Goals: Provide a surname project to support genealogical investigations of Kaufmann - of whatever spelling - lineages utilizing DNA based data to supplement existing paper documentation or to provide a scientific basis for relationships where documentation does not exist. Project participants are encouraged to work with their matches to move forward with their particular lineage investigations.

The project would like to see each individual lineage have at least one BigY test result to firmly establish where the lineage falls on the haplogroup tree and to provide a reference result against which other test results can be aligned/compared.

Project administrators will not always be maintaining pedigrees of project participants due to the increasing number of different lineages represented in the project. Administrators are available to provide testing guidance based upon your matches and your research goals.

Requirements: A Surname Project traces members of a family that share a common surname. Since surnames are passed down from father to son like the Y-chromosome, this test is for males. Females do not carry their father's yDNA and acquire a new surname by way of marriage, so the tested individual must be a male that wants to check his direct paternal line (father's father's father's) with a Y-DNA37, Y-DNA67, or YY-DNA111 marker test. Females who would like to check their direct paternal line can have a male relative with this surname order a Y-DNA test.

Participants are strongly encouraged to identify and refine their lineage's haplogroup through SNP testing, or Big-Y.  Refining one's haplogroup provides the data for narrowing down the geographic region and deeper ancestral relationships with other lineages.

Seeking : Researchers are actively seeking descendants of the following Kauffman ancestors, with a view to participating in y-DNA testing. If you are a y-DNA descendant of any of these individuals, please feel free to contact the project administrator. It is possible that there may be financial support available.

- Jacob Coughman, father of Joseph Coughman (1797-1883). Jacob is believed to have moved from Pennsylvania to Virginia but to have died when Joseph when a child.

- John Kauffman (c.1705-c.1758), only son of the immigrant Michael Kauffman who died in 1718 in Landisville, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

- Carl Heinrich Jacob Kauffman, 1754 immigrant to Pennsylvania.