Genelach Dáil Cuinn Project™ Forum

After some recent developments, including the disappointing news that Keleghan 133296 was not on my branch, it did put a few more pieces of the puzzle together. Firstly research on the surname as a whole, my attempt to try and figure out whether "Mac Ceall'ain" (the muting of the "gh" of MacCeallachain) happened multiple times sporadically or was one family, was fairly inconclusive but interesting nonetheless. I also wanted to see if the variants of Kellane, Kellean, Kellain etc were from MacCeall'ain as opposed to the surnames of O'Cathalain (that anglicized Callane & Callan) and O'Cillin (that anglicized Killeen and poss Killane) and I think it's drawn a solid conclusion for me that MacCeallachain became MacCeall'ain and subsequently Ceall'ain. As you can see MacCeall'ain occurs virtually everywhere that MacCeallachain exists. But so much time has passed with so many population movements, I cannot say for sure whether all these MacCeall'ain branched off the nearest Keleghan families. What this map does not take into account though is the Farmer population vs. the urban population. The MacCeall'ains it seems were of the hereditary craftsman trades and may have even been among the "Gobhan Saor" (Free Smiths) which were free classes of medieval gaelic Ireland who some upward mobility. The McCeall'ain variants in Athlone, Moate, Clara, Tullamore, Mullingar and Kilbeggan were largely tradesmen, while the farmer MacCeall'ains had one specific population on the Meath/Westmeath border close to the big concentration of Keleghan variants in the barony of Delvin.
This map also disproves a theory I was so sure about the past year or so, that McLain was MacCallane, which could have arisen from the O'Cathalain (gaining a Mac prefix somewhow) around southern Westmeath. Examining the Elizabethan Fiants, it also appears that "M'Callan" could have been "MacCalahen" and not "MacCahalen" which I thought supported my "Mac Cathalain" theory.
In the fiants it looks as if the McKelane pardon is the geographic outlier, but when you take into account the total surname map, plus the MacCeall'ain farmer population near Delvin, it seems as if this population of people had come from roughly that direction.

Now to dive deeper into the history and analyze this vs the other surnames in FT130287... In c1050-1160 a war raged between the King of Breifne and the King of Meath. O'Rourke, King of "Breifne and Conmaicne" gained significant territories in the baronies of Granard, Fore (the Delbhna Beag), Devlin (Delbhna Mor) and Upper Kells, including the Abbey and town of Kells itself. It seems the O'Rourke probably had significant sway here the majority of the time, seeing the settlement of at least two A5902 branches here (FT130287 & BY38401). The 1169 Norman invasion and subsequent conquering of the Kingdom of Meath was the beginning of the collapse of a large part of both kingdoms. A civil war raged within Breifne as the O'Raghallaigh tried to overtake O'Ruairc. They allied themselves with the Anglo-Norman DeLacy to weaken O'Ruairc. It backfired and the Normans took territories all the way up to Lough Oughter near Killeshandra by the early 13th c. Breifne split between O'Ruairc & O'Raghallaigh. Conmaicne (the Muintir Eolais) became indepdendent of Breifne, and Granard slowly became part of Anghaile under the O'Farrel (another Conmaicne tribe). The barony of Delvin went to the Nugents and most of Fore and Upper Kells to the Plunketts, adherents of DeLacy, now barons in Meath. A large swath of gaelic lords and their tenants were displaced to the low bogs and marshes which is today around the boundaries of Westmeath & Offaly (Is this the population movement shown in this map?) After hundreds of years of the gaelic resurgence, Meath was split into Westmeath & Eastmeath in 1542 citing "West Meath has been over run by the King's Irish enemies and his laws can no longer be executed there."

It seems that the Fraher kit may have been the big clue here, as well as the Keleghan who ended up being BY38401 (from Delvin, Westmeath, where there are also scattered O'Breasaill families from here to Munterconnacht, Co. Cavan). Although myself and Gorry's ancestors both emerged from the Kilbeggan-Tullamore area mid-18th century, this may just be a total coincidence. Researching O'Guaire (Son of the Noble) has been fairly easy because it only has 3 mis-spellings (Gorry, Gorey, Gurry). "Fraher" although I thought it early on to be O'Fearchair from Connacht, looks as if it's very scattered variant of Mac an'Phriora (Son of the Prior) which was mostly "Friary" between Granard and Kells but had very scattered variants of Freer, Frayer, Friery, Fraher in low numbers. The largest concentration of MacCeallachain is around Killua, Co. Westmeath (Delvin b.) while it's "Mac Ceall'ain" variant is nearby in the same parish on the Meath side (Killallon) into the barony of Fore, Westmeath, all within the parish of Clonmellon. though modern boundaries separate these areas they were definitely all within Breifne at one point. The oldest records confirm that this Mac Ceall'ain (McKellain>McClain) variant in the area was not recent (30 Apr 1558: The pardon of Thady M'Kelane of Balruntagh, Co. Meath, for the murder of James O'Corregain). It could be that this variant is specifically the FT130287 MacCeallachain and the Keleghan variant is specifically the BY38401 Mac Ceallachain.

BY9397 (The ancestor of Fraher and McLain) probably happened some time around 1200-1325, likely around this Meath/Westmeath border in the vicinity of the towns of Fore (W'Meath) & Killalon (Meath).

O'Corrain & Maguire in "Irish Names" under the female name "Ceallsach" write "A feminine form of the relatively rare male name CELLÁN, which is probably a diminutive of Ceallach" (just like their entry for Ceallachain); however they make no entry for this name itself but acknowledge it's existence. The proximity of the "Ceall'ain' variants to "Ceallachain" families makes me think this was more correctly a variant of Ceallachain and not directly from Ceallach, at least as far as Westmeath is concerned. The annals note a CELLÁN who was abbot of Clonfert and d.753

Chris,

As per usual, a stunning analysis. It looks like you are getting somewhere pretty solid now. And what a journey it has been: from Norman viking gallowglass adherents to a thoroughly Gaelic family. I hope we get more surnames that can help flesh all this out. Great work!

Thanks very much David!

Chris,

IDK how this affects your updated hypothesis:

https://dcg.genealogy.network/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=436

But as we have discussed before, newer test results from more precise testing technology might bring about significant changes to the Y-Haplotree.

Wow this is interesting, I still wonder if something will shift or tie FT130287 to BY38401. As it stands it seems two branches of A5902 settled in the southern boundaries of Breifne. I've been concentrating in this area and getting beyond the parish records finding precise locations of "Mac Ceallain". Although they're in low numbers scattered among many parishes, when I plot it out it does seem to create a "homeland" the greater part of which is in the barony of Fore and also the "Manor of Fore" and reaches out to where the "Teige or Thady" M'Kelane was living in 1558 when pardoned. It's also many more farms than the small family around Clara/Kilbeggan/Tullamore c1750-1850 so they may have in fact come from here. All of these townlands would have been part of Breifne until the Norman invasion. The greater numbers of Keleghans however are specifically in Clonmellon p (the salient in NE Westmeath) and Castletown Delvin p., both in the Barony of Delvin. Although the Nugents were given the barony of Delvin by DeLacy early 13th c., they did become lords of much of Fore barony, ceded by the Plunketts.
Whether these are really two separate families with similar names (after all, Ceallachain was an immensely popular given name c.12th c.), or have a broken genealogy, or only appear separate due to incomplete testing of the Y-chromosome like you mention, I can't tell but coincidences are really stacking up with both extremely rare markers and geography.

Oddly: my McLains were carpenters and free smiths, and there was a McClane in Carpenterstown (Bhaile Na Saor: Town of the Free Smiths; probably employed by the abbot or the church?). The given names of the McClanes in Carpenterstown, Collinstown, Ballycomoyle, Ranaghan, and Scurlockstown c. 1800-1850 are also the names of my 5th gr. grandfathers brothers in 1730s Dublin parish records (Laurence, Charles, James, Henry, Michael), and all of these townlands except for Scurlockstown were a part of the Priory and Manor of Fore. Perhaps they were not around the Westmeath/Offaly border as early as I thought.

Chris,

That last change only reinforces my concern that we are missing key connecting mutations that are being overlooked in the regions not being currently sampled. Time will tell.

It's definitely strange, as there's now 4 FT130287 kits and 5 BY38401 kits, and these mutations seem to be about the same age, but that's just with the data we are shown. Aside from Braswell/Brassill there are also Harris/Harrison and Williams/Williamson in this area which they all have in common that stretches from Granard to Kells.

I've been doing some more work in this locale and especially after taking into account the probability that myself and Gorry's ancestors ended up in the Clara/Kilbeggan/Tullamore area completely by coincidence, I think the Gorry surname runs into the same oddities that my own does (an area where two or three similar names ran into eachother and anglicized similarly). Picking apart what looks to be distinctly separate populations of either a similar surname or much later migrations (i.e. the want of tenants in post-1650 depopulated southern westmeath/offaly cant be overlooked), this is what I've come up with. It looks as if Gorry in what was southern Breifne was also "Gurry" which is more towards David's original estimation of "MacGothraidh" and not O'Guaire which is numerous around Kilbeggan and mostly associated with Eastern Offaly. The surname Godfrey is also scattered among the Westmeath/Meath border in very low numbers and does have a Breifne O'Reilly association (Rev Woulfe). This given name-turned-surname seems to make sense with the overwhelming Norman presence. The areas around Oldcastle in Co. Meath seems to have been largely back in the hands of the O'Reilly of Clanmahon by 1350.
I am also now very certain that Fraher was Mac a'Phriora or Mac a'Phrir (son of the Friar), a surname which is largely Friar/Friary from Granard to Kells and becomes Frayer/Freer south of this area. The pressure to adopt occupational surnames among the Irish people for the purpose of assimilation was heavy in the old Kingdom of Meath. I've found this name in gaelic as late as 1602, a "Hugh O'Reilly Mac a'Phrira of Moylagh, Co. Meath" (just south of Oldcastle) witnessed a disposition concerning one of the Dillons.

With the TMRCA of Fraher & myself (BY9397, which is very well into the period of surnames), it leads me to believe that a MacCellain/MacCellachain may have been a Friar and this surname developed on that line but of course the opposite could also be true, especially with the vicnity a particular group of McClanes lived to Fore abbey. It's still speculation whether this name was MacCeallain or part of the MacCeallachain from Clonmellon parish. The root-given name of Ceallach (bright-headed/hermit/cell) could mean the "Adam" of this surname had an ecclesiastical origin. The amount of coincidences in this research has pulled me in so many different directions.

This is also a very odd coincidence with given names of tenants around Fore c.1800. Myself and Thatcher both descend from Henry McClane b.1741 Children of Lawrence & Elizabeth McClane of St. Audeon's C of I, Dublin City 1720s-60s
James McClane, B. unk; d. 1761
Allen McClane, b. 1726
Henry McClane, b. 1727 d 1741
Charles McClane, b. 1731
Joseph McClane, b. 1735
Michael McClane, b. 1739
Henry McClane, b. 1741 (Glazier; Smiths Guild; Freemason; Ancestor of Thatcher & Myself)
m. Judith Evans 1759 Dublin
a. James McClane b1760 Dublin
b. Charles McClane b.1762 Dublin
c. Henry McClane, b. 1770 Clara, King's Co.

Although Fore is now just ruins of a large abbey, it was a thriving walled medieval town that was burned 12 times and consistently rebuilt, and was somewhat under English control although reclaimed gaelic land had eventually almost reached the town walls. The appropriated townlands that made up the 13th c. "Manor of Fore" were largely most of the townlands in St. Feighins and Rathgarve parish, and included Carpenterstown. The 1659 census shows tenements and mills at Fore. After the 1540 dissolution, the abby lands were granted to the Nugents, Barons of Delvin who were made Earls of Westmeath. The population here was wholly Irish (1659) until the Nugents were dispossessed c1660s.

Yet again, curse the Anglicization of our Gaelic surnames...

After several months and doing a lot of research of the other surnames of these two branches without any bigtree shake-ups, it seems like it will stay likely that these two branches have no more recent ancestors than A5902+; so it's fairly likely that there are two branches of Mac Ceallachain present here that anglicized very differently. Something fairly interesting I've come across is that the native gaelic lords of Delvin who were once under the O'Melaghlin when the collapse of the Kingdom of Meath occurred (a result of a war with Breifne c1050-1150), were the O'Finneolan, their chief bore the name Ceallach and he died c1180. This could a reason for a diminutive of Ceallach turning into a surname in this area. "Ceallachain" himself may not even have been A5902+, and there could be broken genealogies, resulting in MacCeallachains of different parentage.

The other two surnames of FT130287...
"Fraher" I am now very very certain is Mac an Phriora, concentrated Granard to Kells as "Friary" and very scattered outside this area as Frayer/Freer/Freery/Freier. This name was mostly concentrated around Oldcastle, Co. Meath; MacGothraith is also most heavily concentrated Old Castle, Co. Meath to Clonmellon, Co. Westmeath. I must conclude that the FT130287 ancestors prior to splitting were in this area for quite some time. Rev. Woulfe notes that MacGothraith was associated with the O'Reillys of Breifne, athough the name appears very little in Cavan it could have been a Breifne branch of people that were in Meath very very early.

It is also known that although the Normans swept through this area, Delvin being given to the Nugents, the Oldcastle area to the Plunketts (soon after Hugh DeLacy killed Tighernan O'Rourke outside Athboy), that by the turn of the 14th century, the Oldcastle area was mostly in the hands of the O'Reillys of Clanmahon. The RC Parish of Oldcastle extends all the way to the Westmeath border. Whether Clanmahon originally held sway over this area pre-1171 I cannot verify. Fiants from western Fore barony (in both Meath & Westmeath) show an overwhelming presence of O'Reillys, surely there was probably a heavy Breifne influence and families here maybe had old allegiances to East Breifne. Also by 1400, the town of Fore became known as the Western boundary of the Pale. By 1500 this boundary was closer to Athboy. Also of note, it seems that Mac an Phriora may have been a surname that came into use by the O'Reillys. A 1602 fiant notes "Hugh m'Prior O'Rellie of Lickblay, Co. Westmeath"

This area seems to be a brief stop for BY38401, as BY18132 (O'Brasaill, Harris/Harrison, Williamson (McWilliam?) are all families around the Kildare/Meath/Offaly border area. Its likely the bulk of BY38401 were pushed out of here by the Normans, the area east of Delvin barony (Meath outside Athboy) was heavily colonized by Anglo-Norman families while the further west one went from here was more and more a gaelic stronghold.