PA Dutch people - any Serfass out there?

[Servaes fam tree]

Servaes family tree

Hi,

I'm Armand Servaes from Leiden, The Netherlands. I do research on my family. I did a Y-chromosome test and it turns out we are of the type U-106/R-L48, best known as The Frisians.

I have traced my family back till about 1650 in Maastricht, The Netherlands. This is quite logical, since the family name originates from the are between Liege (Luik) and Tongres (Tongeren) in Belgium and Maastricht in The Netherlands. Therefore the name is most known in that triangle and the surrounding area.

According to the legends Servaes was the bishop op Tongres. In a dream God told him to move the bishops seat from Tongres to Maastricht, because the city of Tongres would be attacked. This is what he did and according to the legends he died in the city of Maastricht on the 13th May 384 AD. This date is ever since celebrated as Servaes day.

It is known that Servaes really existed. There are chuch records that state he has been at gatherings of the early catholic church.

The name can exist as a first name, a middle name and a family name. It can be spelled otherwise due to the fact that the name comes from an area of language borders between Dutch, French and German. Due to this you even have changes in the interlanguage areas. Known are: Servaes, Servaas, Serphos, Serväös, Zervos, Servos, Serväos, Sarphati, Servattii, Servatti, Serva, Servas, Zervas, Zervoß, Serfas, Serfass and maybe I've forgotten some names.

I'll add on my family tree of the non-living family.

Kind regards,
Armand

[Noaide]

One need not accept his interpretation but the data and the map seem quite solid and they describe an area north of Paris extending east to the Rhineland, flaring north on it's eastern end, that contains a genetic signature more like signatures that grow progressively stronger to the east and north, reaching a climax in 'Lappland.'

I think this peak in "Lappland" is due to genetic drift and not due to more "Mongol" genes among the Sami. The same phenomena has been observed among the Icelanders who autosomally is closest to the Mongols of all European populations (Niskanen 2002). Also Icelanders score from 5 to 20% "East Asian" in ABDNA 2.5 according to ABDNA themself.

Noaide

[tomcat]

Cavalli-Sforza in 'The History and Geography of Human Genes' mapped a concentric gradient for a set of 16 markers that has one focus in 'Lappland' and another in Iberia. From his diffusionist perspective he proposes the gradient results from the spread of 'Mongoloid Uralic speakers from Northwestern Asia' as a better explanation than an expansion out-of Iberia.

One need not accept his interpretation but the data and the map seem quite solid and they describe an area north of Paris extending east to the Rhineland, flaring north on it's eastern end, that contains a genetic signature more like signatures that grow progressively stronger to the east and north, reaching a climax in 'Lappland.'

The British Isles, most of France, the Low Countries, the Danish islands, western Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the Balkans and Romania to the Black Sea are 'Grade 3' on this map. Whereas south Norway and Sweden, the Danish peninsula, eastern Germany, Czech, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine etc. are 'Grade 4.'

That odd lozenge in France is also Grade 4.

This data might explain why PA Dutch, who have an Old World link to the Palatinate get East Asian or Native American scores on ABDNA.

[PDHOTLEN]

PA German ancestry...

Although neither my Y-DNA or mtDNA trace back to PA "Dutch" sources, as far as I know, I do have a great-grandfather (b.1840, New Albany,IN) who was allegedly PA "Dutch." But his father was from Maryland, where there were German settlers, and who married a PA "Dutch" woman from PA.

But I still don't know where my great-grandmother (= my mtDNA U5b2) traces back to. The census has her born in Indiana (b.1861), with her parents from Ohio. She was the second wife of my (above) great-grandfather (PA "Dutch" origins). I am guessing that she could be of Scotch-Irish ancestry, based on the strong representation of this ethnic group in the early Ohio Valley.

[N4321]

Sorry, I started this thread but I've been out of touch for a while. Please forgive my inattention. I was trying to see if there was some NA DNA in the Serfoss line. I seem to have a little, and I was wondering if any others did.

[Pleroma]

I've reviewed the information and have to apologize for mixing up the Servos brothers. It was Daniel's brother Jacob who was rumoured to have had a Native wife and children. Both brothers were officers in "The Indian Department of the Loyalist Forces."

There is no written proof of Jacob's Native family, only an old family story, (according to the genealogy of John Comfort by Comfort and Pergau.)

Jacob married widow Mary (nee Comfort) Decker in 1797. He was an older groom which leaves room for the possiblity of his other family.

The Servos family had come from the Mohawk Valley, N.Y. where Sir William Johnson welcomed and even encouraged the marriages of Europeans and Natives.

He could be a Servas - there are so many spellings - but he's not who I'm looking for. He's not in my line, if he is a Servas. Thanks anyway.

N4321 I think we are related. I am related to the same serfass that you are looking for.

Servos Family

Pleroma,

That was FAST! Do you have a card file at your side filled with Native-Anglo intermarriage data? Got a HILES or NELSON in there? Although the names don't sound right I am looking for a French-Indian mix for either surname for Pennsylvania, Upper Midwest and/or North Dakota.

Tom

How do I go about checking Daniel Servos and the native Wife?

Serfass

I am a decendent of Philip Servas who came to America in 1739. Althought I am told by some family members that we are all German or Pa Dutch I find that a little hard to believe. Some of us look maybe we have some asian or American Indian in us.Very dark to black hair, olive skin. It just makes me wonder. Any other Serfass find this in there family.

[tomcat]

Reading Charles Kerchner's page and a lot of the posts here makes me want to check out a theory - do any of you PA Dutch people with odd East Asian or Native American DNA test results have anybody in your family line named Serfass (or variations Servas, Searfoss, etc.)?

Productive thread, but what is the theory?

Pa dutch any serfass out there

I have a list of a lot of serfass's let me know who you are looking for

First name usage

Yes, I had some trouble researching one German ancestor in Pennsylvania at the beginning until I realized that most government records would list him by his middle name, as would many less formal sources. Formal Protestant church records usually used first and middle names.

I had one ancestor with five or six sons and all shared Johan as the first name. / Tom

[N4321]

TAGull - Thanks for responding. I actually descend from Johan Philip Servas, who came about the same time as your ancestor. They could have been brothers, I suppose. Of course, the same first name - Johan - is kind of irrelevant with this generation of Germans, since they got saint's names first and the given name second.

Zerfass/Cerfass/Cearfoss etc out of Lancaster

Yes, I knew - I used to work in Hagerstown. It actually goes to Cearfoss (yet another spelling of the same name). I'm sure it's part of the Serfas clan. Are you?

I'm a descendant of Johan Nicholaus Zerfass, an immigrant from the French-German border (Stromberg) to Philadelphia in 1740. He married Elizabeth Clap/Klop and they lived in Cocalico Twp, Lancaster Co, Pa. I'm 90% certain the Cearfoss near Hagerstown was founded by one of his descendants - I'm not sure which. Nicolaus's son Daniel is in most records as Daniel Cerfass and lived near Carlisle, Pa. after growing up in Lancaster Co. These are my direct ancestors (Daniel's daughter Rebecca married James Delany of Carlisle in 1812).

I can't be any help on the DNA side since this isn't my surname line, but I do have a fair bit of info on this branch of Zerfass (Servas etc) families. I have never seen any rumors of anything other than marriages to fellow German immigrants or (later) others like my James Delany whose father is thought to have been Irish.

My grandfather had written a note showing a Delany married to Ceaphos ?, with the latter looking and sounding like a first name. The first indication I had that this might be a surname was driving on Interstate 81 just west of Hagerstown and seeing the exit sign for Cearfoss. I suddenly realized that Ceaphos might be a phonetic corruption of Cearfoss and that maybe I should look for the latter. I did and immediately found a Mary Cerfass next to a James Delany in the 1820 census. You never know which clue will be helpful... / Tom Gull

[N4321]

Servas is a German name, but the Dutch name you gave may be another variant of the same family.