The Casey Surname DNA Project

Anybody have interest in Casey's from Connecticut, Massachusetts, or New Jersey? My great grandfather, Lawrence, was born in Monson, Massachusetts in 1859. He and his family show up in the 1880 census in Raritan Village, Somerset County New Jersey. I was over there last Saturday and found the street they lived on but with all the city incorporations since 1880 and with all the town halls being closed I couldn't locate exact area. After New Jersey Lawrence spent the majority of his life in Willimantic Connecticut. He died in 1951.

Bob Casey

In an effort to help promote this web site and the Casey Surname Project, I decided to put some of my genealogy budget to that task with some Google Ads. Certain Google searches, such as 'Casey' or 'Family Tree' will display this ad. In the couple of weeks it's been running, the ad has brought forty-nine visitors to this site. I don't know if any of them have registered with this site, or joined our project by ordering a test, but I'm hoping that some will.

Google Ads work on a 'pay-per-click' model, it only costs me if you click on it. If you're reading this, you're already here, so leave the ad clicks to our new visitors. And if you got here by way of this Google Ad, I'd be glad to hear about it. Please add a comment and let us know.

Many years ago I came across a book on the history of Irish Names. In it the author stated that there were 7 distinct Casey families. It also gave the different coat of arms for each of the families. For example, for the family that came from just outside Dublin, their coat of arms was GREEN(!) instead of the familiar red, which adorns this site ( My personal varient would be purple but let's go there). From memory other families where from Limerick (Hospital/ Bluff area ?), Cork and Waterford. I shall have to dig the book out again.

In order to make the most out of the available features on this site, I have added the first source to the 'news aggregator' that you'll see in the menu. The news aggregator collects and displays feeds from others sites that share syndicated content. By combining feeds from relevant sites, we can provide a useful starting point for finding other content on the web. The first feed I have added is for The Genealogy Blog. If you have suggestions for others that should be added, please suggest them in a comment here, or email to

Scientists discover most fertile Irish male
Reuters, 1/17/05

Scientists in Ireland may have found the country's most fertile male, with more than 3 million men worldwide among his offspring.

The scientists, from Trinity College Dublin, have discovered that as many as one in twelve Irish men could be descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, a 5th-century warlord who was head of the most powerful dynasty in ancient Ireland.

read the entire article...

Lately I've been considering the growth rate of our surname project. The benefits to all of us in searching our genealogy by DNA will increase exponentially as the number of participants in our project grows. Among the FTDNA surname projects in the letter 'C', there are 123 Campbells, 117 Carters, 145 Crows... heck, they've got 35 Crunks! But here we are, still with less than 10 participants in the Casey Project. Surely we can do better!

I'd like to suggest a New Year's Resolution for each of us. In 2006, resolve to try and recruit a new member to our project. It may not be easy. It's likely the Casey's you are most familiar with are immediate family members, and if your own DNA has already been tested, then getting someone with a known connection to you into the project may seem to offer little benefit. But what about other Casey's you have come across in your own family search? How many connections have you made with Caseys that didn't pan out. It could still well help others in this project if you could reach out to them and suggest they join. Or if you have a Casey-related web site, do you link to this site and encourage your Casey visitors to join?

Hi Everybody,
I would just like to recommend that anyone considering submitting a DNA sample to realise how little the DNA actually changes over the generations. According to FamilyTreeDNA FAQ, the probability that 2 individuals who submit a 12 marker test and match ALL 12 markers is 50% they share a common ancestor within 7 generations,90% they share a common ancestor within 23 generations and 95% they share a common ancestor within 29 generations. How many people can trace back their family for 23 generations? Compare this with the 37 marker test. If 2 individuals match all 37 markers, the probabilities are 50% they share a common ancestor within 2 generations,90% they share a common ancestor within 5 generations, and 95% they share a common ancestor within 7 generations. So even tho the 37 marker test is more expensive, if you hope to actually connect to someone else thru these tests I would recommend you get the better test. You can got to http://www.familytreedna.com/faq2.html and read up on the ststistics.

This interesting story about potential unintended consequences of DNA testing appeared in today's Washington Post. It tells the story of a boy, conceived by insemination with anonymously donated sperm, began his successful search to identify his biological father with a search on Family Tree DNA.

Found on the Web, With DNA: a Boy's Father
The Washington Post, 11/13/2005

By popular demand, I've posted a chart of our results so far. From the navigation menu on the left, you can click on 'results' to get to the chart. Individual names have been removed, but kit number and most distant ancestor has been left in place. This matches how I have seen such chart sharing done on other DNA project sites. If any project member does not want their results shared here on this site, please send an email to chris@casey.com to let me know and I'll remove your line from the chart.

Hi,
My Casey line came from Aughadown, Cork Co. Ireland (near Skibbereen), and settled in Charlotte County, New Brunswick before 1850. They also lived in Calais, Maine, and my family eventualy moved to Lawrence, Massachusetts.
Bernie