branch arose independently of everybody else in Group 3a), then the new "overarching DNA marker" for the group would be one step further downstream, namely BY35760, which has a (current) age estimate of 1080 AD (range 840-1275). This is well within the Surname Emergence Era (roughly 950-1150 AD) and therefore this DNA marker may very well have been passed on by someone within a few generations of the progenitor of the O'Malley surname, if not by the progenitor himself.
Immediately below BY35760, there are 3 branches with 41 people on them - the first branch (FTA88222) has currently only 2 people sitting on it; the third one (FTC73000) has only 3 participants; but the second one (FT86146) has 35 occupants (on 12 sub-branches), and is thus the most prolific branch within Group 3a. This would be in keeping with descendants of a royal line, whose members probably had access to a better lifestyle than their less well-off cousins.
The Group Time Tree diagram below is supplemented with the current age estimate for each branch (in red text), the number of SNP markers associated with each branch (in blue text), and an indication of the key families in the Finding Grace project. It also includes a yellow dot to mark the approximate birth year of the EKA (Earliest Known Ancestor) for each of the O'Malley men who have supplied that information. Click on each section to enlarge it.
You can see that most of the project members have recorded genealogies that hit a Brick Wall somewhere between 1780-1830. This leaves about 800 years of their O'Malley family history unaccounted for. But there are a few participants (in the Finding Grace project) who have recorded genealogies that go back to the 1600s with some degree of confidence, and back further than that to Dermot 1490 (uncle of Grace O'Malley, indicated by the red dot below), and back even further to the progenitor of the O'Malley surname (about 1000 AD). But these need to be validated with appropriate "proof arguments", which may be impossible given the lack of primary source records. In addition, we know from the Finding Grace project that some of the genealogies are incorrect ... and that is a topic for discussion in the next blog article.
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