The story on the Lehman family and the DNA tests they are making is from the most recent issue (January 2006) of Mennonite Family History . The author of the article is Earl R. Layman.
In the last Note, one large branch of the family is descended from Peter Leman, who came in 1717. Another branch seems to descend from Benedict Leman born ca 1525 and his wife Adelheit Bongart who baptized nine children in the church at Arch, Switzerland. People with the genetic signature of this branch often failed to recognize they were related. They have been traced to diverse locations in continental Europe and the British Isles. Together, they are the next most numerous family after the Peter Leman family but they had not been recognized as having a common ancestor. The branches of the Benedict Leman family differ by one or two markers indicating a common ancestor in the sixteenth century. There is enough similarity in the two Leman families to indicate a common ancestor in the fifteenth century. The Benedict Leman family descendants use the names Lehman, Lemmon, Lemon, Lemmons, and Lemonds.
The third family group, much smaller than the previous two, traces their ancestors to Ireland. Their name is Lemon and they are slightly different from the previous two families.
A fourth family group, with only a single descendant (Lemon) in the DNA testing, comes from Cornwall, England. He too is closely related to the previous families.
A fifth family group, again with only a single descendant (LeMond) in the testing, differs slightly from the first family (Peter Leman). Another family group with a single descendant in the test is said to come from the LeMont Clan of Scotland.
The seventh family group also has an Irish origin and has a genetic similarity to the Switzerland members.
There is a family group which can be traced to seven brothers in Pennsylvania. Descendants show a markedly similar DNA pattern which is peculiar to Scandinavia. The typical name is Laymon.
Another family group was represented by two descendants with identical markers. The progenitor was a Swiss Mennonite, but seems to be unrelated to anyone else in the test. This seems most likely to have been the case that a family assumed the name which became Layman. (It may also be a case of alternative paternity.)
There were more members participating in the test but already we see that the DNA testing is tying together several branches with a wide geographical dispersion from Scandinavia, Scotland, Ireland, England, and Switzerland.
(01 Feb 06)
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.