Lesum Area DNA and Genealogy Project

Lesum is located in the province of Hannover, in Germany. About 780 C.A., St. Martini Church was established in Lesum.

The Lesum-Area DNA Project will examine the DNA of descendants of men and women who attended St. Martini Church, or who lived in towns included in the church parish, anytime prior to World War II. Both Y-DNA and mtDNA will be studied in this project. Only men carry Y-DNA. It is passed down from father to son. Both men and women have mtDNA, but only women pass it down to their children.

PROJECT GOALS

Verify Paper Genealogies
Connect people who do not know they are related to one another. Are all the familes in the parish with the same surname related to one another?
Discover if some families lived in other countries prior to moving to the Lesum area. Are some families descended from Swedish soldiers, or from people from Holland who were brought in to build the dykes? Or maybe your ancestors were originally from Denmark. Or perhaps some families are descended from men in Charlemagne's army. Or were they from elsewhere?
Learn the migration patterns the families' ancestors took out of Africa. Where did they live during the Ice Ages? How and when did they arrive in the Lesum area?
Learn information on the Jewish families of the area. Were any of the Christian families originally members of the Jewish faith?
Were families that now have different surname related prior to the adoption of surnames?
Were there any non-paternity events that do not show up in the parish records?

Please Contact Us

If you have any questions, or if you would like to register for a user account for the Lesum-Area DNA Project, please contact Valerie Karvoski at vkarvoski@msn.com.

FEATURES

Test Results. Project members' DNA test results.

Links. Genealogy and DNA related links.

In the News. News items pertaining to genealogy and DNA testing.

What Happens To My DNA Sample? This is a Flash presentation provided by FTDNA.

ELIGIBILITY

Men who wish to participate in the Lesum-Area DNA project must either be descended from their Lesum-Area ancestor in a straight male line, or descended in a straight female line down to their mother. Women who wish to participate in the project must be descended from their Lesum- Area ancestor in a straight female line.

Although church parish lines have now changed, the towns included in this project will be the towns that were part of the parish prior to World War II. These towns are:

Aumund, Beckedorf, bei Lesumstotel, Borchshöle, Brundorf, Burg, Burgdamm, Burgschanze, Dunge, Eggestedt, Erve, Friedrichsdorf, Heilshorn, Ihlpohl, Lesum, Lesumbrok, Lesumstotel, Leuchtenburg, Lobendorf, Loge, Löhnhorst, Grohn, Holthorst, Marssel, Neufähr, Neu-Lesum, New-Schönebeck, Osterhagen, Ovelgönne, Platjenwerbe, Schönebeck, Stendorf, St. Magnus, Stubben, vor Burgdamm, vor dem Vegesack, Werschenrege, Wolda, Willa, Wollah, and Wölpsche.

Volunteer Participants Wanted

All participants in the National Geographic Genographic Project who meet the above criteria are welcome to join the Lesum-Area Project. Click here and let genetic genealogy help you!

If your ancestors came from the Lesum-Area, but you do not meet the project's eligibility requirements,there is another way to particpate in the project: Make a contribution to the General Fund, and help pay for the DNA test of someone else. Are you already a project participant? Help enlarge the project by making a contribution to the General Fund.
Contribute to the General Fund