Project Results and Discussion Overview
37 Marker Y-STR Allele Comparison
12 July 2009
Clicking on a Lineage Mode link in the chart will take you to a brief discussion of that lineage. 
Use the back button of your browser to return to results for that lineage in the chart. 
Clicking on the Lineage Headings in the discussion will take you to more detailed discussions of that lineage if available.

A brief overview of the results for the Dorsey/Dorsey/Darsey/Darcy/Dawsey/Dossey/D'Arcy DNA Project

More detailed information (including source citations) and discussion about some of the larger Lineages (I - VI) can be seen by clicking on the Lineage heading.

Lineage I

With the addition of a number of new members (currently a total of 21 members), Lineage I has fallen into two further defined subgroups based on a few "signature" marker values--one group, Lineage Ia, includes the descendants of the Colonial American Immigrant Edward Darcy/Dorsey and the other, Lineage Ib, appears to share a common ancestor with Edward Darcy/Dorsey but not to descend from him. Particularly distinctive for Lineage Ia are the values of 12 at DYS 385b and 14 at DYS 389-1. So far, these values are unique to the known and presumed descendants of Edward Darcy/Dorsey within this lineage. Values of 12 for DYS 460 and 15 for DYS 456 occur almost exclusively in this group as compared to values of 11 and 17 respectively for Lineage Ib.

Lineage Ia

The first five members of Lineage Ia are well documented descendants of Edward Darcy/Dorsey. The first two are descendants of Edward Darcy/Dorsey's son John and the next three descendants of his son Edward. The results of the next eight members of Lineage I are consistent with their (sometimes tentative) research conclusions that they are also descendants of Edward Darcy/Dorsey.

Lineage Ib

DNA results from the next eight participants place them in the same lineage as the first 13 but suggest that they may share a common ancestor with Edward Darcy/Dorsey. The DNA results coupled with proven Irish origins of the last five and matches with a number of Irish surnames strongly suggest an Irish origin for Lineage I.

Y-chromosome DNA from Lineage I does NOT match Y chromosome DNA from proven descendants of Norman D’Arcy who was said to have come to England with William the Conqueror in 1066.

Lineage II

Lineage II members all match on all 25 markers tested in common. Each traces his line back to the mid-Atlantic colonies—Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. In each of these lines the unusual variant Dossey has persisted or, at least, alternated with the Dorsey spelling a significant portion of the time. Though their ancestors' names are sometimes found together in legal documents and on the same migration paths, they cannot yet identify a common ancestor. The first two in this group are descendants of two different sons of Elias Dossey who moved from North Carolina to Georgia in the mid 1700's. The next is a descendant of James Dossey who moved from Virginia to Missouri followed by a descendant of Jeremiah Dorsey who died in 1828 in Barren County, Kentucky. Last is a descendant of Solomon Dorsey who was found in North Carolina in the mid 1700's. This group shares an interesting match with a Cranford line that has been found closely associated with Dorsey/Dossey families in Calvert County Maryland and that connection is being explored further.

Lineage III

Lineage III includes the descendants of a group of Dorseys who trace their lines to individuals living in Rowan, Lincoln, and Burke Counties in western North Carolina in the late 1700’s. A number of records cluster these individuals around Andrew Dorsey who moved from Baltimore County, MD to Rowan County in 1766. This is a very unique haplotype and the group has, until recently, had no matches outside their own surname. In spite of the fact that records show Andrew Dorsey living in the midst of descendants of Edward Darcy-Dorsey in Baltimore County, Maryland in the mid 1700’s, he is not a member of that patrilineal line (Lineage I). Speculation is that he was the illegitimate son of a Dorsey widow. In the last year, Lineage III members have had exciting matches with two different lines of Norwoods.

Members of Lineage III include the descendants of Elisha Dorsey of Burke County, NC, John H. Dorsey who died in Pickens County, SC in 1852 and of Bassell Dorsey who is found in Lincoln County, North Carolina in the late 1700's and who died in Franklin County, GA in 1807. For many years this Bassell Dorsey was incorrectly identified as Basil John Dorsey the son of Francis Dorsey, a great-grandson of Edward Darcy/Dorsey. DNA analysis shows that Bassell Dorsey does not match the Lineage I descendants of Edward Darcy/Dorsey but rather does match the Lineage III descendants of Andrew Dorsey.

Lineage IV

Lineage IV includes a US participant and an Australian participant who both trace their roots to Tipperary in the mid-1800’s. Their DNA results connect them with a group of Irish surnames that have been designated as the Irish Type III Cluster. For more information about that group, see the very nicely done Irish Type III website at http://www.irishtype3dna.org/

Lineage V

The first two members of Lineage V hold lengthy, well documented pedigrees that connect them fourteen generations back to two sons of the Irish line of William D’Arcy the son of Sir John D’Arcy de Knayth. Additional pedigrees extend their line back to Norman D’Arcei who is said to have come to England with William the Conqueror. The results of the third member of Lineage V supports circumstantial evidence that he also descendants from that line.

Also included in this biologically defined group are nine American Dorsey/Darseys. The first two of these are a well documented descendant of Joseph Darsey who is said to have fought with his five sons in the Revolutionary War. According to family members, Joseph Darsey moved from Maryland through North Carolina and finally settled in Georgia.

The next four members of Lineage V trace their lines back to George Darsey who was born September 18, 1774, most likely in Maryland. George Darsey was in the state of Georgia by the early 1800’s. The first of this group descends from George Darsey’s son Edward who was born June 11, 1802. The next three members of Lineage V descend from John Speer Darsey (Dorsey), a 59 year old farmer who reported his birthplace as Maryland on the 1860 US Census for Spaulding County, Georgia. Traditional genealogical records identify John Speer Darsey as the oldest son of George Darsey. These relationships are all supported by the results of DNA analysis.

The final three members of this group all know or believe they have Georgia roots but have not yet found their exact connection to either Joseph or George Darsey. The first of these three is a descendant of Henry Darsey who was in western Mississippi by the beginning of the 19th century. He is the son of Benjamin Darsey who most likely came to Mississippi from Georgia. The next participant descends from Edmund Dorsey who was born about 1811 in Georgia. He is found in Newton County, Georgia in the 1850 through 1870 censuses after which he moved his family to Texas. Edmund was first married in Columbia County, Georgia to Martha 2 January 1834 to Martha Stanford and secondly to Lucy Lunsden on 15 July 1839 in Jasper County, Georgia. Finally, our last member of Lineage V is a descendant of George W. Dorsey who was born in Georgia about 1854 and later moved to Texas

The DNA match between these US and Irish groups supports a common ancestor for them all. However, we do not have enough information from either DNA analysis or traditional records to determine whether the American members of Lineage V descend from the Irish D'Arcy line or whether they descend from an English line of the Anglo/Norman D'Arcys and share a common ancestor with the Irish line farther back in time.

Lineage VI

Another group who have shown total preference and persistence in using the Dossey spelling comprise Lineage VI of this project. The first row of results in Table VI-1 is the haplotype of a descendant of Thomas Franklin Dossey, presumed son of William Greenberry Dossey, born 1787 in South Carolina and first documented in the 1812 Tax List of Franklin County, Tennessee . This member is a descendant of Thomas F. Dossey's son Thomas F. Dossey, Jr. The second and third rows of Lineage VI are haplotypes of two more descendant of William Greenberry Dossey's son William Greenberry Dossey, Jr. Results in row two are those of a descendant through the line of his son Charles. This line of the family eventually settled in southeastern Oklahoma. Row three shows the results of a descendant of another son of William Greenberry Dossey, Thomas F. Dossey. (Admittedly a confusing array of William Greenberry's and Thomas Franklins!) Also in early 1800's records from Franklin County, TN records was a Thomas K. Dossey, born in 1789, in South Carolina, whose descendant's DNA results are presented in the fourth line of the Lineage VI results. Thomas F. and Thomas K Dossey moved together from Tennessee through Alabama and eventually to Sevier County Arkansas.

Lineage VII

Lineage VII is a biologically defined group who as yet have no known connections. The first member of the group was an early entry into the Dorsey DNA Project. Nonetheless, his results languished unmatched in the results spreadsheet for four years until he found a match. He is a descendant of John Edward Dorcey/Dorsey/Darcy, who according to census records was born in Ireland. He is first located on the 1840 Grant County, Wisconsin census and later moved through Green County, Illinois and Andrew County, Missouri. His family spread out through the western states from there. The next member of Lineage VII is a descendant of John Darcy who was born about 1845 in Ireland. He immigrated to the US living in several Eastern seaboard states. The final member of this group remains a mystery as we have not received any information about his heritage.

Lineage VIII

Lineage VIII descend from James McClellan Dorsey who was born in West Virginia in 1861.

Lineage IX

Lineage IX is a relatively newly defined Lineage of African American descent. Family stories of the first member of this group tell of an ancestor, an escaped slave from Maryland who changed his surname from Dorsey to Thomas and made his way to freedom in Ontario, Canada. via Greene County in western Pennsylvania. The second member has a similar DNA result. He is looking for the surname of his father and believes he remembers some talk of Dorsey kin in his childhood. The third member is from Maryland. At this time, there is only the biological data and a sometimes vague conntection to the Dorsey surname to connect these three. Hopefully, they will be able to combine their bits and pieces of information to focus a successful research effort.

Lineage X

Lineage X is also a small group of three. Two of these men are Australian but had no previous acquaintance. The first is the grandson of Joseph Michael D'Arcy born in Gorey, County Wexford, Ireland in 1870. His parents were James D'Arcy and Winifred Condren. The second lists only a Laurance D'Arcy as his oldest known ancestor. The third group member is an American for whom we do not yet have ancestral information.

Unmatched Participants

The final two groups of data are from participants who do not match any other Dorsey project members, though several have a number of matches outside the surnames included in this study.

Unmatched Ireland

The first group includes those whose earliest known ancestor is known or believed to have been from Ireland.
The first of these is a descendant of Daniel Butler D'Arcy who was, according to the 1871 British census born in 1826 in Surry, England. It is believed that his father was Thomas Butler Dorsey, born in Ireland.

The next two of this group are French D'Arcys who trace their lines back to Ireland but do not appear to have a common ancestor in a genealogically meaningful time frame. The first of these is a descendant of Pierre d’Arcy died in Burgundy “aged 68” in 1686 and nobody knows where he was born or came from. There is a family rumor that the line came from Ireland so he is included in this group.  Of special interest, the last row of unmatched numbers comprises the haplotype of a well-documented descendant of James Riveagh D’Arcy, the progenitor of the D’Arcy’s of Kiltullagh who died in Galway in 1603.  Surprisingly, there are as yet no matches within the Dorsey Surname Project.

Finally line four of this group is the results of an unmatched American Darcy with well documented information that his ancestor was Hugh Darcy who was born in 1835 in Kiltubrid, Leitrim, Ireland and emigrated from Ireland through New Jersey and Indiana to eventually settle in Minnesota. Hugh Darcy's brother Edward Darcy immigrated from Ireland to California. He was buried December 7, 1882 in Mount Calvary Cemetery in San Francisco. The family in Minnesota has lost touch and would like to reconnect with descendants of this Edward Darcy. An extensive search of the records of Kiltubrid, County Leitrim, in February, 1999, by the Leitrim Genealogy Centre, County Library, Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim, Ireland, found only one reference to a Hugh Darcy that could possibly be the father of Hugh and his siblings John and Sarah Jane Darcy who immigrated to Minnesota along with Hugh. The Tithe Books for 1833 show a "Hugh Darcey" living in Gowly townland.

Unmatched US

We currently have nine American members in the Dorsey DNA Project who have not yet found a match within that surname (or any of its spelling variants).

First in this list is a descendant of Anthony Dorsey/Darcy who according to family tradition was born in Kentucky then moved to New York, traveled the World finding a wife in Ireland, returned to the US to settle in Indiana and eventually moved to Missouri. However, census records for Anthony Dorsey/Darcy say he was born in Ireland. The project participant is a descendant of Anthony's oldest son Thomas Darcy who died in Kansas in 1924.

Row two of the unmatched Americans is a descendant of John B. Dorsey who was born about 1856 in Indiana. Family researchers for this line have learned that his ancestor was Andrew Baldasor who was born before 1753. He married Eva Hahn of Lincoln/Catawba County North Carolina in 1785 and died in 1811 in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Along the way, the family's name changed to Dosser then to Dorsey.
Line 4 of this group is the haplotype of a Kelly who expected to match the Harvey Kelly line (Lineage III).

Line 5 is the results of a Darsey with roots in Georgia who expected to match the descendants of Joseph Darsey in Lineage V.

Line 6 is a descendants of Steven Dorsey who was born in 1758 in Maryland.

Line 7 represents a descendant of Franklin Dorsey who was born in Hampshire Co VA around 1814 and died in North Springfield, West Virginia in 1884. His father came from Maryland. Family researchers are currently exploring matches with other surnames.

Line 8 of the unmatched members has not responded to requests for family information. Some cursory searching suggests he has roots in Texas.

Line 9 is the Haplogroup A, haplotype of an African American Dorsey whose earliest known ancestor is Charles Dorsey who was in Delaware/Maryland in the late 1800's.

Hopefully as the project continues to grow, these unmatched pioneers will find their lines.

Mystery Members

The Dorsey DNA Project is an open project. We do not require administrator permission to join. Consequently, we also have several members who have joined the Dorsey DNA Project whose surnames are not Dorsey and who have provided no ancestral information. They are not listed here as their meaning within the context of Dorsey/Darsey/Darcy/Dawsey/Dossey/D'Arcy genealogy is unclear. Once again it is important to understand that for results to be meaningful within a genealogical context, a DNA donor for this project must be a male with the surname Dorsey/Darsey/Darcy/Dawsey/Dossey/D'Arcy or some other variant. Y-DNA comes exclusively from a male's father and cannot reflect anything from him mother's line. MtDNA will give information about the straight maternal line and members are welcome to join for that purpose. However, mtDNA results are not reported or analyzed by the project. 

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