The Carr Surname Project is open to everyone searching their Carr/Kerr paternal line family history. All phonetic variations of 'Carr' are included in the project. Variations include Carr, Carre, Corr, Kerr, Ker, Karr, Kear and others shown below. In the past some immigrants from foreign lands were required to designate the foreign origins with letters applied before or after their family surname in official records. Modern Family surnames may continue to include these letter as well. The goal of this project is to identify Carr family genetic lineage links around the world to assist traditional family history research. Primary focus in this project is using YDNA matching among families with a Carr paternal lineage (father to son in each generation) from a with 'Carr' surnamed ancestor. Studies show us that the geographical origins of people using the Carr surname today include Scotland, Ireland, France, and the northern European Germanic regions. We also find that the spelling of the Carr surname changes across generations within the same family between phonetically equivalent variations. YDNA identifies paternal lines that may share a genealogically significant recent paternal line ancestor. Using this information and traditional genealogy methods has helped many family historians learn about their family heritage and extend their family history back generations as well as connect to close cousins. The Big Y test provides the most complete Haplogroup and haplotype definition and is highly recommended as a first step along with the Family Finder autosomal (atDNA) test. Y DNA short tandem repeats (STR) identify paternal lineages that may have recent paternal line connections. An individual's STR allele count at a series of DNA markers is called a haplotype. Your paternal line haplotype can be obtained through a YSTR test more cheaply than from the Big Y. However, haplotypes alone only tell part of the history. The Y DNA STR tests provide an ancient Haplogroup which is not very useful for identifying connections in recent times. A Haplogroup is series of single nucleotide polymorphisms, SNPs at specific locations along the Y chromosome. Knowing the most current Haplogroup of your STR matches adds an important time period linkup to that connection. The Big Y test searches out your historic Haplogroup lineage through time from ancient times to the most up to date terminal SNP. Thus the Big Y test is far more advantageous than an STR test alone and is the preferred test. Autosomal testing often connects people with kin that helps identify potential Y DNA connections. Many family history researchers have found the combination of Big Y and Family Finder increases their success in finding connections to their lineage.