For information on the requirements to join this project, click on the Overview tab above.

Neely Genetic Groups

All YDNA projects appear to be comprised of several different genetic groups. We recognize a total of six Neely "branches" from the different genetic groupings that have evolved from participant's YDNA STR results. In order for a grouping to qualify as a branch, we have decided it must contain at least three Neely surnames (or spelling variant) of 37-marker haplotypes, with each having a FTDNA TiP calculation of 50% or more probability for a MRCA from the group average (modal haplotype) in the last 12 generations. This should be useful for looking at Neely history back to about 1500 or slightly earlier. The remaining participant groupings may or may not grow into a Neely branch in the future, depending on results of future participants.  A brief summary for each of the six Neely branches is shown below. 

1. Listed as the PA group, the 40 participant's results (31 with BigY-700) show a tightly related genetic group sharing SNP/Haplogroup R-A17284

• Current information suggests these Neelys were Protestants in the northern portion of Ireland, who started leaving for the American Colonies before 1750, and continued to the United States through the early 1800s.  They probably arrived in Ireland during the 1600s, from the coastal areas of lowland Scotland or England.
• Currently 20 of the participants, including this project's founders, Jim and Stephen, trace their ancestry to Thomas Neely, who came from County Tyrone to PA, probably in the 1730s, with his young family. At least two of his sons moved to the Carolinas about 1760. At this time, we have been unable to tie participants from this group to records of their family in Ulster, Ireland.
• The other 20 participants appear to be descendants from brothers, 1st cousins, or 2nd cousins at most, of Thomas Neely. They appear to include among the earliest Neelys in the US, before 1730, in New York, and New Hampshire, but many seem to have arrived in Pennsylvania around the same time as Thomas Neely.
• The overall common ancestor of this group is estimated to have been a brother of the patriarch of all of Group 2, William 'with sword' Neely b: ~1596, Scotland, d: 1666, Donegal, Ireland

2. Listed as the VA group, the 41 participant's (31 with BigY-700) results show a slightly looser related genetic group that is related to the PA group. 

• Comparison of the averages of this group and the Group 1 above are exactly the same except for STR markers DYS570 and CDYa & b (markers 33, 34 and 35). One group must have mutated from the other sometime in the fairly distant past. 
• There is no single SNP/Haplogroup shared by all of Group 2. They share R-BY17509, which is the parent SNP for all of Group 1 as well, so the DYS570 and CDYa/CDYb values are used for kits without BigY-700. 
• As stated above, it is estimated that the common ancestor of all of Group 2, was William 'with sword' Neely b: ~1596, Scotland, d: 1666, Donegal, Ireland. The phrase 'with sword' was from a genealogist in the 1990s, to designate he appeared to match William Neely, who was recorded on the County Donegal 1630 muster roll living on the Chichester Estate, and having a ‘sword only’. But only 3 of the many Group 2 participants have genealogies that appear to connect back to William.
• Several of the participants of this group are descended from James Neely in Botetourt Co, VA in the 1700's whose brother, Dr. John, lived there and first married sisters in the Philadelphia area about 1740. Initially it was thought James and John were from NY (hence the original group name), but we have been unable to find evidence of this. Like the first group, they also appear to have originally come from Scotland or perhaps England. Also, several MRCA have been identified in the early 1700's as coming from Ulster from paper trail genealogy, but no connection to the records in Ireland have been established thus far.

3. Listed as the John Neely group, it has 9 participants (plus 3 others who have withdrawn) who have all completed testing with BigY-700. 

• All of the members of this group share BigY SNP R-FT74528. It is thought that all descend from Cavalry George Neely b: [1658 to 1675], England?; d: 1730, Timaconway [aka Tivaconway], County Londonderry, Ireland;
• They include lines that left Ireland for the American Colonies before the Revolution, ones that left later, as well as lines that still live in Ireland/Northern Ireland, or England today.
• The name John Neely group is from the original participants that defined this group. They descended from John Neely born about 1756 in Ireland, and died in 1847, in Georgia, USA. He immigrated to America with his parents and siblings as a boy. There are identified descendants living in Lancaster, SC and Coweta Co., GA. 
• It could be possible this group may have originated from the MacConghaile Clan in the area around Galway in western Ireland, but they could equally have different origins. We have no evidence to even speculate at this time. There were two Gaelic native-Irish clans whose names eventually became McNeely, Neely, etc. after being Anglicized, probably starting around 1700 or so. The other was Mac an Fhilidh in Ulster.

4. Listed as the Mac an Fhilidh group., this 8-person genetic grouping (6 with BigY) of Neelys and McNeelys:

• They are believed to be descended from bearers of the Gaelic surname Mac an Fhilidh. According to Woulfe and MacLysaght this Irish surname belongs originally to County Antrim and evidence for it can be found in Irish historical records, notably the Irish Annals of the Four Masters (in 1509) and the Annals of Lough Key (in the 1580s) as well as the English Fiants Elizabeth records (1590s). The surname is also to be found from at least the 1400s in Galloway, in the south-west of Scotland (which was in this period also a Gaelic-speaking area). There is no doubt that some McNeillys from Galloway in Scotland came to back to Ulster and settled there in the 1600s.
• As stated in the text below for Groups 7 and 14, they both appear to have received the Neely surname from a Neely line in this group, that ties back to Rockbridge County, Virginia, in the mid 1700s.

5. Listed as the McGregor group, this 6-person group (1 with BigY-700) all live in Ireland. 

• They directly descend from the McGregor Clan. The McGregor history shows the Scottish government attempted to annihilate their clan beginning in 1603. Their very name was banned and the government planned to ship their male children 12 and older to Ireland and England based on the minutes of the 1611 Privy Council. We believe a Neely family in County Donegal likely adopted one of these McGregor boys (prompted by a subsidy).

6. Listed as the Viking group, this 11-person group of Neelys (5 with BigY):

• They have a 37-marker modal haplotype exactly the same as a large 40-person subgroup of McNeills, except for one step difference in marker 34 (CDYa). The haplogroup is I1a, which is associated with the Vikings. Thus, it seems likely that these 'matching' McNeills were most likely part of their clan living in the Hebrides islands where the Vikings settled, then mixed with them, and the Neelys in this branch are descended from them. 
• Some of these early descendants may have migrated into western Scotland first and from there, perhaps adding an 'ie' to their name, then moved to Ulster, Ireland. 
• Name changes that became McNeely and then dropping the Mc when arriving in Ireland were not uncommon in the early Plantation period of Ulster.

 Other Neely project participants who share matches at least at Y-37 with other Neely Project participants have been organized in the following subgroups:

7. Listed as the McDaniel group. Ancestral link to John Neely (1786-1865) of Pipestem, WV, who share Haplogroup R-FT75014 with a descendant of James McDaniel (1755-1847), and share parent haplogroup R-BY2604 with a descendant of James's brother Henry.

• Five participants (4 with BigY-700), including four Neely men who descend from two sons of John Neely of Pipestem, WV (Some refer to him as "Buttermilk"), and 1 McDaniel match who descends from Henry McDaniel Sr, who was a neighbor of the Neelys.
• BigY-700 results, combined with traditional genealogy, proved on 9/17/2026, that the father of John Neely of Pipestem, was James McDaniel (1755-1847). The Y-DNA portion of the proof is based on the Neely's with BigY sharing R-FT75014 with a descendant of James W. McDaniel, which is not shared with a descendant of James W. McDaniel's brother, Henry.
• Probate records show that John Neely’s mother was Hannah (Gatliff) Neely d: 1826, Giles Co., VA, who appears to have been the widow of William Neely d: 1782 Rockbridge Co., VA. William appears to have been the son or step-son of John Neely of Rockbridge Co., VA, who may have been the common ancestor of Group 4 above. 
• Hannah's Probate also shows that her oldest son was James Neely, patriarch of Group 14 below.