The Kerschen Family Tree DNA project
DNA and genetics can be very complex subjects. I will try to include the more difficult aspects on links and only put a rough overview on this page.

Arthur Henry Kerschen III of Tucson Arizona, current webmaster at kerschen.org, born Feb 19, 1967, submitted DNA samples (just a simple mouth swab) to the Family Tree DNA project on August 24, 2007. All male Kerschens, Kershens, Kergens (and Kaerjengs if there are any) probably have a similar DNA profile to Arthur Kerschen. How similar these profiles are indicates how recently two individual males had a common ancestor along a direct father to son line.

Family Tree DNA tracks changes in the Y-chromosome which is passed on father to son. For more information, read an explaination of Genetic Genealogy

Here is Arthur Kerschen's DNA profile for those who are interested in the raw numbers. Arthur Kerschens DNA appears to fall into the Haplogroup R1b1c, which is a group of standard western European origins, as one would expect in Luxembourg.

For more information, read an explaination of Haplogroups.

The Family Tree DNA project groups surnames based on sound similarities, especially for rarer names like Kerschen. Kerschen was placed in the Kerchner DNA project, in the Kerschen sub-catagory. My initial gut reaction to being put in the Kerchner project was, "What? No, it's KERSCHEN!" Kerchner is exactly what people always called me accidentally when they hadn't read my name carefully. I'm sure many other Kerschens have had the same experience. Charles F. Kerchner, the administrator of the Kerchner DNA project has made Arthur Kerschen an assistant administrator. The Kerchner group is one of the earliest and one of the best of the 4000+ surname projects, so we are better off not making any trouble!

Plus: Kirchners appear to be taking over in Argentina! I wish we were related, but the DNA says no. The Kirchners of Argentina are probably related to the Kerchners. The Kerschens of Argentina are pretty influential, even if they haven't been elected as co-Presidents of the country.

As assistant administrator for the Kerchner DNA project, Arthur Kerschen, webmaster at kerschen.org, attended the Family Tree DNA conference in Houston,TX on October 20-21, 2007.

No other Kerschens, Kergens, Kershens, Kerschenbaums, Kerschenmeyers or other similar names have been tested yet by family tree DNA that I have been able to discover. The Kerchners are not totally dissimilar in their DNA profiles to the single Kerschen tested so far, but a large number of family names are more similar than the Kerchners. All similar profiles probably have common ancestors with the Kerschens before the adoption of surnames in Europe almost a thousand years ago.

It appears one of the closest family name to Kerschen genetically is Stevens. We also appear closely related to the Dunbars and the Walls. Kerchner is a few steps further away genetically and is equally similar to dozens of other family names that have been tested. Read more about Genetic Distance. The common male ancestor between the Kerchners and Kerschens was probably 3000 years ago. The Stevens, Dunbars and Walls probably have a common ancestor with us in the last 1000-1500 years. Kerschens, Kershens and Kergens are probably nearly identical, but it would be interesting to show a close genetic link to the Kerschenbaums, Kerschenmeyers and others.

Main Page