Gerstenberger Genealogy

REFRESH! BE SURE YOU HAVE THE MOST RECENT PAGE

23 Aug 2009: Boy! Have I been lax in keeping this up. Please cut me some slack - I'm older than I look (at least I hope so). But there is hope on the horizon - my grandson, Joseph Vinton Gerstenberger, has agreed to succeed me in this effort, as well as the position of U.S. Gerstenberger Family Historian. More updates will follow shortly.

3 Oct 2008: The 4th World Wide Gerstenberger/Gerstenberg Family Reunion will be held in Los Angeles, California, from the 4th to the 9th of August, 2009. There will be a "Pre-Program" beginning on Sunday, August 2nd, for those interested in a longer visit. If you think you might be coming, please contact Lynn Boshart at [lynnboshart@earthlink.net] , as she needs to know approximate numbers before making arrangements.

I will provide further information on this page as it becomes available. If you would like to receive email notification and are not currently doing so, please send me, DGerstenberger@cox.net , your email address.

6 Jan 2008: Happy New Year to all Gerstenbergers, Gerstenbergs, and Descendants! By the end of the year, my hope is that we know more about us all - who is related to whom, through research, paper genealogy, and DNA testing.

J. Gerstenberger had a piano factory in Liegnitz, Silesia, around 1900. Elmar Kronberg recently wrote from Germany that his great grandfather had a clothing store on the ground floor, below the "Pianofortefabrik J. Gerstenberger. . .", and sent a picture of the building, with recognizable people in the windows, one of which may be J. Gerstenberger. We are both now interested in finding descendants of J. Gerstenberger, so we can learn more about him. If anyone knows what the J. stands for, or is a descendant, please write me at DGerstenberger@cox.net , or to Elmar Kronberg at elmar.kronberg@t-online.de .

An appeal to the Gerstenberger women: born Gerstenberg/er, wives of Gerstenberg/ers, or descendents of same - try to get a male relative to have his Y-chromosome DNA tested, and find out which big family group you belong to. The information will also give you a Haplogroup, which will tell you where your Gerstenberger ancestors were 5 or 10 thousand years ago!

If you ladies want to join the fun, get your mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA) tested - it traces your mother's mother's mother, etc., back to very early times (I'm back 16,000 years to the hills of Tuscany, just where I would like to be now!) You see, I also have mtDNA from my mother, but unlike you, I cannot pass it on. And for information on mtDNA and a fascinating read, try "The Seven Daughters of Eve", by Bryan Sykes.

If you have not signed the Guest Book, please do.

Special Notice: I will pay for a 15 Marker test for the next Gerstenberger who applies, who is in my book, and who does not belong to one of the already tested families.

We still have no DNA sample from the following U.S. families -- MA, 1st NY, West OH, and WI. We now have enough families tested that I believe in the future we only need to test for 15 loci to determine relationships. At Relative Genetics, the cost of 15 loci is $95, rather than the $195 for 37 loci (upgrades to 37 are available if necessary).

We now have nine different DNA families - additional samples have a wider and wider target. Hopefully we have not exhausted the supply of volunteers.

Previously, the experts told us that a match of less than 33 of 37 was not significant; with the additional data they are gathering every day, they now believe that, given the same surname, with a match of only 29 of 37 it is likely that you share a common ancestor within 24 generations, or about 600 years. Genetic Genealogy is starting to converge with Genetic Anthropology, and it is fascinating!

As Arnt and Robert's family and the IA/KS/MN family have a match of 29 of 37, we can now call each other 'cousin'. Don't you want to know if you are 'cousin' to this or one of the other families?

My favorite cartoon, from The New Yorker, many years ago: