Currently 14 people have done y-DNA testing.  These test results are available here, but more people are needed to join the project.

People in the project have traced their ancestry to the following areas:

1. The Deutsch-Krone District of West Prussia (present day Walcz, Poland).  A large number of Briese families lived in this area in the 1750s and possibly earlier. The region had been depopulated by war and disease during the Great Northern War from 1700-1721. It is possible that the Briese families had lived in this area before 1700, or they might have immigrated to Deutsch-Krone after 1721 when the Polish Nobility recruited German settlers to repopulate the area.  The region was annexed by Prussian 1772, and there were at least 20 Briese families in Deutsch-Krone during the Prussian census of 1772-73.

2.  Potrzymowo, a small village to the east of Czerniejewo, Posen. Michael Briese, born 1738, was a property owner here. It may be that the Briese family had lived in Potrzymowo for several generations or they may have moved there recently. It is known that German families in nearby villages (e.g.the grandparents of Michael's daughter-in-law) settled in the nearby village of Gembarczewo in the mid-1700s at the request of the local Polish nobility. This resettlement followed depopulation of the region due to cholera and war.

3. The Meseritz district in the old Prussian province of Posen (present day Miedzyrzecz, Poland). A large number of Briese families appear in Evangelical Church Books from this district

4. Sompolno, just over the border from Posen, in what was Greater Poland. This area was settled by Germans from West Prussia/Pomerania in the 18th century

Twelve tests results have now been received from people with the Briese surname and indicate three lineages. The first lineage comprises a cluster of seven families having their earliest known origin in Deutsch Krone, Potrzymowo, Sompolno and Berlin – they have close matches (from 33/37 to 36/37 markers in common).  By comparing all 37 STR markers, a modal haplotype (the most likely set of markers that a common ancestor would have had) can be derived and the genetic distance from this calculated. In the case of this cluster it is 1 to 4. According to Family Tree DNA, a genetic distance of 3 is "likely within the range of most well established surname lineages in Western Europe", which suggests the families are related. The two members of the Briese family from Potzrymowo (genetic distance =1) are known to have a common ancestor 4 generations ago, and this can be used to calibrate other genetic distances where relationships are not known. A seventh Briese family, from Meseritz, was found to have a genetic distance of 4 when 67 markers were used for comparison – this indicates that the family belongs tothe same lineage, which dates back to the time when surnames were being adopted in northern Europe.

The second lineage is genetically quite distinct. It has two members who share 33/37 markers. Their origins can be traced to Posen and Silesia. A third lineage consists of a single family and is again genetically quite distinct from the other two lineages. These could have arisen either as independent adoption of a surname around the 15^th century (in which case family clusters similar to the first lineage should exist), or as a result of “non-paternity” events (e.g. adoption of a non-relative or a child taking its mother’s surname) sometime during the past 500 years.

Although not a lot can be inferred from a data set of 12, the data certainly suggest a Briese family cluster in the Deutsch Krone area. These, however, could be genetically distant from other clusters of Briese families that had different geographic origins. What would not be expected would be a smooth distribution of genotypes across the Briese surname - this is a testable hypothesis. As well as those listed here, clusters of the Briese surname are known to have existed in parts of Brandenburg and East Prussia, as well as in the Saarland and East Frisia, in western Germany (see Briese Surname Project (one-name.net)). More results from other "unrelated" Briese families and from known distant relatives within a family group are needed to clarify the picture, but the early suggestion is that relationships can be demonstrated between different Briese families, even when there is no known common ancestor.

The latest analysis of the DNA results can be viewed at Briese genetic genealogy: Briese Surname Project (one-name.net).