The purpose of our project is to determine the degree of relatedness between men bearing the surnames Hamby and Hanby along with other documented variants. All men bearing the surname Hamby, Hanby or some other variant are welcomed and encouraged to join our project. Along with this general goal are several specific goals. There were several known early Hambys and Hanbys in America. There are two who were known to have left descendants, Francis Hamby and Richard Hanby. Both men used Hamby and Hanby as surnames. One of our goals is to determine whether and to what degree these two men were related. The majority of Hambys in America today live in the southeastern part of the country, concentrated in the Carolinas, Tennessee and points west. The majority of Hanbys live in the northeast, especially in and around New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania. Many of these are considered to be descended from Richard's son William. However, there were at least two other Hanby men in that area in the colonial period, and there was some Hanby migration to the area from Ireland later. DNA testing will be a vital tool for sorting out all these lineages. Today, the surnames Hamby and Hanby in England are most common in western Yorkshire. They begin appear in western Yorkshire in the early 16th century. We would like to know if these two variants in England are related. Also, Suffolk County had one of the largest Hamby populations until the early 20th century. We would very much like to locate any descendants from those lineages as well. Outside of Great Britain there are groups of Hanbys in both Ireland and Sweden. The Swedish Hanbys are probably a different family, but little is known of the Irish branch, and we would like to know more, and so welcome our Irish cousins to the project as well. There is also a Hambye family in northern France and Belgium, and they are welcome to our project as well. I encourage all Hambys and Hanbys and variant spellings to join our project and to discover our common heritage!