Genetic Testing
Call for participants
Glenn Penner has offered to fund DNA testing for males
of Dutch/Prussian Mennonite background (at his discretion)
and has called for volunteers. There are technical reasons why the focus
is on males. We hope to update this page with information for women
before long. The six-digit numbers below indicate the RIN (record information
number) as found on the GRANDMA IV.1 database (available in Canada from
the MHSA and in the USA from
the California Mennonite Historical Society).The
following is a lightly edited version of his messages to the online
Mennonite community.And, see also the Sorensen Project which is compatibly engaged in this work
The surnames included in this project are:
Abbing, Abrahams, Abrams, Adams, Adrian, Albrecht, Aldendorp, Allert,
Andreas, Ansen, Arends, Arent, Arssen, Atzinger, Awens,
Bachdach, Bagdach, Ballau, Baltzer, Balzer,
Banman, Banmann, Bannmann, Barch, Barckmann, Barg, Bartels, Bartholomaeus,
Bartsch, Bartz, Bauer, Bechert, Becker, Behrends, Behrendt, Behrlen,
Bench, Bencken, Bendik, Bendinck, Berg, Bergen, Bergman, Bergmann, Beringhuysen,
Bestvader, Bestvater, Beulke, Beuningen, Billing, Black, Blatz, Bleek,
Blicke, Block, Boecher, Boese, Boettcher, Bok, Boldt, Boltz, Borchert,
Born, Bornowsky, Boschmann, Brandt, Braun, Bricker, Brucks, Bruesterin,
Brunacker, Brusen, Bruyer, Bruyning, Budwegh, Bueckert, Buhler, Buhr,
Buschmann, Busenitz, Butenweg,
Carls, Casper, Claassen, Clemens, Collander,
Conrad, Conwentz, Cornelius, Cornelsen, Cornies,
Dacker, Dahlen, Daniels, Dau, Daw, Dawits,
de Boor, Deckemaecker, Decker, Deering, Dehring, Deichgraef, Dell, Dellesky,
Derksen, Dick, Dickmann, Diederich, Dill, Dircksen, Dirksen, Doell,
Doerksen, Dollesky, Domke, Donner, Donnet, Donnink, Dreher, Drewke,
Drewki, Drews, Dreyer, Driedger, Drude, Drupp, Dueck, Dunkel, Dyck,
Dyckmann,
Ecken, Egberts, Ehlert, Ehrich, Eidse, Elias,
Emaus, Embden, Engbrecht, Engmann, Enns, Enss, Entz, Epp, Epps, Erdmann,
Ertmann, Esau, Ewert, Ewertz, Eytzen,
Fabian, Fademrecht, Fadenrecht, Falk, Fast,
Fehr, Feith, Fenke, Fenske, Fentzke, Feyt, Fieguth, Figut, Fisch, Flaming,
Fleckwehr, Fleckwer, Flemming, Flieger, Fock, Focking, Fokk, Fokking,
Foth, Fraetz, Franck, Frantz, Franzen, Frey, Fridrig, Friedrichsen,
Friesen, Fritz, Froese, Funck, Funk, Fyans,
Gayke, Gerbrand, Giesbrecht, Ginter, Goerzen,
Groening,
Hamm, Harder, Heinrichs, Heppner, Hiebert,
Hildebrand,
Janzen,
Karrels, Kasper, Kauenhowen, Kehler, Klaassen,
Klassen, Kliewer, Klippenstein, Knelsen, Kollandera, Konvents, Krahn,
Krause, Kroeker, Kropp, Kuenraet,
Landis, Leiki, Lemky, Lentz, Leppke, Light,
Loeppky, Loewen,
Martens, Miller,
Neufeld, Nikkel,
Penner, Peters, Petker, Poetker, Pries,
Quiring,
Reimer, Rempel,
Sawatzky, Schellenberg, Schmidt, Schrack,
Schroeder, Schultz, Siemens, Stahly, Stoesz, Striemer, Suderman,
Teichgraef, Thiessen, Toews,
Unger, Unrau, van Almonde,
van Amersfort, van Baerlen, van Bruessel,
van Buygen, van Deventer, van Dragen, van Duehren, van Elst, van Eyck,
Veer, Viegut, Vock, Vocking, Voht, von Ankusen, von Bosch, Vonk, Voran,
Vrees, Vrien,
Wakentin, Wall, Wiebe, Wieler, Wiens, Winter
Those of Swiss-rooted Mennonite ancestry will be interested such
work being done on at least one surname line: Kauffman.
- Judith Rempel
Current involvement
(updated 20 May 2005)
Below are the family names (in alphabetical order, NOT in order of
priority) of the men who agreed to be tested and those who have already
been tested together with the names and Grandma database numbers of
the person I consider their earliest documented ancestor.
There are now 38 participants in the project. Full or partial results
are online
for 26 of these people. To help understand the numbers, visit the FamilyTreeDNA
for more information.
Obtaining quantitative results from these numbers is not yet possible.
The use of DNA analysis for genealogy and for analyzing the movements
of humans during prehistoric times is still in its infancy. In the meantime
I would like to make a few observations and comments on the results
we have.
- Bartsch
... descending from Heinrich (1824/26-1911) #032380/412648
- Bergen
... descending from Heinrich Bergen (1745-1812) #043827
- Braun
... descending from Jacob Braun (~1760-1833) #265595
... descending from Gerhard Braun (1755-1801) #187153
- Dyck
... descending from Heinrich (1759-bef1808) #044214 (son Johann
#186085)
... descending from Johann (1740-1789) #196127
... descending from Philip (~1733-?) #159444
Male representatives for the three Dyck families have a 24/25 match
with each other! The full, 37 marker, results should be out within
a few weeks.
- Fehr
... descending from Benjamin Fehr (1822-1903) #012796
... descending from Benjamin Fehr (1733-1822) #012796
- Friesen
... descending from Gerhard (1779-1855) #051842
- Froese
... descending from Cornelius Franz (?-1834) #061794
... descending from Cornelius (1759-1794) #110605
We now have two representatives from the Froese family. The complete
results are available for the one descended from Cornelius Franz Froese
(?-1834) and will be available by the end of June for the other.
- Hiebert
... descending from Johann Hiebert (1746-?) #196150
- Janzen
...descending from Franz Jacob (?-1820) #102266
Tim Janzen says "I have learned that I descend from an ancestor
with the J2 haplogroup. The J2 haplogroup comes from
the Fertile Crescent area of the Middle East. The results don't tell
me when my male ancestor lived in that area, but based on the DNA
results I can be assured that my father's ancestors lived in that
area at one time. You can read more about haplogroups on the Family
Tree DNA website."
Tim has interest in funding a few Janzens. If you are interested please
contact
- Penner
... descending from Abraham (1812-1840's) #608116
... descending from Bernhard (1820-1896) #183027
... descending from Heinrich (1753-1815) #057878
... descending from Heinrich (1801-1843) #134129
... descending from Jacob (1748-1810) #286283
... descending from Johann (1785-1857) #197060
... descending from Peter (before 1770-1798/1803) #045847
All of the Penners tested so far appear to be related, some more closely
than others. For all of the Penner family lines tested so far no written
records provided evidence that they were related. Since then we have
realized that Heinrich Penner (1801-1843) was the nephew of Johann
Penner (1785-1857).
As you can see they are a 36/37 match. I have prepared a separate
Excel spreadsheet of the Penner DNA results which shows how each person's
numbers deviate from the average. Those who are interested in this
can send me a private
.
One question that has come up is about the haplogroup of the Penners.
ALL of the Penners belong to the E3b haplogroup. Of the 11 Prussian/Russian
Mennonite family names tested so far the Penners are the only ones
who belong to the E3b haplogroup.
I NEED MORE PENNERS! I have run out of Penner volunteers. I am willing
to continue my offer to pay the fee and make all of the arrangements
for male Penner volunteers who are needed in this Project (they can
trace their line back about 200 or more years and are not part of
one of the above lines).
- Quiring
... descending from Peter (1792-1865) #069452
- Ratzlaff
... descending from Johann Ratzlaff (~1630-?) #36103
- Reimer
... descending from Johann Reimer (1815-189?) #180814
- Rempel
... descending from Bernhard Rempel (~1763-~1806) #101361
- Schellenberg
... descending from Jacob (1687-1757) #134079
... descending from Paul Schellenberg (1634-1719) #56777
Two or more representative men have been tested or will be within
the next few months.
- Schmidt
... descending from Peter (1802-1879) #29703
- Schroeder
... descending from Wilhelm (1760-1829) #272130
... descending from Simon (1751-1808)
... descending from Isaac (1738-1789)
We have full results for two Schroeders and partial results for one.
The results for the first two above lines show an exact 25/25 match.
This is very strong evidence that these two families have a common
ancestor within the last 600 or so years. We will get a better idea
of how closely they are related when all of the results are available,
in a few weeks.
The 3rd Schroeder family, descendents of Isaac (1738-1789), are obviously
a different family.
- Siemens
... descending from Jacob (1764-1832) #002169
- Thiessen
... descending from Peter (1717-1779) #095226
I have also prepared an Excel spreadsheet of the results for the non-Penners
which can be obtained from me via an
.
Frequent Concerns/Questions
- There is a tremendous amount of interest and enthusiasm
for this kind of information.
- Will the the costs of the DNA tests will drop considerably
over the next year or so?
This is highly unlikely. There are no new DNA testing companies nor
are there any rumours of new companies about to start up. Therefore
there is no new competition to drive the costs down significantly.
There have been no recent technological breakthroughs that will dramatically
reduce the costs of DNA testing and I have not heard of any in the
works. As the DNA testing companies expand prices will slowly go down.
I think that those who are expecting something like a half-price sale
sometime in the next year are probably waiting in vain.
- Why shouldn't I wait for someone else with the
same family name to get tested first?
If you do not want to be the lone person with your family name to
be tested and therefore not have anyone with whom you can compare
test results I would suggest that you find someone with the same family
name but who is not related to you through written records and get
tested at the same time. One thing that I very strongly suggested
at the workshop in Winnipeg was that if people were worried about
the costs they could split the fee between relatives. Summer is around
the corner and that usually means that there will be several large
family gatherings taking place in North America. All one needs is
a dozen or so people willing to contribute $20 each and one male volunteer
with that family name to take the test!
- Is there such a thing as Mennonite DNA?
No. There is no such thing as Mennonite DNA. Mennonite families may
have a distinct set of numbers in their DNA test results but, as one
can see for example, the Penner DNA results are very different than
the Dyck results. A commercial DNA test cannot distinguish a Mennonite
from another person of European descent. Similarly there is no such
thing as Jewish DNA, Viking DNA, etc.
- What about the The National Geographic "Genographic
Project"?
Some of you have probably heard of this project. It is a collaboration
between the National Geographic Society, Family Tree DNA (the company
that does our tests) and a rather large group of scientists. This
project is heavily subsidized by a family foundation. Because of this
many people have joined this project thinking that they are getting
some kind of deep discount. This is not true.
Whether you join the genographics project or a FTDNA project the price
is the same!
The problem is that the genographics project only offers the 12 marker
YDNA test (Y-DNA12) for men. In my opinion this test is practically
useless for genealogical proposes!
The 37 marker test (Y-DNA37) is the one to take if you want to look
at how closely you might be related to someone else. If you insist
on joining the genographics project - and there are a few reasons
why one might want to - please insure that you indicate that your
data should also be transferred to the Mennonite DNA Project. You
should then order an upgrade to the 37 marker test from FTDNA through
the Mennonite DNA Project.
If you are interested in getting involved in the Mennonite DNA project
please contact
or
. We would be happy to answer any questions you might have!
|
