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February 2008

WANTED:  A Swiss Durrenberger to participate in the Durrenberger DNA Project.  The cost of the test will be paid by the Project Administrator. Contact me via email.

 Project Administrator

A Durrenberger DNA Surname Project has been opened at the website of FamilyTreeDNA.

This project will test certain DNA markers to determine whether the Durrenbergers, living in various parts of the world, have a common ancestry. Males carrying the Durrenberger surname, or variants of it, are eligible to participate.  Click the "DNA Project" link at the top of the page to learn more about this project.

The initial DNA tests results indicate that there is no blood relationship between the "Minnesota Durrenbergers" and the "Texas Durrenbergers". The Minnesota group is descended from a Durrenberger family in Germany while the Texas group is descended from a family in Alsace. 

The Minnesota (German) Durrenbergers are members of the E3b1 Haplogroup.  This group is believed to have evolved in the Middle East. It expanded into the Mediterranean during the Pleistocene Neolithic expansion. It is currently distributed around the Mediterranean, southern Europe, and in north and east Africa.

The Texas (Alsace) Durrenbergers are members of the R1b haplogroup. Haplogroup R1b is the most common haplogroup in European populations. It is believed to have expanded throughout Europe as humans re-colonized after the last glacial maximum 10-12 thousand years ago. This lineage is also the haplogroup containing the Atlantic modal haplotype.

A further DNA test of a male university student from Mertzweiller, Alsace shows that he has a perfect 25-marker match with the Texas Durrenberger family which would indicate that there is a 90% chance that they have a common ancestor within the last 23 generations.
 
   

Origin of the Durrenberger Surname

In the United States and Canada, Durrenbergers have traced their heritage back to several regions in Europe including:
The Minnesota Durrenbergers

The Minnesota branch of the Durrenberger Family has a fairly complete study of its lineage back to the time when Gebhard Ignatius Dürrenberger emigrated from Württemberg, Germany to the United States in 1854.

The children of Gephard Ignatius and Theresa (Mueller) Durrenberger
 

Gebhard Dürrenberger soon changed his name to Gephard Durrenberger and settled near Henderson, Minnesota.  At this time Henderson was a thriving village of log buildings that represented a point of departure for stage and freight lines taking people from the steamships running up the Minnesota from Saint Paul to Mankato.

Gephard married Theresa Mueller, also from Württemberg, Germany, in 1859.  After their marriage, they moved to Sibley county where they lived a number of years before going to Nicollet county and then to Le Sueur county about 1893.  They raised nine children, and were farmers.

Descendants of Gephard include  several notable people who have been listed in "Who's Who in America".

 
The Texas Durrenbergers

The Texas branch of the Durrenberger Family are descendants of Joseph Durrenberger, born near Buffalo, N.Y. in 1841. Joseph was the son of Joseph Durrenberger who emigrated to the United States from Mertzweiller, Alsace Loraine.  Joseph II served in the Civil War and was discharged in New Orleans in 1864.  There he met and married Josephine Christina Voekel, a French speaking woman from Alsace Lorraine.  Joseph obtained a land grant given to Civil War veterans and settled on a ranch near Giddings, Texas. There, he raised his family and engaged in farming and banking.

Josephine and Joseph Durrenberger with their children.

After his wife died in 1909, Joseph moved to Orlando, where he lived with his son, William.  He took an active interest in investing in various industries and in the development of the City of Orlando.  His descendants are widely scattered across the United States and include a number of notable scientists and businessmen. 

It is believed that the grandfather of Joseph was Anthony Durrenberger and it is believed that he came to this country with his wife and son, Joseph I, in 1937 from Alsace Lorraine.

(Information about the Texas Durrenbergers is courtesy of Mrs. Janet Drumm Dirnberger, Mrs. Elizabeth Durrenberger Beverly, Mrs. Nella Neary, and Joe Durrenberger)

With your help, we want to research our European roots. The question we want to answer is whether the various Durrenberger families from around the world, came from common ancestry. With that information, we might be able to locate the common link that will tie together our family trees.

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