Kiely is an Anglicized form of the Old Gaelic "O' Cadhla". The Gaelic prefix "O" indicates "male descendant of", plus the byname "Cadhla" meaning graceful or beautiful; hence, "descendant(s) of the graceful one". This name is chiefly found in the Munster counties of Waterford, Limerick and Cork. The variant spelling Keeley appears in Counties Galway and Wicklow, and Kealy is a County Kilkenny variant. The forms O' Quelly and Que(a)lly, recorded in Counties Clare and Waterford, in Petty's census, dated 1659 are accepted by Dr. Lynce in his "Cambrensis Eversus" as further Anglicizations of O' Cadhla - "O Cadhla sive (otherwise) Quaelly"...
My GGgrandfather was Thomas J, Kiely, who married Catherine Sullivan in 1832 Kenware, Ireland. Their daughter, Catherine, married James Calihan in Holyoak, Mass.in 1959. Their daughter, catherine, married Otto Schmidt in Belvidere, Il. Their daughter, Marion, was my mother.
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