There are only a few easy steps in participating in the Casey DNA Project. However, you may want to read several parts of this web site to understand what to expect. First, you should probably read the section "Why DNA Testing" to make sure you understand why you would want to participate in the Casey DNA Project and the results that you can expect. You also may want to read the section "Understanding DNA" to better understand the basics of DNA as well as several advanced topics that are harder to grasp. You may also want to review the "Analysis" section to see what kind of information can be obtained by DNA submissions and to see if your line has already been tested. Reading the section on "Project Objectives" would be good reading to verify that the goals and scope of this project are compatible with your objectives. For those new to DNA being used for genealogy, you should go to the section "Sources" where tutorials, links, research documents and good reference books are listed.

Once you get up to speed, there are some logistics involved in the testing of DNA:

- Who can submit DNA (must be only certain males for Y-DNA testing)
- Charges and ordering correctly so that you can get FTDNA membership discounts
- Understand the actual procedure for submitting DNA
- How to submit your traditional documentation to admins for analysis
- Understand important privacy issues with DNA testing

WHO CAN SUBMIT DNA

This project is primarily an Y-DNA project. Y-DNA testing yields the best results for attempting to break barriers for finding who is related to our oldest proven ancestors in the 1600s and 1700s. Females can not donate their DNA for this project as they have no Y-DNA (male) available to analyze. mtDNA (deep ancestry) for females have markers that are too slow mutating to be very useful for genealogists (knowing that you have common ancestor 5,000 years ago does not solve many genealogical problems). Sponsors of Y-DNA submissions must locate a male descendant who has no females in their ancestry to interrupt the generation to generation transfer of DNA from father to son. The line must be all-male and the donor must have the Casey surname (unless he is known to have Casey DNA via an adoption or out-of-wedlock scenario).

When submitting DNA to be analyzed, you must be willing to share your traditional research (or you will not be allowed to participate in the project). DNA without traditional research provides littlle value and can not be analyzed properly. You must be willing to allow others to upgrade and run new tests that become available in the future (if others are willing to pay for upgrades or new testing). We do not want DNA submissions that are not willing participants to rational rules that will later enhance achieving the objectives of this project. All information for the DNA submission (both DNA and traditional) will be available to the general public (except for some common privacy restrictions that could identify the donors). By joining this project, you agree to these terms.

Although this project does allow submissions from other companies to join the surname project, it is recommended that you test with Family Tree DNA. Unfortunately, there are wide variations in markers tested and FTDNA leads the industry in number of markers tested. Also, FTDNA does not allow submissions to be manually entered their database – this restricts the visibility of your test data and the tools that can be used to analyze your DNA.

CHARGES AND FTDNA MEMBERSHIP DISCOUNTS

Before you submit your DNA for testing, be sure to join the Casey DNA Project to qualify for the discounts for anyone joining the FTDNA Casey DNA project. These discounts are only available for your initial submission and there are no discounts for subsequent upgrades. The more markers you order up front, the lower overall charges will be as upgrades are always higher. Here are the current charges from Family Tree DNA for Y-STR testing:

Upgrades (Y-STR) – no discounts available for future upgrades:

12 to 25 markers $49
12 to 37 markers $99
12 to 67 markers $189
25 to 37 markers $49
25 to 67 markers $148
37 to 67 markers $99
67 to 111 markers $101

The number of markers that should be tested is very dependent on the genealogical cluster that you belong to. This is usually a chicken and egg scenario for many sponsors of DNA submissions as they may not know which cluster that their submission will belong to. I do not recommend the 12 marker test as this will not even definitely let you which cluster you belong to or reveal any connections. The 25 marker is extremely questionable as well (since the 37 marker test is only $25 more and reveals so much more).

If you suspect that you have South Carolina connections or southwestern Ireland (Munster) connections, I recommend starting with either the 67 marker test or even the 111 marker test. However, the 37 marker test is also a good start and is very useful. Even though there are no savings for ordering the 111 marker test up front, most submissions in these two clusters will probably end up with having 111 markers tested eventually. For all others clusters, either the 37 or 67 marker tests would be a good start (ordering 67 markers directly saves you $10 if upgraded later).

After the initial Y-STR test has been completed, around 20 % of all submissions will need to have the deep ancestry tested as well. For the South Carolina and Munster, Ireland clusters (around half of the submissions), additional deep ancestry is not really required as all submissions will probably have the same deep ancestry. However, your deep ancestry can now be verified by only testing one Y-SNP marker, L226 for only $29 (this is a bargain compared $89 full test).

There are two primary reasons to test your deep Y-DNA ancestry.

1) If your submissions belongs to a group of submissions that has pretty common DNA and all submissions can not be closely related (too many mutations to be closely related), testing for deep ancestry can help separate these groupings of submissions into true genealogical clusters. If you do not share a common deep ancestry, even if you Y-STR markers are very similar, you are extremely unlikely to be related in the last 600 years. This means that knowing the deep ancestry (haplogroup) allows some grouping to be split into multiple genealogical clusters. The Casey R1b1a2 grouping will benefit from the Y-SNP (deep clade) tests.

2) Haplogroup testing (a.k.a. "deep clade" or haplogroup tests) is constantly evolving and changing as new deep ancestry branches are discovered. We should always support testing individual Y-SNP markers (used in "Deep Clade" tests) when requested to assist with the discovery of new haplogroups. This helps increase the number of branches of the Deep Ancestry Descendancy Chart and has direct benefits to genealogists. Each genealogical cluster should have at least two deep ancestry tests to verify that the haplogroup of the genealogical cluster. Only one deep ancestry test per proven line is necessary.

Since "deep clade" testing is a moving target, you may need to order specific Y-SNP markers at later date. I ordered the full "deep clade" test several years ago. This was before Y-SNP marker L226 was revealed yet another branch of the deep ancestry tests. Additionally, branches are moved up and down the deep ancestry chart as new markers are discovered. Your deep ancestry could change over time as more branches are documented. If you test only Y-STR markers, FTDNA will estimate your deep ancestry. This deep ancestry estimate rarely reveals all branches and changes over time as more is discovered.

Here are the charges involved:

Deep Clade test $89
Y-SNP upgrades is $29 per marker
(test only L226 for South Carolina and Munster clusters)

WHAT IS THE PROCEDURE FOR DNA TESTING

The process of submitting a DNA sample is very straightforward and only requires the donor to swab inside the donor's mouth. After you place your order, the DNA kit is normally sent directly to the person who is providing DNA sample (donor). The kit consists of plastic swabs and plastic vials (along with instructions). The donor uses the swab to rub against the inside of his cheek for a minute or two. He is asked to wait several hours and repeat the test (reducing the chance of contamination). The swab contains a small piece of cotton that is ejected into the vial (that has a sterile solution for preservation). The donor then puts the vials into an envelope provided and mails it back to Family Tree DNA. After the kit is received, the samples are analyzed and several weeks later, both the donor and sponsor will be notified by e-mail of their results. Once the results are known and the sponsor has provided the traditional pedigree of the donor, analysis begins by volunteers of the Casey DNA Project. Do not expect FTDNA to analyze the data for you.

SUBMITTING TRADITIONAL GENEALOGICAL DOCUMENTATION

DNA testing has little value without traditional genealogical documentation. These two sources of information complement each other and DNA information has little meaning without traditional documentation. Most DNA Surname Projects now require traditional documentation to be provided in order to join their DNA Surname Projects since DNA testing has little value without traditional documentation. Please do not waste your valuable genealogy funds if you do not want to share your traditional research with others. You will be very disappointed in the analysis available as well since only minimal analysis can be done without traditional documentation. You can submit your GEDCOM file directly into the FTDNA database as well or send a one page summary of your all male line to the project administrator.

The traditional research should be very honest about well-proven ancestry and speculative ancestry. Incorrect speculative ancestry will contaminate the DNA analysis as well. Please include speculative ancestry as this does help with the analysis – but be sure to properly label this ancestry as speculative in nature. The admins reserve the right to modify ancestries based on DNA evidence if DNA evidence does not support the traditional documentation that was submitted for review. The admins can not possibly know the details of all lines for a common surname like Casey. It is very important to the Casey DNA Project to separate speculated ancestry from proven ancestry. DNA is definitely revealing many speculative ancestries that must be incorrect, therefore, testing DNA may have unexpected results.

Refer to the "Family Trees" section for the format of this information. Currently only one or two pages of information is needed. The "Family Trees" section also show the ancestry of most other submissions. With so many diverse Casey lines, your assistance in enhancing this section would be greatly appreciated.

PRIVACY ISSUES

All Y-STR tests (12, 25, 37, 67 and 111 marker tests) all include only "junk" DNA. The same is true about the Y-SNP tests (deep clade tests or haplogroup tests). This "junk" DNA has no medical information or physiological information encoded in this portion of the DNA. Therefore, DNA testing for genealogists will not reveal any medical information.

When submitting your traditional information, the Casey DNA Project will not disclose any genealogical information of any individual that was born after 1910. This is a common practice of most DNA Projects in order to protect the privacy of living individuals. The number of generations is important to the analysis; therefore the recent generations (born after 1910) will be listed only as donor or as the father or grandfather of the donor.

As more markers become available and more submissions are submitted, DNA fingerprints of some genealogical clusters will become established. If the cluster has several unique marker values for its haplogroup, many clusters will eventually show a DNA fingerprint that is unique to a specific line of particular cluster. The South Carolina Casey cluster has very unique DNA values and is the only cluster that currently exhibits a clear DNA fingerprint. If anyone tests with these five or ten of the unique marker values, they are probably Casey's that descend from ancestors in South Carolina. Of course, not all submissions will have the Casey surname due non-paternal birth events. There is a Hanvey submission (with ties to early South Carolina) that is now believed to have Casey DNA instead of the anticipated Hanvey DNA. As more markers become available and more submissions are published, there will be more clusters that have DNA fingerprints.