O’Connell One-Name Study
Early in the fall I had been in contact with a few other O’Connell’s and we discussed that there was no real in-depth study of the O’Connell families. Not really knowing why, we decided that to make it happen, we had to do it ourselves. Thus, I began the O’Connell One-Name Study.
Not really knowing what I was going to have to do, or how large this would be. I jumped in, no questions asked. I figured I would learn as I go. It only makes sense that to learn more about the O’Connell’s I would have to move outside of my research comfort zone, which is my O’Connell family, and just dig in.
I have been known to assist others with the O’Connell name when they have attached their family to my family tree. It’s obvious that when you know your relative married once, and died still married to that spouse, that they did not marry another. I would then jump in and see if I could find their family and sometimes I was successful. That was important to me, at that moment.
Today, what’s important has changed. I have researched my family back to the ole’ sod. I know where we come from. I have seen and walked the grounds of the church, I have visited the famine cemetery of the townland my people come from. It is now time to move forward, and by forward I mean seeing if we can bring these families together.
The FtDNA project has a good number of people already interested and I hope that I will be able to interest them some more that they might be willing to share their family information or what research they have already completed with me.
If you have a connection to the O’Connell surname (or any of its variants) please contact me at oconnell@one-name.org. I look forward to hearing from you and working with you.
Terri, I admire your motivation to work on a substantial study. In contrast, my study is just as big, most common instances of my study name are in Italy followed by Argentina & the United States, but our approaches didferent. A similarity we both have is that we connect the studies to our own families and want to expand & widen the scope.
Do all the strands of the O’Connell name bearers connect to a small group on individuals or is it a unconnected strands that share only surname & nothing more?
Julie, Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment. I have to be honest and say I really had no clue what I was getting into when I started this the end of last year. It was more of a discussion with other O’Connell researchers on how we cannot believe their are not more of us out there researching this name. So, we decided this was our best foot forward.
As for the O’Connell’s connecting, that still remains to be seen. I truly am just starting on this journey.