Schaefer DNA

Several years ago, one of our male Schaefer relations agreed to donate some spit for DNA analysis, and last week I got a notice from Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) that one of their new members was almost a complete Y-DNA match to us (36 of 37 markers). This means we have a very recent common direct male (Schaefer) ancestor. Who is the ancestor we have in common?

I spent the weekend corresponding with this new member, a wonderfully vibrant 80-year-old Schaefer who had been given the DNA work-up as a gift! He didn't know alot about his family history other than family lore, and I offered to help.  We were able to determine that he is probably descended from Philipp Jakob Schaefer, married 1775 in Bruchmühlbach, Pfalz, Bavaria, [Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate], Germany to Philippina Setzer. The mention of Bavaria made me suspicious since I did not think that location was anywhere near where our Schaefer family came from in Rhineland, but on further examination, Bruchmühlbach is 62 miles south of Waldesch, which is the last place we can associate with our family (Waldesch is another village near Udenhausen). So the FTDNA administrator of the Shaffer DNA Project felt we were in the right neighborhood because the boundaries of the German states have shifted considerably in the last few centuries.

Because I could not immediately find the common ancestor, we used FamilyTreeDNA's calculation of the probability of a common ancestor as a function of generations back. We put into the tool that we are known to not have a common ancestor in at least 7 generations (roughly 210 years before our births). The results of the tool are based on probability and estimated average mutation rates for the markers, but it is safe to say that our lines probably do converge to a common direct paternal ancestor within 10-15 generations (about 300-450 years before our birth, assuming an average male age of 30 years between generations). Since we were born in the middle 1900s, that would put the timeframe at roughly between 1500-1650, maybe more recently. That may well be within the range of extant Catholic church registers in that part of Germany.

So all this is interesting and exciting, and I want to thank the FTDNA administrator for being incredibly helpful (generally speaking, I haven't had much experience with using DNA results to further documented genealogy). He also recommended upgrading our DNA test analysis from 37 markers to 67 markers to further compare to the other DNA sample and refine the accuracy of the generations estimate. I wish I had the $$ for that, but right now I'm saving for a trip to Udenhausen! Meanwhile I think we might be challenged to find any more church records in Germany, but I have added to my list to at least try a few look-ups on my next trip to the Family History Library in SLC.  Meanwhile, if anybody out there falls across this post and you have information that pertains to a Schaefer family from Bruchmühlbach, please contact me!