About us
The surname Clay, according to most sources, is anglo-saxon, and in some instances may be topographical, meaning a name that describes the place the person lived. In other instances, it may be occupational, indicating the person worked with clay, perhaps a person who worked in a clay pit or built clay (wattle and daub) buildings. (http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/clay)
Because of this, there are many, many, unique families carrying the common surname “Clay,” with various spellings. Claye, Clay, Kley, Klee, Claie are all found in various records.
There are many distinct lines, just in England and her historic colonies, and several lines that may be “Clay” lines but have different surnames.
Some descendants are Clay surnamed males, some are females with Clay surnamed male relatives, some have neither, but the paper trail leads to Clay ancestors. Our goal is to find ways with genetic testing to help all of these people.
The "y" DNA (Y-DNA) test follows the tested male, that male’s father, his father’s father, his father’s father’s father…going back thousands of years in history to identify the males of the tester's Clay line. The most prominent Clay line descends from one John Clay(e), an immigrant to Virginia 1613. Other Clay lines with good Y-DNA testers include these brick wall Clays descending from
- New England Clay brick wall Jonas Clay (1617 - 1663), an immigrant to Massachusetts in 1643
- New England Clay brick wall Richard Clay (1713 - 1801) born at Portsmouth, NH 1713
- New England Clay brick wall Job Clay (1800 - 1894) born at Barrington, NH 1795
- England Clay brick wall William Clay (1640 - 1700)
- England Clay brick wall Percival Clay (1725 - 1800)
- Germany Clay brick wall John T Klee (1712 - 1753)
- Germany Clay brick wall Andrew Jackson Clay (1843 - 1918)
- We are recommending an initial Y-DNA test of 111 markers to distinguish among the brick wall lines and a Big-Y test or upgrade to refine those lines.
The surname Clay Project was begun about 2004 and sponsored by the Clay Family Society (CFS), which still supports, sponsors and administers the Project.
See https://clayfamilysociety.net