Bullers and Buhlers 2

Several posts back (here) we explored what Gustav Reimer claims are various spellings of the Buller surname: Büller, Boller, Boeler, and Buijler. Although we cannot be certain that Buijler (or Buijlert) is related to our family name, it is noteworthy that all these Buller variations are attested in the area of Schwetz, that is, the general area of the Przechovka congregation whose church book we have consulted on a number of occasions.

The next post (here) turned from the Buller surname to the Buhler one, once again drawing upon the information provided by Reimer’s 1963 work. His list of Buhler names includes the spelling “Buller” and eleven other variants (some of them with the “von” prefix so common in Germanic contexts); interestingly, all the names are attested in and around the free city of Danzig, some 80 miles north of the Schwetz area.

What are we to make of the all this evidence, both the overlap of having Bullers listed as part of the Buhler group and the geographical division between Bullers to the south and Buhlers to the north?

Are the Bullers in Danzig related to us, who are descendants (or so we think at present) of the Schwetz Bullers? If we are related, then are we also related to the other Buhlers included in that group?

Reimer presumably does not think that Buhlers and Bullers are related, since he places them in different family groups. In fact, modern science in the form of DNA testing proves that Reimer has it right.

Several weeks ago Glenn Penner (the same one who gave permission to post the translation of the Hendrik Berents travel diary; see here and here) wrote that “DNA analysis shows very clearly that the Buhlers (who belonged to the Flemish churches in Prussia) and Bullers (who belonged to the Alt Flemish church) were not related.” He explained further “that the Y-DNA results (those rows of numbers on the Y-DNA spreadsheet) of Buller men and Buhler men do not match, and not even close.”

The DNA analysis that Glenn references is that of The Mennonite DNA Project, which is collecting DNA from people who can demonstrate Low-German Mennonite ancestry in the service of five related goals (see further here):

1. Establish how many progenitors (common ancestors) there were for the present day Mennonite population.
2. Determine the number of progenitors there were for each present day Mennonite family name.
3. Use DNA results to aid in making genealogical connections within families.
4. Use DNA results to aid in making genealogical connections between families.
5. Look at the “deep ancestry” of the Low-German Mennonites.

The focus at present is on “testing Y chromosome DNA, which is the DNA that is passed down from father to son. This is particularly useful since family names are also passed down from father to son. The second phase will also include mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) which is passed down from mother to child.”

As of 1 January 2015, there were 810 Y samples in the data set, including Bullers and Buhlers. The entire Excel table can be accessed via the link provided above, but a snippet of the data set should provide a sense of the results.

If I understand correctly, the DNA samples thus far collected include two derived from the line of Abram Buhler and two from Heinrich Buller, that is, the Buhler and Buller family groups that Reimer identified in his 1963 work. Glenn Penner and Tim Janzen write in their introduction to this project:

The interpretation of Y-DNA results can be somewhat complicated, but some general principles apply. As a general rule, two men who have 8 or more markers that don’t match out of 37 markers tested almost certainly do not descend from a common ancestor who lived within the past 600 years (within the time period when surnames first came into common use). Men who have the same surname who have between 4 and 7 markers that don’t match out of 37 markers tested may descend a common ancestor who lived within the past 600 years but we can’t be certain about that based on the DNA results alone. Men with the same surname who have 3 or fewer markers that don’t match out of 37 markers tested almost certainly descend from a common ancestor who lived within the past 600 years. 

So, for example, the spreadsheet above shows that the two samples of the Heinrich Buller line have identical DNA markers in all but three cases. They are, therefore, “almost certainly” descended from a common ancestor. Similarly, the two Abram Buhler samples have only two sets of differing markers, so they are likewise almost certainly related to each other. But what do we find when we compare the Buhler and Buller samples against one another? Looking at the entire range of markers (not all shown above), there are twenty-five differences between the Abram Buhler line and the Heinrich Buller line—which fully justifies Glenn Penner’s comment that the two lines “do not match, … not even close.”

The evidence in its entirety allows us to draw certain conclusions.

1. The Buhler family group of the Danzig area and the Buller family group of the Schwetz area were not related. 


2. Further, the Bullers who were part of the Buhler family group in Danzig were not related to the (our) Schwetz Bullers. In other words, not all Bullers in Poland were relatives of ours. 


3. Clearly, then, similarity of spelling of a family surname is sometimes a matter of coincidence, not a marker of relation. 


4. To turn the matter around, I think it is also true that dissimilarity of spelling may be a matter of coincidence and not proof of a lack of relation. That is, the fact that the Danzig Buhlers were not related to the Schwetz Bullers does not prove that there never were (other) Buhlers associated with the Schwetz Bullers.

In the end, although we have no evidence that Buhlers were ever part of our family group, we should hold the matter open, in case documentary evidence for that association comes to light sometime in the future. We already have proof that Buhler can equal Buller (in Danzig), so the idea that Buller might have equaled Buhler in Schwetz should be kept open as a possibility awaiting evidence that settles the case one way or the other.

***

I know of one member of our family who has participated in the DNA project. Perhaps he would like to share some of his experience or what he has learned as a result of it?

Source

Reimer, Gustav. 1963. Die Familiennamen der westpreußischen Mennoniten. Schriftenreihe des Mennonitischen Geschichtsvereins 3. Weierhof: Mennonitischen Geschichtsverein.