Happy Father’s Day
It’s Sunday, June 19, and that’s Father’s Day in the United States.
And since it also falls on DNA Sunday here at The Legal Genealogist, I’ll join in with lots of other folks today showing off what I can show off about the YDNA signature of my family — the kind of DNA that my father had, that he received from my grandfather, and he from my great grandfather and so on back in time.1
But — alas — not very far back in time, for me.
Oh, I know the YDNA signature of my father, Hugo Hermann Geissler, who was born in Bremen, Germany, in 19212 and died of a massive heart attack in January 1994. He was not yet 73 years old.3
(Left to right: Hugo Hermann Geissler, 1921-1994; Hugo Ernst Geissler, 1891-1945; Hermann Eduard Geissler, 1855-1933.)
And I know who his father, my grandfather, was — Hugo Ernst Geissler, born in Bad Köstritz in what is now the German state of Thüringen in 1891.4 I didn’t know the man — he was dead before I was born.5
And I know who his father, my great grandfather, was — Hermann Geissler, born in Ossig in what became Sachsen Anhalt, Germany, in 1855,6 and died in Gera, Germany, in 1933.7
And that’s where the paper trail runs cold. Hermann’s baptismal certificate doesn’t list his father at all; he was given and kept his mother’s surname throughout his life.
The closest YDNA match to any of my brothers — other than my other brothers — is a genetic distance of seven at 67 markers. Our statistical odds of having a common ancestor with that man don’t reach the 50-50 mark until roughly 13 generations ago. If you figure 25-30 years per generations, we’d be looking somewhere between the early to mid 1600s. In Germany. A country where few people do DNA testing.
Sigh…
Happy Father’s Day.
SOURCES
- ISOGG Wiki (http://www.isogg.org/wiki), “Y chromosome DNA tests,” rev. 17 May 2016. ↩
- Bremen Standesamt, Geburtskunde Nr. 2888, Hugo Hermann Geissler (5 July 1921); Stadtarchiv Bremen. ↩
- Utah Department of Health, Death Certif. No. 143-94-000152, Hugo H. Geissler (19 Jan 1994); Office of Vital Records and Statistics, Salt Lake City. ↩
- Kirchenbuch Bad Köstritz, Taufregister Seite 69 Nr. 21 aus 1891, Baptismal Record of Hugo Ernst Geissler (digital image in possession of the author). ↩
- Illinois Public Board of Health, Death Certif. No. 1145, Hugo Ernst Geissler (13 Jan 1945). ↩
- Evangelische Kirche Ossig (Kr. Zeitz), Kirchenbuchduplikat, 1799-1874 (Staatarchiv Magdeburg); Taufregister 1855 nr. 4, Hermann Eduard Geisler; FHL microfilm 1335488. ↩
- Sterbeurkunde (death certificate) Nr. 645 (1933), Eduard Hermann Geisler; Stadtarchiv Gera. ↩
Happy Father’s Day. Enjoyed the post and the photos. Here’s to a closer Y-67 match in the near future!
Thanks! I can use all the close matches I can get!! 🙂
My Dad’s Oettel family came from Eisenberg in Thuringia. It’s not that far from Gera! His second cousin who lives in Hamburg did a pretty complete family history going back as far as he could find records which was about 1695. I should probably have my Dad get the Y test but was never motivated enough.
We really ought to compare notes — my grandfather’s sister’s husband (the Oettel in my family) was from Thuringen, even though they married in Bremen. He was killed in WWI.
Lucky you, Judy! You have your line back to a great-grandfather. My line stops at my grandfather, whose father was not listed on his birth certificate. And my father’s Y-DNA does not match that of my grandfather’s brother’s line. I’m still searching.
That’s certainly close enough in time even for autosomal testing to help — but only if some of your cousins end up testing. Good luck.
I have a question about the use of the mother’s surname. I have found and traced one of my mother’s lines back several generations through the Brandenburg Posen church books.Trying to prove my gg-grandmother was the mother of my -g-grandmother – contrary to what one cousin said. I found that his ancestor (Louis) in this family was born out of wedlock and in the christening records he is listed as using my gg-grandmother’s (Elwine) maiden name, Schmidt. There is nothing about his father. In this case my Elwine married a man – August -surname Wiedebusch – about about a year later and Louis is shown with this surname when they first appear in US census records in 1900 – can’t find them in 1880. The family arrived here between 1872 and 1874.I have read that it was not uncommon for people who lacked the means to marry may begin a family before they wed. Do you know if that is correct? The child was born in Feb 1870 and the couple married in Dec 1870. Both families were from Ostprignitz, Brandenburg.
I don’t think I could convince two male descendants from brothers in this family to test – and I can’t afford to pay for it. I know this is the only sure way to find out if Wiedebusch was the father of Louis. But they are Germans.
Curiously, my Elwine’s death certificate is in her maiden name Schmidt- she died in 1927 (after her husband) in Texas. The family was Lutheran. With your German families I thought you might know if this might be a common practice or unusual. I suspect the marriage pushed by the parents of this couple and it may even be why they came to the US. But that is only suspicion.
Thank you for any insight.
It was very common in that time period for the first child (or even first couple of children) of a German couple to be born out of wedlock and legitimated when the couple wed. At that point the child would take the father’s surname. You’ll usually see a notation in a later record — sometimes the marriage record, sometimes the baptismal record — of the legitimation.
Thanks!
Every now and then I feel unfortunate to only know my father’s line back to my g2grandfather born in Schlesien in 1810. You have shown me how fortunate I am. Hope something turns up for you.
Thanks! I can use all the good wishes I can get here!
So frustrating when German records can be so helpful…if you only had that linking piece. Sigh indeed!
Exactly right, Pauline: in Hermann’s mother’s mother’s line, the church records go back into the late 1500s. But without even a clue as to his father’s line? Nothing. Nada. Nichts.