DNA Files for Hedrick, Shafer/Schaper
& Allied Families

On this page you will find DNA and mtDNA Reports conducted on my immediate family members to help trace our ancestry.  My family are the Hedricks and Shafers of Grant County, Indiana and most of the family has been in Indiana since before statehood.  My great-great grandfather Shafer is the last of my ancestors to come to the United States; arriving just after the Civil War.  The rest of the families intertwined have been on the continent of North America since colonization and some were Natives to this land.

Right now I'm not very gifted on interpreting the DNA results and how they apply to my research.  The one thing I do understand is the geographic migration patterns of these early ancestors according to the results.  I know that my results confirm my known family history of coming from Europe and Germany in particular.  Most recently my paternal aunt took this test and her results seem to confirm the Native American ancestry; however, her results have two migration patterns.  One is through Asia and the Pacific to North America and the other is through Europe and the Atlantic.

Our genetic features from this side of the family are confirmed through my aunt's test; many of the females are born with jet black hair (some retaining that color to adulthood) and olive skin coloring.  This of course is a trait of Native Americans but it also a trait from the middle east where over 40,000 years ago my paternal female line originated; so without knowing further back in history it's hard to say whether these women traveled through Asia and the Pacific or if they traveled through Europe and the Atlantic.

If there is an "expert" out there that can interpret my results in a way that I can understand them; that would be great.  I can read everything there is on DNA testing but it doesn't really help explain what I am looking at when I see these locations that mutated from the reference DNA.

mtDNA Results from Catherine (Bish) Cain

I finally splurged and had my mtDNA charted!  Right now, I am totally confused in what it means exactly and how I relate to others with the same results.  Basically, I belong to haplotype H, The Colonists.  And I understand that I have 4 differences, or mutations I guess, in my mtDNA compared to the reference mtDNA sample.  My results were shown thusly:

What does this mean to me?  I have a hard time wrapping my little brain around understanding DNA, so if anyone out there can make sense of it, please send me your advice.

Anyways, on this page you will see my maternal lineage, starting with the earliest confirmed female in my family tree, Catherine (Bish) Cain who was married on 24 January 1826 in Virginia to John A. Cain and had 13 children.  Of these 13 there were 7 daughters!  They lived in Virginia for several years, then started migrating to Indiana, settling in Ohio for a short time, then finally to Marion, Grant County, Indiana where the family stayed and where I was born.  From my grandmother, the last of this line is my second cousin who so far has not had any children.  It is up to her, or me, to continue the line, and medically, it won't be me.

Currently I am sending out requests for documentation on the descending lines and will be uploading the information as it is gathered.  If you tie into this line, feel free to send me a message, I will be happy to share what I have, but the majority of my data is posted at this website.

mtDNA Results from Mary Embree

My paternal aunt recently took an mtDNA test which answered a lot of questions and created more of course.  This test traces the maternal line of my grandmother Viola Mae (Harrell) Hedrick back and shows that this line is a member of haplogroup J*.

The earliest known female of my paternal line was a woman named Mary whose maiden name is as yet unknown to researchers.  Right now (September 2009) I have not documented this line past Amelia (Williams) Sanders.  Currently, I will be researching the various female lines down to today and will be obtaining obituaries and other public records for these women so stay tuned!