Harris Surname DNA Project

The Harris Surname DNA Project is one of the larger DNA surname projects, with close to 500 participants worldwide. It was created as a cooperative organization to develop a collection of Harris family groups who descend from various male Harris ancestors, in order to use genealogical DNA testing to compare male Y-DNA to discover familial and non-familial relationships. The first test kit was submitted in 2001; the project was created in 2003 after several other DNA kits had been submitted for comparison. Some variant spellings of Harris which are part of the project include: Harries, Herries, Harriss, Harrys, Herrys, Harras, Herrick, etc.
The Harris Surname DNA Project administrators are genealogists who serve in a volunteer capacity and receive no financial or other compensation. They help maintain the project pages and results as well as answer general questions. The official testing company for the Harris DNA Study is Family Tree DNA.
Origins and distribution of the Harris surname
In many cases the Harris surname appears to be British in origin. It was commonly adopted as a surname in southwestern England, the Midlands and Wales. It is a patronymic form of the medieval English personal name Harry (Harry's) (pet form of Henry), meaning "son of Harry." Henry is the English version of the French name Henri, introduced to Britain around the time of the Norman Conquest.
Irish Harris families probably originated from England, Wales and Scotland. Their ancestors likely migrated to Ireland during the conquest of Ireland c. 1603 and ensuing English plantation period.
Some other Harris families originated in Germany, France, etc., and adopted the name Harris upon immigration to Great Britain or the United States. Jewish refugees are known to have adopted the name upon arrival in Britain. Although many immigrants blamed clerks at Ellis Island for changing their names, many Jews of the late 19th and early 20th-century immigration wave anglicized their names, sometimes both first/given and surnames, before leaving Europe, as they were determined to embrace America.
USA
The Harris surname (not including variant spellings) ranked as the 15th most common surname in the U.S., as surveyed in the 1990 Census (behind Smith, Johnson, Williams, Jones, Brown, Davis, Miller, Wilson, Moore, Taylor, Anderson, Thomas, Jackson, and White).
In the 2000 Census, the 25 most common surnames in rank are: Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown, Jones, Miller, Davis, Garcia, Rodriguez, Wilson, Martinez, Anderson, Taylor, Thomas, Hernandez, Moore, Martin, Jackson, Thompson, White, Lopez, Lee, Gonzalez, Harris, and Clark. Harris ranks as the 24th most common surname in the United States.
UK
Harris is the 22nd most common surname in England, Wales and the Isle of Man (behind Smith, Jones, Williams, Taylor, Brown, Davies, Evans, Wilson, Thomas, Johnson, Roberts, Robinson, Thompson, Wright, Walker, White, Edwards, Hughes, Green, Hall, and Lewis).
Y-DNA test results
Because many Harris surname researchers have exhausted traditional genealogy research methods without identifying their elusive Harris ancestor, this project combines genetics and genealogy to break through such "brick walls." Over thirty different families have been identified so far, and more are discovered each year.
The Harris Y-DNA results chart shows brief lineages and SNPs or DNA marker values for various kits submitted to the Harris Surname DNA Project. It is divided into groups of DNA donor kits which appear to be related. Each grouping shows a modal value with the kits in each group matching closely with the modal (or proposed DNA values for a possible common ancestor). Other kits are still unmatched. On the chart, haplogroups in green have been confirmed by SNP testing. Haplogroups in red have been predicted by Family Tree DNA based on unambiguous results in the individual's personal page. SNPs are changes to a single nucleotide in a DNA sequence. SNPs or DNA markers are named with a letter code and a number. DNA markers shown in red are known to mutate faster than other markers.
A Harris DNA mailing list is sponsored by Rootsweb.com. A few of the kit groupings have corresponding for discussion of topics related to that particular Harris DNA group or its reported ancestor(s).
Other Harris DNA projects
Harris-2 DNA Study
The Harris-2 DNA Study is also being conducted by Family Tree DNA. It is centered around a separate group of Harrises, whose members were tested to try to determine their portion of Native American ancestry (if any).
Harris-Calvert DNA Study
There is also a Harris-Calvert DNA Study being conducted by Family Tree DNA. It is related to a group of Harrises who descend from family members whose name may originally have been CALVERT. Some of the names in early historic records appear as “Calvert alias Harris,” “Calvert alias Harrison,” “Harris alias Calvert,” and “Harrison alias Calvert.” This suggests that at least one family member of this group had more than one set of parents. This family group appears to descend from three brothers — jefferson, Burrlington, and Crangertson Calvert, sons of John Calvert (ca. 1692-1731) of early Virginia. Their mother is reported to have been Jane Harrison. If a strong DNA match can be found with a particular Harris, Harrison, or Calvert family group, questions of paternal origin may be solved.
The Calvert Surname has a corresponding for genealogy discussion.

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