About us
Welcome to the Schrepfer family surname project. We welcome all Schrepfer family members who would like to join us. We also welcome those who have tested their autosomal (Family Finder) and mitochondrial dna.
The surname Schrepfer means "barber or surgeons assistant." Alternately, it also means "to bleed someone" and it seems that some of our ancestors worked in spas where they used a cupping technique to draw toxins from the body.
Today Schrepfer's live all over the world. However, there are a few "hotspots" where the surname is concentrated that might indicate an ancestral origin. These are found in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and France.
Since we don't know if there are several different Schrepfer lines or if all Schrepfer's descended from a common ancestor, we would like to test as many different Schrepfer's as possible.
If we find that we have a common ancestor then we should be able to determine migration patterns and our ancestral origin.
If we have different lineages, then we will be able to determine which family we belong to.
Either way dna testing will tell us more about our family.
There are several factors that affect the continuity of German surnames. Often the spelling was changed when immigrants came to America because most American officials could not read German script so they spelled their names phoenetically as they were pronounced by the immigrant. Sometimes they even changed the name completely from the original German to it's English equivalent; ie., Schwarz to Black.
Illegitimacy was another complication. If the unmarried mother refused to give the name of the child's father, or if the couple remained unmarried, the child would assume the mother's surname.
If the surname was originally given because of the occupation of an ancestor, and one of the descendants moved to another town that already had a family with the same surname, often the descendant would change his surname to avoid confusion.
Finally, because of early inheritance laws in Germany there is the possiblity that males whose families adopted the "farm name" of their maternal grandmothers may not have the same Y-chromosomal DNA, although they share the surname of Schrepfer or another variation of that name.
We have collected samples from the family in Marlesreuth, Germany. Collateral lines are Schmidt, Bruhschwein, Winkler, Degelman or Dedelmann, Frank, Baierlein, Leydel... Many of these descendants still live in Germany, while many others have migrated to the United States.
With so many records unavailable it seems apparent that the only way to sort families out with any certainty would be through DNA analysis. We are therefore using this surname study to determine which of the males with the Schrepfer surname are, in fact, related.
The surname Schrepfer means "barber or surgeons assistant." Alternately, it also means "to bleed someone" and it seems that some of our ancestors worked in spas where they used a cupping technique to draw toxins from the body.
Today Schrepfer's live all over the world. However, there are a few "hotspots" where the surname is concentrated that might indicate an ancestral origin. These are found in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and France.
Since we don't know if there are several different Schrepfer lines or if all Schrepfer's descended from a common ancestor, we would like to test as many different Schrepfer's as possible.
If we find that we have a common ancestor then we should be able to determine migration patterns and our ancestral origin.
If we have different lineages, then we will be able to determine which family we belong to.
Either way dna testing will tell us more about our family.
There are several factors that affect the continuity of German surnames. Often the spelling was changed when immigrants came to America because most American officials could not read German script so they spelled their names phoenetically as they were pronounced by the immigrant. Sometimes they even changed the name completely from the original German to it's English equivalent; ie., Schwarz to Black.
Illegitimacy was another complication. If the unmarried mother refused to give the name of the child's father, or if the couple remained unmarried, the child would assume the mother's surname.
If the surname was originally given because of the occupation of an ancestor, and one of the descendants moved to another town that already had a family with the same surname, often the descendant would change his surname to avoid confusion.
Finally, because of early inheritance laws in Germany there is the possiblity that males whose families adopted the "farm name" of their maternal grandmothers may not have the same Y-chromosomal DNA, although they share the surname of Schrepfer or another variation of that name.
We have collected samples from the family in Marlesreuth, Germany. Collateral lines are Schmidt, Bruhschwein, Winkler, Degelman or Dedelmann, Frank, Baierlein, Leydel... Many of these descendants still live in Germany, while many others have migrated to the United States.
With so many records unavailable it seems apparent that the only way to sort families out with any certainty would be through DNA analysis. We are therefore using this surname study to determine which of the males with the Schrepfer surname are, in fact, related.