Fix FamilyTreeDNA Project Website - Family Project Website

Fix FamilyTreeDNA Project Website

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Project Background:

The Fix families in the United States that have been reported have the trait of being of German speaking origin although the earliest families that arrived in America in the mid 1700s have no knowledge of where their ancestors specifically originated. Those who immigrated during the 1800s and 1900s by a wide margin list their country of origin as Germany. The remainder primarily list France, Russia, or Ireland as their country of origin. It should not be surprising that the name Fix (or Vix, Vics, Fichs, etc.) is found in the German speaking church records of Europe starting in the 1500s. The surname is associated with the Rhine River and occurs up and down and on either side of this river. A concentration of the surname of particular importance to American researchers covers the area on either side of a line between Frankfurt, Germany and Strasbourg, France. It should be noted that this is roughly the area of what is referred to as the Palatinate of the 1600s. This included parts of the current German States of Rhineland-Pfalz, Hesse, Baden-Wurttemberg, and Saarland as well as the French Alsace Region and primarily the current political department of Bas-Rhin.

This area was the source of much of the German migration to America starting in the late 1600s and extending through the American Revolution. The primary focus being Pennsylvania and therefore the origin of the term “Pennsylvania Dutch”. The causes for the migration of these people to America are a well known part of the history of that part of Europe during the 1600s and the active recruitment of the English starting in the late 1600s which took advantage of those events. The migration to England for the most part ended in America however some of these people were settled in Ireland and this may account for the Fix families from there that later arrived in the United States starting in the mid 1800s. Similarly in the 1760s Catherine the Great of Russia encouraged immigration which resulted in many German speaking families to migrate there from this same region. Some of these later came to America during the later half of the 1800s and early part of the 1900s and may account for the Fix families that settled in the Dakotas.

The Fix Surname DNA project strives to trace the origin of the surname as well as its migrations by the use of DNA testing of the Y-Chromosome. Preliminary results indicate that the surname origin is clearly not genetic however the small geographic area of origin, the distinctness of the name and the many different Fix families that have immigrated to America over the last 250 years should allow us to make significant progress in our understanding. We encourage all Fix families to participate in the project.

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Project Background, Goals, Results and News are copyright of the specific Surname Project

Project Goals:

This Project is formed to investigate the relationships among the various Fix families that originated or remain in the German speaking areas of Europe. This Project's results are to be used as an aid to family historians and genealogists in understanding the origin and history of the Fix surname.

Interested Fix family members are encouraged to join this project. We are recommending the 37 marker Y-chromosome test. We also request that you be prepared to supply the group administrator with an overview of your family history information as you understand it including your earliest known Fix ancestor and his place of origin.

Project News:

To date representatives of five different Fix families have joined the project. They represent their earliest known ancestors as described below. Other Fix families are encouraged to add their family to the list by joining the project. A male descendant is required as we are using Y-chromosome testing for this project.

1. JACOB FIX: Jacob Fix was a weaver and the first record of him in America is in 1740 when he witnessed a deed of George and Deborah Boone in Berks Co., Pennsylvania. He apparently lived in what became Exeter Twp., Berks Co. at the time. His son Phillip’s Revolutionary War pension application further identified their home as “9 miles down the Schuylkill from Reading”. Not many records of Jacob have been found but he is found in the tax records. In 1759 and 1760 he paid taxes in Amity Twp., Berks Co. and in 1763, 1764 and 1765 he paid taxes in Exeter Twp.
By 1769 Jacob and his son Henry both appear in tax records as males over the age of 15 and had migrated to Loudoun Co., Virginia. The family is found in Augusta Co., Virginia by 1780. He is presumed to have died there sometime after 1784 when he witnessed the marriage of his daughter.
There are four known children of Jacob including three sons: Henry(b ca 1752, d 14 May 1837), Phillip(b 2 June 1754, d 2 Dec 1834), and Jacob Jr.(b 1756, d 25 July 1825). A descendant of Jacob Jr. has joined the Fix Surname Project and the Project seeks male descendants of Jacob’s sons Henry and Phillip. Please contact the Fix Surname Project Group Administrator with your interest.
[Information provided by Carolyn Fix Blount]

2. LORENTZ FIX: Lorentz Fix first appears in America during the 1750s. Family tradition is that he and his wife Catharine Stull(b 12 Feb 1728, d 14 Sept 1814) were “Pennsylvania Dutch” and almost certainly spoke German and were from a German speaking area of Europe. They were members of the Trinity Lutheran Church of Reading, Pennsylvania as found in the church records. It appears that they were the Lorenz and Anna Catharina Vies whose daughter Catharina was baptized there 28 April 1754 and who witnessed a baptism there on 6 Feb 1753. Tax records indicate that Lorentz may have been in Reading as early as 1752 but was certainly there in 1754. No ship records for Lorentz or Catharine have been discovered but they most likely arrived in America through Philadelphia.
Lorentz Fix was a cooper or barrel maker and bought land in Reading on 4 Jan 1757 from Joseph Shoman. They sold this to John Collier on 26 July 1762. On 6 Sept 1761 Lawrence Ficks of Reading “took the Sacrament” pursuant to an Act of Parliament in allegiance to King George. On 14 July 1762 he acquired land(half of lot 117) on Penn Street in Reading which became his home for the remainder of his life.
Lorentz Fix died intestate prior to 2 June 1777 when letters of administration were granted to his wife Catharine. Although it has not been verified it is presumed that Lorentz and Catharine are buried in the Trinity Lutheran Churchyard.
The estate records further identify his six children which included two sons: Lorentz Jr.(b 10 Oct 1759, d 9 Oct 1822) and George(b 5 Dec 1768, d 18 Jan 1841). Two descendants of Lorentz Jr.’s eldest son Jacob(b 8 July 1782, d 21 April 1838) have joined the Fix Surname Project and the Project seeks male descendants of Lorentz Sr.’s son George as well as male descendants of Lorentz Jr.’s other sons: Daniel(b 11 Nov 1787, d 21 Dec 1868), John(b 14 Dec 1789, d 9 July 1832), Michael(b 8 Jan 1792, d 28 Mar 1874), and Samuel(b 26 July 1803, d 11 Feb 1895). Please contact the Fix Surname Project Group Administrator with your interest.
[Information provided by Stephen Fix]

3. SEBASTIAN MICHAEL FIX: Sebastian Michael Fix, the son of George Fix, was born in Germany in about1722. He married Anna Ursula Brossard, daughter of Joannes and Catharine Brossard, on 24 Jan 1746 at Buchelberg, Rhineland-Pfalz, Germany. Catholic Church records indicate that his son Jacob Fix(b 7 May 1759, d 22 Dec 1846) married Anna Maria Masset at Buchelberg on 15 Jan 1787 and their son Peter Jacob Fix (b 1 Mar 1789, d 29 June 1781) married Catharine Theresa Braun on 10 Feb 1812 at Buchelberg where both died. It was their son Johannes Joseph Fix(b 28 Feb 1813, d 5 Apr 1882) that immigrated to the United States in about 1847 settling in Muscatine Co., Iowa. He had married Apollonia Rebsamen, daughter of Peter Anton Rebsamen and Maria Anna Clara Niederer, on 3 Oct 1837 at Buchelberg, Rhineland-Pfalz, Germany and is the only family member known to have immigrated. He died at his farm at age 69 and was buried at Dodge Cemetery, Montpelier Twp., Muscatine Co., Iowa. A descendant of his only son Charles is represented in the Fix Surname Project. The Project seeks other male descendants of Sebastian Michael Fix. Please contact the Fix Surname Project Group Administrator with your interest.
[Information provided by Robert L. Fix]

4. JOSEPH FIX: Joseph Fix was born 19 March 1863 in Bundenbach, Germany and immigrated to the United States in about 1895. He settled in Tuckahoe, New York, married in 1898, and opened a bakery. He is known to have had four sons: John T. Fix(1902-1997), Mathias Fix(two daughters), James Fix(no children) and Joseph A. Fix(1899-1972, no children). John started working at Cornell Brothers Hardware in Eastchester, New York as a young man and purchased the store in 1932. He had two sons(John Jr. and Thomas) and three daughters. His descendants still operate the business today(www.cornells.com) and are represented in the Fix Surname Project. The Project seeks Fix males with ancestors originally from the Bundenbach area of Germany. Please contact the Fix Surname Project Group Administrator with your interest.
[Information provided by John T. Fix 3rd]

5. CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH FIX: Christian Friedrich Fix (Friedrich) (b 12 Jun 1838, d 30 Jan 1888), the son of Georg Friedrich Fix (b 22 Feb 1806, d 18 Aug 1845) and Maria Barbara Fix (b 28 Feb 1819, d 1863), was born in Birkenfeld, Germany. Friedrich is believed to have been a gggg grandson of Johann Jacob Fix (b 1654, d 21 Mar 1732) of Durrn, Germany. After his father’s death, his mother married Otto Phillip Vollmer (m 3 May 1846) and the family emigrated to the United States in 1851. Friedrich returned to Germany briefly and then came to Lexington, Kentucky in 1854 where he became a printer. About 1860 he returned to Germany and settled in Stuttgart where, according to family lore, he became a founding member of the German Printer's Association and was active in the German labor movement. For many years he served as treasurer of the Relief Society of German Printers headquartered in Stuttgart. In 1882 he served as a principal representative to the General Assembly in Stuttgart and in May 1885 as representative to the General Assembly in Berlin. He married Frederike Margareta Rode (b 7 Jan 1835, d 21 Mar 1892) on 28 April 1862 in Birkenfeld as recorded in the Lutheran Church records. They had three children, Friederike Katharina Fix (b 3 Mar 1860, d 28 May 1904), Friedrich Albert Fix (Albert) (b 20 May 1872, d 6 Apr 1957), and Emilie Mathilda Fix (b 19 Jan 1869, d 17 Nov 1941). After Friedrich’s death in Stuttgart, his wife and two younger children, Albert and Emilie, emigrated to America in 1888 and settled in Uniontown, Washington where Otto Vollmer’s son John owned a general store. A descendant of Albert Fix has joined the Fix Surname Project. Other descendants of Johann Jacob Fix from Birkenfeld and Durrn are invited to join the project. Please contact the Fix Surname Project Group Administrator with your interest.
[Information provided by Cathy Tryon]

Project Results:

We have results from five different Fix families. We clearly have five genetically distinct origins represented, including three haplogroups.

This resolves the long conjectured hypothesis that Lorentz Fix and Jacob "the weaver" Fix, who in 1760 lived a few miles from one another in Berks Co., PA, were related.

Although not yet conclusive the current data supports a patronymic origin of the surname as has been previously proposed. See for example:
http://genforum.genealogy.com/cgi-bin/pageload.cgi?origin::fix::220.html