WICKIZER, WECKESSER,
& RELATED FAMILIES
SURNAME DNA PROJECT
Including Families Named:
Deffinbaugh, Dieffenbach, Uffinger, Ueffinger, Uiffinger, Vickerson, Wacaser, Wacaster, Waycaster, Weckesser, Wickheiser, Wickiser, Wickizer, Wickkiser, Wickkizer
WHAT WE’RE TRYING TO DO
The first goal of the Project is to identify the unique number markers for the Wickizer family through each of its five major branches and each of the variant spellings currently in use: Wickizer, Wickiser, Wickkizer, Wickkiser, and Wickheiser. Five tests, one from each branch, will be sufficient to provide a genetic confirmation of the genealogical research already connecting these families. We now have samples from three of the branches, and are looking for volunteers from the lines of Abraham Wickiser and Jacob Wickizer, Sr.
Our second goal is to identify possible cognate families in Germany and America, including individuals named Weckesser (the most likely prospect), Werkheiser, Wacaster, Waycaster, and similar-sounding names. We know that there were at least two major Weckesser families established in medieval Germany, one located in Hessen and one in Württemberg. We have now found representatives from both groups, and have established that the two groups are NOT related to each other. However, the southern family in Württemberg, Baden, and Bavaria is connected to the Wickizer families, and is also related to Ueffinger and Deffinbaugh lines. This Ueffinger family is known to derive from the border region between Baden and Württemberg, the same place that the southern Weckessers first appear in the records. We would like to find additional Weckesser participants to continue bolstering the genetic evidence.
HOW IT WORKS
The genetic heritage recorded on the Y chromosome, the chromosome which determines that an individual becomes male, is passed virtually unchanged from father to son to grandson for spans exceeding fifteen or twenty generations, or for 500-600 years or more—in other words, prior to the time that most surnames were created. The genetic markers embedded on the Y chromosome remain almost identical for the majority of name-line male descendants of the original ancestor. Over long periods of time, some of these markers may gradually change, but the match will be still be recognizable to the researcher. Only a break in the chain of inheritance, caused either by an adoption or an illegitimate birth, can produce a different set of markers for a particular family and its offspring.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
All of the direct-line, male descendants who descend from the Wickizer/Wickiser family should have near-identical number markers, unless an illegitimacy intervenes. Similarly, any direct-male descendants of affiliated families in Germany will also display near-identical markers. If the number markers from any one family match the markers of a descendant from one of the other major lines, then we know that the individuals have a male ancestor in common. If, on the other hand, the numbers don't match, then they're not related. It’s as simple as that. The numbers don’t tell us how far back families are related, if they are, although sometimes the variations in markers in particular branches can be used to determine the lapse of time involved, or to identify those branches.
PRIVACY ISSUES
The Wickizer Project does not examine anyone's DNA for genetic illnesses or other such inherited characteristics. The researchers will only be looking at samples that are coded by randomly assigned ID numbers, not by individual name, and will only be examining the numbers of specific markers on the so-called “junk” portions of the Y chromosome that are known to be passed from father to son. The results will be kept private and distributed only to the individual participants, except that a copy is sent to the project manager for the purpose of producing a master chart of the DNA markers, family by family.
The results consist of a list of numbers that are meaningless outside of a surname DNA project. Only when compared to the results of similar tests done on other male Wickizers, Weckessers, and related families do the numbers demonstrate either a relationship between the families, or the lack thereof. The number set common to our family is relatively scarce, which helps considerably in tracing potential cognates.
HOW THE TESTS ARE REPORTED
Family Tree DNA, our provider, offers four basic Y-chromosome tests, a 12-marker test, a 25-marker test, a 37-marker test, and a 67-marker test, each building on the other. The more numbers that are generated, the shorter the time period involved, down to a level of perhaps four or five generations (or 100-125 years) with the 67-marker test.
The 67-marker test is broken for display purposes into six groups. A 25-marker DNA test will generate results from just the first two sets of markers. Each marker within the group corresponds to a specific place (a “locus,” plural “loci”) on the Y chromosome. These segments have been assigned standard ID numbers by geneticists, prefixed by the letters DYS (or “DNA Y-Chromosome Segment”).
The first set of 12 markers has the following labels, in this order: DYS 393, 390, 19 (or 394), 391, 385a, 385b, 426, 388, 439, 389-1, 392, and 389-2.
The second set of 13 markers has the following labels, in this order: DYS 458, 459a, 459b, 455, 454, 447, 437, 448, 449, 464a, 464b, 464c, and 464d.
The third set of 12 markers has the following labels, in this order: DYS 460, GATA H4, YCA IIa, YCA IIb, 456, 607, 575, 570, CDYa, CDYb, 442, and 438.
When we report the numbers onto this website, we do so in the order indicated above, broken out into three number groups. Someone who has been tested only for 12 numbers will just have the results from the first set posted.
We also ask each participant for permission to post his name on this website, in a way that is impossible to trace by an outsider, with a list of his Y-chromosome number markers. We will not post anyone’s data or name without his expressed consent.
HOW TO SIGN UP
It's simple and easy and inexpensive. The test is painless and there's no blood involved; each person is sent a kit with a swab to rub on the lining of the inside of his cheek. Only direct-line males descended from the Wickizer, Weckesser, and related families can participate, since only males carry the Y chromosome. If you want to participate but can’t afford to do the test, please contact us directly, and we may be willing to provide funding ourselves, if we think your test is important to the project.
We hope that you'll decide to join us in this pioneering effort to tie together our various Wickizer/Wickiser and related families, and to discover their origins in Germany. For more information, please contact us directly at P.O. Box 2845, San Bernardino, CA 92406, or via e-mail at *E-mail Mary*; or write directly to Family Tree DNA, 1919 North Loop West, Suite 685, Houston, TX 77008, stating that you want to participate in the Wickizer Surname DNA Project, or log onto their website (www.familytreedna.com) and look under the surname project list for the name Wickizer. Once a kit has been returned, it takes about six weeks before results are reported back to us.
DNA testing is the only way that we can ever go beyond the extant civil and religious records, which are fragmentary, incomplete, and ultimately frustrating to the genealogist. Every line eventually comes to a dead end, as any researcher soon discovers. With Y-chromosome testing, we are able for the very first time to break through these limitations, and to establish links between our lines that can be found in no other way.
—Mary Wickizer Burgess
Prof. Michael Burgess