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DNA-Anthrogenealogy
We have a number of male ancestors identified dating to around 1780-1820. Those male ancestors, who share a common ancestor at some point, are Walter, Anthony, Philip, James, Patrick, and Richard. By participating in this project, you can help to further align McHale families into more closely related family groups. Testing of more McHales would allow us to identify more individual family lines and to group others into those individual branches. If you do not know the townland where your McHale ancestors lived, DNA testing could help you by matching you with the correct McHale ancestral line and townland.
The original McHale - possibly named Cele (a first name) lived many years ago of course, possibly 1,000 years ago, but the "clan" is one family based upon current results.
One of the earliest written mentions of a McHale is from the Annals of Loch Ce of 1257.
" A great depredation was committed by Aedh O'Conchobhair on O'Ruairc, about Easter. Maelpatraic Mac hEli, airchinnech of Cill-Alaidh (erenagh of Killala), was slain." (Maelpatraic means servant of Patrick, a name often taken by early priests.)
We have not yet, from this small sample, seen a split between the supposed Irish McHale family and that of a Welsh Howell family that adopted the McHale surname. Additional SNP testing is being conducted on several participants to see if they exhibit any markers that will help to answer that question. The results so far indicate that this is an old Irish family. It is of course possible that there was a Welsh family and they either have not shown up yet in the testing or the line died out.
Unlike other Irish clans, the McHale line is not showing unrelated family trees. At least at this point it is one tree with branches. Some clans have different family trees with some unrelated members adopting the clan name, or descendants taking on surnames to differentiate their line. We are not seeing that with McHale. In this case, it appears that the clan was truly one family that grew over time.
Books of Survey and Distribution 1641
Cuming, Addergoole , County Mayo
Names of Proprietors in 1641 Theobald Bourke, 1/2; and
The Sept of the Clan Keale 1/2
To whom the Forfeited Lands were conveyed: Ulick Bourke
Ballymac Ramack (Ballymacgramagh, Addergoole) owned by Theobald Bourke, 1/2, and The Sept of the Clan Keale, 1/2
To Whom the Forfeited Lands were conveyed: Forfeited to William Shaw, and Ulick Bourke
Flax Growers List of 1796 - some McHales were spelling the name McKeale (as in Sept of the Clan Keale), later changing it to McHale.