Harrison Y-DNA Project
JOIN THE PROJECT
Surnames in this Project: Our project is open to anyone with the ability to test a male Harrison, Harrisson, Haruson, 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, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries.
Project Discussion: DNA information, specifically the matches to other Harrisons, is used in conjunction with historical and traditional research. DNA results do not often “prove” a relationship, but can be quite helpful in guiding research. If a DNA profile does not match traditional genealogy, a hypothesized relationship may be incorrect. At other times DNA results may point to an unknown adoption in the family.
Since the project focuses on Y-DNA, the tested individual must be a male who wants to check his paternal line (father's father's ... father's line). Females should look for a brother or cousin or more distant male relative with that surname to be tested.
Females can also order a test for themselves, which will be a mitochondrial (or mtDNA) test, but the results of their test do not tie to the surname project. A Family Finder test is also available and looks at autosomal DNA, which is passed to a child from both parents, but it is challenging to identify which DNA belongs to a particular surname beyond three or four generations, and autosomal DNA is not used in the DNA Project.
More about testing...
The test is a simple cheek swab. The kit will arrive and leave your home by mail. You simply rub the inside of your cheek a number of times with a special scraper, put the kit back into the envelope, and put it in the mail.
Your kit will be analyzed by Family Tree DNA, of Houston TX, the world's leading testing company for surname DNA projects. All tests include an estimate of the "Haplogroup" (an indication of deep ancestry).
We recommend testing at least 37 markers. That will give you the detail needed to be able to confidently connect to one of the project's known line. We expect that most serious researchers will eventually upgrade to 67 or 111 markers - if they don't start there.
If you wish to participate, you may place an order for a DNA test and submit your pedigree. We will place it on the Patriarchs Page.
SPONSORSHIPS
The Harrison Family DNA Project has a Sponsorship Fund that contains donations used to encourage newcomers to join our project, especially those who may need some assistance to pay for their initial DNA tests. When funding permits, the sponsorships listed below are available.
Donations are always welcome. Simply click the link, scroll down to the Harrison project, and submit the donation to the group fund.
Sponsorship of $100 for anybody with a Harrison line that has been reliably traced back at least 8 generations, and without any indication that the lineage ties in with one of those already represented in our project (see our Patriarchs Page).
Sponsorship of $100 for anybody with a Harrison lineage that has been reliably traced back at least 6 generations to the British Isles or mainland Europe, and without any indication that the lineage ties in with one of those already represented in our project.
Targeted Sponsorships:
Sometimes donors ask to have their contributions directed toward particular Harrison families, rather than to be used for the three general categories listed above. As a result of donations with particular requests for their use, we have available the following sponsorships:
The full cost of the 37 marker test-- is available on a limited basis to Harrisons from Europe whose line of descent has been reliably traced from a UK or EU Harrison ancestor living in 1750 or earlier.
Please let us know if there are other particular Harrison families, or Harrisons from particular geographic regions, for whom you would like to sponsor tests.
In exchange for receiving one of the sponsorships described above, recipients agree to have their pedigree information (down to about 1900) placed on the project's website. The general idea here is that if the project is helping to pay for a test, then the project should benefit in the form of being able to associate the DNA results with a pedigree.
Because funding is limited, support from our Harrison Family DNA Project Sponsorship Fund is available on a first-come first-served basis. Please contact John Harrison at dna@jhamedia.com to ask about seeking support from the fund.
How to Contribute:
To contribute to our Sponsorship Fund, please DO NOT send the money to us. Instead, click here to go to the Contribution Page at FamilyTreeDNA. Please also send an email message to John Harrison at dna@jhamedia.com to describe how you want your donation to be applied. In particular, if you want to restrict your donation in some way (such as to a particular person, or to descendants of particular Harrisons, or to people with Harrison ancestry from a certain location, etc.) then you will have to tell us about it; otherwise we will assume that your contribution is to be put towards the three general criteria listed earlier.
As for reasons why people might want to contribute to the Sponsorship Fund, the most basic reason is to encourage more people to join the Harrison Family DNA Project. Sometimes people are interested in comparing their own test results with those from certain Harrison lines that they suspect they might share kinship with, but these other Harrison lines are not yet represented in our project. Sometimes it's because somebody belongs to a particular line but they cannot provide a DNA sample on their own (as is the case when their connection to the line might involve a female ancestor) and they might be having difficulty locating a male Harrison relative to provide a DNA sample for analysis. Also, without support from the Sponsorship Fund, some Harrison lines might remain untested, meaning that potential matches with genealogical importance would go undetected.
Note that funds in our project Sponsorship Fund is held by FamilyTreeDNA. This is a volunteer effort and we do not handle the money ourselves, although it is our role to tell FamilyTreeDNA which tests are to receive support from the Sponsorship Fund.
Donors:
The following individuals are gratefully acknowledged (in alphabetical order) for having made contributions to our project's Sponsorship Fund:
David Adair
C.A. Bigby
Lynn Boyns
Cathy Cadd
Harold Fisher
Mary Gibson
Marie Griggs
William Hallenback
Calvin Roy Harrison
Hugh Harrison
James Harrison
John A. Harrison
Joseph Colemore Harrison
Susan Holman
Deb Knowles
Pauline Lynn
Karen Nabours
Irma Sohnchen
Jill Harrison Souter
Susan Williams
Barbara Williamson
and at least six anonymous donors.
What do I do if I have questions?
Please read the Frequently Asked Questions at Family Tree DNA.
If you still have questions, email the Project Administrator, John Harrison.
Copyright Ⓒ 2023
