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Gysi/Giese

  • 22 members
Administrators
  • Mark Geesey

About us

We are actively seeking men with any of the related surnames to volunteer to contribute a Y-DNA sample to the group. We are having the 37-marker Y-DNA tests done. Please do not hesitate to contact the group administrator (Mark E. Geesey) if you have any questions or are interested in joining.

To date five groups of Gysi/Giese/Geesey/Keesey descendants have been identified via STR testing. I have created a spreadsheet of the relationships of many of these lineages. A pdf version of this called "Swiss Gysi Lineages" can be found in the photos tab to the left

  1. Swiss Gysi R-L48 Group: Trace their ancestry back to the village of Hölstein, Baselland, Switzerland. 

    • The group includes 4 descendants of immigrant Johann Conradt Giese, Sr. (1718-1802) the 2xgreat-grandson of Peter Gysi (b~1565).

    • Three members are descendants of Ulrich Gysin who was born in 1670.  Two of his great-grandsons emigrated to America.  One member descends Johann (Hans) Ulrich Gysie (1754-1834), who came to America in 1804 and settled in OH in 1805. Hans' brother, Henry (Heinrich) Geesey (1760-1847), came to America in 1773 and settled in Frederick County, MD where he raised his family.  The family story relates that a cousin from Lancaster County came to visit and had a fling with a neighbor's daughter resulting in a pregnancy.  The cousin returned to Lancaster County and was never heard from again.  The story is supported in that the direct descendant of Henry and the man descended from the neighbor's daughter are closely related to each other.  It's just a matter of time before we can positively make the connection through standard genealogical methods. 

    • Three members of this group are descended from a Casey lineage who trace their ancestry to North Carolina in the early 1800s.  Oral history in this family indicates that they came from Maryland in the 1700s.  The genetic distance between the men and the others in this group is remarkably close. An interesting connection to note is the proximity of the descendants of Johann Jacob Gysi to the Casey family. His daughter, Anna Barbara Giesey, married Matthaus Wesner and moved to Rowan County, North Carolina where they raised their family. She had a couple half brothers who we have been unable to track. We could be looking at another example of an illegitimate birth, or it could simply be a change to the spelling of the family name.  More research will have to be conducted to answer this question.

    • One member is descended from a Stevenson lineage out of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The proximity to our Swiss Gysi settlers must account for another instance of an illegitimate birth. 

  2. Swiss Gysi R-P312 Group: Three members, the descendants Jacob Arnold Gysin (1876-1953), Andreas Giesy (1791-1860) and Johann Caspar Giesse (b ~1711), are very closely related to each other with a >90% chance of having a common ancestor in the past 10 generations. 

    • Jacob Arnold's and Andreas' lineages extends back Fridlin Gysin (1497-1569) who lived in Oltingen, Baselland, Switzerland.  Jacob Arnold was born in Switzerland and came to America where he settled in California. Andreas immigrated to America about 1817 and initially settled in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.  He migrated with his family to Missouri and ultimately to Washington. 

    • Johann Caspar Giesse's descendants migrated to Saarland, Germany and Austria-Hungary

  3. Swiss/French R-M512 Group: Two distantly related individuals.

    • A non-biological descendant of a Gysi family living in Hölstein. Jacob Gysi (1681-1749) emigrated to America and settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Recent research indicates that John Geesey adopted a boy in the 1820s, Peter, from whom this descendant is related.

    • An individual whose ancestry included French Huguenots who came to America.

  4. Pennsylvania Keesey J-M172 Group: A group consisting of 2 men who descend from Keesey individuals who lived in Lancaster or York County Pennsylvania in the early 1800s. We can imagine a couple scenarios of how this could happen.  First, the origin of their Keesey name was completely independent of the Swiss Gysi or German Giese lineages. Second, they share a common ancestor who left a pregnant woman to raise their son on her own, and she gave him her last name.

  5. Pennsylvania Geesey/Keesey R-M173 Group: A group consisting of 3 men who descend from Geesey/Keesey individuals who lived in Pennsylvania in the early 1800s.  Two men trace their ancestry to Schuylkill County and the other traces his ancestry to Lancaster County.  STR testing revealed that they are closely related to each other (with a genetic distance of 7 out of 37 markers), but not related to the Swiss or German groups. 

SNP tests:

In addition to the standard STR testing that all members are taking, I and others have taken additional SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) tests to precisely determine our deep-clade ancestry.

I tested positive for the SNPs U106, Z301, and L48. This means that the descendants of Peter Gysi of Canton Basel, Switzerland and members of Group 1, are members of Haplogroup R-L48. The ISOGG has posted the full hierarchy of Haplogroup R. In order to further detail our shared lineage, I have been tested for SNPs that reside "downstream" from L48.

The haplogroup defined by L48 is divided into 5 major groups (L48*, L47, Z9/Z10, CTS3104, and S23189) and two minor groups (L189 and L693) based on identified SNPs:
  • L48* consists of those members who are negative for all the SNPs below.
  • L47 - I tested negative for L47.
  • Z9/Z10 - Everyone who has tested these 2 markers has been positive for both or negative for both. I have tested negative for Z9
  • CTS3104 - Because I am positive for S23189 I will certainly be negative for this.
  • L189 and L693 are "private" family level SNPs that have been found in only a small number of closely related individuals.
  • S23189 - Casey and I tested positive for S23189.  Four SNPs have been identified under S23189:
    • L200 - The largest subgroup under S21389.  Casey and I tested negative for L200.
    • S10271
    • S4415 - I tested negative for S4415.
    • S19342 - Casey tested positive for S19342. Two SNPs have been identified under S19342.
      • S794 - Casey tested negative for S794.
      • S18372 - I tested positive for S18372. Casey has also tested positive.
Two members of the Project are recognized as belonging to Haplogroup R-P312.  R-P312 and R-U106 are both subgroups of Haplogroup R-L11.  Each subgroup arose about 4500 years ago in northern Europe. 

Two members of the project are recognized as belonging to Haplogroup R-M512.  R-M512 is a member of Haplogroup R1a, while R-U106 and R-P312 are members of Haplogroup R1b.  These 2 haplogroups separated from each other during Neolithic times, some 8000-10,000 years ago.