November 7, 2018

Genetic groups in the Neely Project are determined entirely on the basis of genetic evidence. Within some of these genetic groups, we have discovered two or more kin groups, which are defined as having two or more members who have a known common ancestor. Kin groups are based entirely on genealogical evidence.

• Group 1 comprises 3 kin groups and 14 members without any known common ancestors
• 10 descendants of Thomas Neely (1695-1756)
• 2 descendants of Nicholas Neligh (1730-1812)
• 2 descendants of William Dodge Neely (1809-1893)
• Group 2 comprises 4 kin groups and 9 members without any known common ancestors
• 4 descendants of Samuel Neely (1694-1761)
• 3 descendants of Robert Neelly (1730-1780)
• 3 descendants of Elijah Nealey (1776-1851)
• 3 descendants of John Ellis (1772-1844)
• Group 3 comprises 2 kin groups and 0 members without any known common ancestors
• 3 descendants of John Neely (1756-1849)
• 2 descendants of Thomas Neely (1794-1829)
• Group 6 comprises 2 kin groups and 3 members without any known common ancestors
• 4 descendants of James Neely (1701-1791)
• 4 descendants of John Neely (1783-1812)

See About/Results for additional details regarding common ancestors. You can assist our efforts toward combining genetic and genealogical information by (1) providing project administrators with names of known paternal ancestors and (2) upgrading YDNA tests to Y111 or BigY500.

June 10, 2018

We recently discovered that Elijah Nealey (1776-1851) is a common ancestor of two members (B108236 & 845215) of group 2.

We are in the process of documenting lines of descent for known ancestors who have at least two descendants among current members of the Neely Project. Please let us know if you have a common ancestor who is not yet on our list.

November 22, 2017

The new DF-98 SNP pack that FTDNA announced today includes the four SNPs that are exclusive to Neely genetic groups 1 & 2: BY17509, A17284, A17452, A17286. No other surname groups in DF-98 has these 4 SNPs. This test has been made available because of the interest and BigY testing of people in the DF98 subclade of M269 including the Neelys, which is itself a subclade of the very large R1b haplogroup in Northern Europe.

We now have 27 participants in our Group 1 and 20 in Group 2. Five of those participants in Group 1 tested for BigY and 3 in Group 2 did so. Another four in Group 1 have confirmed haplogroups from other sources.

The main haplogroup difference between groups 1 & 2 (based on BigY results) is that everyone in group 1 (except one) has tested positive for A17284 and no one in group 2 has tested positive for A17284. We are all indebted to those 8 Neely YDNA participants who bought the expensive Big Y test, because of what we learned from them and that the rest of us can now get focused results with this new and much less expensive DF98 SNP Pack test. The estimated age of this A17284 SNP (1594 AD) is roughly when Group 1 probably mutated from Group 2 and is not much different than the estimated time of the birth of William (with sword) Neely in the 1631 Donegal muster roll. This is exciting news and we would like to better confirm and refine it even more.

The DF98 pack will not discover any new SNPs, although there are 19 SNPs included that are not on the haplotree. The benefits are that it will confirm haplogroup predictions for members who haven't ordered BigY and provide additional insights about these two Neely genetic groupings. Members of groups 1 & 2 who have not ordered any SNP tests now have the opportunity to expand the depth of their Haplogroup much further with this test and refine their sub-clade. 

July 7, 2015

 The U106 Project administrators have selected the SNP called FGC13445 as defining the haplogroup branch that contains both Duttons and Neelys. The downstream SNP called FGC13446 defines the branch that contains Duttons, but not Neelys. So, Duttons test positive for both FGC13445 and FGC13446, while Neelys test positive for FGC13445 and negative for FGC13446. The Neelys branch likely extends to all the members of our first two subgroups. The Dutton branch includes Warburton and Howell. One person with each of these surnames has taken the BigY test.

It's interesting that Dutton and Warburton both trace their ancestry back to the same geographical location in northern England, near Liverpool. This in the King’s Cluster PDF, which contains a map of surnames created by Iain McDonald. The most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of Dutton &Warburton lived 1000 years ago, probably in England. The MRCA of Neely &Dutton lived 3000 years ago, probably near the Rhine Valley. So, we can surmise that the paternal ancestors of Neelys probably migrated from Germany through England on their way to Scotland.