This project is intended as a meeting place to develop the South African DNA tree on geni. Come & post & discuss your findings; riddles etc with others interested in genetic genealogy on the SA tree.

• If you've had your DNA tested (or are thinking about it) and are on the SA tree, please join this project.

Test

We need to get as many SA people as possible to test their autosomal, Y-DNA and their mtDNA, for example via http://www.familytreedna.com/ All it takes is a simple swab on the inside of your mouth. They will send you a kit. If enough SA people have it done, we could solve many riddles.

FamilyTreeDNA.com Projects for South Africans

• The Cape Dutch Y-DNA Stamvader Project
• The South African mtDNA Project
• The South Africa Cape Coloured DNA Project

What To Do Once You've Uploaded Your Results on to Geni:

• Send Collaboration requests to all your matches.
• Message them ...

DNA Riddles on the SA Tree:

Douwe Gerbrandt Steyn

Y-DNA test needed to solve this one. Who was the biological father of Douwe Gerbrandt Steyn SV/PROG, in Friesland to motivate them to take the test too. If their and my DNA have an exact match, we have some very interesting developments...

Maria Lozee

mtDNA test needed to solve this one. Where does Maria Lozee come from? If anybody on Geni knows that they are descendants of Maria via the maternal line, please test your mtDNA. That will make it possible for us to know whether she was from Africa, Asia or Europe.

Adolf Jonker

There has been much controversy for over 2 centuries regarding the origin of stamvader Adolph Jonker...

Ferdinandus Appel

Theunis Botha, b bef 15 April 1686: is called Botha after his mother, Maria Kickers' , 1700 divorce from Jan Cornelisz (who is shown as his father on the birth certificate). At which time she said her 7 children were Frederich Botha's. However, a recent DNA study by the University of Pretoria reveals him to have been the biological son of Ferdinandus Appel. That makes many Botha's today, the descendants of an Appel. Check and see if you're one of them.

The Greeff family riddle

I know the Greeff family is also busy with a DNA family project to determine whether the Greeff people in SA and those in the USA are all related to the same Greeff ancestors in Germany. This is what they write about their project on http://www.greeff.info/tng01/dnaproject.php

The Y-chromosome is what makes babies male. It has a second peculiarity too. It is passed, intact, from father to son for about 500 generations. This means that I have exactly the same Y-chromosome as my father and his father and his father, for about 500 generations. I also have exactly the same y-chromosome as Matthias Greeff. Every male Greeff decendant of Matthias has, therefore, the same y-chromosome as Matthias Greeff, and thus the same y-chromosome as me. We can use this y-chromosome to prove that we are related.

This is very important to the Greeff family world wide because we can be fairly sure that Matthias Greeff came to Cape Town from Germany in 1680 and we can track the genealogical paper records of the Greeff clan in America back to Germany too. What we have not yet been able to do is to prove a family link between our South African German roots and the American German roots. If the American Greeff men have the same y-chromosome as we do, then we will know that somewhere Matthias' great great grandfather was their ancestor too. In the same way we can then prove kinship to any Greeff man currently living in Germany.

It is, however, not quite as simple as that. We need to be able to show that each of my ancestors, say, up to Matthias, was actually his mother's husband's son. About 2 to 5 % of children in each generation are not actually their father's child. This means that you and I, being tenth generation descendants of Matthias, have an 18 to 40% chance of not being related to him. The y-chromosome will show whether each of us had any 'adopted' children in our ancestry.

In the ordinary course of events my father and I, or my first cousin and I, will have virtually identical y-chromosome test results, and it does not make much sense for two close relatives to be tested. In order to be able to accurately cross reference the accuracy of my link to Matthias with someone else's link to him, several DNA tests need to be done. They need to be done on Greeff relatives who are as distantly related to each other as possible. In the Greeff family we need one or two distant cousins from the Lichtenburg branch of the family, One or two people from the Eastern Cape (Jansenville and Oudtshoorn branch, where I come from), and one or two people from the Piketberg branch, one or two people from Zimbabwe, a couple from America and a couple from modern Germany. DNA testing the y-chromosome for each of these people will very quickly show how far back the common y-chromosome runs, and whether there are any descendants of adoptees.

If you want to take part in this very important project you will find genetic proof of your descent from Matthias Greeff and you will be able to prove your personal relationship to the various Greeff branches around the world. You will leave one of the pioneer genetic records for your descendants, and for researchers of future centuries. The tests are done in a Laboratory in Utah, America and will cost you 189 US Dollars. For wider information click on the link: http://www.dnaheritage.com or go to http://www.hvlc.demon.co.uk/about_dna_testing.htm.

To join the Greeff family project and to have a test that is compared to all the Greeffs who are tested, please write to the project administrator, Francois Greeff, at Greeff@Greeff.info. Maybe you want to add your riddle too?

Jump Back to:

• DNA Primer Portal for Genetic Genealogy
• WELKOM CUZZINS: Geni SA Projects' Main Site Index & Help Page

See Also Related Geni Project Pages:

• SA mtDNA PROGS
• SA Y-DNA PROGS
• Founders Effect amongst the South African Population
• DNA Mapping of the Slave Routes to Southern Africa