Douglas Mumma wrote to me today and filled me in concerning ongoing projects of his. First, he has revised his opinion about the testing laboratories, and he favors Family Tree DNA. His experience with GeneTree, Inc., was not entirely favorable.
More results have come in on the Mumma DNA project and Doug is revising his report. Watch the Mumma web page for an update. Very happily, he says that the latest results only confirm the initial results. He has become a firm believer in the power and usefulness of DNA testing to genealogical purposes.
Perhaps because the evidence in the Mumma project was so helpful, Doug has become involved in the Gatter project, which is related to his wife. She herself cannot be tested in the same way that Doug was because it must be with a male subject. However, she can have a brother take the test and what she learns from that will apply to her.
In the Gatter project, it had been hoped to determine if the Gatters of England, and the Gatters of Germany, were related. A determination was made that the two families are not related. In fact, there was much diversity within each national group. This could arise because the surname of Gatter is an occupational name and many different people might have taken up the name just because they were all engaged in the occupation of "gate keeping".
(In England, some "gate keepers", especially those who "kept the gates" for Royalty, became known as "YATES", or "YEATES". GWD )
A word of warning to us lies in the results of the Gatter project. Mrs. Mumma had a match to one Gatter family in the region where her ancestor lived. Yet another Gatter family who lived only ten miles away from that Gatter family did not match at all. Physical proximity in combination with a name, even one which is not a common name, does not insure a relationship to any degree.
Doug thinks there are some marvelous opportunities within the Germanna community. He has in mind an ancestral family of his, the Jager/Yager/Yeager group. As we have observed on the list here recently, DNA testing might help sort some of the branches of this family. But, because the name is not unusual, a more elaborate (and more expensive) test might be required. Instead of 12 markers, perhaps 25 markers might be appropriate.
This is Labor Day and I will cut it short even after I copied most of this note from Doug. Thanks, Doug.
(03 Sep 02)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.