The year 2025 is the celebration of 400 years of the Van Winkle Family in America!!! Please choose some way to honor your VW ancestors during this year. Testers of the Van Winkle project have identified the R-FT365126 haplogroup as coming through #1 Jacob Walichs, the progenitor of the Van Winkle family. All direct male descendants carry the mutation for this haplogroup on their Y chromosome. (Identifying numbers are from the 1993 genealogy.) The youngest son of Jacob Walichs, #6 Symon Jacobse, has been found to have an additional mutation. All of his direct male descendants have R-FT365126 > R-FT36993. There is one tester from the brick wall line of #247 William VW with this mutation. There is also a tester from the brick wall line of #533 Thomas VW. Additionally, we have a tester with an unidentified grandfather who has this mutation. They all three belong somewhere within this line of the family. Eight testers represent this mutation. An additional eleven testers have the previous results from #6 Symon Jacobse, plus one more mutation. They are R-FT365126 > R-FT36993 > R-FT365589 from the brick wall lines of #318 Thomas Benton, #491 Benjamin, #492 Jesse and #632 James. These four lines must all come from a common ancestor who was a descendant of Symon Jacobse. Two testers from the descendants of #491 Benjamin, through his grandson, #2519 Jacob VW, have been found with the additional mutation and are R-FT365126>R-FT36993>R-FT365589>R-Y93614. PROVEN: * #486 Jesse VW (Mary Ann Braden) and #492 Jesse VW (Catherine Baker) were NOT the same person. * #318 Thomas Benton VW (Elizabeth White Smart) was NOT a son of #486 Jesse VW (Mary Ann Braden). * #632 James VW (Patience Scarborough) was NOT a son of #486 Jesse VW (Mary Ann Braden). * #638 Anderson W. VW (former brick wall) WAS a son of #491 Benjamin VW (Hester Little Flower. PLEASE NOTE: More testers are needed, especially those from proven lines. Testers from brick wall lines need the proven lines in order to find where they match. The #4 Waling Jacobse and #5 Jacob Jacobse lines are undertested, possibly because of less sons with male descendants. Consider testing, if you are from either of these lines. Many early Van Winkles have not been included in the 1913 or 1993 genealogies. Their connections have been lost. Y-DNA testing may be the only way to find their place in the family. Some of them migrated to parts of the country that was still wilderness and record keeping wasn’t of little or importance. Others may have lost records because of fire or flood. FamilyTreeDNA has recently started giving better haplogroup designation to males who have done the Family Finder test and those who have uploaded their autosomal results from other companies. We welcome them to this group project and encourage them to do Y testing if interested. Several testers from haplogroups earlier than the Van Winkles have joined us. They are very distant connections. This project also welcomes females who have a connection to or interest in the VW family. Please contact the administrator if you have questions, comments, would like to become a co-administrator or are interested in testing. (Revised December 31, 2024)