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Archiver > Scotch-Irish > 2004-05 > 1085425933


From: "Linda Merle" <>
Subject: Favorite Scotch Irish Ancestor?
Date: Mon, 24 May 2004 12:12:19 -0700


Hi folks,

Maybe its time for a 'new thread'! How about your favorite Scotch Irish ancestor?? Give us lots of details so perhaps someone else, today
or 5 years from now, can connect in.

I will start with Henry Kelly, my great great granddad. We know
very little about him. He was apparently born in Pennsylvania
around 1820 and died in I think 1853 in an accident, leaving a
widow -- Mary Kelly -- and two small sons, James and Oliver.
He died, and they lived in Indiana Twp, Allegheny Co, PA. That's
just north of the Allegheny River. He is buried in Pine Creek
Cemetery in what is now I think Fox Chapel. A witness to his
will was a son of the Rev. John Black. I descend from the Rev.
John's brother as well. This line were Covenantors, among the
2/3rds who left the mother church in the split in 1834. So
apparently Henry Kelly was also involved with the Covenantors.

We think Henry was raised in Indiana Twp in a family of poor
Kellys. The father appears to be named Pegnum (early census).
This family lost their 2 acres to several large neighbors
in a series of law suits.

A lot of work by my sister established that Mary Kelly's maiden
name was Marshall and she was one of seven daughters of Isabella
and Alexander Marshall, who left Tyrone in 1821 at ages 21 and 20.
They had an estate of several thousand acres in Indiana Twp.
Mary was disinherited for marrying poor Henry, though after Henry's
death she had to go live with her mother as a servant. She later
bought the land she was supposed to have inherited.

Sons Oliver and James became successful meat merchants in Pittsburgh.
Oliver, my great granddad, died in a collison between his horse
and buggy and a train. James defrauded my great grandmother of her
share of the property as the brothers had neglected to register
the deed.

We suspect the Indiana Twp Kellys are related to the Kelly family
of early Wilkinsburg. That Kelly family were also Covenanter,
but we haven't uncovered the link yet.

Henry and his family are our favorite ancestors because they ....
eh.... aren't very dead. James manifested in a dream of my sisters,
threatening her life if she went to a court house to get evidence
that he had defrauded his brother of his share of the family
property. She went anyway. They are also our "Not Far Enough"
story. You've seen "Far and Away"??? This family is "Not Far Enough".
Henry Kelly did not get far enough away from the troubles of
Ireland. His wife, the eldest daughter of a rich landowner, was
disinherited for marrying him. His daughter in law would be
disinherited by her family (they relieved his possible father of
his two acres for debts) for marrying his son Oliver. We have
a phone of Oliver Kelly -- a handsome man of course!

In the 1860 census Mary Kelly was living with her mother as
a servant with her two sons. Also there was another Kelly woman
with two children named Isabella Kelly and Marshall Kelly. She
is not another daughter of Isabella Kelly's so she must be a
sister in law of Mary's. A William Kelly possibly. Perhaps Marshall
Kelly went to Kentucky as I've seen traces of a man with that name
in censuses. Ten years later the 2nd woman and her children are
gone.

My grandmother (Henry's granddaughter) said that the Kellys
came from County Down, but we fear we'll need DNA evidence to prove
it. My grandmother was 'very irish' in culture, as opposed to
my grandfather, 'very scotch-irish'. They fought for 60 years and
it wasn't over religion. The Kellys come with a banshee and lots of
Irish culture, making them far more colorful than the rest of the
family.

Anyone researching poor Presbyterian Kellys in Allegheny County??
(We're willing to share the banshee!)

Linda Merle

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