relyeafam.org

Given the info from Relyea family trees that people have gathered and published, Denyse Ariens Relje (1673-1740), the first known Relyea, had 3 sons who had issue:

• David Relyea (1710-1768)

• Simeon Relyea (1718-?)

• Denysius Relyea (1723-1810)

Those 3 sons, appear to, by my initial investigation, have had a total of 8 to 10 sons who have Relyea branches that have continued until at least the 20th and/or 21st century.

I imagine with more research, this tree will grow, and the number of branches will increase.

David Relyea (1710-1768) appears to have modern Relyea descendants from 4 of his sons: Dernier Daniel, Jacob, Peter D. and Levi David.

• Dernier Daniel Relyea (1752-1797)
  • Nicholas Relyea
    • … found obituary of descendant who passed away this decade
  • Peter Relyea
    • … found obituary of descendant who passed away this decade
    • … have emailed with a living Relyea descendant
• Jacob Relyea (1754-1840)
  • … found a possible distant ancestry.com genetic match to me
• Peter D. Relyea (1756-1840)
  • … found obituary of descendant who passed away in 2010s
• Levi David Relyea (1760-1830)
  • Levi Relyea
    • … C. M. Relyea (1863-1932) – book illustrator
  • Daniel Relyea
    • … Robert E. Relyea (1930-2013) – movie producer
  • David Relyea
    • … have emailed with a living Relyea descendant

Simeon Relyea (1718-?) appears to have modern Relyea descendants from 3 of his sons: Henry, Simon, and David

• Henry Relyea (1753-1835) [unsure if any modern descendants with Relyea last name exist]
  • Jeremiah Relyea
    • Catherine Relyea
      • … Sterling Relyea Hayden (1916-1986) – actor
• Simon Relyea II (1755-1855)
  • Simon Relyea III
    • … have emailed with a living Relyea descendant
  • Lucas Relyea
    • … have emailed with a living Relyea descendant
• David Ralya (1760-1846)
  • … have communicated with a living Ralya descendant

Denysius Relyea (1723-1810) appears to have modern Relyea descendants from 2 of his sons: William, Dene (?), and Benjamin

• William Relyea (1749-1831)
  • … found obituary of descendant who passed away in 1990s.
• Dene Relyea (1753-1797)
  • …has fairly big descendant tree in familysearch.org – but no obvious modern candidate found yet.
• Benjamin Relyea (1757-1808)
  • … found obituary of descendant who passed away in 2000s.

My work digging into the Relyea family tree is motivated because I don’t know where my branch of the Relyea family tree (starting with William Henry Relyea (1828-1889)) fits.

Earlier this year (2026), I took a Big Y-700 genetic test and matched with 3 other Relyea male descendants so far.

Working with FamilyTreeDNA.com, I’ve started a Relyea Surname Project. The goal is to help Relyea descendants to better understand their family history. We need:

• male Relyea descendants (with Relyea/Ralyea/Ralya/* last names) who do or don’t know where they fit in the Relyea family tree to join our Relyea Surname Project & take Big Y-700 tests through FamilyTreeDNA.com
  • The most useful test Big Y-700 costs from $399 to $449 depending on the time of the year. (sales happen several times a year)
  • The next most useful test Y-111 costs from $189 to $249
  • The next most useful test Y-37 costs from $79 to $119
• anybody interested in helping to finance the effort to reach out to and test more Relyeas, please click on the “donate” button on the main Relyea Surname Project page

Let’s do this!