Many of the Kountz families in America today are descended from one John Christian Kuntz, who came to America from the Grand Duchy of Baden, Germany in 1852, presumably alone, and settled in Louisville, Kentucky. In Louisville the name Kuntz changed to Kountz (pronounced Koontz). From there the Kountz family spread to Indiana, Florida, Arizona, Tennessee, Ohio, California, Illinois, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, and can be found in many other states as well. The problem faced by descendants of this man is that no records are currently available regarding his pre-American history. The court book that held his immigration records is the only one to have been stolen from the Kentucky archives. The church records for his family were lost in transit to a new home. No ship record has yet been found to document his journey to America. Many years and thousands of dollars have been spent in the attempt to locate the records of John Christian Kuntz’s origin, but no progress had been made. Then Michael Kountz, a direct descendant of John, took his first Y-DNA test with FTDNA. The Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation collected over 100,000 DNA samples and familial pedigrees from all over the world. It had a publicly accessible database that allowed people with their own Y-DNA test results to compare their results to the Sorenson database. Michael submitted his Y-DNA results to be compared with the database, and found some very interesting results. Four members of the Sorenson database, all with a variant of the last name “Kinsey,” showed as being descended from the same man as Michael, and that man lived relatively recently. The pedigree information that accompanied those results showed that each member traced their lineage back to the same person: one Christen Kunzi from Switzerland. According to these pedigrees, Christen Kunzi was born in Honegg, located in the commune Uebeschi, parish of Thierachern, district Thun, Switzerland prior to 1700. Christen died 16 Nov 1774 in the Alsace Township, Berks, PA, at 74 years of age. His body was interred 1774 in Kinsey Cemetery, Kinsey Homestead, Oley, Berks Co, PA. The similarity of the name Kunzi to Kuntz is exciting. Given that he immigrated in the early 1700’s, though, it is clear that the Kountz’s in America are not descended from him. Instead, Christen Kuntzi and John Christian Kuntz share a direct paternal ancestor in relatively recent history. This means that perhaps a brother or an uncle stayed behind in Switzerland to raise their family, which moved at some point to Baden, Germany, before coming to America in 1852. This is confirmed in by a record in Faust and Brumbaugh's Lists of Swiss Immigrants To The American Colonies, 2nd volume, pg. 58, which states that after his immigration, representatives of his family remained in his home, the location of which is mentioned above. It is our ultimate goal to use this group to connect the American branches of this family to those still living in the ancestral homeland: Switzerland, or even Germany. The descendants of this man and his family exhibit a wide variety in the spelling of their surnames; Kountz, Kinzy, Kuntzli, and Kinsey are some examples. To contribute to this group, a male with one of these surnames (or a similar name) must test Y-DNA to at least 67, though we will not turn away anyone who has tested less. While that is our primary objective, we still welcome members of any Kountz family, male or female, who have taken any DNA test. These can help link family members together who may not know that they’re related. The descendants of Christen Kunzi who tested with the Sorenson Foundation were all of Haplogroup I1, as well as one descendant currently in this group. Michael Kountz is also I1. More specifically: I-A6397. Donations to the general funded are requested to fund the upgrade of one of our member's YDNA 67 test to a Y111 or Y500. The intent is to purchase the upgrade during one of the annual sales, vastly decreasing the cost. To this end, our goal is 400 dollars. Donations can be made directly here on the site using the link found on the menu to the left, or by using the nonprofit donation link found on the Kountz Family NAtional Foundation website, located here: http://www.kountz.org/extrapgs/kfnf.php All donations made using this method are tax deductible