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Tribby, Tribbey, Tribbe, Treeby, and Treby Genealogy

Information about research on my family history.

My Interest in Family History

I've had an interest in family history going back to my childhood. My grandmother had local history books from 1881 and 1911 with biographies of my great-grandfather describing how the family moved from Kentucky to Indiana in 1860. I went further back in time when my grandfather's cousin showed me day books my great-great-grandmother had kept that included family birth dates including my great-great-great grandparents, Jason Tribby (1784-1840) and Sarah Tarvin (1790-1841). I wanted to trace my family further, but there were no reliable records. I wondered where the Tribbys originally came from and when they may have arrived in America.

When I retired, I took on a huge genealogy project: working with the Tarvin Family Association to document as many of Jason and Sarah's descendants as possible. I discovered a lot more Tribbys, and corresponded with a number of fourth cousins. While none of these relatives had reliable records earlier than Jason and Sarah, I saw some intriguing references to eighteenth century Tribbys in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New England, plus a lot of later Tribby and Tribbey families that I could not connect to my tree.

I took Ancestry.com's DNA test and found additional relatives, but since that type of "autosomal" testing is really only reliable out to about third cousins, I found only one new Tribby cousin.

Going Deeper with Y-DNA Testing

In 2017 I took a different DNA test -- one that looked at my Y-chromosome. Because Y-DNA is passed unchanged, except for genetic mutations, from father to son, it is possible to prove family connections going back centuries. From this testing I learned that I and several other distant cousins were connected to Tim Treeby, who lives in England. His extensive research shows the original family name, Treby, came from the Devon area in southwest England.

FamilyTreeDNA offers a range of Y-DNA tests that allow you to start with a less expensive test then later upgrade to analysis of more markers that provide additional information. The Y-67 and Y-111 tests proved that four of us were connected, but the number of generations separating us was approximate. Three of us traced ancestors back to Fleming Co., Kentucky, in the early 1800s and suspected we were fifth cousins, but the tests were not precise enough to prove it.

In 2025, four of us upgraded to the most extensive test, Big Y-700. The new test showed three of us had a common ancestor who was born about 1750, which matched our assumption that we were all descended from William Tribbey of Fleming Co., Kentucky. Our connection to Tim Treeby went back much further: to 1450!

What is Next?

Those of us who have taken the Y-DNA test would like to have additional Tribb(e)y men join us to prove or disprove assumptions we have seen in family trees. For example:

Some trees show our ancestor William Tribbey with a brother Jansen (1757-18??) and father James (1725-1820), but there is no documentation. If any of Jansen's descendants took the test we could move back an additional generation.
The most extensively documented Tribby tree is for Revolutionary War veteran John Tribby (1758-1819), and his ancestry is likely connected to Peter Treby (1638-1713) who was born in England and died in Rhode Island. We would love to know how our branch of the family fits into this tree.
If our connection to Tim Treeby goes back to 1450, there should be other Treebys who are more closely related.
Once we have enough Tribb(e)y samples, Big Y-700 testing combined with accurate family trees would assist any interested Tribby male figure out where he fits in.

Getting Started With Y-DNA Testing

Link: FamilyTreeDNA Y-DNA Tests

NOTE: Prices and procedures are current as of the last update to this page (July 2025), but they can change so check with the FamilyTreeDNA website for the latest information.

The least expensive FamilyTreeDNA Y-DNA test is the Y-37 test, which sells for $119 but is often on sale for as low as $79. It will verify whether or not you are a biological match, and give a very rough estimate of how many generations separate you from the others in the same haplogroup. Their next level up, Y-111, costs $249 (sale $199) and provides more precision in estimating how closely you are related to others

Neither of these provides the precision we need to identify how someone fits into a known family tree. Big Y-700 examines enough DNA material for a very close estimate of how many years have passed for the mutations that have happened to two men's Y-chromosomes.The Big Y-700 test costs $449, although it is often on sale for as low as $379. You might want to verify your genealogical connection with the less expensive Y-37 test and once proven pay for the upgrade to Big Y-700 ($339, sale price as low as $229).

Using Autosomal DNA Tests From Other Companies

FamilyTreeDNA's "Family Finder" is an autosomal DNA test similar to tests offered by Ancestry.com, MyHeritage.com, and 23andMe.com. According to an April 2025 blog post, some Family Finder results include Y-DNA information. If you already have a DNA test from Ancestry.com, MyHeritage.com, or 23andMe.com, you can download your test results file and then upload it for free to FamilyTreeDNA. There's a chance you could get your Y-DNA haplogroup information and know if you are a genetic match.

I put together step-by-step instructions on How to Transfer Ancestry DNA Results to FamilyTreeDNA

Resources

Here are some links to relevant information.

My tree on Ancestry.com

If you have an account on Ancestry.com, you can look at my Family Tree "Kentucky Tribbys"

Older Tribby/Tribbey Research

These PDF files contain research done before there were genealogy websites. These websites are great for accessing records and other people's research. Unfortunately, too many people include undocumented research and it gets copied into other trees until it becomes common knowledge. These documents may contain errors, but are based on first-hand research.

Tribby Families and Allied Families by Eoline Sutton: Eoline probably put this together sometime between the 1940s and 1960s to document the New England Tribbys of the seventeenth century and a branch that migtated to Pennsylvania and Ohio. I found it on microfilm at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, scanned the 50 pages, added my own preface, and combined it into a single 5 MB file.
Because the microfilm images were low quality, I retyped the opening pages that document genealogical relationships. This seven page PDF file is 109 KB.
Zip archive of three books by Glenn Tribbey
WARNING: the archive is 177 MB.
Back in 1996 Glenn E. Tribbey of Menominee, Michigan, self-published three books that document the many years of genealogy research he had stored on his TRS-80 computer. Mike Tribbe was among the purchasers, and in 2025 he scanned the fading dot-matrix printouts into three PDF files. The books are
James and Elizabeth Tribbey of Fleming County Kentucky (91 pages)
Descendants of John Tribbey and Elizabeth Fabian of Loudoun County Virginia (111 pages)
Thomas and Ruth Tribbey of Loudoun County Virginia (133 pages)

To contact me about Tribby genealogy use email address dtribby@gmail.com