From my desk, Windle Ray Causey, retired US Army officer and retired History teacher – Welcome to the Causey family One-Name Study. This study aims to bring to one place the common heritage of all those whose surname is CAUSEY. Some months ago, I was directed by a genealogist friend to The Guild of One-Name Studies. This Guild seeks to trace a particular surname, (in our case the surname is Causey or a variation of it) utilizing documented family trees (pedigrees) moving back through generations to a point where the forks (lineages) unite with the branches and the branches unite with the trunk of the tree. Of course, the surname CAUSEY is an English polygenetic surname, having evolved in different locations and attached to or adopted by various families independently. So, in fact, there will be several or many CAUSEY trees and not all will lead back to that elusive single first Causey.
I have been researching the American Causey family line for over 40 years. I currently have documented to some degree more than 4,750 individual who are in various ways interwoven into my Causey Tree. The Causey One-Name Study is offered to all Causey Cousins and other interested parties to read, assess, and share in the research already accumulated and join in and continue research on a global scale. According to Forebears.com there are more than 16,645 people who bear this surname worldwide, with the vast majority in the United States. Those of you Causeys who find your way to this one-name study are invited to participate. You can find the study at one-name.org . Just type in the surname Causey to link to our study. You will also find my email at the bottom of the
In you’ve been reading the CauseyClan.blog, then you know my story. I refer to my lineage as the John Soloman Causey family of Fayette County, Alabama, USA. My father was Clifton Tilford Causey b. 1923 in Fayette County, Alabama. His father was John Soloman Causey b. 1882 also in Fayette County, Alabama. John Soloman Causey’s father was James Orlando “Jim O.” Causey born in Mississippi and son of James Solomon Causey b. 1812 in Guilford County, North Carolina. His father was Solomon Causey b. 1774 son of Zebulon Causey b.1739, who was son of Thomas Causey, Jr. b. 1720 who was son of Thomas Causey, Sr. b. 1690. From Solomon to Thomas Sr. all were born in Dorchester County, British Colonial Maryland. Thomas Causey Sr.’s father was probably John Causey born about 1650 also in the Maryland Colony established by the 2nd Lord Baltimore, Cecil Calvert in 1634. Whether the Causey’s were among the more than 200 indentured servants who arrived with Lord Baltimore continues to be an unanswered question. I say, probably not. The Causeys have been faithful members of the Methodist Church since 1840 and before that the Anglican Church. We can say with some degree of certainty that John and William Causey were Planters in Dorchester County, British Colonial Maryland by the year 1680. It is my assumption based on factors which will be discussed in this study that the John Solomon Causey line is most likely linked to Nathaniel and Thomasine Causey of Jamestown, Virginia who were, themselves, originated in Devonshire, England.
An important aspect of the Causey One-Name Study is the intensive use of DNA to enhance and validate our documented pedigree Causey lines. For example, here is how I used DNA to prove my direct lineage to my 4th Great Grand-father Zebulon Causey b. 1739 in Dorchester County, Colonial Maryland, America. Most readers will understand that DNA is passed from parents to children via their chromosome, (and DNA does not lie about relationships). Y-DNA is passed only from father to son. Maternal DNA is passed to male and female offspring. Recently I discovered a DNA relationship to the Tucker family. Levi Tucker married Margaret Causey, (also known as Peggy, a daughter of Zebulon Causey, son of Thomas Causey Jr.-II d. 1775), and moved to Guilford County, North Carolina by 1785. Following is evidence linking this Zebulon Causey b. 1739 to both Caroline County, Maryland and Guilford County, North Carolina. (James S. Causey stated on the 1880 US Census that his father was from Maryland). My Ancestry® matches, (DNA relatives, through 8th cousins) led directly back to the family of Levi and Margaret Tucker, thus to Zebulon Causey, Margaret’s father. My DNA is linked to 17 DNA 5th cousins with lineage back to my Great Aunt Margaret Causey Tucker in four separate family trees. Ancestry® offers the autosomal DNA test, which produces the most comprehensive snapshot of one’s ethnicity and living relatives. There are 5 different lines (family trees) all DNA matches to me that lead directly back to Zebulon Causey. Furthermore, I have found this Tucker lineage very well documented.
Check in for my next blog where I’ll update you on the One-Name study.
wrc
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