[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] DNA and a Potential Discovery in Germany

[Earl Schultz]

I just want to share with the listserve a potential discovery that I made today as a result of my recent y-DNA test.  Over 67 markers, I match with a man from Germany who has traced his ancestry back about 9 generations.  We are a genetic distance of 4 (GD-4) apart which means that there is a 58% chance of the common ancestor being within 12 generations, too far for most paper records, unfortunately.  But we do know for sure that on our direct paternal line we have a common ancestor.

What I noticed is that his family tree contains the following names:  Rhode, Schmidt, Kaiser, Erdmann, Wiebolt, Albrecht, Krueger, Koch, Eggert.  These names are common in Dobriner Land and even the parish my family attended.  What are the chances that one person would have so many names that show up in the Michalki, Lipno, Sierpc parishes?

I believe that it is like that the area his ancestors come from is also the area so many of those with the above surnames would come from.  This area is Wingerode, Thuringen, Germany.

Since reading the book Genetic Genealogy, The Basics and Beyond, I am understanding and finding more areas of research and even found a long lost branch of my paternal family a month ago.

I hope to see everyone at the SGGEE convention in August.

Earl