Valkenburg- Background
Administrators
Surnames
Bentfort, Falckenberg, Falkenberg, Falkenburg, Geurtsz, Pabus, Valckenborch, Valckenburch, Valkenbergh, Valkenborch, Valkenborg, Valkenborgh, Valkenburg, Valkenburgh, van Egmond, van Valkenburg, van Valkenburgh, Wouters
Background
Welcome to the Valkenburg Surname Project!
Is your last name VALKENBURG? Are your ancestors from The Netherlands?
When the Valkenburg Surname Project began in January 2012, its goal was to find out if the Valkenburgs from The Netherlands all have a common ancestor or if there are several branches that have the same last name by coincidence. As the first results from members Y-DNA came in, it was very clear that there is NOT a common ancestor. Our goal now is to track the various families and where they originated.
This project began in January 2012. The goal is to find out if Valkenburgs whose origins are from The Netherlands all have a common ancestor or if there are several branches that have the same last name by coincidence.
Origins of Valkenburg Families
Most people whose Valkenburg ancestry is from The Netherlands are trying to trace their ancestry back to the oldest known Valkenburg ancestor, Henken Wouters,who was born around 1385 at Farm Gruengracht in the town of Valkenburg, located in Limburg, The Netherlands. He came from a family of stone masons.
Although Henken Wouters is the oldest known Valkenburg, he is not considered the patriarch of the Dutch Valkenburgs. That honour goes to Wouter Henken, sometimes referred to as Wouter In De Gruengracht Henken, who was born around 1420 in Valkenburg. Henken Wouters is believed to be either his father or uncle, but because a linkage has not been proven, the patriarch is Wouter Henken and not HenkenWouters. With the results of Y-DN Aanalysis, it is clear that not everyone will belong to this family.
At the moment there are a number of branches of Valkenburg lines being researched up to the oldest known ancestor and then the process has ground to a halt. Perhaps this surname project can prove or disprove a relationship.
Luc Valkenburgh has coordinated an extensive project of the known genealogies of Valkenburg family branches in The Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium, and his link can be accessed at http://www.valkenburgh.nl/
One Valkenburg Mystery We Hope To Solve
One member traces his ancestry back to Matthijs Hendricksz, born about 1555 and died around 1607. No paper trail has currently been found that links Matthijs to his father. Records show him living in Well and Ammerzoden in The Netherlands as an adult. Some researchers believe that the father of Matthijs was Henrick Adams, a descendant of Wouter Henken from Valkenburg, others are not sure. So who was his father? We don't know for certain. Like the researchers of other Valkenburg lines our member is stuck in the 1500s as before that the paper trail was poor or non-existent. His Y-DNA shows he belongs in Haplogroup G. (For a short writeup of the link between his genealogy and this Haplogroup, take a look at our results page.)
Two members trace their ancestry back to Andries van Valkenburg, born around 1540, and died in Millen in present day Belgium. Many of the descendants of Andries moved to the USA. The father of Andries in not known. However, at least one of these members is not related to Andries as their Y-DNAs are different. One members’ Y-DNA shows he belongs in Haplogroup R1b1a2, the other belongs to Haplogroup E1b1b1. We await testing results from more members in the American branches to see if we can clarify further.
What About Your Story?
We would love to hear your story! Who is your oldest known ancestor? Where did he come from? What stories or legends do you have about the origin of your Valkenburg family? What do you know of your origins?
While this website will be maintained in English, Dutch speakers who are not comfortable writing in English are welcome to send us an email in Dutch. Behalve Engels, spreek en schrijf ik ook Nederlands,derhalve kunt U ook corresponderen in het Nederlands.
To participate in this surname study, please drop us a line at valkenburgsurnameproject@gmail.com and....if you haven't done so already, don't forget to have your Y-DNA test done! Sample collection is painless.... it merely involves rubbing the inside of your cheek with a foam swab.
Y-DNA and Haplogroups
The Y-DNA test will help us to find out which Haplogroups the Valkenburgs come from. A Haplogroup is a wayof grouping men according to a shared male-line ancestor and geographic origin. What will the Haplogroup tell us? It will help us to learn the following:
- the origins of the earliest male ancestor
- the number of families with this Haplotype
- the geographical origins of the families
- the date of the oldest ancestor in each family
Since markers on the Y-chromosome are being analyzed in this study, the DNA sample donor must be a male with a direct male Valkenburg lineage. Men have both an X and Y chromosome, while women have two X chromosomes. Since only males have the Y-chromosome, it is passed directly from father to son, never to or from females.
For this reason, women interested in information about their Valkenburg lineage, and men descended from Valkenburg mothers, need to have a male relative (father, brother, uncle, a male cousin, from their direct Valkenburg line) actually supply the sample for analysis.
Which Y-DNA Test to take?
Now you may be wondering which Y-DNA test you need. There are several choices, testing for different levels of markers: 12, 25, 37, 67, and111. We request that for the purposes of the surname study that the minimum number of markers you test is 37. Here's why. The more markers that are tested and compared, the more confidence you will have that any matches are recently related. Here are a few examples:
A exact 12-marker match means that there may be a 90% chance of two people sharing a common ancestor within 1 to 23 generations. If you estimate that 1 generation is about 25 years, then 23 generations is 575 years. Most of us cannot trace our ancestry that far back!
An exact 37-marker match means that there may be a 90% chance of two people sharing a common ancestor within 1 to 5 generations. If you estimate that1 generation is about 25 years, then 5 generations is 125 years. This makes tracing our common ancestry back much more reasonable.
What is a marker and why is it important?
We have 23 pairs of DNA chromosomes that contain the genes we inherit from both our parents. 22 of those pairs of chromosomes are called autosomal and give us the traits such as our eye colour and height.The past pair of DNA chromosomes identifies our sex.
Normally, Y chromosomes are passed directly from father to son, unchanged, from generation to generation. Sometimes,however, a mutation—a random, naturally occurring, usually harmless change—occurs. This mutation is called a marker. The marker now gets passed down over the generations from father to son, and so on, for thousands of years. Because of this, the marker can be tracked through DNA testing.
Sometimes, more than one mutational event, or marker, defines a particular family group. These markers help to identify a Haplogroup, since everyone who has one of these markers will also have the other.
When geneticists identify a marker,they try to discover its first occurrence - when and where it occurred. Since each marker identifies a new family group, your participation in the Y-DNA study is an important step in our research project.
What's next?
As information becomes available from participants, members of the Valkenburg Surname Project will be notified of our findings and the results of research and analysis, and the website will be updated.
Looking forward to your participation!
“© 2012 (http://www.familytreedna.com/public/DUTCHVALKENBURGS/) All Rights Reserved”
Member of ISOGG: International Society of Genetic Genealogy
Project Stats
| Distinct mtDNA Haplogroups |
1 |
| Distinct Y-DNA Confirmed Haplogroups |
1 |
| Distinct Y-DNA Predicted Haplogroups |
2 |
| Family Finder |
1 |
| Maternal Ancestor Information |
2 |
| Maternal GEDCOMs Uploaded |
0 |
| mtDNA |
1 |
| mtDNA Subgroups |
0 |
| Paternal Ancestor Information |
3 |
| Paternal GEDCOMs Uploaded |
0 |
| Predicted Y-DNA Haplogroups |
1 |
| Total Members |
5 |
| Unpredicted Y-DNA Haplogroups |
1 |
| Unreturned Kits |
1 |
| Y-DNA Deep Clade (After 2008) |
1 |
| Y-DNA Subgroups |
0 |
| Y-DNA12 |
5 |
| Y-DNA25 |
5 |
| Y-DNA37 |
3 |
| Y-DNA67 |
1 |
|