Anyone with German settlers in Pennsylvania has done a DNA test?

+58 votes
8.3k views
Hi there,

I do hope to find some WikiTree'ers that have taken a DNA test and have early German settlers in their family tree.

Reason is that I do have several indications that I share with many cousins through those German settlers, me from the German side and they obviously as descendants from these settlers. As they kept marrying within their proximity their DNA was mostly preserved and not mixed as much as normally occurs. Hence a lot survived until nowadays.

If you have a kit at GedMatch, which is mandatory for this undertaking as it allows to analyze triangulations going down to very small and tiny segments (eg on chromosome 2 from 106-126 bp), please do contact me directly either through a post on my profile or via PM.

If you haven't done so, please consider to upload your raw DNA data to GedMatch.com as it has some unique tools for analyzing your DNA and it's the only one that allows to effectively analyze from 1 cM genetic distance and 50 SNP onwards (maybe even less SNP but that's the minimum I use).

Before people declare me as being crazy for going after such small segments I do it only for identified and triangulated matches. Background is that over time our inherited ancestral segments get split up a lot. I have proven with my work so far that sometimes an intact 7 cM long segment gets split up into 4-5 smaller segments and as such is still possible to triangulate such people in a TG.

Thanks in advance!
WikiTree profile: Andreas West
in The Tree House by Andreas West G2G6 Mach 7 (74.8k points)
retagged by Keith Hathaway
Interesting,

we have two matches who match both our profiles.

Mine is MD9829559 and I am German. A few of my ancestors emigrated to different parts of the US.

Comparing Kit MD9829559 (Marcus Horstmann) [MyHeritage] and Kit A876449 (Alexandra Florimonte) [Migration - F2 - A]

Chr B37 Start Pos'n B37 End Pos'n Centimorgans (cM) SNPs
6 44,046,143 45,787,468 3.5 257
6 107,193,215 110,950,048 4 530
6 136,228,219 137,889,729 3 221
11 111,302,619 113,866,551 3.4 330
12 17,497,890 20,336,152 3.1 416
13 21,068,591 22,480,932 3.3 219
18 9,464,119 10,197,500 3.1 216
Hello Andreas. Since I messaged you in 2018 I used a 23 and Me kit instead of an Ancestry kit for Gedmatch and expanded my tree using DNA from 1000 to nearly 19000.

The new Gedmatch kit number is KB1416083P1.

This new kit helped me find and confirm 65 cousins to my Henry Hoch 1731-1827 on Ancestry.

I am still trying to confirm if one of two grandsons of Balthasar Hoch is my 6th GGF.  My cousins have DNA matches to both sides and I am trying to figure out the best way to resolve the issue.

I will try your techniques as mentioned above in our earlier conversation. If you'd like to try my new kit number I'd be interested in your findings.

Thanks for any help.

Bruce Hoch

brhoch2000@yahoo.com

I have three kits on GedMatch, one for me, and for my two sisters.  My GEDMatch numer is A055209, one sister is A757550, and the other ister is M554302.

We are descended from Benedict Kepner (also Kepler) Sr., (born 8 Dec 1679 in possibly Wurtemburg) and his wife Barbara Catherine (Unknown).  They and 5 sons (possibily daughters too?) came to New Hanover Township, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania in about 1720.  Benedict's grandson, Benjamin Kepner (1750-1804) married Maria Susanna Strauss, the daughter of Albrecht Strsuss (immigrated to New York before 1711 and was in the Queen's War) and his wife, Martha Zerbe.  Anna Maria Margaretta Zerbe (3 Feb 1715-7 May 1787) was the daughter of Johann Martin Zerbe (baptized 17 December 1671 at Kettenberg, Nasau, Hessen) and his wife Anna Elizabetha "Maria" Jungel.  They came to Livingston Manor, Duchess County New York, and moved to Berks County, Pennsylvania before 1739.

Youc can follow my line at Kepner-132.  

Kettenbach, Nassau, Pru

Kettenbach, Nassau, Prussia)

Knortzer-3 and Upp-28 are my 5xg grandparents.  They emigrated from Germany in the mid-1700s and settled in the York, Pa area.  My Gedmatch ID is T426982.
You and I both match wendyjlmissouri. She is a Wampler-Kinsey match to me. Any Wampler or Kinsey/Kuntzi in your tree?
Although we share several matches, we don't match each other (one-to-one autosomal at 3cM level).
Hello Lewis,

you can't use 3 centiMorgan as a threshold. This will bring us back to 300 BC for a common ancestor as per Professor Itzik Pe'er.

Hi, my name is Aubrey Teeter which was Dieter on the mid 1700's. I'm related to the Teeter's that come from Germany to North Carolina not PA. We have yet connected to Germany with that name. I also have some German on my mother's side. I'm curious what you will find.

GEDmatch M156615

Thank you

Hi Audrey, we share a few small DNA segments (all<4cM).  Not much to go on from a genetics perspective.  I did look at our shared matches and no family surnames jumped out at me.  I looked at a couple of Gedcoms of shared matches with same result.

103 Answers

+5 votes
Yes. At least I think so. Wygals from western PA. Am waiting for DNA results and am excited to share!
by Bronwen Cunningham G2G2 (2.7k points)
+5 votes
My Catherine Stem/Stamm descends from some of the first families to settle Germantown, Pennsylvania.  My problem is that I don't know which son of Johann Conrad Stamm she is the daughter of, so I don't know which of the families are her ancestors.

My DNA IDs are listed on Wikitree and loaded to www.gedmatch.com.

Pat D Saunders
by Pat D Saunders G2G6 (7.8k points)
+5 votes
My DNA profile is on GEDmatch. My ancestor, Christian Shank, who founded Shanksville, PA, came from Germany and married a German Mennonite girl in Lancaster, moved to Hagerstown, MD and then to Shanksville, PA.  My other ancestor came from Bamberg, Germany and settled in New Baltimore, PA.  He was Lutheran and married a descendant of Christian Shank.  I have names and dates, etc. if you are interested
by Edwin Donaldson G2G1 (1.4k points)
+5 votes
Andreas,

My GedMatch kit is A715399. I am not very well-versed in any of the DNA related information, but feel free to run the one-to-one match with your kit and see if there is anything of interest.

I do have relatives that came over from Germany. The ship I have found some to be on was the Britagne. I am happy to communicate more, if there is anything to work with. My tree is on Ancestry.

Let me know...

Valorie SMITH Webster
by
+5 votes
A string of BINKLEY men descended from early immigrants to  Lancaster County PA have done their yDNA in the past few years, but I don't know what company the results are from. It's  reported on a Binkley website --  You can contact the coordinator Helen Duer at  binkleys@yahoogroups.com. I recall only that the yDNA from these emigrants, originally from Canton Bern, Switzerland, was primarily Celtic.
by Janet Binkley G2G1 (1.7k points)
I too have German ancestors that immigrated to PA. All my GED numbers are on my profile. Don't understand much about DNA, but you are welcome to try and discover something with it.
+5 votes
A branch of my paternal ancestors were the Keim's who thru marriage connected to the Custer/ Kuster family from Germantown, Pa. My GED # is M464281. Thanks for starting a very interesting discussion. Don
by Don Kirby G2G Crew (660 points)
+5 votes
My 3rd great grandmother was a German born in Pennsylvania in the 1700s: Elizabeth Cooker (Cooker-9). Both my dad and I have had DNA tests: Dalton-4613 (GEDmatch A975419) and Dalton-4614 (GEDmatch A525703). My dad's 3rd cousin also descends from that line and has had a DNA test: Dalton-2104 (GEDmatch A781632).
by Jodi Dalton G2G4 (4.9k points)
+5 votes

Rob,

My father used to also claim to be "Pennsylvania Dutch" (partly).  I recently had my DNA tested, and came up with a tiny chromosome 6 match to yours.

Comparing Kit A198741 (Rob Jacobson) and T163348 (*Larky) 

6    27,977,300    33,181,962    1.9    1,208

Hopefully you're still collecting this information.  It was my only match to you, even on such a small scale, but I think it falls within the regions of interest on chromosome 6.

Reba

by R. Greenup G2G6 Mach 7 (70.5k points)
It certainly does, that's a solid PG6.  I've discovered that region is known as the HLA, and for some reason is one of the most sticky DNA regions of all.  When meiosis is picking DNA segments for each new child, this Pennsylvania Dutch/German HLA is especially dominant over other HLA choices.  It shows up intact in ridiculously distant relations, far too distant to figure out.

I'm very behind on this subject and that paper, but I'll certainly be adding yours, as well as a number of others above, that I haven't gotten to yet.
+5 votes
I am a native of eastern Pennsylvania and have discovered early German settlers of the area in my lineage. Surnames include Keichel, Knauss, and Griesemer. I have shared my DNA data. GEDmatch ID: A360704
by George William Haas G2G3 (3.5k points)
+5 votes
I do, you'll see my GEDMatch info and a couple of my distant cousins here at  Kesler-274

This is a really great question and answer string!
by Jennie Skancke G2G4 (4.4k points)
No match with your GEDmatch T516703 (posted here for easier reference)
+5 votes
Hello, I have done the test and uploaded to GedMatch, My Stout ancesters came through Penn.. My Kit Number is RM3931309. I haven't done triangulations yet. Wiki is Stout-1551.
by Hal Stout G2G2 (2.4k points)
+5 votes
Hello,

I have some ancestors who settled in Pennsylvania who self-identified as "Pennsylvanian dutch" (presumably of German descent however on further investigation appear to have descended from Swiss).  They are from my father's paternal lineage (Troyer). I have done a DNA test and entered it on GEDmatch.com.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Troyer-426
by Tannis Mani G2G6 Mach 2 (20.0k points)
+5 votes
My mother's family came from Baden Baden Germany around 1840 to Lancaster PA.  Her number is A763437
by
+5 votes
Neither my mother or my aunt who are very definitely PA German on their maternal side share those small segments on Chr 6 or 16. They are GEDmatch #'s T699018 and A058033.
by Jane Alexander G2G6 Mach 1 (10.4k points)
+5 votes

My paternal side is pretty much 100% Italian if that is possible.

My maternal side seems to take me to Germany and a few times to England.

My GEDmatch ID A593513 I hope you can use it in your study!

by Louann Halpin G2G6 Mach 7 (70.8k points)
+5 votes
My ancestors arrived at Philadelphia in 1741 from Staudernheim an der Nahe. The arrived at Staudernheim from Lauterecken two or three generations earlier. The earliest ancestor I can identify at Lauterecken is said to have come from "Hasen Puttelingen" which is today's Puttelange-aux-lacs, south of Saarbrucken. He appears to have been born around 1588. Does that help? The family's name was Feÿ/Veit/Feig/Feit.
by
+5 votes
I am of German descendants, but it was from the Palatine Migration to South Carolina not Pennsylvania. One family member, Gilbert Guilder may have went to Pennsylvania, but he ended up in South Carolina with his daughter. My family names are Rish/Resh/Reich/Reisch/Rich. Beck/Bach, Guilder, Gable and a few others. They are thought to be likely from Prussia, Netherlands, Denmark and Holland though, and just residing in What was Germany at the time of the Migration. My DNA seems to kinda back this up, but I'm almost 100 percent European so this is a little hard to tell.
by Misty Musco G2G6 Mach 2 (28.3k points)
+5 votes
Count me in. GEDmatch A779931, T744961 and M687187
by Dennis Jesse G2G1 (1.8k points)
+5 votes
I'm a Rinehart descendent from those settlers and have mine currently being sequenced thru helix.
by
+4 votes
Hi!

Yes, I have German ancestry that settled in Pennsylvania.  Schnatz & Beier.  I have uploaded my dna to GEDmatch

Best Denise
by Denise Zuniga G2G1 (1.2k points)

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