Kelly surname - Foveran / Newburgh area Aberdeenshire.....

[puffin]

I have a general question regarding the Kelly surname which appears on my tree and is tracked back to the Foveran /Newburgh area of Aberdeenshire in the 1700’s and 1800’s.

My father’s mother was a Kelly descended from a Kelly family found in Foveran in the late 1700’s.

My father’s mother died in 1919 when my father was just a babe in arms, so my accurate knowledge of this Kelly family line origins are very limited.

Whilst I am aware that there are many instances of Irish immigrants into Scotland from the early centuries onwards does anyone know if the Kelly families who settled in Foveran / Newburgh at some time before the late 1700’s are of Irish origin ?

Or perhaps they might be connected with the House of Kellie, ( located somewhere on the site of the present Haddo House) sacked and burnt to the ground during the civil war era in the 1640’s, and were, perhaps the estate workers who fled a few miles downriver
( River Ythan ) to rebuild their lives at Foveran / Newburgh on the east coast, adopting their old estate’s name in the process ?

Today on the OS Map there is still the Burn of Kelly and the Mill of Kelly on the Haddo estate,

Or did this family arrive in the Foveran/Newburgh area from elsewhere ?

And, as a bynote, in the early 1600’s there was the famous Natural Pearl found in the Burn of Kelly, which, according to what I have read, ended up in the Scottish Crown Jewels.

If there is anyone who can cast any new light on this it would be most appreciated.


Thanks

Puffin

[CatrionaL]

Puffin

You've had to wait awhile to hear me say that no one on TS appears to have any light to shed on the origins of your Kellys. Sorry.

I tried a Google with Kelly+Foveran. It did bring up the names of one or two people who are researching Kellys in Foveran. Perhaps you've already been in touch with them? If not, might be worth contacting them to find out if they have ever got any further than you in their search.

Nowadays, to answer your question about possible Irish origins, rather than local ones, DNA might be the way to go.

Kind regards

Catriona

[puffin]

Thanks for your interest Catriona.......it has been a fairly long wait for this first response to my posting.

Since I posted the message I have heard that this branch of the Kelly surname are a sept of the Donald clan.

But as yet I am still looking for further confirmation of their origins in the 1700's or ealier.

thanks

puffin