In 1995 the Lucan and Area Heritage Society formed to document and preserve local history, and the organization opened the Lucan Area Heritage & Donnelly Museum in 2009. Information about the family and the events surrounding their deaths was suppressed locally for much of the 20th century, due to many residents possibly having ancestors who were involved. A replica of the original Donnelly tombstone, belonging to Ray Fazakas, on display at the Lucan Area Heritage & Donnelly museum in Lucan-Biddulph, Ontario.

No one was convicted of the murders, despite two trials and a reliable eyewitness. The Donnellys' ongoing feuds with local residents culminated in an attack on the family's homestead by a vigilante mob on 4 February 1880, leaving five of the family dead and their farm burned to the ground. by Arthur Conan Doyle Two Solitudes by Hugh MacLennan Jimmie Dale, Alias The Gray Seal by Michael Howard The Black Donnellys by Thomas P. Kelley is the first book ever published about the Donnelly massacre and the most famous. Many Irish Canadians arrived in the 19th-century, many fleeing the Great Famine of Ireland (1845-52). A popular best seller since 1954, The Black Donnellys by Thomas P. Kelleys sensational interpretation of this tragedy raised the Donnellys from local folklore to a shocking piece of Canadiana. Blending parts of a true story with generous spoonfuls of fiction, crime author Thomas P.

The family settled on a concession road which became known as the Roman Line due to its high concentration of Irish Catholic immigrants in the predominantly Protestant area. The Black Donnellys is the tale of the most vicious feud in southwestern Ontario history.

The 'Black' Donnellys were an Irish Catholic immigrant family who settled in Biddulph township, Upper Canada (later the province of Ontario), about 15 km northwest of London, in the 1840s.

The black donnellys thomas p kelley