About us
THE TEASLEY SURNAME PROJECT is open to anyone who has the surname Teasley—or any variant spellings—in their family tree. Aiming to help identify and bring together the various branches of this family line by use of DNA, the test results center around the Y-chromosome, which is passed down essentially unchanged from father to son to grandson. Because yDNA isn't recombined at conception, as is autosomal DNA, it has immense value in genealogy and can look back multiple generations to confirm relationships, even provide information in anthropological timeframes about how that paternal line migrated thousands of years ago.
While yDNA casts a very deep net when fishing for unbroken lineages of early surname use, autosomal DNA, like the Family Finder test, casts a much broader though shallower net. It is quite difficult to accurately employ autosomal DNA evidence farther back that 3g-grandparents—matches to 4th cousins—but the average person will have about 190 3rd cousins and 940 4th cousins. Combining the use of yDNA and atDNA provides the best possible opportunity to build a genetic picture of a surname line. Even if they can't take a yDNA test, we most certainly welcome those with the Teasley name in their trees who take a Family Finder test.
While its origin is not entirely clear, it most likely is an ancient English locational name. It would be a compound, or dithematic, name combining the River Teas (or Tees) that divides Durhamshire and Yorkshire in northern England, plus an old Anglo-Saxon suffix, –ley, which meant a homestead or meadow. On 21 September 1636, a John Gater received 800 acres of land in Elizabeth City County, Virginia, for the transportation from England of, including others, a Richard Tysley. Gater's patent was renewed 26 July 1838, and in that renewal Richard's name is spelled Tisley. This may have been the first Teasley immigrant to the American Colonies.
While yDNA casts a very deep net when fishing for unbroken lineages of early surname use, autosomal DNA, like the Family Finder test, casts a much broader though shallower net. It is quite difficult to accurately employ autosomal DNA evidence farther back that 3g-grandparents—matches to 4th cousins—but the average person will have about 190 3rd cousins and 940 4th cousins. Combining the use of yDNA and atDNA provides the best possible opportunity to build a genetic picture of a surname line. Even if they can't take a yDNA test, we most certainly welcome those with the Teasley name in their trees who take a Family Finder test.
While its origin is not entirely clear, it most likely is an ancient English locational name. It would be a compound, or dithematic, name combining the River Teas (or Tees) that divides Durhamshire and Yorkshire in northern England, plus an old Anglo-Saxon suffix, –ley, which meant a homestead or meadow. On 21 September 1636, a John Gater received 800 acres of land in Elizabeth City County, Virginia, for the transportation from England of, including others, a Richard Tysley. Gater's patent was renewed 26 July 1838, and in that renewal Richard's name is spelled Tisley. This may have been the first Teasley immigrant to the American Colonies.