Charges for DNA testing are still relatively expensive for many individuals to participate. Family Tree DNA has recognized this issue and has created the ability to donate to any DNA Project to advance the project objectives. There are two forms of donations – outright donations with no terms or conditions and conditional donations that are restricted to certain ancestral lines and other terms.

Here are the steps to donate to the Casey DNA Project:

1) Click on the link below to start the donation:

Donate to Casey DNA Project

2) Be sure to select the surname "Casey" in the pull-down menu in order to let Family Tree DNA know which project that you are donating to (Casey should be the default).

3) Enter the donation amount (minimum of $10).

4) Enter the donation type. Recommend "In Memory Of" and then list oldest proven ancestor in notes section (if anonymous is selected, see below for issues).

5) In the Donor Field, enter name of person making the donation which will be listed in the donation summary.

6) In the notes section, enter your oldest proven ancestor and enter any terms and conditions associated with the donation.

The funds are collected and held by Family Tree DNA, but their disbursement is at the discretion of your project administrator(s). If you forget to enter any conditions in the Notes section, you may later e-mail the project administrator and add any terms and conditions associated with the donation. If you wish to leave it up to the project administrator to decide where the funds can best be applied - enter no restrictions in the Note field. If no restrictions are received in 30 days, it will be assumed that there are no restrictions on usage of the funds being donated.

Please note that anonymous donations are not just anonymous to the public; they are also anonymous to the project admin. If you want to remain anonymous to the general public, I recommend putting anonymous in the Donor name field. This allows the admin to know the contributor but not the general public.

All donations made to Family Tree DNA Projects are non-refundable. This is out of control of the admin and is a term of the FTDNA donation policies. Since terms and conditions may be difficult to satisfy, any terms and conditions will only be binding for four years. After that point in time, the funds may be used at the discretion of the project admin.

It is very common for multiple individuals to "sponsor" the expenses for a particular DNA test or a DNA upgrade. These informal pledges are encouraged as an alternative to donating funds to Casey DNA Project. However, many of these informal agreements can fall apart for many reasons. The person who actually pays for the test is responsible for these transactions and takes on all ownership of any issues with these transactions. Pledges may not be honored due changes in interest, death, people who move and forget to inform others of their move, changes in DNA charges, etc. The donor may also change his mind about donating his DNA due to privacy issues or other concerns. Any issues that arise outside donations of the Family Tree DNA donation system will be the responsibility of those involved. The admin can be contacted to assist with any issues but can only attempt to resolve any issue. Since funds are outside direct control of the admin, all parties would have to agree with any changes associated with the pledges.

The donations are limited to Y-DNA testing which is the primary focus of this project. The vast majority of tests will be Y-STR testing and occasionally Y-SNP testing for deep ancestry (to determine genealogical clusters). General funds (no restrictions) will only be used for 37 marker, 67 marker and 111 marker testing of Y-STR DNA. Occasionally, funds may be used for upgrades. Y-SNP testing may be either full "deep clade" testing or individual Y-SNP markers (currently only useful for the R1b1a2 cluster).

Below are examples of typical usage of general usage funds (this list is subject to change):

1) The current list of submissions is very biased towards current residents of the United States. Since over half of the Casey individuals in the world are from other parts of the world, we need submissions of Casey donors that currently reside in Ireland, England, Canada, Australia and other countries. Since the Casey surname originated in Ireland, donors who currently reside in Ireland will have the highest priority.

2) The addition of new unrelated Casey lines will always have the highest priority. Having the broadest coverage of lines for each cluster will always remain the highest priority as comprehensive coverage of all Casey lines yields more common mutations.

3) Although it impossible to always predict which cluster that a new unrelated line will end up, priorities will be equally distributed between the well defined groupings / clusters. Priorities will be given to submissions that that have the best short term impact. Candidates with recent Irish ties will be given priority over others as submissions with known Irish ties helps determine the origins of all Casey lines.

4) The earlier well proven ancestors with supporting traditional documentation will be given high priority. Earlier lines require more submissions and yield more information. Since earlier lines should have more mutations and possible branches, funding multiple tests for older lines will be a higher priority since they could yield more genetic information.

5) There will be some funds applied to upgrades to existing submissions if the upgrades will yield maximum results for the cluster. Only a modest percentage of total funds will be used for upgrades.

6) For the R1b1a2 grouping, deep ancestry tests may be used in order to break up this grouping into real genealogical clusters. This will probably be the only cluster where deep ancestry tests will be funded.

7) Funds will not be used for lines where traditional documentation has not been made available to the admin. DNA testing of lines that have no or minimal traditional documenation will rarely be selected for testing.

Below are some typical terms and conditions for donations where restrictions are made:

1) Any male descendant of a particular early Casey ancestor. Any submission must have a well proven line of descent from this individual. Will fund $100 for a 67 marker test.

2) Any male descendant of second son (or grandson) of a particular ancestor who already has a submission. This will assist in determining if mutations are genealogically significant (close to the ancestor of interest) or not genealogically significant (close to the donor). Will fund $100 for a 37 marker test.

3) Will fund any new line where the donor currently resides in Ireland. Donation will fund the $100 for a 67 marker test. Submission must have traditional documentation of their Casey ancestry prior to 1800.

4) Will fund any new unrelated Casey line that has ties to early South Carolina. Donation will fund $200 of 111 marker test. Must have well documented ancestry prior to 1800 and must provide proof that their line resided in South Carolina.

5) Will fund deep ancestry testing of any existing submission in the R1b1a2 cluster. This will help split this grouping into real genetic clusters. Will sponsor $270 of any deep ancestry testing that admin believes to be most beneficial to revealing genealogical clusters. Must not be related to another submission where deep ancestry has already been tested.

6) Will fund $500 to any testing of lines that currently reside outside the United States. Well documented lineage must start prior to 1800. Funds must used for at least four donors and have no common proven ancestor. Minimum test will be 37 markers.

If you are planning to fully sponsor / fund any particular test and have already located a willing donor, then you should just work directly with the donor (or any relative of the donor that is working with you). There is no need to donate funds to the Casey DNA project if you plan on fully funding tests and you believe that you can locate willing donors on your own. If you can not locate donors, donating funds to Casey DNA Project is a good way to declare your willingness to assist others in the funding of tests for lines of interest.

If you have a good candidate for usage of general usage funds, feel free to contact the admin for suggestions for testing. The final decision for usage of general funds remains at the discretion of the project administrators. Those who have contributed to the general fund in the past will be given higher consideration for suggestions. If general funds were used for previous requests, subsequent requests will receive lower priority in order to distribute the funds evenly across possible requests.