The STEIERT Surname Research Project was created to explore and document the relationships between the various STEIERT families, including their surname variants, found in Germany, America and other countries around the world as well as their links back to the homeland region of the surname in Germany.  The goals of the STEIERT Surname Research Project are to illuminate the origins and evolution of the STEIERT surname for both the descendants of the emigrants and for the descendants of those family members who remained in the homeland.  By combining DNA with traditional genealogy, this project seeks to assist members in researching their own family genealogies and relationships back to their common ancestors by providing a means to bridge those gaps in the paper trail that traditional genealogy cannot close.

Within this overarching goal, the STEIERT Surname Research Project seeks to satisfy these specific objectives:

1.To determine if all STEIERTs (including variants) are related, or if there are multiple genetic lines.

2.To determine if the permanent transformation of the surname from STEINHARDT to STEIERT occurred only in the village of Hinterzarten, Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, Germany,or if it happened elsewhere as well. (As of 06-21-2019, it is known that the transformation of the surname occurred elsewhere at least once, but for unknown reasons, it did not become permanent. After several generations, the spelling reverted back to its' original form.)  

3. To provide the genetic basis for tracing common ancestry between living holders of the STEIERT surname with living holders of STEINHARDT (or STEINHART), the archaic form of the STEIERT surname, whether the STEINHARDT to STEIERT transformation happened only once or happened in multiple places and multiple times.