English Beecher DNA Keeps Matching German Ancestors
In 2004 a group of Beecher family researchers began collecting Y-DNA samples from living male Beechers to identify the unqiue Beecher lines living today in America.
If you are a male Beecher, you are invited to learn which Beecher line you are related to by taking a Y-DNA genealogy test, easily done by returning a saliva sample in the supplied test kit (see http://www.SearchTrees.com/dnahttp://www.SearchTrees.com/dna ) The test can confirm if you are related or not to:
1. John Beecher (1594-1637) who immigrated in 1637 to New Haven, CT from Kent, England (line of Lyman Beecher, Henry Ward Beecher, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin). As part of our project, we got DNA from a living Beecher in Kent, England that proved the Connecticut Beecher descendants match.
2. The Pennsylvania Beecher line that immigrated from Germany in the early 1700's, and in later generations spread nationwide. Surnames matching this Beecher group also include Beacher, Bicher, and Bücher.
In a surprise we didn't expect, our CT English Beecher DNA samples began matching with German-speaking immigrants who arrived in other parts of America in the 1700's. 1) Johann Ulrich Bücher (1868-1750) born in Michelbach, Wurttemberg, Germany who died in Frederick County, VA 2) Abraham Bücher (aka Abrhaam Bougher) (1763-1840) and his brother John Bugher (1773-1855), born in Bucks Co. PA
Also 3) John Wesley Bücher (1802-1868) born in PA who died in Hancock Co. VA (now WV). 4) Don Alonzo Booher b.1815 in Hardin Co. KY.
Bücher with the umlaut over the U is pronounced in German like Beecher. Bücher means books, and Buche means paper and is also a word for beech tree from which early paper was made. The surname Bücher may have originated to name a woodsman who lumbered beech trees.
The conclusion from DNA results is these German speaking American immigrants shared a common male ancestor with the English Beechers sometime in the 1500's, and a branch of the family moved to England later on.
See our other research site athttp://www.FamilyTreeDNA.com/public/bucherhttp://www.FamilyTreeDNA.com/public/bucher for more info on the DNA research results.