About us
Since at least as far back as the 1600's, the surname Ruth has appeared in church records of Germany and other locations in Europe, and various Ruths have made their way to America in the last several centuries. Some Ruths emigrated to America in the 1700s and settled in Pennsylvania (mostly as part of the "Pennsylvania Dutch" ethnic group) or in other states, and the name became Root in some cases. Certain other Ruths immigrated from Germany in the 1800s or later. For example, in 2017, after many years of mystery and uncertainty, a genealogist convincingly traced the ancestry of baseball legend Babe Ruth and published an article about it. It turns out that his Ruth family hailed from an area at the border between present-day Baden-Württemburg and Bavaria. Still other Ruths have origins in the British Isles or other parts of Europe besides Germany.
There has been much genealogical interest in Ruth families over the years, resulting in several books and various other resources. In this DNA project, Y-DNA data will be used in combination with genealogical information to define multiple Ruth family groups and trace their ancestry. Also, as more genetic data are obtained, it is hoped that Ruth genealogy researchers eventually will be able to break through "brick walls" in their family trees by finding evidence of descendancy in certain lines, even when historical records are lacking.
Update, August 2021:
Much has been discovered since the Ruth project began in November 2019! Thanks to the many people who joined with earlier DNA results, and to those who were recruited and had new DNA testing, and to the genealogical research of various project members, we now have a better idea of the relationships among and origins of multiple Ruth, Root, Routh, and Rutt families. The paternal lines of all but one of the six Ruth groups in the project so far are of the Y-DNA haplogroup R1b, and specifically its subset R-M269 (the most common among males of European descent). Although they share the same ancient origins, the five R1b Ruth groups do not match with one another within the FTDNA system and are considered unrelated (the R-M269 haplogroup is known to be more than 4000 years old). Below are some of the major findings since the start of the project.
A) Babe Ruth-related paternal lines of Germany/Baltimore have unique Y-DNA (most Ruths are NOT related to him).
Since the early 20th century, perhaps the number one question within American Ruth families has been: "Are we related to Babe Ruth?" For better or worse, it turns out that the answer for most of them is "No." Although Babe Ruth's own paternal line ended with him (he had no sons), Y-DNA tests of several of his Ruth cousins reveal a distinct Y-DNA (the Y chromosome, passed down from father to son over the generations along with the surname) with no obvious relatives in FTDNA's Y-DNA databases within many hundreds of years (and possibly 1000+ years).
The Y-DNA results confirm the genealogical findings of Druscilla J. Null in her 2017 article "'My Father Was of German Extraction': Babe Ruth's Ruth/Rüdt Ancestors" in the Maryland Genealogical Society Journal (vol. 58, no. 3, pp. 377-410). The tested cousins descended from two Ruth brothers (Francis Joseph & Jacob Anton) who migrated from Mondfeld, Germany, to Baltimore in 1832. Jacob Anton Ruth (born 1808) was also the great-grandfather of baseball legend George Herman Ruth, Jr. (1895-1948), a.k.a. Babe Ruth. Consistent with the genealogy, one descendant of Jacob (kit #920290 in the Y-DNA results table) and two descendants of Francis (kits #196765 & 382016) were matches with one another in 111-marker Y-DNA STR tests.
To further characterize the Y-DNA of the Babe Ruth-related Ruth clan, a more advanced test, Big Y (Y chromosome DNA sequencing), was performed on the Jacob Anton Ruth descendant. This test defined him as R-FT367736 and identified no matches within the FTDNA Big Y system. His family line differs from the closest relative in the Big Y database by dozens of SNP markers (small mutations in the Y chromosome), indicating a very distant relationship to all others who had Big Y tests.
B) The paternal lines of multiple Pennsylvania Dutch and certain other German-American Ruths/Roots are related.
Although not known genealogically to be related, three different groups of American Ruths/Roots have now been revealed by Y-DNA to share a common paternal ancestor back in Europe. These groups are defined by 1) Peter Ruth, who immigrated in 1733 (ship Pennsylvania Merchant) from Walhausen in what is now the German state of Saarland and settled in Berks County, Pa.; 2) George Ruth, who immigrated in 1741 (ship Marlborough) from Oberalben, Germany, and settled in upper Bucks County, Pa. (Springfield Twp.); and 3) Theobald Ruth, who immigrated in 1833 and settled in southern Ohio (he was a grandson of Philip Ruth of Dietschweiler, Germany).
Ruths/Roots from all three of these groups match one another in Y-DNA STR and Big Y tests, and FTDNA defined them as R-BY39117, which is one of more than 20 unique SNP markers that the 3 groups share. Further SNP analysis from Big Y results has revealed that the Peter Ruth and Theobald Ruth groups are more closely related to each other than they are to the George Ruth group, leading to the following dendrogram:
_____ Oberalben/upper Bucks group (FT260680)
ancestral Ruth |
in pre-1700s _____| _____ Dietschweiler/Ohio group (BY39125)
Germany (R1b |_____|
haplogroup) |_____ Saarland/Berks group (BY39125 & BY40737)
Interestingly, Peter Ruth's grandfather Adam is documented to have lived in the town of Ulmet, which is just a couple of miles east of Oberalben (where George Ruth lived), and both are about 10 miles north of Dietschweiler. This suggests that the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) shared among the three groups may have lived in that area of what is now the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
C) Mennonite Ruths and Rutts share a paternal ancestor with one another, but not with other Pa. Dutch Ruths.
Since the 1700s, two prominent Mennonite families of southeastern Pennsylvania have been the Ruths of Montgomery County/Bucks County and the Rutts of Lancaster County, and Y-DNA testing has now confirmed that they have the same origins in Europe and are genetically distinct from other tested Ruths. Specifically, Y-DNA STR tests of descendants of Henry Ruth and Henry Rutt of 1700s Pennsylvania match with each other, and their Y chromosomes have the I2a haplogroup I-P37, while most other tested Ruths (including those of the other Pennsylvania Dutch lines, from Berks and upper Bucks County, as described above) have the haplogroup R1b.
Henry Ruth (born circa 1690s, died Jan. 1757 or late 1756) likely immigrated from Germany in 1717 (as did many families of the Mennonite faith), and he initially settled in part of what is now Harleysville in Montgomery County, but in the 1740s he and his family moved about 8 miles east, settling in New Britain Twp., Bucks County, near what is now Line Lexington. Today, Mennonite communities in both places include Ruths who are descendants of Henry, and one of these descendants was tested. Although the 1700s ancestry of Lancaster County Rutt families is still being investigated, what is known is that multiple Mennonite Rutts resided since at least the 1770s in Earl Twp. (which back then included what are now the townships of Earl, East Earl, & West Earl). These included brothers Christian & Henry Rutt, who appear in some records as Root. A descendant of Henry Rutt (died circa 1797) was tested previously for the FTDNA project Mennonite and Amish Immigrants to Pennsylvania, and he is a Y-DNA match with the Henry Ruth descendant.
The Ruth-Rutt Y-DNA results are consistent with the documented migration of Mennonites from Switzerland to Germany's Palatinate region and neighboring areas in the 1600s, followed by emigration of some of their descendants to America in the subsequent years. The appearance of Anabaptist Ruths/Rutts in Swiss and German records of the early 1700s and earlier strongly suggests that the aforementioned migrations included the ancestors of the Pennsylvania Mennonite Ruth and Rutt families.
D) Rouths/Ruths with early Southern or Delaware roots fit into two distinct/unrelated Y-DNA genetic groups.
Two early families of colonial America were the English Quaker Rouths of Pennsylvania/New Jersey and the Ruths of New Castle County, Delaware. Now, likely descendants or their relatives have been DNA-tested, revealing what are probably the Y-DNA profiles of these two groups.
Although both groups have the overall R1b haplotype like most tested Ruths, they are unrelated since long before the widespread use of surnames in Europe. Within the Ruth project, the Routh/Ruth group includes a Routh and two Ruths with early North Carolina and/or Tennessee ancestry (some members of the Routh family are documented to have moved south to NC in the 1700s), and Big Y testing has defined them as R-BY56945, referring to one of more than a dozen novel SNP markers shared by the two individuals tested. The other group contains two Ruths, one of whom (kit #817623) has 1700s North Carolina roots like some from the Routh group. However, this person is not a Y-DNA match with them, but instead matches a descendant (kit #B174170) of the Ruths who lived for many generations in New Castle County, Delaware. The origins and connections of the Delaware Ruths and their paternal-line relatives will be further investigated.
E) The German baptismal record (1697) of Berks County, Pa., settler Peter Ruth has been found.
Although the identities of the parents of major Berks County Ruth patriarch Peter Ruth (died 1771 in what is now the Sinking Spring area) have long been known (Melchior & Maria Catharine Ruth), no specific record of his birth or baptism has previously emerged publicly from Ruth research. However, the record of his February 15, 1697, baptism has now been discovered among the Reformed Church records of Baumholder, Germany. These records reveal that Peter's parents married there in 1688 and lived in the area for over a decade, before moving west around the turn of the century to what is now Saarland.
In the 1697 record, Peter was christened "Hanss Peter Rud", and father Melchior was described as a "Hirt" (herdsman or shepherd) of Ronenberg, a now-nonexistent village that stood a couple of miles east of Baumholder. Although Peter's exact date and place of birth are not noted, we now know that he must have been born in early 1697 or late 1696 near Baumholder, in what is now the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is now clear that the oft-reported 1704 birth year for Peter Ruth is apocryphal, likely originating from the "about 1704" written about Peter by Warren S. Kriebel in his 1972 and 1981 Ruth genealogy books (it presumably was just an extrapolation from Peter's 1724 marriage date).
F) The Pa. origins of Midwesterners Samuel Root (1821-1877) & Richard S. Ruth (1827-1913) have been discovered.
The Berks County, Pa., Ruth lineages of a Root and a Ruth who settled in the Midwest in the mid-to-late 1800s have now been revealed by Y-DNA and autosomal DNA matching in combination with public records. Samuel Root (1821-1877) appeared in Bern Twp. (Berks County) in the 1850 census, but then he lived in Ohio in the mid-1850's and in Illinois in the early 1860's, and by 1870, he was in Wilson County, Kansas, where he died in 1877. We now know that he was a son of Jonathan/Jonas Ruth (born 1789) of Bern Twp., due to strong autosomal DNA matching between a Samuel descendant and a descendant of Israel Ruth (1824-1901), another son of Jonathan/Jonas:
1) Peter Ruth (circa 1697-1771) & Anna Sophia Lauer
2) Jacob Ruth (1726-1797) & Anna Elizabeth Schell
3) Peter Ruth (1764-1819)
4) Jonathan/Jonas Ruth (born 1789)
5) Samuel Root (1821-1877) - descendant is kit #426606 in Y-DNA results table
5) Israel Ruth (1824-1901)
John Ruth and Josephus Ruth (1831-1888) were reportedly other sons of Jonathan/Jonas Ruth, who is sometimes confused with his half uncle of the same name(s) (1784-1844).
Another Jacob Ruth descendant who ended up in Kansas was Richard S. Ruth (1827-1913). In the 1850 census, he appeared in the city of Lancaster in Lancaster County, and he appeared in Berks County in the 1860 & 1870 censuses, in Robeson Twp. and in the city of Reading, respectively. He was a member of Company I of the 128th Pa. Infantry in the Civil War. In 1871, he was one of a group of pioneers who travelled from Pennsylvania and settled Osborne County, Kansas. Public records together with Y-DNA and autosomal DNA matching have now demonstrated that Richard must have been a son of Peter Ruth, who was the eldest son of Philip Ruth of what is now Spring Twp., Berks County:
1) Peter Ruth (circa 1697-1771) & Anna Sophia Lauer
2) Jacob Ruth (1726-1797) & Catharine Krick (1749-1811)
3) Philip Ruth (1776-1833)
4) Peter Ruth (circa 1803-late 1840s)
5) Richard S. Ruth (1827-1913) - descendants are kits #507132, 532838, & 738584
4) Thomas Ruth (circa 1812-1871)
5) John Franklin Ruth, Sr. (1848-1913) - descendant is kit #B66698
Peter's wife was Sarah Schaeffer (1802-1875), a daughter of Peter Schaeffer (1768-early 1830s) and Catharine Hain (1779-1872).
G) The paternal ancestry of Peter Ruth (circa 1817-1895) has been confirmed through Y-DNA and public records.
As mentioned above, the fundamental Y-DNA genetic profile of early Berks County settler Peter Ruth is known from tests of individuals now known to be paternal-line descendants through his son Jacob. Importantly, this in turn helps confirm previous research regarding one of Peter's younger sons, Francis, born to Peter's 2nd wife Anna Catharine Mayer. Specifically, a descendant of Francis through his son Jacob and grandson Peter was a Y-DNA STR & Big Y match with descendants of Francis' half brother Jacob, further validating a Francis Ruth line that had been successfully characterized.
As detailed in a 2014 article in The Livermore Roots Tracer (vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 4-7), Danielle Forestier traced the migration of her great-great-grandfather Peter Ruth (circa 1817-1895) among the states of Pennsylvania, Missouri, Illinois, and Washington, ultimately discovering the identity of his father as Jacob Ruth (Francis' son). In addition, Y-DNA testing of a family member provided genetic information:
1) Peter Ruth (circa 1697-1771) & Anna Catharine Mayer
2) Francis Ruth (1749/1750-1808)
3) Jacob Ruth (1792-1830)
4) Peter Ruth (circa 1817-1895) - descendant is kit #300711 in Y-DNA results table
Although the 1792 birth and baptism of Jacob are in the records of Hain's Church in Berks County, it appears that he lived most of his life in Lancaster County. His wife was Susanna Johns (1796-1884), a daughter of John & Elizabeth Johns of Lancaster County.
Although no birth or baptismal record of Francis Ruth (who appears in some records as Frantz) is known, the birth/baptismal record of a sibling indicates that the 12/13/1750 birthdate on Francis' 1808 tombstone at Muddy Creek Church Cemetery may be incorrect. The baptismal records of Christ Lutheran Church, Stouchsburg, Pa., state that sister Maria Magdalena was born in April 1751 and baptized in May 1751, ruling out a December 1750 birthdate for Francis. In the same set of records, brother Johann Henrich (Henry) is shown as born 6/1/1748 and baptized 8/21/1748, suggesting that Francis was born no earlier than 1749. Because of the uncertainty, Francis' year of birth is expressed above as 1749/1750.
H) Y-DNA confirms Jacob Root(s) (1793-1874) of VA/OH as a grandson of George Ruth Sr. of upper Bucks County.
Jacob Root/Roots moved from the Shenandoah Valley area of Virginia to Montgomery County, Ohio, in the 1820s, and it had long been suspected within the families of some of his descendants that 1) his father was Michael Root/Roots of Virginia (Jacob & Michael were counted consecutively in the 1810 census) and that 2) Michael was a son of George Ruth Sr. of Springfield Twp., Bucks County, Pa. Y-DNA STR & Big Y results have now confirmed this, through matching among descendants of Jacob and descendants of two well-documented sons of George Sr. (George Jr. and Peter Ruth):
1) George Ruth, Sr. (circa 1715-1786/1787)
2) George Ruth, Jr. (circa 1741-1796)
3) Jacob Ruth (1787-1832) - descendant is kit #925220 in Y-DNA results table
2) Michael Ruth/Root(s) (1746-1842)
3) Jacob Root(s) (1793-1874) - descendants are kits #B69033 & 807620
2) Peter Ruth (circa 1750-1833)
3) Michael Ruth (circa 1770s-1817) - descendant is kit #915149 in Y-DNA results table
From the perspective of researchers of the upper Bucks Ruths, a longstanding mystery regarding the family of George Ruth Sr. has been solved. Michael Ruth, an apparent son of George Sr., appeared in a handful of Springfield Twp. records in the 1770s, but then in nothing after that. It turns out that the key record is the 1836 Revolutionary War pension application of Michael Roots, who stated that he was born in 1746 in Bucks County, Pa., and moved to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in 1779, and that he participated in the war both before and after the move. Records in Pa. & Va. and the Y-DNA results are all consistent with one another, supporting the paternal lines shown above.
There has been much genealogical interest in Ruth families over the years, resulting in several books and various other resources. In this DNA project, Y-DNA data will be used in combination with genealogical information to define multiple Ruth family groups and trace their ancestry. Also, as more genetic data are obtained, it is hoped that Ruth genealogy researchers eventually will be able to break through "brick walls" in their family trees by finding evidence of descendancy in certain lines, even when historical records are lacking.
Update, August 2021:
Much has been discovered since the Ruth project began in November 2019! Thanks to the many people who joined with earlier DNA results, and to those who were recruited and had new DNA testing, and to the genealogical research of various project members, we now have a better idea of the relationships among and origins of multiple Ruth, Root, Routh, and Rutt families. The paternal lines of all but one of the six Ruth groups in the project so far are of the Y-DNA haplogroup R1b, and specifically its subset R-M269 (the most common among males of European descent). Although they share the same ancient origins, the five R1b Ruth groups do not match with one another within the FTDNA system and are considered unrelated (the R-M269 haplogroup is known to be more than 4000 years old). Below are some of the major findings since the start of the project.
A) Babe Ruth-related paternal lines of Germany/Baltimore have unique Y-DNA (most Ruths are NOT related to him).
Since the early 20th century, perhaps the number one question within American Ruth families has been: "Are we related to Babe Ruth?" For better or worse, it turns out that the answer for most of them is "No." Although Babe Ruth's own paternal line ended with him (he had no sons), Y-DNA tests of several of his Ruth cousins reveal a distinct Y-DNA (the Y chromosome, passed down from father to son over the generations along with the surname) with no obvious relatives in FTDNA's Y-DNA databases within many hundreds of years (and possibly 1000+ years).
The Y-DNA results confirm the genealogical findings of Druscilla J. Null in her 2017 article "'My Father Was of German Extraction': Babe Ruth's Ruth/Rüdt Ancestors" in the Maryland Genealogical Society Journal (vol. 58, no. 3, pp. 377-410). The tested cousins descended from two Ruth brothers (Francis Joseph & Jacob Anton) who migrated from Mondfeld, Germany, to Baltimore in 1832. Jacob Anton Ruth (born 1808) was also the great-grandfather of baseball legend George Herman Ruth, Jr. (1895-1948), a.k.a. Babe Ruth. Consistent with the genealogy, one descendant of Jacob (kit #920290 in the Y-DNA results table) and two descendants of Francis (kits #196765 & 382016) were matches with one another in 111-marker Y-DNA STR tests.
To further characterize the Y-DNA of the Babe Ruth-related Ruth clan, a more advanced test, Big Y (Y chromosome DNA sequencing), was performed on the Jacob Anton Ruth descendant. This test defined him as R-FT367736 and identified no matches within the FTDNA Big Y system. His family line differs from the closest relative in the Big Y database by dozens of SNP markers (small mutations in the Y chromosome), indicating a very distant relationship to all others who had Big Y tests.
B) The paternal lines of multiple Pennsylvania Dutch and certain other German-American Ruths/Roots are related.
Although not known genealogically to be related, three different groups of American Ruths/Roots have now been revealed by Y-DNA to share a common paternal ancestor back in Europe. These groups are defined by 1) Peter Ruth, who immigrated in 1733 (ship Pennsylvania Merchant) from Walhausen in what is now the German state of Saarland and settled in Berks County, Pa.; 2) George Ruth, who immigrated in 1741 (ship Marlborough) from Oberalben, Germany, and settled in upper Bucks County, Pa. (Springfield Twp.); and 3) Theobald Ruth, who immigrated in 1833 and settled in southern Ohio (he was a grandson of Philip Ruth of Dietschweiler, Germany).
Ruths/Roots from all three of these groups match one another in Y-DNA STR and Big Y tests, and FTDNA defined them as R-BY39117, which is one of more than 20 unique SNP markers that the 3 groups share. Further SNP analysis from Big Y results has revealed that the Peter Ruth and Theobald Ruth groups are more closely related to each other than they are to the George Ruth group, leading to the following dendrogram:
_____ Oberalben/upper Bucks group (FT260680)
ancestral Ruth |
in pre-1700s _____| _____ Dietschweiler/Ohio group (BY39125)
Germany (R1b |_____|
haplogroup) |_____ Saarland/Berks group (BY39125 & BY40737)
Interestingly, Peter Ruth's grandfather Adam is documented to have lived in the town of Ulmet, which is just a couple of miles east of Oberalben (where George Ruth lived), and both are about 10 miles north of Dietschweiler. This suggests that the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) shared among the three groups may have lived in that area of what is now the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
C) Mennonite Ruths and Rutts share a paternal ancestor with one another, but not with other Pa. Dutch Ruths.
Since the 1700s, two prominent Mennonite families of southeastern Pennsylvania have been the Ruths of Montgomery County/Bucks County and the Rutts of Lancaster County, and Y-DNA testing has now confirmed that they have the same origins in Europe and are genetically distinct from other tested Ruths. Specifically, Y-DNA STR tests of descendants of Henry Ruth and Henry Rutt of 1700s Pennsylvania match with each other, and their Y chromosomes have the I2a haplogroup I-P37, while most other tested Ruths (including those of the other Pennsylvania Dutch lines, from Berks and upper Bucks County, as described above) have the haplogroup R1b.
Henry Ruth (born circa 1690s, died Jan. 1757 or late 1756) likely immigrated from Germany in 1717 (as did many families of the Mennonite faith), and he initially settled in part of what is now Harleysville in Montgomery County, but in the 1740s he and his family moved about 8 miles east, settling in New Britain Twp., Bucks County, near what is now Line Lexington. Today, Mennonite communities in both places include Ruths who are descendants of Henry, and one of these descendants was tested. Although the 1700s ancestry of Lancaster County Rutt families is still being investigated, what is known is that multiple Mennonite Rutts resided since at least the 1770s in Earl Twp. (which back then included what are now the townships of Earl, East Earl, & West Earl). These included brothers Christian & Henry Rutt, who appear in some records as Root. A descendant of Henry Rutt (died circa 1797) was tested previously for the FTDNA project Mennonite and Amish Immigrants to Pennsylvania, and he is a Y-DNA match with the Henry Ruth descendant.
The Ruth-Rutt Y-DNA results are consistent with the documented migration of Mennonites from Switzerland to Germany's Palatinate region and neighboring areas in the 1600s, followed by emigration of some of their descendants to America in the subsequent years. The appearance of Anabaptist Ruths/Rutts in Swiss and German records of the early 1700s and earlier strongly suggests that the aforementioned migrations included the ancestors of the Pennsylvania Mennonite Ruth and Rutt families.
D) Rouths/Ruths with early Southern or Delaware roots fit into two distinct/unrelated Y-DNA genetic groups.
Two early families of colonial America were the English Quaker Rouths of Pennsylvania/New Jersey and the Ruths of New Castle County, Delaware. Now, likely descendants or their relatives have been DNA-tested, revealing what are probably the Y-DNA profiles of these two groups.
Although both groups have the overall R1b haplotype like most tested Ruths, they are unrelated since long before the widespread use of surnames in Europe. Within the Ruth project, the Routh/Ruth group includes a Routh and two Ruths with early North Carolina and/or Tennessee ancestry (some members of the Routh family are documented to have moved south to NC in the 1700s), and Big Y testing has defined them as R-BY56945, referring to one of more than a dozen novel SNP markers shared by the two individuals tested. The other group contains two Ruths, one of whom (kit #817623) has 1700s North Carolina roots like some from the Routh group. However, this person is not a Y-DNA match with them, but instead matches a descendant (kit #B174170) of the Ruths who lived for many generations in New Castle County, Delaware. The origins and connections of the Delaware Ruths and their paternal-line relatives will be further investigated.
E) The German baptismal record (1697) of Berks County, Pa., settler Peter Ruth has been found.
Although the identities of the parents of major Berks County Ruth patriarch Peter Ruth (died 1771 in what is now the Sinking Spring area) have long been known (Melchior & Maria Catharine Ruth), no specific record of his birth or baptism has previously emerged publicly from Ruth research. However, the record of his February 15, 1697, baptism has now been discovered among the Reformed Church records of Baumholder, Germany. These records reveal that Peter's parents married there in 1688 and lived in the area for over a decade, before moving west around the turn of the century to what is now Saarland.
In the 1697 record, Peter was christened "Hanss Peter Rud", and father Melchior was described as a "Hirt" (herdsman or shepherd) of Ronenberg, a now-nonexistent village that stood a couple of miles east of Baumholder. Although Peter's exact date and place of birth are not noted, we now know that he must have been born in early 1697 or late 1696 near Baumholder, in what is now the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is now clear that the oft-reported 1704 birth year for Peter Ruth is apocryphal, likely originating from the "about 1704" written about Peter by Warren S. Kriebel in his 1972 and 1981 Ruth genealogy books (it presumably was just an extrapolation from Peter's 1724 marriage date).
F) The Pa. origins of Midwesterners Samuel Root (1821-1877) & Richard S. Ruth (1827-1913) have been discovered.
The Berks County, Pa., Ruth lineages of a Root and a Ruth who settled in the Midwest in the mid-to-late 1800s have now been revealed by Y-DNA and autosomal DNA matching in combination with public records. Samuel Root (1821-1877) appeared in Bern Twp. (Berks County) in the 1850 census, but then he lived in Ohio in the mid-1850's and in Illinois in the early 1860's, and by 1870, he was in Wilson County, Kansas, where he died in 1877. We now know that he was a son of Jonathan/Jonas Ruth (born 1789) of Bern Twp., due to strong autosomal DNA matching between a Samuel descendant and a descendant of Israel Ruth (1824-1901), another son of Jonathan/Jonas:
1) Peter Ruth (circa 1697-1771) & Anna Sophia Lauer
2) Jacob Ruth (1726-1797) & Anna Elizabeth Schell
3) Peter Ruth (1764-1819)
4) Jonathan/Jonas Ruth (born 1789)
5) Samuel Root (1821-1877) - descendant is kit #426606 in Y-DNA results table
5) Israel Ruth (1824-1901)
John Ruth and Josephus Ruth (1831-1888) were reportedly other sons of Jonathan/Jonas Ruth, who is sometimes confused with his half uncle of the same name(s) (1784-1844).
Another Jacob Ruth descendant who ended up in Kansas was Richard S. Ruth (1827-1913). In the 1850 census, he appeared in the city of Lancaster in Lancaster County, and he appeared in Berks County in the 1860 & 1870 censuses, in Robeson Twp. and in the city of Reading, respectively. He was a member of Company I of the 128th Pa. Infantry in the Civil War. In 1871, he was one of a group of pioneers who travelled from Pennsylvania and settled Osborne County, Kansas. Public records together with Y-DNA and autosomal DNA matching have now demonstrated that Richard must have been a son of Peter Ruth, who was the eldest son of Philip Ruth of what is now Spring Twp., Berks County:
1) Peter Ruth (circa 1697-1771) & Anna Sophia Lauer
2) Jacob Ruth (1726-1797) & Catharine Krick (1749-1811)
3) Philip Ruth (1776-1833)
4) Peter Ruth (circa 1803-late 1840s)
5) Richard S. Ruth (1827-1913) - descendants are kits #507132, 532838, & 738584
4) Thomas Ruth (circa 1812-1871)
5) John Franklin Ruth, Sr. (1848-1913) - descendant is kit #B66698
Peter's wife was Sarah Schaeffer (1802-1875), a daughter of Peter Schaeffer (1768-early 1830s) and Catharine Hain (1779-1872).
G) The paternal ancestry of Peter Ruth (circa 1817-1895) has been confirmed through Y-DNA and public records.
As mentioned above, the fundamental Y-DNA genetic profile of early Berks County settler Peter Ruth is known from tests of individuals now known to be paternal-line descendants through his son Jacob. Importantly, this in turn helps confirm previous research regarding one of Peter's younger sons, Francis, born to Peter's 2nd wife Anna Catharine Mayer. Specifically, a descendant of Francis through his son Jacob and grandson Peter was a Y-DNA STR & Big Y match with descendants of Francis' half brother Jacob, further validating a Francis Ruth line that had been successfully characterized.
As detailed in a 2014 article in The Livermore Roots Tracer (vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 4-7), Danielle Forestier traced the migration of her great-great-grandfather Peter Ruth (circa 1817-1895) among the states of Pennsylvania, Missouri, Illinois, and Washington, ultimately discovering the identity of his father as Jacob Ruth (Francis' son). In addition, Y-DNA testing of a family member provided genetic information:
1) Peter Ruth (circa 1697-1771) & Anna Catharine Mayer
2) Francis Ruth (1749/1750-1808)
3) Jacob Ruth (1792-1830)
4) Peter Ruth (circa 1817-1895) - descendant is kit #300711 in Y-DNA results table
Although the 1792 birth and baptism of Jacob are in the records of Hain's Church in Berks County, it appears that he lived most of his life in Lancaster County. His wife was Susanna Johns (1796-1884), a daughter of John & Elizabeth Johns of Lancaster County.
Although no birth or baptismal record of Francis Ruth (who appears in some records as Frantz) is known, the birth/baptismal record of a sibling indicates that the 12/13/1750 birthdate on Francis' 1808 tombstone at Muddy Creek Church Cemetery may be incorrect. The baptismal records of Christ Lutheran Church, Stouchsburg, Pa., state that sister Maria Magdalena was born in April 1751 and baptized in May 1751, ruling out a December 1750 birthdate for Francis. In the same set of records, brother Johann Henrich (Henry) is shown as born 6/1/1748 and baptized 8/21/1748, suggesting that Francis was born no earlier than 1749. Because of the uncertainty, Francis' year of birth is expressed above as 1749/1750.
H) Y-DNA confirms Jacob Root(s) (1793-1874) of VA/OH as a grandson of George Ruth Sr. of upper Bucks County.
Jacob Root/Roots moved from the Shenandoah Valley area of Virginia to Montgomery County, Ohio, in the 1820s, and it had long been suspected within the families of some of his descendants that 1) his father was Michael Root/Roots of Virginia (Jacob & Michael were counted consecutively in the 1810 census) and that 2) Michael was a son of George Ruth Sr. of Springfield Twp., Bucks County, Pa. Y-DNA STR & Big Y results have now confirmed this, through matching among descendants of Jacob and descendants of two well-documented sons of George Sr. (George Jr. and Peter Ruth):
1) George Ruth, Sr. (circa 1715-1786/1787)
2) George Ruth, Jr. (circa 1741-1796)
3) Jacob Ruth (1787-1832) - descendant is kit #925220 in Y-DNA results table
2) Michael Ruth/Root(s) (1746-1842)
3) Jacob Root(s) (1793-1874) - descendants are kits #B69033 & 807620
2) Peter Ruth (circa 1750-1833)
3) Michael Ruth (circa 1770s-1817) - descendant is kit #915149 in Y-DNA results table
From the perspective of researchers of the upper Bucks Ruths, a longstanding mystery regarding the family of George Ruth Sr. has been solved. Michael Ruth, an apparent son of George Sr., appeared in a handful of Springfield Twp. records in the 1770s, but then in nothing after that. It turns out that the key record is the 1836 Revolutionary War pension application of Michael Roots, who stated that he was born in 1746 in Bucks County, Pa., and moved to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in 1779, and that he participated in the war both before and after the move. Records in Pa. & Va. and the Y-DNA results are all consistent with one another, supporting the paternal lines shown above.