As expected, initial testing has confirmed several relationships within the lines being explored.  Moreover, connections between the lines are starting to emerge as predicted (hoped for).

The New England Jumper line appears to have a haplogroup of E1b1b1.  More participants are needed to confirm this.

The Jumper lines from Pennsylvania (both Cumberland and Northampton) and the South, as well as the Schumpert/Shumpert line, have all been confirmed as having a haplogroup of R1b1a2, which is one of the most common European haplogroups.  Since all of these lines are presumed to originate in Germany, this makes perfect sense.

While all of the R1b1a2 lines are somewhat related, the strongest connection thus far appears to be between the Northampton Co., Pennsylvania line and the Schumpert/Shumpert line, with a genetic distance of only three across two members’ Y-DNA-37 test.  This is not a total surprise given the traditional research documenting the progenitors’ common birth in or around Beerfelden, Germany, but this is the first project example of DNA being able to prove traditional research to be true.  Given the number of presumptions and deductions that must often be made in traditional genealogy, this proof is quite satisfying and is hopefully only the tip of the iceberg.

A growing number of exact-matched members in the Schumpert/Shumpert are confirming the original haplotype for this line and firming up the ancestral haplotype of the overall Most Recent Common Ancestor: Niclaus Schumpert (1615-?).

For a complete picture of how closely the various participants and lines are related, please see the genetic distance table at the very bottom of the Background section.