The purpose of this page is to present a brief discussion of each lineage identified in our Carey/Cary DNA project.  We identify a lineage when DNA tests on two or more men show a high probability that they have a common ancestor within a genealogical timeframe. Currently, we have 18 identified Carey/Cary lineages.  Although we focus our lineages on men with ancestral Carey/Cary-like surnames, we also show results for one lineage that is not connected to the name Carey/Cary for special reasons. If you are interested in receiving and/or providing information about a lineage, please contact the project administrators. 

Haplogroup E

There are currently three project members from Haplogroup E, a haplogroup whose origins are thought to have been in North and East Africa, the Arab Peninsula, and parts of Southern and Eastern Europe.  These three men do not have close matches to each other.

Haplogroup G

There is currently one project member from Haplogroup G, a haplogroup believed to have originated on the eastern edge of the middle east.  It has been suggested that Haplogroup G might be an important genetic marker for the spread of agriculture in the Neolithic period.  Ötzi the Iceman, who lived in the Italian Alps during the Copper Age (3500 to 1700 BC) was a member of a relatively rare subclade of Haplogroup G

Haplogroup I

There are currently nine project members from Haplogroup I, which likely arose in Europe since it has been found in Paleolithic sites throughout Europe, but not outside it.  Some sub-clades of Haplogroup I are associated with Germanic peoples, the Vikings and areas of Central Europe.  We have identified three lineages among our nine project members of this haplogroup.

Haplogroup I Lineage 1

Haplogroup I Lineage 1 currently consists of two project members, both spelling their name Kary.  Although their connection has not been identified, they have each identified earliest ancestors from nearby villages very close to the French border in the Rastatt district of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany.  The Alsace district of France lies just to the west, across the river Rhine.  

These members do not have an identified a connection to the Karys from this region who are known to have emigrated to the Ukraine in the 1800s where they gave their name to the villages of Chutor Kary (Ukrainian name Michailovka) and Gut Kary, that were located on the western side of the Bug River not far from the Black Sea.  The patriarch of that group was a Michael Kary.  During the time that Chutor Kary area was under Russian control, many Karys apparently had their surname transformed from Kary (Кари) to Karij (Карий).

Haplogroup I Lineage 2

Haplogroup I Lineage 2 consists of four project members at this time, three of whom are linked in a pedigree that descends from Peter Carey, born in Easton Maudit, Northamptonshire, England in 1698.  A noteworthy member of this pedigree is William Carey, the missionary to India who translated the bible into many different eastern languages.  Members of this lineage have tested positive for I-L38, that was prominent in the Rhine River valley from alpine Italy to the Low Countries and is believed to have spread to England via Belgium in the Late Iron Age.  It is thought to be derived from a single man living during the Bronze Age, probably in Germany.  Members of this lineage are a close match with several of the L38 positive samples from the 3,000-year-old Lichtenstein Cave in central Germany. 

Haplogroup I Lineage 3

The two men in this lineage are predicted to be derived for I-M233, a haplogroup with highest frequencies in Germany and eastern Sweden that has sometimes been labelled ‘Viking Origin’.

Haplogroup J

There is currently one project member from Haplogroup J, a haplogroup believed to have originated in western Asia during the Neolithic and to have split from Haplogroup I after migration east through the Fertile Crescent. Our member is derived for J-M172, which is found in highest concentrations in the Fertile Crescent and the Mediterranean.

Haplogroup R1a

Haplogroup R1a Lineage 1

Haplogroup R1a Lineage 1 consists of two project members currently.  Both have provided pedigrees, but a family connection has not been identified.

Haplogroup R1b

Haplogroup R1b - Lineage 1

Currently, there are twenty project members confirmed as belonging to Haplogroup R1b Lineage 1 and three more possible members.  Five of these individuals are linked in a single pedigree that has as its earliest known ancestor John Cary, who emigrated from Bristol, England, to Massachusetts around 1634.  Four other individuals have submitted pedigrees starting in New York at about the same time but their links to each other and their connection to the others in the pedigree is not currently established.

The genealogy of the John Cary/Elizabeth Godfrey family of Bridgewater MA has received considerable attention over the years.   Much information can be found in the family history written by Henry Grosvenor Cary (The Cary Family in America) that was published by Rev. Seth Cooley Cary in 1907.   Rev. Seth Cary was president of a group called The John Cary Descendants that collected and documented information on this line.  In Bulletin No. 4, that the group produced in 1907, several early court records from around 1640 concerning John Cary's land are referenced in which the name is spelled Carew.  This is not uncommon.  According to Lower “The Carews of the west of England pronounce their name as if written Carey, and hence the surnames have been accounted identical.” (Lower, Mark Anthony. Patronymica Britannica. A Dictionary of the Family Names of the United Kingdom. London: John Russell Smith, 1860).

Haplogroup R1b Lineage 2

Haplogroup R1b Lineage 2 currently consists of 11 men assigned to the lineage and 1 more possible member.  The STR results for the men in this lineage, in particular DYS459 = 8,9 and DYS463 = 25, place them in the Irish Type III haplogroup and eight of them have proven to be positive for R-L226, the defining SNP marker for this haplogroup.  This haplogroup originated in Ireland in the counties of Clare, Tipperary and Limerick.  More information on R-L226 is available here.

Five of the men in the lineage are connected in a single tree in which the earliest known ancestor is Thomas Cary, whose family emigrated from England in the 1660s, living first in Virginia and then Maryland.  Thomas Cary patented `Carys adventure´ on Great Monye Creek in Somerset Co., Maryland, in 1666.  Later, possibly in the 1670s, some members of the family moved to Delaware. Two other members of this lineage have a suspected but currently unidentified connection to this group.  Their tree begins in Maryland and a comparison of their DNA results with the men above suggests a most recent common ancestor not many generations before the start of their tree.

Thomas Cary patented `Carys adventure´ on Great Monye Creek in Somerset Co., Maryland, in 1666. Later, possibly in the 1670s, some of the family moved to Delaware where they are said to have owned lands in the present-day Assateague Island area and in and around Lewes and Rehobeth. 

Haplogroup R1b Lineage 3

There are currently 9 men identified as members of Haplogroup R1b Lineage 3 and another possible member.   Family connections for five members are identified in a pedigree that begins with a James Cary who was living in Abingdon parish, Gloucester Co. Virginia in the 1689.  This pedigree, which was developed from our members’ submissions, differs in the early generations from that given by Fairfax Harrison in his book The Virginia Carys (Devine Press NY 1919), which mainly focused on descendants of early Virginia immigrant Miles Cary.  Harrison could find no evidence for a positive identification of this James but rejected suggestions that James was a descendant of Miles Cary.  Currently, that rejection is supported by results from the Carey/Cary DNA project since there is not a close match between the members of this lineage and the DNA results of the single project member who has submitted a pedigree linking himself to Miles.  However, for this to be conclusive, it would be desirable to have a lineage with Miles as the patriarch which requires more project members from his line. 

With respect to the other men in this lineage, one man has one mismatch with the lineage modal and another has two. These results suggest that these two men also have a genealogical relationship with James Cary.

As for the eighth member of the lineage, while the results suggest a common ancestor within 12 to 16 generations with the other men, they do not suggest a direct connection through James Cary. That is not surprising since the pedigree he submitted shows no historical connection with Virginia or the U.S.A. His family emigrated directly from Guernsey in the English Channel Islands to Canada before 1880.

The Careys of Guernsey are believed to have originated from the Manor de Carrey in Lisieux, Normandy. William W. Carey's 1938 book, The History of the Careys of Guernsey, traced the family history. There were Careys (Carree and Carye) on Guernsey in St. Martens as early as 1300 and somewhat later at St. Peter Port.

This suggests that James Cary’s family origins might have been the Careys of Guernsey.

Haplogroup R1b - Lineage 4

Currently, there are five project members confirmed as belonging to this lineage.  All five men are linked in a single pedigree that has as its earliest known ancestor Jonathon Cary of Somerset Co., Maryland.

Haplogroup R1b - Lineage 5

Currently, there are two project members confirmed as belonging to this lineage.  They are linked in a single pedigree that has as its earliest known ancestor John Carey, who was born in Buckinghamshire, England, in 1680.  His son John, born in 1707, emigrated to America around 1725, spending the rest of his life in Bucks Co., Pennsylvania.  Much information can be found in the family history written by Dorothy Carey Toennies (Branches of the John Carey family to Virginia, N. Carolina, Ohio and on west) that was published in 1977.

Haplogroup R1b - Lineage 6

There are currently four members of this lineage.  Pedigrees submitted by them show earliest identified ancestors from the Bahamas.  Deep clade testing for one of these men indicates that he is a member of the R-L151 subclade of R1b.

There were Careys connected to the Bahamas from its earliest days as an English colony.  Eleuthera is the oldest settled island in the group.  The first enumeration of the inhabitants of Eleuthera, which likely dates from 1650-1700, includes: William and Mary Carey, whose family included a son William; John Carey, whose family included Richard, Mark and Abraham; and a single man named John Carey.  One of these may have been the John Carey who was a representative for the island of Eleuthera at the colonial Assembly of 1728.  A Mark Carey, his wife and three children and an Elizabeth Carey with her three children were among a group of people who returned to the Bahamas from Florida after the American Revolution, landing in New Providence in 1784. (Bethell, A. Talbot.  The Early Settlers of the Bahamas and Colonists of North America.  Clearfield Co., Norfolk England, 1937.)

Haplogroup R1b - Lineage 7

We have identified three men as members of Haplogroup R1b Lineage 7 and another possible member. All three of these men have indicated a common ancestor from Tipperary, Ireland and their results have many matches in common with the Irish Type II or South Irish R1b haplotype.  All three have two mismatches with the key markers for that haplotype.  The three men in this lineage have DYS442=12 (South Irish R1b modal DYS442=13). A comparison of the results for the men in this lineage and those for the men in Lineage 8 suggests a high probability that both lineages had common ancestors within the last 16 to 24 generations.

The origin of these lineages might have been the Ó Carráin/Ó Corráin, an Eoghanacht sept who held lands in South Tipperary.  Ó Carráin/Ó Corráin was anglicized early as Carrane, Carrone, Curran(e), Carew, and Carey. See Patrick Carey’s discussion here.  

Haplogroup R1b Lineage 8

We have identified three men as members of Haplogroup R1b Lineage 8.  Their results have many matches in common with the members of our Haplogroup R1b Lineage 7 and with the Irish Type II or South Irish R1b haplotype.  One of their mismatches is also DYS442=12 (South Irish R1b modal DYS442=13). However, these three men are the only members of the Carey/Cary DNA project to have DYS458=14. This may be a distinctive marker for this lineage.

Haplogroup R1b - Lineage 9

Currently, there are two project members assigned to this lineage.  They have both identified an Irish family origin, but their STR results do not place them in one of the three main Irish haplogroups – NW Irish (i.e. M-222), Irish Type II or Irish Type III.  Both are derived for the SNP R-Z18491.

Haplogroup R1b Lineage 10

Haplogroup R1b Lineage 10 consists of three identified members and two possible members.  No family links between these men have been identified.  Two of these men have been found derived for the SNP known as M222, a diagnostic marker associated with many individuals whose roots lie in Northwest Ireland, Ulster and Southwest Scotland.  More information on M222 is available here. 

Haplogroup R1b - Lineage 11

Currently, there are two project members comprising this lineage.  They have both identified an Irish family origin.

Haplogroup R1b - Lineage 12

We have identified two men as members of Haplogroup R1b Lineage 12.  One of them has identified an earliest known ancestor from Ireland. Their family link has not been established.

Haplogroup R1b - Lineage 13

We have identified three men as members of Haplogroup R1b Lineage 13.  One of them has identified an earliest known ancestor from Ireland. Their family link has not been established.  All three men in this lineage have DYS459 = 8,9 and DYS463 = 25, and two of them have proven to be positive for R-L226, which places them in the Irish Type III haplogroup.

Haplogroup R1b - Lineage 14

We have identified two men as members of Haplogroup R1b Lineage 14.  Their results suggest that they are closely related but their relationship has not been identified.    Both men have DYS459 = 8,9 and DYS463 = 25, and both are derived for R-L226, which places them in the Irish Type III haplogroup.

Haplogroup R1b - Lineage 15 - A Non-Carey Lineage

The members of this lineage are named Gordy. Testing of their DNA was conducted to investigate whether their common ancestor was a Cary from our Haplogroup R1b - Lineage 2 and the results do not support that hypothesis.  The hypothesis was based on court transcripts from Sussex County, Delaware, in 1698 and 1699, where a woman named Rose Crouch Taylor appeared before the courts charged with having two illegitimate children by John Cary, the son of Thomas Cary. In her trial, Rose Taylor denied that the children were John Cary’s and claimed that they were fathered by her husband John Taylor, who may have been deceased at the time of the trial. Rose Taylor was found not guilty for want of evidence. Rose Taylor subsequently married an Adrian Gardee and the children assumed his name. In 2007, three male Gordy descendants joined the Carey DNA project hoping to use modern science to resolve whether John Cary was their ancestor.   The results indicated that John Cary was not their ancestor, but members of the Gordy family requested that this lineage remain as part of the Carey DNA Project for the information of others considering a similar investigation.