About us
See also: Background (about the Atcherley surname) and Goals (what the DNA project hopes to achieve)
First results!
The first Atcherley has tested with the Atcherley Surname DNA Project! Martin Atcherley is descended from Thomas Atcherley of Marton, who was born in the late 1500s and was buried on 24 February 1657/8.
Analysis has shown that Martin belongs to haplogroup R-U198. This branch of of the Y-DNA 'family tree' is not common, and is described as "a significant haplogroup within the huge R1b super-haplogroup that is ubiquitous in Western Europe". To help us learn more about this result, Martin has also enrolled with the R1b-U198 Project at Family Tree DNA.
A 37-marker test on Martin's DNA has also resulted in matches with two other Y-DNA testers at Family Tree DNA. One has the surname Ashley, but he does not match with other men who have the Ashley surname and so he may well have Atcherley roots. The other match has the surname Atchley. The registers of certain parishes in south Shropshire have many examples of the surname Atchley (and variant spellings) in the 1500s and 1600s, which has led to speculation that there may be a link between the Atchley family from that area and the Atcherley family of north Shropshire. As a result of this DNA match, work is in progress to merge the Atcherley and Atchley DNA projects at Family Tree DNA. The Atchley DNA Project site at WorldFamilies.net has also been updated to include Atcherley and the project is now known as the Atcherley - Atchley DNA Project.
Join the project!
To learn more about the Atcherley and Atchley families and the possible links between them, we need more men with those surnames (and close variants of those names) to join this project. There are three ways to do this:
1) If you are an Atcherley or an Atchley who has already tested with Family Tree DNA, click on Join Request in the menu above and enter your Kit Number or Username, and your password.
2) If you are a male Atcherley or Atchley and you are happy to pay for your own Family Tree DNA test kit, click on Join Request in the menu above and on the Group Join Request Login page, under Option B, click on the link to Purchase A Test Kit To Join This Project. You will need to purchase one of the Male Line Testing (Y-DNA) kits, the most basic of which is the Y-DNA12 kit. For results which are genealogically meaningful the Y-DNA 37 kit is recommended. If you opt for the Y-DNA 12 or 25 kit I may be able to upgrade the results at a later date. Alternatively, if you get in touch with me I can (through my membership of the Guild of One Name Studies) obtain a Y-DNA 37 kit for you at a cost of £80, which is lower than the price charged by FTDNA.
3) If you are a male Atcherley or Atchley who would like to take part but you do not wish to purchase a test kit, then please get in touch with me. I have a limited number of kits already purchased for the project and I would be happy to send one to you.
Photo: David Francis William Atcherley of the RAF (painting by Eric Kennington, Crown copyright expired).
First results!
The first Atcherley has tested with the Atcherley Surname DNA Project! Martin Atcherley is descended from Thomas Atcherley of Marton, who was born in the late 1500s and was buried on 24 February 1657/8.
Analysis has shown that Martin belongs to haplogroup R-U198. This branch of of the Y-DNA 'family tree' is not common, and is described as "a significant haplogroup within the huge R1b super-haplogroup that is ubiquitous in Western Europe". To help us learn more about this result, Martin has also enrolled with the R1b-U198 Project at Family Tree DNA.
A 37-marker test on Martin's DNA has also resulted in matches with two other Y-DNA testers at Family Tree DNA. One has the surname Ashley, but he does not match with other men who have the Ashley surname and so he may well have Atcherley roots. The other match has the surname Atchley. The registers of certain parishes in south Shropshire have many examples of the surname Atchley (and variant spellings) in the 1500s and 1600s, which has led to speculation that there may be a link between the Atchley family from that area and the Atcherley family of north Shropshire. As a result of this DNA match, work is in progress to merge the Atcherley and Atchley DNA projects at Family Tree DNA. The Atchley DNA Project site at WorldFamilies.net has also been updated to include Atcherley and the project is now known as the Atcherley - Atchley DNA Project.
Join the project!
To learn more about the Atcherley and Atchley families and the possible links between them, we need more men with those surnames (and close variants of those names) to join this project. There are three ways to do this:
1) If you are an Atcherley or an Atchley who has already tested with Family Tree DNA, click on Join Request in the menu above and enter your Kit Number or Username, and your password.
2) If you are a male Atcherley or Atchley and you are happy to pay for your own Family Tree DNA test kit, click on Join Request in the menu above and on the Group Join Request Login page, under Option B, click on the link to Purchase A Test Kit To Join This Project. You will need to purchase one of the Male Line Testing (Y-DNA) kits, the most basic of which is the Y-DNA12 kit. For results which are genealogically meaningful the Y-DNA 37 kit is recommended. If you opt for the Y-DNA 12 or 25 kit I may be able to upgrade the results at a later date. Alternatively, if you get in touch with me I can (through my membership of the Guild of One Name Studies) obtain a Y-DNA 37 kit for you at a cost of £80, which is lower than the price charged by FTDNA.
3) If you are a male Atcherley or Atchley who would like to take part but you do not wish to purchase a test kit, then please get in touch with me. I have a limited number of kits already purchased for the project and I would be happy to send one to you.
Photo: David Francis William Atcherley of the RAF (painting by Eric Kennington, Crown copyright expired).