It has recently come to light that male Van Gilder descendants of the Jacob Van Gilder family of Monongalia and Marion Counties, West Virginia and Cape Girardeau County, Missouri have the uniquely Native American Paternal Haplogroup Q1a3a1 also known as Q-M3.  This means that Jacob was not the immigrant from Holland that his descendants thought him to be. 

There is also a group of known descendants of the Mahican / Mohican Indian named Toanunck or Tawanaunt who was from the Egremont, Berkshire County, Massachusetts area and who became known as Jan Van Gelder or John Van Gilder.  

With the use of Y-DNA Testing, we have now proved that these two groups of Van Gelders/Van Gilders/Van Guilders are related to each other.  Once the connection was established, we knew where to look to find the paper trail.  We are also interested in proving which Van Gilders across the United States are Native American on their straight paternal side and how many are Dutch.