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Lancaster Online.com: News : DNA shakes family trees
By Jon Rutter
Oct 26, 2003, 00:01 EST
Lancaster Sunday News
DNA shakes family trees
When the paper trail runs out, science can help find those long lost ancestors
Allen R. Beiler always knew he came from European Anabaptist stock.
But now, recently discovered DNA clues promise to link the New Holland man to 15th-century ancestors in east Asia. It's the kind of magical history tour Beiler never envisioned in the 1990s when he began investigating his roots.
Even today, birth certificates and other documents remain the genealogist's primary research tools. But paper can crumble, get lost, go up in smoke. Highly individual DNA markers flow down the generations remarkably unchanged.
In the past few years, hobbyists have begun hunting their origins with the help of a painless genetic test. They swab the inside of their cheek and send the smear to a company that registers any matches. Networking with newly found relatives enables people to graft new branches to the family tree and identify ever more distant ancestors. Beiler had previously traced his roots to ""Pioneer Jacob'' Beiler, who immigrated to Pennsylvania from Europe in the 1700s.
Then, in 2001, a surprise query from a Swiss high school student writing a genealogy paper led him to get a chromosome test. DNA-confirmed links to a Swiss family enabled Beiler to extend his known lineage back to 1570.
Just last week, Beiler unearthed Internet citations to possible forebears in ancient Persia. He thinks they might have fled to the Swiss Alps as the Ottoman Empire began to fade.
Such far-flung ancestry is not rare. Many modern families are widely dispersed. Folks are passionate about locating their kin, said Beiler, explaining why he sometimes rises at 2 a.m. to do research. "You really don't know where you're going if you don't know where you came from.
'' In retirement Beiler began his quest after retiring from Bell Laboratories in 1989. "I woke up Monday morning and said, ""Here I am; what am I going to do now?' '' He penned a history of Pioneer Jacob and his descendants, published in 1998. The trail seemed to stop there. But the seeds of a breakthrough had already been planted.
Judith Beyeler had visited this area from Geneva, Switzerland, in 1992 and
noticed the family moniker on many mailboxes. (The name's many forms include Byler, Boiler and Beyler.)
For her senior high school project nine years later, Judith decided to see if she was related to the Lancaster County Beilers. Genetic testing done by the Institute of Medicine Legale of Geneva furnished practically airtight proof.
Judith's 2001 paper, "The Astonishing Journey of Small Y Beyeler,'' explained the findings. Yves Beyeler, her father, has an unusually small Y-chromosome. So does Allen Beiler, who connected with Judith through a third party.
According to Judith's report, small Y-chromosomes are not defective. They cause no physical or physiological harm. But they are passed down virtually unaltered, father to son, through many generations.
Common ancestor through Judith, Allen Beiler re-discovered the European branch of his family, which harks back to a common 16th-century ancestor, Heini Beyeler.
"They all have the same short Y-chromosome, which is very unique to the Beilers.'' A January 2003 Time magazine article noted that all humans on Earth are 99.9 percent genetically alike. However, highly individual genetic markers exist in all families.
In some instances, according to Bennett Greenspan of Family Tree DNA in Houston, Texas, such markers can be ""like a silver bullet.'' Greenspan should know. He started his company in May 2000 after hitting a genealogical wall himself.
Among the questions genetic testing has cleared up since then, according to Greenspan, is that he's not related to ""Seinfeld'' star Jason (Alexander) Greenspan. "All kinds of interesting puzzles we solve for folks all the time.'' Greenspan said Family Tree sells about 10,000 genetic testing kits a year worldwide. Arizona Research Labs analyzes the data, which are assigned coded numbers.
According to its Web site, Family Tree is then notified of any matches among the codes. To maintain confidentiality, the company posts only surnames on its data base. Testing costs range from $159 to $319. Price varies according to the number of markers tested for. So does the probability of finding a common ancestor.
About 80 percent of the tests involve Y-chromosomes, which are inherited by males from males, said Greenspan. His clients include Allen Beiler, who confirmed the Swiss lab results through Family Tree last spring.
Though genealogical genetics is still in its infancy, according to Susan E. King, ""It is getting to be a really big thing.'' King heads JewishGen Inc., a Texas company partnering with Family Tree to research Jewish family history. King said some of her clients want to know for religious purposes whether they're descended from Cohanim tribal forebears. Many others are less interested in probing antiquity than in splicing ties severed by World War II. King, whose mother was adopted, has been seeking her natural maternal-side family for 15 years. "You start working your way down, you can rebuild the tree.'' Beiler continues to do just that.
References to ""Beylerbeys'' in an old book on the Ottoman Empire have left him and a cousin, 91-year-old Roger L. Byler of Texas, to puzzle over possible roots in places like Hungary and Albania. "A bey was a military commander,'' explained Beiler. He and his cousin hypothesize that Beylerbeys were Christian conscripts in the army of the powerful 16th-century Islamic ruler Suleyman. As Ottoman influence waned, the Beylers slipped away to settle in the Alps. That's the theory. Family Tree has added fuel to the idea that Beiler's ancestors originated beyond Swiss borders. Beiler said the company told him that small Y-chromosomes are "uncharacteristic'' in European gene pools.
Genealogical genetics may one day resolve Beiler's questions. "I'm hoping to find people through Turkey and the Middle East and offer to underwrite the test for them,'' he said. "You get hooked on this. I think there's a little bit of detective in all of us.''
By Jon Rutter
Oct 26, 2003, 00:01 EST
Lancaster Sunday News
DNA shakes family trees
When the paper trail runs out, science can help find those long lost ancestors
Allen R. Beiler always knew he came from European Anabaptist stock.
But now, recently discovered DNA clues promise to link the New Holland man to 15th-century ancestors in east Asia. It's the kind of magical history tour Beiler never envisioned in the 1990s when he began investigating his roots.
Even today, birth certificates and other documents remain the genealogist's primary research tools. But paper can crumble, get lost, go up in smoke. Highly individual DNA markers flow down the generations remarkably unchanged.
In the past few years, hobbyists have begun hunting their origins with the help of a painless genetic test. They swab the inside of their cheek and send the smear to a company that registers any matches. Networking with newly found relatives enables people to graft new branches to the family tree and identify ever more distant ancestors. Beiler had previously traced his roots to ""Pioneer Jacob'' Beiler, who immigrated to Pennsylvania from Europe in the 1700s.
Then, in 2001, a surprise query from a Swiss high school student writing a genealogy paper led him to get a chromosome test. DNA-confirmed links to a Swiss family enabled Beiler to extend his known lineage back to 1570.
Just last week, Beiler unearthed Internet citations to possible forebears in ancient Persia. He thinks they might have fled to the Swiss Alps as the Ottoman Empire began to fade.
Such far-flung ancestry is not rare. Many modern families are widely dispersed. Folks are passionate about locating their kin, said Beiler, explaining why he sometimes rises at 2 a.m. to do research. "You really don't know where you're going if you don't know where you came from.
'' In retirement Beiler began his quest after retiring from Bell Laboratories in 1989. "I woke up Monday morning and said, ""Here I am; what am I going to do now?' '' He penned a history of Pioneer Jacob and his descendants, published in 1998. The trail seemed to stop there. But the seeds of a breakthrough had already been planted.
Judith Beyeler had visited this area from Geneva, Switzerland, in 1992 and
noticed the family moniker on many mailboxes. (The name's many forms include Byler, Boiler and Beyler.)
For her senior high school project nine years later, Judith decided to see if she was related to the Lancaster County Beilers. Genetic testing done by the Institute of Medicine Legale of Geneva furnished practically airtight proof.
Judith's 2001 paper, "The Astonishing Journey of Small Y Beyeler,'' explained the findings. Yves Beyeler, her father, has an unusually small Y-chromosome. So does Allen Beiler, who connected with Judith through a third party.
According to Judith's report, small Y-chromosomes are not defective. They cause no physical or physiological harm. But they are passed down virtually unaltered, father to son, through many generations.
Common ancestor through Judith, Allen Beiler re-discovered the European branch of his family, which harks back to a common 16th-century ancestor, Heini Beyeler.
"They all have the same short Y-chromosome, which is very unique to the Beilers.'' A January 2003 Time magazine article noted that all humans on Earth are 99.9 percent genetically alike. However, highly individual genetic markers exist in all families.
In some instances, according to Bennett Greenspan of Family Tree DNA in Houston, Texas, such markers can be ""like a silver bullet.'' Greenspan should know. He started his company in May 2000 after hitting a genealogical wall himself.
Among the questions genetic testing has cleared up since then, according to Greenspan, is that he's not related to ""Seinfeld'' star Jason (Alexander) Greenspan. "All kinds of interesting puzzles we solve for folks all the time.'' Greenspan said Family Tree sells about 10,000 genetic testing kits a year worldwide. Arizona Research Labs analyzes the data, which are assigned coded numbers.
According to its Web site, Family Tree is then notified of any matches among the codes. To maintain confidentiality, the company posts only surnames on its data base. Testing costs range from $159 to $319. Price varies according to the number of markers tested for. So does the probability of finding a common ancestor.
About 80 percent of the tests involve Y-chromosomes, which are inherited by males from males, said Greenspan. His clients include Allen Beiler, who confirmed the Swiss lab results through Family Tree last spring.
Though genealogical genetics is still in its infancy, according to Susan E. King, ""It is getting to be a really big thing.'' King heads JewishGen Inc., a Texas company partnering with Family Tree to research Jewish family history. King said some of her clients want to know for religious purposes whether they're descended from Cohanim tribal forebears. Many others are less interested in probing antiquity than in splicing ties severed by World War II. King, whose mother was adopted, has been seeking her natural maternal-side family for 15 years. "You start working your way down, you can rebuild the tree.'' Beiler continues to do just that.
References to ""Beylerbeys'' in an old book on the Ottoman Empire have left him and a cousin, 91-year-old Roger L. Byler of Texas, to puzzle over possible roots in places like Hungary and Albania. "A bey was a military commander,'' explained Beiler. He and his cousin hypothesize that Beylerbeys were Christian conscripts in the army of the powerful 16th-century Islamic ruler Suleyman. As Ottoman influence waned, the Beylers slipped away to settle in the Alps. That's the theory. Family Tree has added fuel to the idea that Beiler's ancestors originated beyond Swiss borders. Beiler said the company told him that small Y-chromosomes are "uncharacteristic'' in European gene pools.
Genealogical genetics may one day resolve Beiler's questions. "I'm hoping to find people through Turkey and the Middle East and offer to underwrite the test for them,'' he said. "You get hooked on this. I think there's a little bit of detective in all of us.''