The case of the three O'Kelleys: James, Thomas, and William.
I must present a great deal of
detail
because I have a huge difficulty
created by the books of
J Fred O'Kelly,
Alethea Jane Macon, and
Harold O'Kelley.
When
J Fred O'Kelly
and
Alethea Jane Macon
published their works in 1966 and 1969 they had the luxury of presenting
their findings unchallenged and mostly in agreement but that is not true
for me. The works of these authors and a later book published in
1985 by
Harold O'Kelley are widely accepted and
replicated by descendants as proven fact My detail is
necessary as to provide my readers with the evidence allowing my
readers to judge for themselves, something not that much different than
what I did in proving my criminal cases before a jury of 12 reasonable
men and women.
I have a long history with the book
titled
"Some
Descendants and Ancestral Kin of James Stamps O'Kelley and Lucy Woodruff
England" printed by
J Fred O'Kelly in 1966, my first reading
of it was as a young teen living in the home of my parents almost a half
a century ago and I have read and reread this book many times during my
adulthood. By the time
Alethea Jane Macon
printed her book in
1969 my interest were anything other than the family that made my
birth possible so my first reading of her book came only in the Spring
of 2010 mostly because it was not widely distributed something that I
have changed, thanks to the Internet and the consent of Ms Macon's
family
her written words
will out live the paper they were printed upon more than forty years ago
a fitting tribute to the accomplished life of
Alethea Jane Macon. My life
has come full circle as I recall my wonderings as a fourteen year old
child reading
J Fred O'Kelly's
book.
I hope to uncover much of our ancestors past and present that
information on my pages.
My reader should understand that our ancestors lived
a much different life than we live today, they came from different
influences certainly a different world. Well established religious
beliefs of today were radical and not widely accepted in their time.
For more than twelve hundred years the Christian world had been Roman
Catholic and those with different views were often put to death by the
Church using some of the most cruel methods but living on the edge of
the known world the Irish developed a unique blend of
Pagan (nature
or rural wisdom) and
Christian worship where the wisdom about the natural world learned over
many thousand years was interwoven with the much newer teachings of the
Roman Catholic Church. Many today are taught that
Pag anbeliefs
were based in satanic worship which could not be further from the truth.
To be Pagan was to acquire wisdom and knowledge of nature, the Sun, the
Earth, the Moon, and the seasons; to know when to plant and when to
harvest, how to keep and preserve foods to survive deadly winters.
It is accepted that our ancestor to
come from Ireland was a protestant but few understand just how
radical
and rare it was for a native Irishman to come from Ireland about or
before 1750
and be anything other than poor and Catholic. In the
early days only protestants who
swore an oath of supremacy to the English monarchs and the state church were permitted to
come to Virginia, they had to pass an examination conducted by a
protestant minister providing knowledge that only a protestant would
know even before they were permitted on a ship bound for Virginia
Colony. Understandable, in is book
Harold O'Kelley speculates that because our ancestor arrived as
protestant he may have been
Scots Irish but my
DNA results proves our ancestor was native Irish and not
Scotch-Irish, he descended from the Hy-Many native Irish O'Kellys and
some of these lines ruled as Kings for almost 1500 years before our
ancestor left Ireland.
Because our ancestor arrived
protestant and my research has ruled out the documented prominent
families, I suspect that he came from a minor landed gentry native Irish
family that received its income from farming and not a family that
depended upon the sea as we find no sea faring influence in our early
family. This makes it more likely our ancestor came from Co
Roscommon or interior Co Galway in Ireland. He does not appear on
any church membership records in Lunenburg or Mecklenburg Co Virginia
nor does any of his sons so it seems likely he was not greatly
influenced by faith nor did he come from a family that was engaged in
such.
Rev James O'Kelly the founder of the Christian Church in early
America was in his forties before he became a minister and before that
time book author
W E MacClenny makes claim that he was a
champion fighter and a fiddler; drinking, fighting and fiddling were
very common activities of the Irish.
Our ancestor may have been a professional soldier early in life, a great
many Irish were and that could be how he came to be in America and he
could have received land for his military service and a family Pedigree
first created in 1932 by John Daniel McCurry
presents an early view of the family
pedigree for
Rev James O'Kelly and it displays three brothers of Rev James as
William D O'Kelly, Thomas D O'Kelly,
and John O'Kelly, the first two brothers are given as
serving in our American Revolution. The McCurry family chart makes
it more likely that my ancestor, William Kelley, and Rev James may have
been brothers but based upon the name of the first born sons, it seems
more likely that Rev James O'Kelly's father was named William and
William Kelley's father was named Thomas and he was the grandfather of
Thomas, George, William D, Charles, Benjamin, and Francis so it seems
more likely that my ancestor and Rev James were first cousins and their
fathers were brothers and what I suggest fits with
Harold O'Kelley's finding, that the
William and son that he found living in Caroline Co Virginia were the
father and brother of Rev James O'Kelly..
Both
J Fred O'Kelly
and
Alethea Jane Macon
connect the Georgia O'Kelleys back to
Mecklenburg Va and they do it with bible records, tax records and land
deeds.
Harold O'Kelley
uses a
revolutionary
war pension application on file at our National Archives for a
Benjamin Kelly to prove our family was in King and Queen Co Va but I
find it difficult to accept that the Benjamin of the pension application
which gives his year of birth as 1761 was our Benjamin
that Macon tells us was was born about 1757 or 1758 mostly because the
1838
bible
record
gives the birth of Francis as August 31 1761 making it impossible for
Benjamin and Francis to be of the same family
without being twins.
The known evidence of Mecklenburg Co military records, marriage records, tax records,
1752 Lunenburg Co Virginia Tithe
Census
and
1782 Mecklenburg Co Virginia State Head of Household government census
document
documents
clearly that at the time Harold suggests our family was in
Caroline Co Va, they are in Lunenburg Co which in 1765 the southern portion became Mecklenburg Va right where J Fred and Macon
tells us they are. So who did Harold find living in Caroline Co Va?
He tells his readers that there were more than 600 Kellys in our
revolutionary war so clearly he found some of those 600 who could be
cousins of different distances but I do not believe there is any
evidence they were our direct
ancestors. Based upon the evidence of assorted records Charles and Francis
can be traced to Mecklenburg Co Virginia about the time
of our Revolution and no further. Both Thomas and the Benjamin
born in 1761 can be traced back by census and marriage records to
Granville Co and Warren Co NC. Mecklenburg is the end of the line
for my line of Charles and it is where we find William Kelley so anything else
that I have seen is
based upon merely a guess. I know of no evidence that supports Harold's
conclusions that our family originates from King and Queen or Caroline
Co nor that Benjamin of the pension application is of our family, or
Thomas who is living in Granville NC was a brother to our Mecklenburg Va
family. There is DNA evidence that indicates that Thomas was
related but nay have been a cousin to Charles and Francis several generations removed.
That could change if records are found to prove otherwise.
Below I describe the two most common and competing
claims as to the names of our first ancestors they being James O'Kelley
and Anna Dean and Thomas O'Kelley and Elizabeth Dean. I have
appended a third based solely upon real evidence, William Kelley and
Elizabeth Dean. I leave it to my readers to decide.
James
O'Kelley and Anna
Dean pedigree came to me in
the spring of 2010 via a descendent of Benjamin
Kelly in the telling of a story from her father about five pages of
paper passed to her that are reported to have been written in the hand
of her great grandfather,
Dr Thomas K O'Kelley b 1833.
He reportedly complied these five pages from an unidentified ancestor's
bible more than one hundred years ago to submit with his 1904
Civil War pension application. Believing that if this story
were based in fact there would be an official record I acquired a copy
of Dr O'Kelley's pension file from our National Archives and these five
pages are not
contained therein
nor are they mentioned within almost four dozen pages in that file, a
file that was created very late in
Dr Thomas K O'Kelley's
life and in that file there is only a single
notarized one page document where the notary describes Dr O'Kelley's
presentation of his family Bible leaving me to question what his
motivation could have been to create said pages and why they survive
while the more valuable pre Civil War bible that is described in
the
notarized document
has disappeared in time? As an experienced homicide investigator I
find this curious especially so when one considers how closely held
those five pages are, I know of only one person who claims to have seen
them, I don't think the five pages are being falsely represented, only
their origins may have been misunderstood not uncommon when information
is passed from one generation to the next. My independent research
of the data shared in emails and a public forum has caused me to no
longer believe the tree of James and Anna could be valid for
my family line and that is an important distinction because the data
could be valid for
Benjamin Kelly but not for
Charles Kelley something I will expand upon below.
Alethea
Janes Macon and J Fred O'Kelly both
make mention in their books that some believed James was our ancestor
and Macon goes on to tell us that some believed incorrectly that he was
Rev James O'Kelley founder of the Christian
church in North Carolina and my
investigation of James and Anna has brought me to the
Fredrick Henry O'Kelley
family of Conyers GA. I can connect this family to Macon by the
Coat of Arms image
that appears in the beginning of
Macon's book,
that image was the same
image that
Fredrick Henry O'Kelley
painted and a photo of his
painting appears on his page on this website. The origin of
that image is unknown.
Fredrick
was the brother to Mrs. Carl C
Walker or
Kate O'Kelley one of the people Macon
thanks in her book. I believe this family may have been Macon and
J Fred's source for their statements in their books that some believed
the name of our ancestor was James because
Mary Evelyn O'Kelley, a daughter of
Fredrick Henry O'Kelley
and a contemporary of
J Fred O'Kelly
wrote a college paper for her Masters Degree in the 60s where she
presents:
“There was a man, James O’Kelley, with six sons.
(landed in Virginia 1815) Three of the sons were married and the
other three did not get married. All three of the married sons
moved to the state of Georgia, and all the O’Kelleys that are now in the
state of Georgia, and all the O’Kelleys we have been able to trace in
ancestry that knew anything about it were traceable back – all the
O’Kelleys in the United states that we could find – were traced back to
one of those three sons in the state of Georgia.”
I present the above not as proof that
James was the name of our ancestor, only to document that such belief
originated from the line of
Dr Francis C O'Kelley.
Dr Thomas K O'Kelley
was a
contemporary of
Dr Francis C O'Kelley the grandfather of
Fredrick Henry O'Kelley and
Kate O'Kelley and the great
grandfather of
Mary Evelyn
O'Kelley
and it is likely in time the two doctors came to know of one and another
and exchanged communications about the origins of their families and I
believe it is reasonable to assume that
Dr Thomas K O'Kelley may have gained some of the
inspiration for the creation of his five pages from a
bible in Dr Francis C O'Kelley's family, a
bible
that indicates that Francis and Delilah named
their first born son James and there may have
also been some family lore passed or speculation created claiming that
James may have actually been named after Rev
James O'Kelley who was very popular in Mecklenburg at the time
James was born, Rev James
O'Kelley may have been the minister who married
Francis and Delilah in Mecklenburg VA. If the five pages are
from the time when
Dr Thomas K O'Kelley lived, they may be written
in his hand or they may be pages written in the hand of someone within
Dr Francis C O'Kelley's family and were mailed to
Dr Thomas K O'Kelley
and he has been mistakenly credited as the creator of those five pages.
Only a lab specializing in paper and ink dating and in handwriting
analysis would know but at the time of this post, the descendant in
possession of the five pages has no desire to know or share the pages.
It may also be that these two doctors more than one hundred years ago in
their exchange of information about their families joined Thomas,
George, William D, Charles, Benjamin, and Francis into a single family
as my investigation has found five of the six brothers appear within
Dr Thomas K O'Kelley's
five pages
and all six brothers appear only in
J Fred O'Kelly book
and he gives his source as Alethea Jane Macon and they appear in in her
book and she tells her readers her source,
"From the Francis O'Kelley branch of the family
have come the names of six sons who were born to Thomas O'Kelley and his
wife Elizabeth Dean" so it seems clear that
Alethea Jane Macon is just passing on to her readers what the line
of Dr Francis C O'Kelley
provided her, meaning this conclusion was not based upon any real
evidence or documents.
These parents nor their sons appear together on any
bible page or other verifiable record and in my opinion this family unit
was manufactured and joined together by previous researchers.
Thomas
O'Kelley and
Elizabeth Dean are in my opinion
based solely on family myth that some have created using
J Fred O'Kelly and
Alethea Jane Macon publications and
they are perhaps the most well known and accepted tradition but because
they are readily accepted by most descendants that doesn't make them
correct. I am unaware of any birth, marriage, death records,
or early bible or church records or census records to support the Thomas
and Elizabeth tradition. You may find the Yates US International
Marriage Record for Thomas and Elizabeth dated 1748 but it can not be
backed up by any marriage authority or any bible records
or church records from that time period.
Alethea Jane Macon in her
1969 book says
"The best available evidence, however, leads to the belief that his name
was Thomas", but she fails to tell us what that
best available evidence might be.
I find that curious to make such an important claim
but not present the supporting evidence so others can judge the
credibility of the evidence. If
Thomas was the name of our ancestor why did none of his sons follow
Irish tradition and name their first born son Thomas? Why was the
first born grandson named
William and why doesn't Thomas and family appear in the 1752
Lunenburg Co Tithe Census or the 1782 Mecklenburg Census? Naming
customs were very big with the native Irish, just living in America
would not change these customs so quickly and we see the naming customs
continues in every generation since. What prevented Macon from considering James and Anna as
another possibility? She makes no mention of
Dr Thomas K O'Kelley's pages yet we know from
the list of persons she thanks in her book, one was a descendent of
Dr Thomas K O'Kelley
but my investigation indicates that even among most of the descendants
of
Dr Thomas K O'Kelley
the Thomas and Elizabeth tradition and not the James and Anna tradition
is embraced so it is likely Macon never knew about
Dr Thomas K O'Kelley
pages as they appear to have only come into pubic knowledge in the past
decade or so. Based upon my reading
of Macon's book I think the names of the six sons came from
Kate O'Kelley a descendant of
Dr Francis C O'Kelley
but I think the names of Thomas and Elizabeth came from
Alethea Jane Macon and it is likely the only evidence for the 87
year old Macon was what she remembered from a visit with her
Aunt Betty
more than a half a century before the printing of her
book. I
would be lucky to live to 87 let alone remember all that
Alethea Jane Macon
remembers in her
book. No one
should take this as a condemnation of Ms Macon, she took the
information available to her and came to a conclusion, we are lucky she
cared enough to spend some of her last years compiling and publishing
her book.
While no evidence has been found to
support the claim that Thomas was the father of the above sons, there
may be
a possible explanation as to how this tradition came into being. I
have discovered in the ship records a Thomas Kelly,
wife Honora and their five children born in Ireland but came in 1693 to Virginia where they received a land grant. No
Irish Catholic family would have received a land grant in Virginia at
that time so it seems certain that this family were protestant, maybe
with
Huguenot influence as a great many Huguenots settled near Manakin, Goochland Co VA
during this time. If this was our
ancestors, then they would have been the great grandparents of the above
sons and Thomas the husband of Honora could be the source of the myth within our family. More will be posted as this investigation progresses.
William
Kelley
and Elizabeth
Dean
I suspect has been over looked or dismissed by past researchers because
they did not fit with family lore but in my opinion as a retired
homicide investigator we have sound evidence in the form of a government
document that can not be so easily dismissed. Based upon my
understanding as to how native born Irish families lived before modern
times combined with the evidence of the
1752 Lunenburg Co Tithe Census
and
1782 Mecklenburg Co Va
Head of Household census, the naming
customs of the native Irish, combined with DNA evidence and given there
is zero evidence to support the James or Thomas claim, I believe William
Kelley was the true name of our ancestor who came from Ireland and
settled in Virginia and the
1752 Lunenburg Co Tithe Census
makes it likely all their children were born in the portion of Lunenburg
that became Mecklinburg Co in 1765.
In both the 1752 and 1782 Census
William Kelley's family were the only
Kelley, Kelly, O'Kelley or O'Kelly family that appear and the Mecklenburg 1782 census
was conducted a mere three years after
Charles Kelley appeared on the
1779 Mecklenburg Militia roster and 1779 was also the year of the
birth for
the first American born grandson
who was named William, the first
born child
of Charles and Mary and the census was conducted one year or less after
the birth of the first American born granddaughter who was named
Elizabeth (Betsy) Dean O'Kelley.
If Thomas or James were the name of Charles's father the
Irish naming customs
was to name the first grandson after his paternal grandfather and if any
of the sons named their first born son Thomas that knowledge has been
lost and only Francis the youngest named his first born James but I
suspect he was named after the very famous
Rev James O'Kelley who
lived in Mecklenburg at that time. The first born grandson was
named William supporting what
this census tells us, that our ancestor was
William
Kelley. Having been born in Ireland, William would
have done as the native Irish often did in that time, living with their
children and grandchildren and great grandchildren in a single home with
the eldest male as the head of the house which is exactly what we see in
this
1782 Mecklenburg Co census
with William and ten others living exactly where and how they should be
in that time. So it is likely that at the time of the 1782 census
all the family including Charles, Mary, their
children, young William and Elizabeth lived with Charles's father
and mother,
William Kelley and
Elizabeth Dean, and that is the reason
Charles does not appear as the head of his household in this Mecklenburg
census. Immigrants still do this today so often the answer is the
simplest, the census tells us the name of our ancestor. The 1802
tax rolls for Franklin Co Ga lists a William Kelley so he may have moved
to this area as at least one of his grandsons, George Washington
O'Kelley, became a Baptist minister and frequented the Franklin Co area
and he is likely the source for the belief that George was one of the
brothers.
Also
appearing on the
1752 Lunenburg Co Tithe Census
is a William Waire and a William Harwell.
William Waire might be the father of Elizabeth Wyers who married Thomas
O'Kelley in Granville NC and Thomas and Elizabeth Wyers son, Rev
James married a Franky (Frances) Harwell and Charles's daughter Betsy
Dean married a Mark Harwell, William Harwell may have been their
grandfather.
How do we know that our family came from Mecklenburg Co Virginia before
their migrated to Georgia? The early
bible records
for George Wellborn O'Kelley the son of
George Washington O'Kelley gives Mecklenburg VA as his birth place
and that George Washington was the son of Charles
born about 1760 and Mecklenburg is
where we find the
marriage record
for Francis Kelley and Delilah Crowder and where we find Charles
Kelley's name on a
1779 Mecklenburg Militia roster and his land and tax records up to
the year 1805.
I have no doubt that many will reject
William as the husband of Elizabeth Dean solely because
J Fred O'Kelly,
Alethea Jane Macon, and Harold O'Kelley
all made minor mention that our ancestor's name could be
Thomas but none of these authors provided any supporting
evidence for their conclusions or tell us how they determined that was
his name. Macon devotes only part of page four in her book to the
possibility that Thomas was the name of our ancestor, J Fred O'Kelly who
published his book three years before Macon gives us one sentence on
page 42, Harold just accepts such is true and most descendants accept
Thomas without question, as if it was a proven fact as if they have his
photo ID in their hands. In reading the works of these authors I
am certain they never intended such unyielding loyalty to their
research.
Alethea Jane Macon addresses this by expressing her hope and desire
that future generations of descendants will use her work as a starting
point for their research so while many may be reluctant to embrace the
1752 Lunenburg Co Tithe Census and
1782 Virginia Head of
Household census for what they prove, my training and experience as a
homicide investigator compels me to accept the evidence no matter where
it leads and if two government documents can not be accepted as evidence
then what can? There are ten other people, most likely all Kelleys
living in the 1782 home of William Kelly and some had to have gone on and
create descendants and all of the above authors agree that we descended
from the Mecklenburg Co VA Kelleys and this is proven by a
bible record of one of Charles's grandsons. I don't see how we
can ignore William Kelley and the ten others, the only Kelleys, Kellys,
or O'Kelleys that appear in both census and the last one at a time all the above
researchers tell us our family was living in Mecklenburg the place all
the evidence tells us they should be. J
Fred claims that Charles
sold his farm in Mecklenburg in 1805 and moved to Ga.
So for me and for my reasons stated this is a game changer.
This is the kind of stuff that moves investigators to lay
their case file on the desk of a prosecutor and asked for an arrest
warrant. Added together these different parts create a
preponderance of evidence that causes reasonable people to accept
something as proven fact. I believe the family of William Kelley
and two of his sons, Charles and Francis are proven by facts.
In the book "Finding
your Irish Roots.." by Stephanie Varney we learn the
Irish naming customs.
-
The oldest son was named
after his father's father. Charles named his son
William, Frances named his son James and I believe he was named
after Rev James O'Kelley the founder of the Christian Church and who
was living in Mecklenburg and may have married Francis and Delilah,
Thomas named his son Francis, and Benjamin named his son Soloman
after Soloman Williams.
-
The oldest daughter was named
after the mother's mother. Charles named his daughter
Elizabeth Dean, Francis names his daughter Martha, Thomas names his
daughter Ann, and Benjamin named his daughter Annie.
-
The second son was named
after the mother's father. Charles named his son
George Washington which could be after both George Crowder and
George Washington, Francis named his son Francis Dean, Thomas named
his son Thomas Dean which if DNA continues to indicate Thomas was a
cousin I think the Dean name in his descendants supports the
possibiity that Thomas may have a a first wife who was also a Dean,
and Benjamin named his son Francis Marion who was the second most
famous Revolutionary War Hero with George Washington being the
first.
-
The third son was named after
the father. Charles named his son Benjamin F likely
after the very popular Benjamin Franklin, Francis named his son
George likely after George Crowder his father-in-law, Thomas named
his son James who later became a minister in the Christian church
established by the previously mentioned and famous Rev James
O'Kelley the founder of the Christian church and Benjamin named his
son Nimrod after Nimrod Williams.
-
The fourth son was named
after the father's oldest brother. Charles named his
son James, Francis named his son Thomas, Thomas named his son
William, and Benjamin named his son Charles.
-
The second daughter was named
after the father's mother. Charles named his daughter
Frances, Francis named his daughter Delilah, Thomas named his
daughter Mary, and Benjamin named is daughter Elizabeth.
-
The third daughter was named
after the mother. Charles named this his daughter
Mary, Francis named his Mary, Thomas named his daughter Sarah, and
Benjamin had no additional daughters.
-
The fourth daughter was named
after the mother's oldest sister. Charles named his
daughter Nancy, Francis had no additional daughter, and Thomas named
his daughter Nancy.
What we do not know but must consider is
we do not know if there were children born before these children, could
have been named and then died and were forgotten by later generations.
There could have been more wives and more brothers.
-
Deanes of Galway City and County
Galway Ireland or Henrico Co Va -
We
should not neglect the Dean side of our family in our research, the name
meaning Valley Dwellers. I think the common held belief in our
family is our ancestor and Miss Dean met in America and married probably
in Virginia but I am unaware of evidence to support such.
J Fred O'Kelly in
his 1966 book just states that James or Thomas Kelley married
Elizabeth Dean and he provides no statement if this marriage occurred in
America or Ireland. Alethea Jane
Macon
on page 4 of her 1969 book tells us that Thomas came to Virginia and
married Elizabeth Dean in about 1748
but she doesn't tell the reader how she came to her conclusion so I
suspect she is just repeating family lore in book form.
Harold O'Kelley concludes that Miss Deans father was Benjamin Dean
because the name Benjamin appears in our family and he finds a Benjamin
Dean who served in our revolution but I am certain the source of
Benjamin in our family came from the very popular Benjamin Franklin and
we most often find it as Benjamin Franklin or Benj F O'Kelley, never as
the custom dictated, as Benjamin Dean O'Kelley. I think it is far
more likely that Miss Dean's father was Francis Deane or Charles Deane
or Thomas Deane, the three names we most commonly see associated with
the Dean middle name in our early family. I also know of no family
tradition stories that tell us this is how our two ancestors came to be
married but the Irish were not well thought of in the time our ancestor
was believed to have come so it is very unlikely that someone who wasn't
Irish would have married our Irish ancestor. If you view
this map you will find
that during the time our ancestors lived in Ireland the Deanes lived on
or near Dublin road just east of Galway Bay making it likely Elizabeth
Dean or her father were Irish born. This seems proven by the 1749
Elphin Parish Census that records many Deans in Co Roscommon including a
woman named Elizabeth Dean.
The Deane family name originates from
Normandy and after the 12th century invasion of England many Normans
followed William the Conqueror into Ireland and over the next couple of
centuries more came and some stayed and the Deanes reportedly came
during that time, stayed, and settled in the city of Galway; the Deane
family became one of the
14 tribes
of Galway City County Galway Ireland and over time the Deane family
came to be known as part of the Old English families in Ireland. who
reportedly became more Irish than the native Irish. And while it
is certainly possible that Elizabeth Dean was born in Ireland, it seems
more likely she may have been born in Henrico Co Virginia and to a
family of English descent as
Richard Deane had a daughter born about the time of our Elizabeth
Dean and it is not known what became of her. Many of her brothers
moved to Halifax Co which was formed in 1752 from Lunenburg Co the same
County that Mecklenburg was formed in 1765. She had several
brothers whose names also appear in our family, Thomas Dean, Charles
Dean, and William Dean which is the name I suspect
William D was truly named. Elizabeth's family were
protestant, and they associated with the Chastain family who married
married descendants of Thomas O'Kelley.