I wish to acknowledge a contribution to Summers family history made by my wife’s
distant cousin Katharyne Jane (Silva) Belew. Katharyne has determined the
likely yDNA haplogroup for at least a portion of the Summers line originated in 1700s Delaware by
Thomas Summers Sr. And Katharyne did it without a drop of Summers
yDNA in her genes, since only males can carry the y chromosome. A y haplogroup is
a group of lineages defined by unique genetic markers present on the
y-chromosome. Since only the males carry yDNA, this haplogroup follows the
Summers name (in the absence of adoptions, name changes, etc.) back to the
distant past. This haplogroup could even date from the time before
surnames existed.
To determine the Delaware Summers haplogroup, Katharyne cleverly found six men with the surname "Summers" who had autosomal DNA matches with her and who had a known y haplogroup. Five of the six had the I-S1954 haplogroup, and, thus, this is likely the haplogroup for the Delaware Summers. That the five individuals are 3rd or 4th cousins to each other, except two who are father and son, and are all descended from Thomas Summers of Franklin Co, Illinois (c1784-1864), indicates that Thomas of Illinois, grandson of Thomas of Delaware, had this haplogroup. (Thanks to Katharyne for pointing this out.) And if Thomas of Illinois had this haplogroup, his grandfather, Thomas of Delaware, could have also had it.
Haplogroup
I-S1954, also known as Haplogroup I-M170 (Y Chromosome Consortium long-form
label), appears be Germanic. “Germanic?” you may say. How can this be when
Thomas Summers, the progenitor of the Delaware Summers, probably came from
Britain? But you have to remember, the English are largely Germanic. The first
people to be called “English” were the Anglo-Saxons, a group of closely related
Germanic tribes.
Thus, while
probably British in origin, the paternal Delaware Summers line is Germanic. Interesting, but not surprising.
