Johannes Enners arrived in this country from Germany in 1749. Johannes’ eldest son was Jacob Inners (as the name appears in subsequent documents) and it is from this ancestor that we feel most Inners/Innerst males descended. Jacob, through two marriages, had 18 offspring, of which 10 were male. From these 10, we have identified as many as six generations further.

While researching a surname can give us a little or a lot of information, most of it is general, incomplete, and sometimes erroneous. DNA testing, however, can give us concrete evidence for identifying and separating family lines. Y-chromosome DNA testing is especially helpful because the male Y-chromosome is handed down, father to son, unchanged through the generations, except for rare mutations which, in themselves, can be helpful indicators of branching. The accessibility and affordability of family DNA testing is doubtless the greatest technical advance in the history of genealogical research because we now have the definitive tool needed.

If you are a male with the surname INNERST, we invite you to join us. We hope, through this project, in the first stages, to identify living Inners/Innersts who are related. As the project progresses we would hope to verify the existing research, to interest others in extending the research, and to determine new avenues to explore.