Family Origins England: The northeast counties of Yorkshire, Durham and Northumberland accounted for 85% of all the Rowntrees in the 1881 census, with Yorkshire alone accounting for almost half. • One line descends from Thomas Rountree born in Sunderland in 1719. Some of his descendants were mariners. Ireland: A mention of the Rountree name appears in Ulster as early as 1376. The first real mention of the Rountree name was that of Thomas and widow Rowntry at Mulladry in Armagh in 1664. From this group descend: • Meredith Rountree who emigrated to New Zealand in 1863. • John Rountree who was still farming until his death in 1889. • Charles Rountree moved from nearby Kilmore in Armagh to Killigriffe in Cavan around the year 1730. His descendants include a son, Thomas, who went to America in 1752 when he was nineteen; Joe Rountree an emigrant to New Zealand in 1863; and William Rountree of Cootehill in Cavan who produced a large family tree of this family in 1890. America: Two main groups arrived from Ireland including: • Francis Roundtree from Londonderry who went to Virginia around 1680 and settled in Nansemond county. New Zealand: • Meredith Rountree emigrated with his family from Armagh to Auckland on the Portland in 1863. (Research by Fred Rountree) More information can be found at this link: https://selectsurnames.com/rowntree/ Since this project started almost 20 years ago, there has been many advances in Y-DNA. The early kits in this project only report STR information (repeats on the Y chromosome). That will tell if you are related to a family but to know which of those specific families and when, you need SNP information (mutations on the Y chromosome). SNP information is what the Big-Y test provides. This project primarily uses Y-chromosome tests which test specifically for the Y chromosome that males pass down through the generations. You must be male to take this test. If you are female, you need to find a direct line male (e.g. father, brother, nephew) in your family tree to test. For more information about the power of Y-DNA, John Cleary has an informative presentation at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YN5a5bfM74 The ROUNTREE surname is documented with many different spellings including: ROANTREE, ROUNDTREE, ROUNTREE, ROUNTRY, ROWANTREE and ROWNTREE. All are welcome.