DNA

COUNTS

Chad Counts is the administrator of the Family Tree Counts Family and Associated Surname DNA Project. The main goal in the past was to differentiate the various Counts, Koons, Kuntz, etc. lines originating from the Virginia Colony and possibly other colonies. Most of the Counts male lines of descent have been verified and separated by haplogroup, but our John Counts of Glade Hollow matches none of them. He is in a line of his own. If you would like to participate or follow this group, contact Chad via the administrator's email address on his webpage.

KISER

In early 2007, Jack Keyser wrote an update on the Kaiser Surname Project which included the following information:

"Early in 2006, Mark Arslan established the Kaiser Surname Project within Family Tree DNA. Mark is very interested in the Marshall Kaiser family genealogy which happens to be similar to the Charles Kayser family genealogy. The Marshall Kaisers lived in the Luray, VA area in the 1800s at the same time descendants of Charles Kayser were there. As a result, both families got mixed up by the early genealogy experts. Mark concluded that the best way to sort out these two families was to establish the DNA signature of each. Thus, if anyone wanted to know which family he belonged to, he could do so by testing his DNA.

Three of us thought to be Charles Kayser descendants signed up and had our DNA tested. Two of us proved to have a close enough match to be descendants of Charles Keyser from two different sons, thus establishing the validity of our relationship to Charles and the American family tree we already knew. Thus a benchmark DNA signature for Charles Kayser descendants was clearly established. If any male wants to know if he is a Charles Kayser descendant, almost all he has to do is have his DNA tested and compared to ours.

Because of a lot of work by Mark Kiser and others, a convincing paper trail from Charles Kayser to his ancestors in Möckmühl, Germany was established. Mark has a contact with Frau Marlies Kibler of Möckmühl whose interests among many others includes a study of “Inventories”. These documents are detailed listings of goods left by the deceased and to whom the goods were distributed. The inventories of Charles’ (Carl Sebastian Kayser) father and mother have links to him when he was in [America].

The next step seemed obvious. Mark asked Marlies Kibler if she knew of a male Kaiser in Möckmühl that could trace his ancestry to a member of our family tree and was willing to have his DNA tested. She asked Adolph Kaiser of Möckmühl if he was willing to do so and he accepted. It was quite an interesting experience in that He speaks only German and I speak only English. Marlies Kibler is fluent in both languages and acted as a very capable translator. A test kit for Adolph was ordered Nov 23rd 2006. His results were issued January 17th 2007. He is an exact match with Bill Kaiser and a very close match to me. This is a wonderful and much hoped for result since it validates all our recent research. All of Charles Kayser’s descendants now have a verified family tree reaching back to a common ancestor, Joannes (Hans) Kayser (Kheyser)! He was born in Möckmühl 25 October 1562, died in Möckmühl about 1620. Joannes was Burgermeister in 1609 and 1615-1616."

Mark Arslan recently re-confirmed the fact that his Kaiser line and our Carl Kayser lines are different. This can be seen on the color coded chart, which shows his family line in yellow, and our Kayser line from Möckmühl in green. He went on to say, "The y-chromosome haplogroups are completely different. Since the y-chromosome is passed down directly from father to son (like the surname), this proves that these two families are not genealogically related to one another." Further details about the various family lines can be found on his Patriarchs page.