Most of the persons in the US bearing the Knierman surname along with the many variants in spelling are believed to be descended from Germany arriving in PA sometime in the early 1800's. Variants of the Knierman surname exist not only in the US, but also in other German speaking countries (Germany, Prussia, Switzerland) as well as parts of France. THE KNIERMAN SURNAME DNA STUDY is an ongoing project open to any male descendant with the Knierman, or alternate spelling, surname. Our objective is to match up individuals or families who share a common male ancestor with the Knierman surname. The exact origins and spellings are unclear, the Project is interested in extending our project to those outside of this country in order to establish possible links to those bearing our surname abroad. The Project will identify through testing, the exact DNA Haplogroup and Haplotype for each member. The information will be used to determine shared common ancestors between the various families in the US and Europe.