Harrison Y-DNA Project
DISCUSSION
Where did our Harrison families originate?
Harrison families have ancient roots that go back to England, Scotland, or Ireland in most of the Y-DNA haplogroups identified so far. When the adoption of surnames became popular in the 1300s, many unrelated people became Harrisons as various sons of unrelated men named Henry, Henri, Harry, Harris, and the like became known as Henryson, Harryson, or Harrisson. Eventually by the 1600s most of these came to be spelled "Harrison," although variations still exist. The 1881 UK Census shows the distribution of Harrisons across the British Isles, and most Harrison families were found in northern England. Harrisons were most commonly found in York, Harrogate, Preston, Lincoln, and Derby. The following map shows where Harrisons were most commonly found in the UK in 1881.
Distribution of Harrisons in England, 1881
(Darker colors represent higher concentrations of Harrison families)
Distribution of Harrisons in London, 1881
(Darker colors represent higher concentrations of Harrison families)
How close a match do I need to be considered "related" to another person?
This is an excellent question. FamilytreeDNA has analyzed hundreds of thousands of samples and matches, and has determined that two individuals will either be considered "related," "probably related," or "not related," based on how closely the two peoples' results match. This is complicated a little by the fact that some markers mutate faster than others, so a match of 35 out of 37 markers could still indicate a very close relationship if the two markers that are different are fast changing markers. These charts below adapted from FamilytreeDNA data should help you establish whether you and another Harrison are related based on your test results:
111 Marker Tests:
111/111 Distance of 0 Very tightly related
109/111 or 110/111 Distance of 1 or 2 Tightly related
106/111 to 108/111 Distance of 3 to 5 Related
104/111 or 105/111 Distance of 6 or 7 Probably related
101/111 to 103/111 Distance of 8 to 10 Only possibly related
100/111 or less Distance of 10 + Not related
67 Marker Tests:
67/67 Distance of 0 Very tightly related
65/67 or 66/67 Distance of 1 or 2 Tightly related
61/67 to 64/67 Distance of 3 to 6 Related
60/67 Distance of 7 Probably related
58/67 or 59/67 Distance of 8 or 9 Only possibly related
57/67 or less Distance of 10 + Not related
37 Marker Tests:
37/37 Distance of 0 Very tightly related
36/37 Distance of 1 Tightly related
34/37 to 35/37 Distance of 2 to 3 Related
33/37 Distance of 4 Probably related
32/37 Distance of 5 Only possibly related
31/37 or less Distance of 6 + Not related
Our project is open to anyone with the ability to test a male Harrison, Harrisson, and all other variations, or to anyone believing that he or she is descended from one of those names. Participants are sought worldwide. We have members from the US and other countries.
If you have questions, email the Project Administrator, John Harrison.
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The Harrison DNA Project is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.