top of page
Hand Drawn Family Tree.jpg

Genealogy

After the planned 2020 Los Angeles O'Kelley Family Reunion was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, family members from across the country worked together virtually throughout 2020 to establish the Black O'Kelleys Family Association (BOFA), Inc. to help guide the family through the pandemic and into our next 100 years.

​

​

​

​

 

Our matriarch Ellen Johnson Mathews Fisher was born enslaved about 1843 in Virginia. Family lore states she was purchased as a breeder for the O'Kelley plantation in Woodville, a subsection of Perry Town in Wilkinson County, Mississippi. Ellen "slaved" in the the O'Kelley household as a nanny and maid. After she was shipped to Mississippi and arrived at the O'Kelly plantation, family lore says Ellen initially refused her assignment and was beaten, blinded in one eye and threatened to be tossed into a burning bush. Her enslaver James Edward O'Kelly, with his brothers Thomas Manley O'Kelly, and John Beattie O'Kelly, migrated from Darlington County, South Carolina to the Natchez District where James O'Kelley also managed Smithland plantation in Catahoula Parish, Louisiana that he ran with his in law Alexander King Farrar. John O'Kelley ran plantations in Tensas Parish, Louisiana and Thomas served as overseer for his brothers's multiple plantations. 

Ellen gave birth to at least ten children. The following children were documented in her household in the 1870 U.S. Federal Census for Woodville, Wilkinson County, Mississippi (1) and/or with Ellen and her husband William Fisher in the 1880  U.S. Federal census in Woodville, Wilkinson County, Mississippi (2):

  1. Cordelia (Delia) Johnson (abt 1855) 

  2. Virginia Johnson Brooks (abt 1857)

  3. Lewis Johnson (abt 1859)

  4. Daniel Smith (May 1862 - Dec. 25, 1930)

  5. Ella O'Kelly (abt 1864 -) 

  6. Will Dock O'Kelley (Nov. 1868 - Mar. 4, 1927)

  7. Charles Edward O'Kelley (Jun. 1870 - Apr. 1943)

  8. John Archie Hilliard/Hillery (1872 - )

  9. Amos Mathews (1874-)

  10. Theresa (Saresta) Fisher O'Neal (1880-)

 

 1“1870 United States Federal Census. Mississippi, Wilkinson County, District 5, Woodville. p.291, Rows 26-33. Ellen Johnson. Roll: M593.” National Archives and Records Administration, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009), https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7163/images/4273811_00297?pId=36497563. Last Accessed 07/06/2024.


2 "1880 United States Federal Census. Mississippi, Wilkinson County, Beat 5, Woodville, p. 27, Rows 34-42, Ellen and Williamton Fisher.” Film# 1254669. National Archives and Records Administration. (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010), https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6742/images/4241866-00181?pId=14427825. Last Accessed 07/06/2024.

Y-DNA67 genealogical genetic testing confirmed close genetic matches between living male descendants of brothers James, John and Thomas O'Kelly and living male descendants of Ellen's sons Daniel and Will O'Kelley. There are dozens of O'Kelley family members represented at Ancestry.com, FamilyTreeDNA.com and 23andMe.com. 

According to a 1975 interview by Sarah O'Kelley Darris, as adults in the early 1900s, Daniel and Charles left Perrytown in Woodville, Wilkinson county, Mississippi and moved to Washington county, Mississippi for better opportunities to farm for themselves. They also owned and operated stores and established a school for their children in the town of Magenta where they hired and boarded the school's first teacher.

The brothers also established the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows Sweet Home Lodge No. 6235 in Wilezinski, Washington County, Mississippi. Will O'Kelley migrated to Memphis, Tennessee where he became a successful barber and restauranter along with his wife Delia.  


Daniel Smith O'Kelley, a farmer, and his wife Rosa sent most of their children to study education at the Oakwood school (now university) in Huntsville, Alabama so they would become teachers. Charles O'Kelley migrated to Chicago, IL where he worked as a Pullman porter for many years, one of the most prestigious and powerful jobs black men could have at the time. The Pullman porters are credited with fueling the Great Migration, the rise of the black middle class and the Civil Rights movement.
 

After the death of Daniel Smith O'Kelly on Christmas Day, 1930, the O'Kelley family decided to hold regular reunions. The first recorded reunion was in 1938 in Leland, Washington County, Mississippi. O'Kelley reunions continued every two years except during World War II, when many family members were away supporting the war effort and most recently due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
 

O'Kelley Family reunions were initially held in the homes of various family members, but after the reunions grew too large, the family planned gatherings at motels and hotels. Since 1938 O'Kelley Reunions were held over the years in Memphis, TN, St. Louis, MO, Chicago, IL, Las Vegas, NV, Portage, IN, Nassau, Bahamas (Cruise), Dallas, TX, Phoenix, AZ,  Anaheim, CA, Atlanta, GA, and Washington, DC.


The planned 2020 O'Kelley Family Reunion in Los Angeles, CA was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. No reunion was planned for 2022 due to the continued threat of Covid-19. The next hybrid (combined in-person and virtual) O'Kelley Family Reunion is planned for the summer of 2024 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

​
 

bottom of page