Did you look further east?

often Dutch I know.

That is actual genealogy data. When g-g-g pa said he came from Germany, to stay with his German relatives in upper Manhattan, and lists his hometown in Germany, and they've lived there for several generations, that's worth a lot more than some genealogy test in my mind. DNA testing is the latest fad. It's like a new automotive technology - let's see 30 years of performance testing before we erase written data in favor of a blood test.

I do quite a bit of genealogy and DNA work for people as a hobby and all kinds of things turn up like this.

I like the Ancestry DNA testing because they have the largest data base and also your matches have more family trees which gives you information about your background.

That said, 23me gives a bit more accurate results.

If DNA testing from another site also shows no German DNA, there are a number of reasons why this could happen.

Country boundaries changed a lot over the years in Central Europe, so you can look for DNA from adjacent areas. Look to see if the report is showing slavic DNA.

Sometimes our ancestors changed names, nationalities, etc. for some reason.

Or there could have been an unknown adoption somewhere along the way.

Look at the rest of the DNA report and also look at the ancestry match list. Look for Gerhart surname matches. Look to see their DNA mix.

holy moly, Ancestry has exploded since I last used it which is good for info. and links.

I know boundaries changed for sure, that's possible. One G. m. a Yost which can be Dutch too.

In PA, Gerharts are as common as Smiths!

DNA also showed Scot, Danish and Swedish, a real surprise since there's no family mention of that, only one slim possibility. There are no Nordic family names, not even close.

The Gerhart could also be Danish as well as Czech, Polish, dunno.

Other than Gerharts, all members immigrated in the 1600s, 1700s, I'm almost certain. No recollection of any coming after about 1800.

I'm also sure we have Native American (which didn't show in DNA) based on late 1800s, early 1900s family photos and an uncle who told me about two brothers who m. Indian women and headed to Texas, mid-later 19th c.

Thanks again. Well, here's to 23 and Me!

If you look at the Ancestry match list, you can do a search for the name Yost and you will see matches with that surname. Look at their trees and see if their Yosts are from Germany or Netherlands/Belgium. The spelling might be different, and you will see that in your match list.

Right, if you are not showing German DNA, it is possible that that Gerhardt is from somewhere else. That will be apparent as you look at your match list, and don't see any German matches.

With German great grandparents you should be showing about 12% German DNA. If instead you are showing 12% Slavic DNA, that might be the answer.

You can also look for Scot, Danish and Swedish matches.

I know for a fact that 23me is much better than Ancestry in picking up small amounts of Native American DNA. So for sure you should test at 23me. FTDNA and Ancestry will not pick up small amounts of NA DNA.

The NA DNA would have to come from your direct ancestors. So one of the two brothers and his wife will have to be direct line ancestors.

You also might want to make a family tree, to see if you can find the two brothers marrying NA and how they are related to you. Sometimes family stories are accurate, some times not. The DNA will tell you the truth.

There is also a free site called Gedmatch which is very good at picking up NA DNA. It doesn't sell kits, you just upload your DNA results from Ancestry or 23me for free, and then there are good tools you can use to analyze your DNA in sophisticated ways. You could also see if it picks up German DNA.

If the current relative who tested is a cousin, I would recommend you also test at Ancestry if budget permits. If it is a sibling then you could skip that.

Let me know if I can help in any way. This is a hobby of mine and I love doing it.

suggestions in mind. Good to know about Gedmatch and 23me and NA.

The Native heritage is not only from the two brothers but also great aunts, my father's father and his own brothers and sisters who were a departure from typical northwest European appearance to put it mildly.

So I'll find some time to work on this more, thanks again for all the help and experience.

23me will pick up very small amounts of NA DNA, but it sounds like you might have more than a small amount. If for some reason 23 me doesn't pick it up, as I said upload to Gedmatch and see that they have to say.

Good luck and I hope you can solve the German mystery and verify your NA heritage.

a Celt and are psyched! Now I have to research those customs a bit and also a kilt. Lol!

One sibling, an Alpha is glad, and as mentioned always claimed we were Scot, but I said nah- no Campbells, Wallaces, MacGregors in the group. I thought she was too much into the 'romantic, heroic Scots image' - Mary Queen of Scots, etc.

According to Ancestry she was partially right, 25% anyway. Nordic culture she admires as well from having travelled there and the strength, warrior thing- me not so much. We're quite different in taste and personality. I have more of an affinity with England, the Brits and lived there. I'm also a bit of a gypsy soul, possibly from some Latin influences, or so I like to think. Ha!!

Anyhoo, I'll learn more with research and taking the 23Me test.

BTW if you and your sibs get different ethnic percentages from Ancestry and 23me, it is not necessarily due to the test.

DNA is passed down in random assortment, so sibs may show different ethnic percentages.

Yes it will be interesting to see what 23me shows.

heard that on Finding Your Ancestors/Roots shows, it would likely cause some confusion. But I believe it.

I received a tartan kilt as a gift, so no problem. But Lederhosen, funny! and not my thing as a woman.

We don't get exactly 50% DNA from each parent, or 25% from each grandparent, etc.

DNA is random in dispersal, but will usually be in the same ball park in full siblings.

A common costume for Oktoberfest is Heißelederhosen (hot lederhosen) The women, mostly young, will wear the dirndl style top with a short pair of lederhosen (above mid-thigh)

In my family two of inherited a trace of Native American DNA (as tested by the National Geographic Genome Project, Ancestry, and 23 & Me), but our other sister did not. Mom didn't show any, either so it must have come from our father's side. While Mom's side has family stories of being related to Cherokees - which I have not been able to verify - Dad's side has no such claim. So I'm very curious as to where that trace came from. It had to have been introduced in the 1700s to be such a small amount.

As for the other sister, she shows the bit of Scandinavian DNA that had to have come from the New Amsterdam settler who was from Bergen and took that up as his surname.

Other spellings are Gerhard and Gerhardt. It comes from two old Germanic words meaning spear and brave. Originally a German first name, it later became a surname for descendants of a person named Gerhart.

But the Gerhart name spread in Medieval times beyond Germany as Gerharts acquired estates in other countries. So it could be from an ancestor who lived on land owned by a Gerhart, in which case, the ancestor who picked up the name from the estate could be from any ethnic or national origin.

explore other locales than Germany. Thanks.

The original Gerhart was never German at all, but took the name of the German estate owner who had ventured into another country during German expansion.

Also the original Gerhart could have been German, but moved into another country for the same reasons above.
He married someone from that county, and the DNA tests can no longer pick up the German DNA.

Autosomal DNA testing goes back 6 to 7 generations.

they're comparing your DNA to reference samples for given populations, which may not necessarily be representative of the population that existed 300 years ago. "German" covers a lot of ground, although since your ancestors were in Pennsylvania they were probably from the Palatinate. That area of Germany overlaps with Ancestry's "England and Northwestern Europe" category (look at the map, not just the estimate). Also, after seven or eight generations of intermarrying with people of English and Irish ancestry, there may not be much actual German to detect (the line of a surname represents a very small fraction of your overall ancestry).

and intermarriage with people of different groups brings in and changes lines of course. Thanks for the help and info.

I assumed the PA Germans were from the Palatinate. The analysis noted primarily "Northwestern Europe' from what my relatives said. I haven't seen the full report yet.

because recombination rarely splits DNA right down the middle; you can inherit as little as 16% and as much as 34% from a grandparent, and as little as 6% or so from a great-grandparent.