About us
Pioneer Jacob Beiler (Jakob Beyeler - Swiss Spelling) came to America in 1737 aboard the "Charming Nancy" with his family. He obtained land grants from William Penn in upper Berks County. This Berks Co. location was the first Amish settlement in America.
The children to this marriage joined the Amish. His first "American" wife died and he married again, but the children to his second marriage were not Amish. This cast great doubt that Jakob Beyeler came to America for religious reasons - which the Amish had been promoting.
Doing further research (as outlined in a new book "DNA Search for the Small Y Bey"), it was discovered that Jakob had another family in Switzerland before coming to America - thus three marriages.
After publishing a book "Family History And Genealogy Of Pioneer Jacob Beiler", Allen Beiler was contacted by a Swiss high school student, Judith Beyeler, regarding the identical pronunciation of "Beyeler" & "Beiler." She wished to know if she was a relative to the Amish in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, USA. This led to the establishment of a project which compared DNA for the Swiss & American Beiler-Beyeler-Boiler-Byler families.
Then it was discovered that a short abbreviation of the family name (Bey) is leading us into other parts of Eastern Europe, Middle East, Russia and Asia.
The children to this marriage joined the Amish. His first "American" wife died and he married again, but the children to his second marriage were not Amish. This cast great doubt that Jakob Beyeler came to America for religious reasons - which the Amish had been promoting.
Doing further research (as outlined in a new book "DNA Search for the Small Y Bey"), it was discovered that Jakob had another family in Switzerland before coming to America - thus three marriages.
After publishing a book "Family History And Genealogy Of Pioneer Jacob Beiler", Allen Beiler was contacted by a Swiss high school student, Judith Beyeler, regarding the identical pronunciation of "Beyeler" & "Beiler." She wished to know if she was a relative to the Amish in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, USA. This led to the establishment of a project which compared DNA for the Swiss & American Beiler-Beyeler-Boiler-Byler families.
Then it was discovered that a short abbreviation of the family name (Bey) is leading us into other parts of Eastern Europe, Middle East, Russia and Asia.