Aug 2001: Adam Kerchner 1741 immigrant to Pennsylvania line, represented by kit 577, is linked to and shown to be related to the Frederick Kirchner 1751 immigrant to Pennsylvania line, represented by kit 581. See the separate Success Story page for more details about the initial trials and tribulations in pursuing this goal and the process of working the problem, planning the testing, and proving this conclusion beyond any reasonable doubt. Feb 2003: YDNA testing confirmed the prior traditional paper trail research (and onomastic and etymology knowledge) which surmised that the Kerchner family in the USA represented by kit 577, and the Kerschner family in the USA represented by kit 7049, are completely different Germanic family surnames and that they are not related to each other despite frequent confusion of the two families in public historical records in the USA due to spelling errors over time. This put to rest conjecture over many years by some researchers that the two families could some how have been related on the male line a few hundreds of years ago in Germany. Such is not the case. The two lines are in completely different haplogroups and thus do not share a common direct male line ancestor. At least not in the last 10,000 years. Long, long before recorded history and/or before surnames were even contemplated. Thus from a genealogy research perspective we can say they are clearly not related in a time frame of genealogical relevance. See the Y Results table above for more details showing the two groups completely different haplotypes and haplogroups. Such is the power of YDNA testing to resolve long standing genealogy theories. Mar 2005: Kerchner family in Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany, represented by kit 30528, linked to Kerchner family of Baltimore MD USA and thence to the Freudenberg, Baden, Germany, line of Kerchners. Jul 2007: Kircher family of Schwabisch Hall, Wuerttemberg, Germany, represented by kit 80470, linked to Kircher family of Maryland and Delaware in USA. Jul 2008: Project has 50 members. Apr 2010: Project has 57 members. 37 Marker Results Table for Project ParticipantsA Brief Description of the Ancient Origins of the R1b yDNA Haplogroup and other yDNA Haplogroups. The Y-DNA test results combined with the prior traditional research indicates that the two early immigrants Adam Kerchner and Frederick Kirchner, represented by their respective direct line male descendants who are kits 577 & 784 and kits 581 & 8670, were probably related. See these websites for more details.Kerchner Surname Project Success Stories PageKerchner Surname Project Testing at Multiple Labs LabMerge PageKerchner Surname Project Kerchner.com Home Page

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