Paternal DNA
It’s Father’s Day and DNA Sunday here at The Legal Genealogist … so how better to celebrate the day than to give the men in my direct paternal line the gift of a little more information on their DNA?
I mean, what else do you get the guys who have everything anyhow?
First off, here’s the line-up:
(Left to right)
Hermann Eduard Geissler (1855-1933), in Gera, Germany, c1900.
Hugo Ernst Geissler (1891-1945), in Germany c1914.
Hugo Hermann Geissler (1921-1994), in Chicago IL 1935.
My brother Evan, the one who tested, when he was — ahem — a little younger than he is now.
Now… here’s what we know. Evan was tested at Family Tree DNA; we’ve got results for both his Y-DNA — the kind of DNA that exists only in the male-gender-linked Y chromosome and is passed directly from father to son to son1 — and his autosomal DNA — DNA from all of the chromosomes except the gender-linked X and Y chromosomes that can help link cousins across genders.2 It’s his Y-DNA that we’re looking at here.
According to Family Tree DNA, our paternal haplogroup is E — a high level haplogroup estimated to have originated 50,000-55,000 years ago in East Africa.3
More specifically, it’s predicted to be E1b1b1,4 called M35.1 for short — a subgroup that may have originated around 22,400 years ago in Eastern Africa.5
Now this is a pretty cool club to be in. Folks who reportedly were M35.1 include Albert Einstein, the Wright brothers, Michelangelo, President Lyndon Baines Johnson and Sir David Attenborough.6
But there are more divisions in this subgroup. Using the Y-Predictor website (http://predictor.ydna.ru/), it appears that there’s a very high likelihood that we’re actually in subclade E1b1b1a1b7 (E-V13 for short).8
Being in E-V13 would be a cool club, too. That’s because this is the subclade most commonly found in the Balkans that may be one of the more recent population movements from the Middle East into Europe and that may have had its big movement into the rest of Europe by following the Danube River. There are lots of theories about its spread in Europe, with one fun possibility being some sowing of wild oats by Roman legionnaires from the Balkans.9
There are two ways to know for sure if we’re E-V13. The easy way is to test for the one single marker — called a SNP, short for Single Nucleotide Polymorphism10 — that defines this subclade: the V13 marker. If it was important to break it down even further, into possible sub-subclades, then for $139, Family Tree DNA offers what it calls a deep clade test — testing a panel of markers that’d define our specific subclade absolutely.11 For our purposes, it’s just the V13 marker that’d put us into the E-V13 group; more testing won’t help on that.
So Happy Father’s Day to my brothers — and to all of our direct line paternal ancestors. There’s a V13 SNP test on order.
Since we don’t know — and may never find out — who Hermann’s father was,12 wouldn’t it be nice to imagine a passing Legionnaire in dalliance with a pink-cheeked German maid…?
SOURCES
- ISOGG Wiki (http://www.isogg.org/wiki), “Y chromosome DNA test,” rev. 23 Jul 2011. ↩
- ISOGG Wiki (http://www.isogg.org/wiki), “Autosomal DNA,” rev. 8 Feb 2012. ↩
- Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.com), “Haplogroup E (Y-DNA),” rev. 23 Apr 2012. ↩
- myFTDNA: Y-DNA Haplotree, test kit 217117, Family Tree DNA (http://www.familytreedna.com : accessed 16 Jun 2012). ↩
- Ibid. See also Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.com), “Haplogroup E1b1b (Y-DNA),” rev. 1 Jun 2012. ↩
- Famous E1b1b1-M35.1 Albert Einstein, Caravaggio, Wright Brothers and more.[6. See “Famous E1b1b1-M35.1 Albert Einstein, Caravaggio, Wright Brothers and more,” Haplogroup E1b1b1 – M35.1, blog (http://www.e1b1b1-m35.info/ : accessed 16 Jun 2012). ↩
- Vadim Urasin, YPredictor v1.5.0, results chart for STR markers of FTDNA test kit 217117 (http://predictor.ydna.ru/ : accessed 16 Jun 2012). ↩
- Haplozone Wiki (http://www.haplozone.net/wiki), “E-V13,” rev. 4 Jan 2010). Note that this Wiki is outdated: it says E-V13 is denominated as E1b1b1a2 at ISOGG; that’s no longer the case. See “Y-DNA Haplogroup E and its Subclades – 2012,” International Society of Genetic Genealogy (http://www.isogg.org : accessed 16 Jun 2012). ↩
- See generally Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.com), “Haplogroup E1b1b1a (Y-DNA),” rev. 15 Jun 2012. ↩
- “Glossary of Genetic Terms – 2012,” entries for SNP and Single Nucleotide Polymorphism, International Society of Genetic Genealogy (http://www.isogg.org : accessed 16 Jun 2012). ↩
- See ISOGG Wiki (http://www.isogg.org/wiki), “Deep clade tests,” rev. 23 Dec 2010. ↩
- See “Friedrike, how COULD you?,” The Legal Genealogist, posted 7 Jan 2012. ↩
Your post makes me a little curious. My great-grandmother was Julia GEISLER born in Seefeld (near Putzig) in 1867. Her parents were Karl GEISLER and Johanna BIRR. The whole family ended up in Southern Minnesota. Is it possible that my GEISLER family could be related to your GEISSLER family?
Possible but not terribly likely. Geissler translates loosely as goatherd, so we’re not dealing with royalty here, and while it may not be the equivalent of Smith or Jones it’s still a pretty common name. Your Geislers are from the area near Munich; my Geisslers are about 430km north near Gera. But wouldn’t it be nice…???
Aren’t there church records for wherever Hermann was from to find his ancestors? The FHL has lots of German church records and some are even translated online. They are very hard to read. When I found mine, I rented the film and photographed every image. It had taken so long to find them and I wasn’t sure I’d ever see them again. (I guess I violated copyright although I’m not sure whose. The photos are on my computer and on backup discs and remain for my own personal use. I’ve not shared them and won’t. I can tell someone the reel number and what is on it and then that person can rent the film or wait for it to be online.) When I was in Salt Lake, the folks at the FHL found me the wrong film twice. I wasted most of a day trying and failing to find ANYBODY with the right surname. After I got home, I was determined to find the right film. Place searches in the FHL catalog failed to be useful. Then, I got the idea of doing a keyword search. Bingo! So, do a keyword search in the FHL catalog for the town and see what you find. 1855 is late enough that there would even be civil records. (My guys came here in 1750.) Leland Meitzler’s books are good for locating the parish and neighboring ones in case the parents went to cousin Johan’s church to get the baby christened. Then there is always Meyers Orts (Meyers Gazeteer of the German Empire on Ancestry: http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1074 ) which will give you the various gov’t administration levels and closest churches and sundry other geographical stuff for your town in German, printed in the old Gothic typeface. (It’s not too hard to read, unlike some of the church books.) It’s hard sloging but you’ve done that before.
You bet there are church records. And Hermann’s mother is named very nicely in those church records. She was Friedrike Geissler. Yep, he was illegitimate and there is no entry in the church records for the father. Unless there is some reference to his father in the Royal Court records where Friedrike eventually got permission to marry, we’re pretty much at a standstill unless we luck into a DNA match.
Well, at least you can probably find Friedrike’s parents. Would they have had something similar to a bastardy bond in the court/civil records? Is there any chance the man she later married was the father? My father’s ancestors were all Norwegian and it was not at all uncommon for couples to have children before marriage especially in areas with a severe shortage of housing. I have one case where the couple had 2 children before marrying (including my g-gtandfather) and the Pastor did give them a lecture each time, according to his notes in the church record book. They did also require that the father be named, but that is typically Norwegian. In those tiny villages, everybody knew everybody else’s “secrets” so they didn’t bother over much to keep them.
As for other possibilities.. My grandmother was once complaining about the “younger generation” and my mother said, “Oh, come on. I know what your generation got up to in those buggies!” Like they say, there’s nothing new under the sun…
I do have the information about Friedrike’s parents and I won’t know about the court records until I receive them from the archives.
Good post about haplogroup E-V13. It represents about 85% of all the haplogroup E in Europe and has been there a lot longer than the Wikipedia article would suggest; to wit: at least 7,000 years. See:
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/10/24/1113061108.abstract
Estimates vary, but E-M35.1 is usually thought of as having arisen closer to 25,000 years ago, M78/L18 about 19,000 years in the past and V13/36 5-11 kybp. All of these are estimates, of course, but there is little doubt E is anything but a late entry into the European gene pool.
I’m quite happy to be a member of the club.
I did see the Spanish find — it’ll be interesting to see if it was a precursor, a fluke or the start of real evidence of an earlier presence. In any case. I am dying to see whether we turn out to be V13 or not!
You might benefit from checking the Haplozone now and again. It’s filled with accurate and interesting information about hap E. Stop by and kick the tires. While you’re there post your father’s results, whether or not he turns up V13. There are over 2300 of us and all flavors are represented.
http://community.haplozone.net/
Thanks. I have been there asking about additional testing and will post when we get the results.
Great Information !
There is a Huge Sale on right now at FTDNA – get your Y-DNA 12 markers for $39
$39 for Y-DNA 12 markers
I’m not at all sure this is a sale price, any more. It may well be the permanent price for 12 markers.
Great post! To add to your list some of famous people under E1b1b:
– Napoleon I: French Emperor
– Alexander the Great: Greek king of Macedonia and defeater of the Persians, best military leader.
– Constantine I: Roman emperor and founder of Byzantine Empire
– Adolf Hitler: co-founder of the Nazi party and Fuhrer of Germany
– Friedrich Engels: co-founder of Communism
– Benito Muossolini: Founder of Fascist part and Dictator of Italy (not yet confirmed 100%).
– Ptolemy I soter: Founder of Ptolemaic dynasty
– Egyptian pharaohs (most of them would have been E1b1b-V12)
– William Harvey: British scientist
– Arius: a Christian presbyter and ascetic.
– Socrates & Plato (born in Athens, an E1b1b hot spot)
– Justinian I: Byzantine Emperor and restorer, last Latin emperor (born of Illyrian origins, 47% E1b1b)
– Basil I the Macedonian: Byzantine emperor (born at Macedonia, E1b1b peaks to 35%)
Interesting, but without source citations I’m certainly not going to just accept that all these folks were E1b1b…