Cooley Admin Greg Parker wrote several years ago that "With sufficient participation we expect to place individuals in family groups that are closely related. These individuals will be able to share ancestry and genealogical information. As a result you will be able expand and confirm your family tree." By 2012, I became interested in profiling the Y-DNA signatures for all early Cooley immigrant ancestors to America. That project will never end, of course, but we've come a long way.

Of course, Cooleys also immigrated to Canada, Australia and, undoubtedly, throughout the world. Although the British Isles was the origin of most Cooley immigrants listed here, the surname was also corrupted from Germanic names. Still, the Isles remains the focal point though few of us have tied into specific origins. Only CF02 has an ironclad connection to an English family, the Cooleys/Coleys of Hertfordshire in the 16th and 17th centuries. One group, CF07, can claim descent via their Y-DNA signature from Clan Colla in Ireland, and another, CF01, has markers that appear to be Scots-Norse in origin. But that's as far as we've gotten. We invite our Celtic, Saxon, Pictish, and Viking brothers to join us in the adventure. Please contact me at michael.cooley@humboldt.edu.