The HERSEY Surname Project is for men with the surname
HERSEY,
also spelled HURSEY. There may also be connections to the surname
HERSHEY or to
the surname KERSEY.
There is a southern branch of the
HERSEY (Hursey)
family living in the Coffee Co. and Ware Co., Georgia area from the early 1800s
until present day. Some of these HERSEY families have migrated to Florida and to other
southeastern states.
There is also a major HERSEY family from New England dating back as far back
as the 17th century, the
progenitor having been William Hersey (1596-1658), who immigrated from England
and settled in Hingham, Massachusetts.
There are family stories indicating there are
connections between the northern & southern Hersey families and that the
southern Hersey line has a Native American ancestor. Traditional
genealogical efforts have so far failed to connect the northern and southern
HERSEY families. It is hoped that the
HERSEY Surname DNA Project
will
determine if there is a connection and support the specific genealogical
research for the various HERSEY family lines.
Because of the cursive writing in documents from the
19th century, some HERSEY (Hursey) families in the South, may have had surname
changes involving the surname Kersey, Hussey, etc.
Surname genetic testing is the newest tool available to
genealogists. The genetic genealogy tests verify a man’s direct paternal
ancestry in a quick and easy way. These tests save time, prevent mistakes and
provide invaluable data for genealogists that can not be otherwise obtained.
You are hereby cordially invited to participate in
this historic project. HERSEY family members requesting participation are
requested to supply Robert B. Noles with their known HERSEY genealogy.
Membership in the Huxford Genealogical Society
is not required
(but highly recommended)
to join the HERSEY Surname DNA Project.
Robert
B. Noles, Hersey Surname DNA Project Group Administrator
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SURNAME
ORIGINS *
HERSEY (1,466)
English: Probably a variant of HERSHEY.
HERSHEY
(2,537) 1.
Jewish (American): Americanized form of various like-sounding
Ashkenazic Jewish names, for example: Hershkowitz.
2.
English (of Norman origin): Habitational name
from Hercé or Hercy in Mayenne, France.
HURSEY
(554) English: Habitational name from Hursey in Dorset,
so named from the Old English personal name Heorstān + Old English (ge)hæg
'enclosure'.
|
|
* The origins for
the surnames above are provided by:
Dictionary of American Family Names, by
Hanks. The DAFN surname entries are structured to
provide the surname (with alternate spellings), a comparative frequency of the
surname in the U.S., the source language and origin of the surname, original
spelling, typology, etymology and, in some cases, an identification of
forebears. |
SPELLING or NAME
VARIATIONS
Hearsey, Hersey, Hershey, Hercy,
Hersie, Hersy, Hursey,
Hussey *, Kersey *
The surname HERSEY (and its variations) is very ancient one,
and probably of French origin, as it appears among the list of noblemen and
gentlemen who went over to England with William the Conqueror in 1066. The
first documented record of this name is of Hugh de HERCY, who was Governor of
Frau, Normandy, in 1204. There is mention of a Sir Malveysin de HERCY, who
was constable of the honour of Tykhill Castle, County York, England in the year
1221. A Richard de HERCY and Robert HERCI were mentioned in the Hundred
Rolls, as being in County Norfolk in 1273. Additional identifications of
ancient residents of England who held a HERSEY surname are mentioned in the
Introduction of Tracing the Descendants of William
Hersey of Hingham, Massachusetts, by Stephen E. Hersey.
* HUSSEY & KERSEY are listed above as a variant spellings for
HERSEY,
because these two surnames look identical in the old records written in cursive
handwriting.
GENEALOGICAL REFERENCES
Pioneers
of Wiregrass Georgia, Vol. 1 - 12,
by Folks Huxford & the Huxford Genealogical Society
Biographical and genealogical sketches for the
Wiregrass Georgia Region pioneers and their descendants.
Tracing the Descendants of
William Hersey of Hingham, Massachusetts, 1635-1998
by Stephen E. Hersey
Biographical and genealogical sketches for all known
descendants of
William Hersey of Hingham, Massachusetts.
Some Descendants of William
Hersey of Hingham,
by Louise (Hersey) Loring
History of Hingham: The Genealogies
HERSEY PROGENITORS
1) Thomas HERSEY (b 1803) (South
Carolina)
(Wiregrass Georgia Progenitor)
ò
John Thomas HERSEY (b 1826)
(Telfair Co., Georgia)
Elkanah George Washington HERSEY (b
1831) (Telfair Co., Georgia)
Joshua Thomas HERSEY (b 1833) (Telfair Co., Georgia)
William R. HERSEY (b 1838) (Telfair Co., Georgia)
Jackson HERSEY (b 1840) (Telfair Co., Georgia)
Seaborn HERSEY (b 1844) (Telfair Co., Georgia)
Enoch Marion HERSEY (b 1848) (Telfair Co., Georgia)
2) William HERSEY (b 1596)
(Berkshire, England)
(New England / England Progenitor)
ò
William HERSEY, Jr. (b 1632)
(England)
John HERSEY (b 1640) (Massachusetts)
James HERSEY (b 1643) (Massachusetts)
3) Isaac HERSEY (b 1700) (Mayenne,
France)
(Pennsylvania / France Progenitor)
ò
Solomon Hersey (b 1730) (Delaware)
4) William M. HURSEY (b 1826) (Monroe
Co., Illinois)
(Illinois Progenitor)
ò
Clarence Sebastian Hursey (b 1861) (Monroe Co.,
Illinois)
HERSEY SURNAME DNA PROJECT TEST RESULTS
The primary purpose of the Hersey Surname DNA project is to support
Hersey genealogical research by tearing down some of those brick walls that we
have all run into using traditional genealogical paperwork. In my case,
Robert
B. Noles, Hersey Surname DNA Project Group Administrator,
I'd also like to be able to determine if the southeast Georgia Hersey families
have a connection to the New England (Massachusetts) Hersey families whose progenitor was in the
U.S. before the Revolutionary War (or any other Hersey families anywhere in the
world with a different
known progenitor. Many Hersey researchers have speculated that the
southeast Georgia Herseys, who migrated to southeast Georgia from South Carolina
in the early 1800s and probably from North Carolina and Virginia before that
were descendants of a branch of the New England Hersey line. In other words, one or
more of the Hersey men from New England migrated to Virginia or North Carolina
before, during or very soon after the Revolutionary War and subsequently was
responsible for the Hersey line in Wiregrass Georgia. No genealogical
paperwork proof of this connection has ever been made (to my knowledge). But the
speculation and family stories of such a connection persists.
The Wiregrass Georgia Hersey families have been convincingly proven to be all
related; i.e., they are descendants of a common Hersey ancestor as determined
via traditional genealogical research. In addition, many family stories
persist that the mother of the Wiregrass Hersey progenitor, Thomas Hersey
(b1803), was a native American from the Cherokee Tribe.
The initial Y-DNA test results for descendants of Thomas Hersey, indicate a strong Native American DNA (Haplogroup Q & Q3) for the southeast Georgia
Hersey men. This means that Thomas Hersey himself or perhaps his father
(or grandfather) was in fact the Native American. However, more participants in the HERSEY Surname
DNA Project will be
required to
establish proof of the Native American ancestry for the male Hersey line.
The probability that Thomas Hersey or his close male ancestor was a Native
American probably means his ancestry was not Cherokee; he was more likely
a descendant of the Lumbee Tribe from
Robeson Co., North Carolina.
Test results from descendants of the New England
/ England Hersey line nave now determined there is NO common ancestor with the
Wiregrass Georgia Hersey line, thus answering the question concerning a
connection between these two U.S. Hersey lines.
The test results from a descendant of the third
Hersey line from Pennsylvania / France, indicate a separate Hersey line with no
link to either of the other two Hersey lines.
Robert B. Noles, Hersey Surname DNA Project Group Administrator
To HGS Home Page
Voice:
(912) 487- 2310
Fax: (912) 487- 3881
Email:
huxford@alltel.net
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.... And Thus History Began
