YOCKEY, WILHELM, AND MUFFLEY IN WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA

 Christian Yockey (d. 1810 Westmoreland Co. Penn) was Gary’s 5th great grandfather; he and his wife Maria Christ were Most Recent Common Ancestors for autosomal DNA Yockey-Cousin Don and me (Gary). Christian and Maria’s son Peter was ancestral to Don. Christian & Maria’s daughter Maria Barbara Yockey Muffley was ancestral to our line. 

Johannes Muffley’s and Maria Barbara Yockey’s grandson Thomas Muffley married Julianna Wilhelm (2nd greats). Julianna’s brother Adam Biddle Wilhelm was ancestral to atDNA Wilhelm-Cousin Joyce.  

Then came two atDNA discoveries: (1) Don, Joyce, and Gary have true triangulation at the same chromosomal location, meaning a single common ancestor for all three. (2) A line of Wilhelm in Armstrong County has descendants with atDNA matches to our line of Wilhelm in neighboring Westmoreland County Pennsylvania. So, we developed these hypotheses: (1) Adam Wilhelm of Armstrong was the father of Moses Wilhelm Sr. of Armstrong and Jacob Wilhelm of Westmoreland; (2) The ancestry of Adam himself, or that of his unknown wife, includes someone who sent to Don, Joyce, & me a shared segment on the Q-Arm of Chromosome 10. This is “true triangulation”, meaning that all 3 inter-match each other at that precise location, start point 60.4 million, end point 78 million. At GEDmatch, Joyce is atDNA Kit # A285685. Don is T042202. Gary is A693287. The shared segment for Don and Gary is 19.2 centiMorgans in size. Joyce matches Gary here and also at other locations, because she is a closer cousin and we have DNA inputs from other joint ancestors. 

The High Alemannic-Swiss speaking Yockeys were among the first families to settle in future Westmoreland County when land became available after the French and Indian War (ended in 1763). Johannes Muffley is believed to have accompanied them on the journey across nearly all of Pennsylvania. Johannes’ arrival coincided with the Shawnee/Mingo War (= Lord Dunmore’s War), as Johannes signed an urgent plea for military aid: The 1774 Fort Allen Petition. All of our lines of ancestry here would have had occasions to visit this only existing courthouse: Hanna’s Tavern, at the site of an earlier stopping point at a spring right beside Forbes Military Road, a migration super-highway of the time. The Westmoreland Resolves predate the Declaration of Independence. 

Johannes Muffley married Maria Barbara Yockey in 1777, the same year that a Carnahan boy was killed by Wyandot/Hurons at Carnahan’s Blockhouse immediately above Muffley Hollow. This is just northwest of Yockey’s Schoolhouse (St. James Church). 

At some point, all 3 of these lines of interest (Yockey, Wilhelm, & Muffley) had representatives in future Armstrong County, just north of the Kiskiminetas River (just south of which are Muffley Drive in Apollo and Muffley Hollow near Perrysville). This would have been after the British and Senecas destroyed Hanna’s Town in 1782, & by 1807 when a tax list (online) names Adam Wilhelm, John Muffley (likely a brother of our Jacob Muffley), and Fred Yockey (kin to Maria Barbara Yockey Muffley) for Kittanning.  

Our Adam Wilhelm of interest is believed to have been a founding member of a church preceding the existing one at Brick Church crossroads.  With this guy as tentative ancestor, I have at least 4 atDNA matches from Moses & 9 from Jacob (known 3rd great grandfather). The magnitude of the former are 18 and 19 cM in size. Cousins with MRCAs = Jacob Wilhelm and Sarah Weister have larger total shared segments with me. 

My Julianna Wilhelm Muffley had a brother Adam Biddle Wilhelm (ancestor of Joyce), and a sister Elizabeth Wilhelm Buzzard (I have several cousins with atDNA matches from her).  Julianna and Adam migrated to Quincy Illinois. Elizabeth’s family stayed here in Bell Township, Westmoreland, as likely did some other siblings. I wonder if they may have helped Julianna when her husband Thomas Muffley died in Clarion Co. PA in 1862 (cholera), leaving Julianna and the kids to find their way to Quincy. Joe Muffley (my 1st great grandfather) reportedly recalled kin (likely both Wilhelm and Muffley, but Yockey kin also were on the scene) in Westmoreland. Joe would have known how they got to Quincy (riverboat?), but as a kid I didn’t think to ask him. He lived to be over age 100. 

I have no information bearing upon interpersonal relationships between the Armstrong and Westmoreland branches of Wilhelm, nor Yockey. Authors of two short Yockey biographies found in Armstrong and Clarion county libraries were not knowledgeable about the Yockey origin at St. Stephan in the Bernese Uplands of Switzerland, and did not mention kin outside of Armstrong County. My 5th great grandfathers Niclaus Maffli & Christian Jäggi would have spoken a High Alemannic dialect of Swiss-German, and they attended German-language churches. 

Adam Wilhelm, my suspected 4th great grandfather, was a founding member of St. Michael’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, which was attended by persons with Germanic surnames, & possibly not Swiss. The church was organized in 1806 by Rev. Michael Steck of Greensburg, Westmoreland. 

Klingensmith (reportedly Alsatian, Low Alemannic dialect, as was our Maria Christ Yockey) family members were known associates of various of my kin, & might be ancestral to me (there are some Ancestry.com DNA Thru-Lines suggestions that this is possible). At Hanna’s Town is an original Klingensmith Cabin, associated with family who had several members killed by Native Americans, and a boy taken captive to Canada: “White Peter” Klingensmith. Behind the Klingensmith Cabin at Hanna’s Town, we encountered in July 2024 a Klingensmith Reunion. They have an online Klingensmith family tree with some 100,000 persons entered.  

About Hanna's town: Out of the Woods: Battlefields of Western Pennsylvania 

“White Peter” Klingensmith (b. abt. 1772) was taken prisoner on 2 July, 1781, when his family was killed, probably by Munsee Delawares (Lenape), who later joined the Iroquois in Upper Canada. The parents of White Peter were Johan Philip “Blockhouse” Klingensmith and Christina Waldhouser, of the Brush Creek community. This attack was well to the southwest of the heart of Muffley Country, but the whole region would have felt in enormous danger, in fact through the whole of the Revolutionary War, during which workers went out carrying guns. The 1782 British-Ranger and Seneca destruction of Hanna’s Town (then maybe about 30 structures) was within a few miles (gunfire was likely audible) of Muffley Hollow and Yockey’s Schoolhouse. The destruction of Hanna’s Town, a horrific account.

"People of this Place Behaved Brave": The 1782 Attack on Hanna's Town

The British & Seneca came from Fort Niagara down the Allegheny River by canoe, and probably put ashore near our quaint July 2024 motorhome Air BNB above Kittanning. Many of the people of Hanna’s Town made it into the stockade. 

Parties of horsemen from other settlements [almost certainly Muffleys, Yockeys, & their kin] also arrived the next day to assist.

"Guyasuta's raiders had departed with many stolen horses, laden with household goods, and they left a plain trail, but it was not until Monday that the borderers had the nerve to follow them, and then 6o men pursued the trail only to the crossing of the Kiskiminetas.” Likely very near current Muffley Drive in Apollo, where my father Robert Muffley visited during his generation’s contribution to the family story.  Dad’s father Albert Muffley wrote some letters of genealogical inquiry. Albert’s father Joe Muffley before him looked into the family history. I have Joe’s aged copy of the 1790 census for Pennsylvania. 

ENLOE AND SHERRILL FAMILIES IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA

Amy’s 9th great-grandfather Hendrick Enloes was reportedly born in 1632 at Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia. This family then were reportedly goldsmiths & Mennonites. Hendrick is a listed ancestor for kits in the Enloe yDNA Project, which so far has not done detailed SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) marker testing down a phylogenetic sequence trail in Haplogroup R1b.
https://www.familytreedna.com/public/ourancientenloeancestors?iframe=ycolorized
Big Y700 yDNA testing on a Enloe-surnamed male would be very helpful to further research.

Hendrick Enloes was the ancestor who migrated from the Netherlands to Maryland. Enoch Enloe (1741-1799) was Amy’s 6th great grandfather; he migrated from Maryland to York County South Carolina, where he married Agnes Sprucebanks in 1766. The family later moved to nearby Rutherford County NC.





Abraham Enloe (1770-1840) and Sarah “Sallie” Edgerton were Amy’s 5th greats. They were the parents-in-law of Wilson Sherrill (m. Elizabeth Enloe; Amy’s 4th greats). Abraham & Sarah were the Most Recent Common Ancestors for Amy versus her autosomal DNA match Mary, with shared segments on chromosomes 18 & 19. Abraham & Sarah were married in Rutherford County in 1795. There were reportedly at least 3 other men named Abraham Enloe who lived in Kentucky at the time of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. There are several other alleged contenders for biological fatherhood of Abe Lincoln; evidence is flawed.


Our Abraham Enloe was one of the earliest settlers in the Great Smoky Mountains, likely arriving there shortly after Uriah “Ute” Sherrill & his son John settled (prior to the 1802 Meigs-Freeman surveyed line) in the future town of Cherokee NC. Abraham & Ute were both 5th great-grandfathers of Amy. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oconaluftee_(Great_Smoky_Mountains)

“John Jacob Mingus (ca. 1774–1852), who arrived in the Oconaluftee in the 1790s, was the first Euro-American settler in the valley and the first within the boundaries of what is now the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Mingus purchased the land from Felix Walker, a land speculator and later North Carolina Congressman. While Mingus roamed from county to county in the Southern Appalachians, his descendants would remain in the area until the establishment of the park.

Mingus was followed by Abraham Enloe (1770–1840), who settled downstream from the Mingus plot.” The Enloe family likely arrived shortly after 1803.




A millstone was ordered from France, and the Mingus Mill structure was subsequently built upon its arrival, 1886. This was in the latter years of the life of Dr. John Mingus (1798-1888), son of pioneer John Jacob Mingus. The original millstone has been replaced by a turbine. A second turbine is currently operational & can be viewed by the public. The mill was initially operated by descendants of Dr. John Mingus and his wife Mary Margaret Enloe (1804-1894). She was a sister of our Elizabeth Enloe (wife of Wilson Sherrill).




Just north of the Mingus Mill is the Floyd-Enloe Cemetery. Here we see the gravestone of Wesley Matthew Enloe (1811-1903), a brother of Mary Margaret Enloe Mingus and our Elizabeth Enloe Sherrill (1801-1887). Their brother Asaph Theodore Enloe Sr. (1793-1833) was the ancestor of Amy’s atDNA match Mary.

Isabell Wisdom Enloe (1807-1883), another sib, married Ute Sherrill (1809-1889) who was a grandson of Ute Sherrill (b. 1757; Amy’s 5th great-grandfather). Ute & Isabell had several kids. Ute Sherrill also had children with Cherokee woman Dinah Noo-Qui-Dah-yih Leatherwood. Of particular interest is their son Andy Sherrill (b. 1843). This Andy Sherrill’s grandson Andy Sherrill (1913-1968) was ancestral to some of Amy’s living kin.





This Enloe barn was not the first built by this family, but is now part of the current Farm Museum at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park & near the south end of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Just north of the visitor center is the turnoff to the Mingus Mill & just north of this the trail to the Floyd-Enloe Cemetery (but Abraham & Sarah were buried elsewhere).

A book at the genealogical library in the Sylva Courthouse said… “The last and most noteworthy homestead for Sarah and Abraham was at Ravensford in Swain County near Cherokee, which is now the Great Smoky Mountains Parkway Office at the base of the Smoky Mountains. It has been preserved as a typical mountain homestead and is visited by thousands of tourists each year. Nearby is the Enloe Family Cemetery…” where Wesley Matthew Enloe (1811-1903) & wife Melinda were buried.

In 1805, John Hyde was authorized to oversee the construction of a road from Soco Creek to the Oconaluftee settlement, i.e. from the land of Ute Sherrill in future Cherokee town to the vicinity of the current park office, along or parallel to current Hwy. US 441. This road would have connected Amy’s Enloe ancestors & Sherrill ancestors.

Going south from Cherokee town on US 441 may have been the route from the Mouth of Soco (Ute Sherrill’s place) to the Tuckasegee River laid out by court order June 29, 1822. The jury of view to lay out the wagon road included Abraham Enloe (Amy’s 5th great grandfather), Asaph Enloe Sr. (Amy’s 4th great-granduncle & ancestor of Amy’s atDNA match person Mary), Ute Sherrill (Amy’s 5th great grandfather), Samuel Sherrill (Amy’s 4th great granduncle; father of Polly “Qually” Sherrill Connelly, trading post operator), Jacob Mingus/Minges, Ephraim Mingus/Minges, & several others.

By 1820, all of the many kids of Abraham & Sarah Enloe had been born, some before, & some after, the move to Oconaluftee. Elizabeth Enloe (b. Wilson Sherrill), Amy’s 4th great-grandmother, had lots of sibs, each with their own interesting stories. The 1820 census of Haywood County NC (included the Oconaluftee area in later Jackson, then Swain counties) showed the Abraham Enloe household had 17 people, including 3 slaves. That would be after Abraham Enloe in 1815 sold 4 slaves to John Hyde, who was subsequently murdered in Missouri by a slave.

In 1820, the nearby Soco/Oconaluftee home of Ute Sherrill had 16 persons, including 9 slaves. It is not known where Wilson & Elizabeth Enloe Sherrill (Amy’s 4th greats) were living then.

Our Elizabeth Enloe Sherrill’s sibs included:
Isabell Wisdom Enloe (b. 1807) who married another Uriah Sherrill, grandson of our Ute (b. 1757). Asaph Enloe (ancestor of Amy’s atDNA match Mary). Scroop Enloe, onetime postmaster of Quallatown. Mary Margaret Enloe, wife of Dr. John Mingus; their son Hamilton Mingus died in the Civil War at Petersburg Virginia, 1862. Benjamin Mattison “Matt” Enloe, who died in 1862 at the Battle of Malvern Hill, Va. Abram Turner Enloe, likely killed in the Civil War, 1865.






In the census of 1870, after the war, there were 33 Enloe persons living at Qualla, Jackson County NC. And 21 Sherrill people at Qualla. Amy’s 3rd great Frances Sherrill (b. 1837) was by then in Kentucky & married to Benjamin Young Bennett. The Sherrill story is a much longer tale for another time.

MUFFLEY INTRODUCTION

This blog narrative, shorn of many details and documentation, presents over three centuries of family history of my Muffley line. Our tale begins in Bern Canton Switzerland, and traces the Muffley migration to the New World. American locations of particular interest include southeastern Pennsylvania, western Pennsylvania, Illinois, Missouri, and southwestern Nebraska. My Muffley line is: Christian - Nicholas – Johannes – Jacob – Thomas – Joseph – Albert - Robert – Gary (me).
(pictured at left is Albert Muffley, age 14).

BERN CANTON, SWITZERLAND

Maffli is the official spelling of the surname in the Swiss Book of Family Names (Familienbuches der Schweiz), which lists the Bernese Maffli primary ancestral home as Höfen-Amsoldingen bei Thun, and secondary ancestral homes of Oberdiessbach and Buchholterberg. The name form is typically Alemannic German, a patronymic, meaning son of Maff. Maff could be a nickname for Magafrid (personal communication from Elsdon C. Smith, book author and former head of the American Name Society). Magafrid would be a typical two-theme Germanic name. Maga- = Macht (strength, in modern German), plus –frid = Fried (peace).
There is a record that Christian and Barbara Maffli were the parents of our known ancestor Niclaus Maffli (Nicholas Muffley). This information was submitted to the Latter Day Saints Church (www.familysearch.org) by a member, with no other information. Until the Amsoldingen church records are transferred to the Bern Archives, and data placed for sale on CD-ROM, this cannot be confirmed, short of another visit to Höfen-Amsoldingen bei Thun. Christian Maffli was reportedly born on May 3, 1685, at Amsoldingen, Bern Canton, Switzerland. Barbara was born about 1686 at Amsoldingen. Christian and Barbara were reportedly married about 1707, and their son Niclaus Maffli was born in February, 1707/1708. Niclaus reportedly had a brother, Heinrich Jacob Maffli, born in 1715 at Amsoldingen. (pictured above is - McCreary-Muffley 4 generations)

Niclaus/Nicholas once lived (data found while I was in the Bern Archives) in Zweisimmen District, Bern Canton, Switzerland. Go here and Click on “Summer Panoramic Map” (which faces south) and slide to the right (west). Note the position of Zweisimmen, up the valleys from Lake Thun. Höfen-Amsoldingen bei Thun lies between Thun and Zweisimmen. At some point prior to his emigration, Niclaus Maffli moved out of the lower land by Lake Thun (Thunersee) to Zweisimmen in the Bernese Uplands (Oberland). It looks like in so doing, he moved from an area of High Alemannic dialect to an area of Highest Alemannic dialect. Maffli would have been pronounced Moofli in the south Bernese dialect, I was told by Swiss genealogist Franz Walter Kummer-Beck. I think that Niclaus probably lived in the Zweisimmen vicinity long enough that he assimilated the different pronunciation of his surname. Upon departure from Switzerland and arrival in America, our ancestor Niclaus Müffli used a “ü”, probably to fit the spelling in other regions to his pronunciation of his name. Modern Swiss cousins spell the name Mafli or Maffli, and I have corresponded with, and met in Basel, Maffli descendants of Höfen origin. Perhaps y-DNA testing could confirm the link of our Muffley line and any known Höfen-origin male Maffli.

In the course of three trips to Switzerland (1967, 1973, 1977), I visited the main Maffli ancestral village of Höfen-Amsoldingen bei Thun, west of Lake Thun in Bern Canton, a secondary Maffli ancestral village of Oberdiessbach, as well as Zweisimmen, and the Bern Archives. I interviewed Swiss genealogist Dr. Robert Oehler in his home, and he provided some Maffli names, the oldest being a Peter Maffli born in 1588 in Oberdiessbach.

“N. Muffli” (Bern Archives) listed Zweisimmen as his home when he paid the Swiss emigration tax, 1734-1735. The tax of 10% of his total worth (about 12 pounds) was not much money, so Niclaus was by no means wealthy then. Zweisimmen, in the south of Bern Canton, is not far from St. Stephan village; both are in the Upper Simmen Valley (Obersimmental). When Niclaus took ship from Rotterdam to Pennsylvania in 1737, a fellow passenger (next line on the roster) was Christian Jäggi, from St. Stephan. Christian became the father of Maria Barbara Yockey, who married our ancestor John/Johannes Muffly. It is not known if Nicholas & Christian knew each other in Switzerland, or met later. An hour or so at the Bern Archives would probably turn up Christian’s exit tax record, and I wouldn’t be surprised to find it in close proximity to that of Niclaus. It might also be the case that Niclaus and Christian were neighbors in the Obersimmental, but on opposite sides of a Gemeinden (municipalities) border.

There is a gap in time between when Nicholas paid his 1734-1735 “Abzug” emigration tax, and his taking ship from Rotterdam in 1737. Where was he, and how did he manage to accumulate money for onward travel? When he arrived in America, on Oct. 31, 1737, his ship “William” was said to be carrying of a group of Palatines. However, experts have noted that the term “Palatines” was used carelessly, and included other Germanic groups. Some of Nicholas’ shipmates in fact came from Baden-Würtemberg, especially from southeast of Heidelberg. It is noteworthy that when, or shortly before, Nicholas left Switzerland, the Rhineland was in a bit of turmoil due to the War of Polish Succession. The French had overrun the Rhineland in 1734. It was no doubt an interesting time to be headed down the Rhine. I wonder if Niclaus might have been more comfortable stopping awhile before he left Alemannic dialect territory, say in Alsace or Baden.

Niclaus & Christian sailed from Rotterdam, Netherlands, aboard the ship “William”. The ship’s master was John Carter, and there were 180 passengers. There was a stop at Dover, England (the British required such a stop en route to their colonies). The ship arrived at Germantown (Philadelphia) on Oct. 31, 1737, and Niclaus took an oath at Philadelphia courthouse that day. “Niclaus Müfli” was his signature in early America, and by 1752 it was “Nicholas Muffly”.

MUFFLEY y-DNA, AND SWITZERLAND
(11/08 update)

It now appears (www.familysearch.org) that Muffley ancestry can be traced back to Christian and Magdalena Juzeler Maffli, paternal grandparents of Niclaus Maffli (b. Feb. 1707/1708). Christian Maffli Sr. was reportedly born about 1655 at Amsoldingen, Bern Canton, Switzerland. Magdalena Juzeler was reportedly born at the same location about 1657. Christian & Magdalena were married on November 4, 1678. Their children reportedly were: Peter, Anna, Elizabeth, Magdalena, Christian Jr. (father of Niclaus), Hans, and another Magdalena (presumably the first had died).

Thus, my Y-Chromosome SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) marker presumably is identical to that of my 7th Great-Grandfather Christian Maffli Sr., born about 1655, i.e. 288 years before my birth. It is possible to gather some information stretching back much further in time on the male line.

A SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) is a change to a single nucleotide in a DNA sequence. The mutation rate is extremely low over the millennia, so that this genetic information can be used as an aid to understanding human history. Each mutation point defines a new Haplogroup, and these suggest geographical points of origin of male ancestors. In the Swiss population are found at least 7 common male Haplogroups, so far as I understand, including E3b, G, G2, J, I1b2, R1a1, & R1b.

I have had a simple kind of SNP testing done. My Haplogroup was determined to be R1b1c. This marker has its highest concentration in the Irish and Basque peoples, but is widespread throughout Western Europe.

The M269 genetic marker defining R1b1c may have originated in central Asia, and was widespread in Europe throughout Paleolithic times. Men with this genetic marker are believed to have been associated with the Aurignacian Culture (say, ±32,000-21,000 B.C.?) of the Upper Paleolithic Age. These people were the cave painters of southern France, Spain, and Portugal. There were advances in flint tools. Hunting points were from antler, bone, and ivory. There were no atlatl spear-throwing sticks, or bows and arrows. There was body ornamentation. Concentrations of the culture were in several locations surrounding Switzerland, but not so much within modern Switzerland itself.

During the last Ice Age (=Last Glacial Maximum), men of the R1b1c Haplogroup are believed to have withdrawn to the Iberian Peninsula (one of the Ice Age “Refugia”), and then to have repopulated Europe beginning about 15,000 years ago.

Further genetic subclade testing of myself might be helpful. Reportedly, R1b1c10 (Continental Celt, probably of the Helvetii Tribe) is common in Switzerland. Pending further genetic testing, my Deep SNP subclade is likely either R1b1c10 (Continental Celt), or R1b1c9 (likely the Alamanni/Alemanni, a Germanic group which came later into Switzerland). (see now my recent 9/09 Genetic testing Update!)

Switzerland has sites of both Hallstatt and La Tène Celtic culture. The Helvetii Celts reportedly moved from southern Germany into Switzerland by the late 2nd Century B.C., pushed south by Germanic groups. The Helvetii were settled on the Swiss plateau in the 1st Century B.C., and were mentioned in Julius Caesar’s “Commentary on the Gallic War”. A bit of Helvetii history is at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helvetii#Earliest_historical_sources_and_settlement The Helvetii eventually came under Rome’s rule. Maffli ancestral homes in the Aare River Valley were centuries earlier settled with Celts.

Later during Roman times, the Alamanni Germans moved into Switzerland from the north. Well after the fall of the Roman Empire, Alemannia came under Frankish rule, and later under Habsburg rule. The Habsburg family’s power had actually begun with Radbot of Habsburg, who about 1020 built a castle of that name in northern Switzerland.

Switzerland’s traditional founding occurred in 1291 with the confederation of the Cantons Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden. Bern Canton and others joined the confederation in 1353. Maffli traditional homes in the Aare Valley of Bern Canton came under the rule of the Zähringen and Kyburg dynasties. Thun Castle (Zähringen and Kyburg families) and Spiez Castle are fairly close to the main Maffli ancestral home of Höfen-Amsoldingen bei Thun. In time, patrician families became more autocratic. The Swiss Peasants’ War of 1653 occurred two years before the birth of Christian Maffli Sr., and did involve Bern Canton. This was only a few years (since 1648) after Switzerland became totally independent from the Holy Roman Empire.

In the time of Maffli-surname (at least back to the 1500s), people in the Aare River Valley spoke a High Alemannic dialect. Niclaus Maffli moved from his birthplace at Amsoldingen, near Lake Thun, to Zweisimmen, an area of Highest Alemannic dialect. In the latter dialect, Maffli was pronounced “Moofli” and so the spelling upon migration to America in 1737 found the “a” changed to “u”: Muffley.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS: SWITZERLAND, PENNSYLVANIA, AND DNA

Niclaus Mufly and Christian Jäggi/Yockey arrived together in America on Halloween, 1737, and had come from neighboring villages in the Upper Simmen Valley (Obersimmental) in the Bernese Uplands. One wonders if they had left Switzerland together. Apparently not. A recent check at the Bern Archives found Niclaus’ emigration tax record, but not Christian’s for around the same time period. Christian probably came from the village of Saanen, near St. Stephan. An alternate spelling of the surname is reportedly Gaggi. This was from the departure tax books in the archives at Bern. My distant cousin Marilyn, onetime correspondent of my father, traveled to Switzerland in the spring of 2014. She sent me many good photos of ancestral locations, including Niclaus’ residential village of Zweisimmen, plus Maffli ancestral home villages of Amsoldingen, Oberdiessbach, and Buchholterberg. Also, there were photos of St. Stephan, where pertinent Jäggi/Gaggi records might still exist.

Niclaus Maffli was born in 1707 at Höfen-Amsoldingen bei Thun, the primary Maffli ancestral home. The church at Amsoldingen is the collegiate church of St. Mauritius. Next to the church is the Amsoldingen “castle”, now more of a manor house following reconstruction. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsoldingen_Castle When Niclaus was young, the castle was occupied by Samuel Bodmer, an engineer who developed flood control measures in the area. Next to Amsoldingen are the lakes Amsoldingersee and Uebeschisee.

My own trip to Höfen-Amsoldingen bei Thun many years ago unfortunately did not include the interior of the church at Amsoldingen. The church & adjacent castle were reportedly built with stone from Aventicum, the capital of Roman Switzerland. The church is described as an Ottonian basilica. The Ottonians were a dynasty of German kings, 919-1024. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottonian  So, when Niclaus attended this church 3 centuries ago, the church was 7 centuries old.

I have not yet visited St. Stephan, which I did not know about while on my Swiss voyages of the late 1960s and 1970s. The St. Stephan village church, surely attended by our Jäggi ancestors, was begun in the early medieval times, with tower and choir from the 800s. The church was most recently expanded in the 1400s. At one time this church was affiliated with the church at nearby Zweisimmen, and then was under Interlaken Abbey from 1335. Bern Canton officially adopted the Protestant Reformation in 1528, a move which was resisted in the Bernese Oberland. This was about a century and a half before the probable birth of ancestor Christian Jäggi Sr., and it is unknown whether his ancestors were then in the vicinity of St. Stephan. In the early Jäggi days near St. Stephan, the economy was largely agricultural. Cattle were located on the valley floor and in seasonal alpine herding camps. Christian Jäggi Sr. was reportedly born about 1680-1685, and lived in the time of the Old Swiss Confederacy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Modern_Switzerland 

Secondary Maffli ancestral villages of Oberdiessbach and Buchholterberg were also visited by Marilyn. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberdiessbach Early Maffli persons at Oberdiessbach may have come under the influence of the Von Wattenwyl family, who had a chapel in the church (current building from 1498). The adjacent parish of Buchholterberg was also a Maffli ancestral village. Today in Switzerland the Maffli surname is spelled Mafli, and some distant kin may be among the several Swiss Mafli entries on Facebook. A line of American Maffly from Valais/Wallis Canton could be tested via yDNA to look for common ancestry. 

Photos at top: Village of St. Stephan, Oberdiessbach,
Bottom photos: Buchholterberg, Amsoldingen Church and Castle
photo credit: Marilyn Wagner Bernstein

Niclaus Muffley’s son Johannes married Christian Jäggi’s daughter Maria Barbara Yockey in Pennsylvania. In 1774, Johannes/John signed the Ft. Allen Petition of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. This was one of several petitions asking Governor Penn for greater protection against Indian raids. Other signers of the Ft. Allen Petition included Peter Wannemacher (brother of Regina Wannemacher Muffly), Peter’s son-in-law Philip Klingensmith, and Balthazar Meyer.  Brian, an adoptee & recently discovered autosomal DNA cousin of Gary Muffley, reportedly is a descendant of Philip Klingensmith, his Wannemacher wife, and also a Meyer woman who could be kin of Balthazar Meyer. It is noteworthy that that we do not yet know the surname of Elizabeth, wife of Johannes’ son Jacob. Was she a Klingensmith, Wannemacher, or Meyer? Jacob (b. 1784) and his wife were 3^rd great-grandparents of Gary. The autosomal DNA (atDNA) chromosomal shared segment with Brian lies mostly on Chromosome 14, and the total of shared segments is 48.33 centiMorgans. So, the link is substantial, and hopefully is a connection researchable in documents &/or with further DNA analyses. This data may be found at www.gedmatch.com under ID # F170106 for Gary. Brian is under ID # M220416 at GEDmatch.

The Johannes Muffly family may have lived in the vicinity of Muffley Hollow Road, shown at www.spokeo.com/Muffley+Hollow+Rd+Avonmore+PA+addresses#  Muffley Hollow Road intersects with Carnahan Road. Near here was the site of Adam Carnahan’s Blockhouse. Adam’s brother John was killed at the blockhouse in an Indian skirmish in 1777. There was at least one Muffley-Carnahan intermarriage.

By the way, our Johannes Muffly and wife Maria Barbara Yockey of Westmoreland Pennsylvania had a nephew & niece, respectively: John Muffley and his wife Maria Barbara Yockey. This had led to confusion in reported genealogies, and mistakes which defy attempts to correct. The younger couple reportedly never left southeast Pennsylvania. The younger John Muffley, still single, appeared in church records in southeast Pennsylvania at a time when his uncle Johannes (our ancestor) was married and living in southwest Pennsylvania.

Gary’s atDNA appears to have remnants from 5^th great-grandfather Christian Jäggi/Yockey (b. 1720) &/or his wife Maria Catharina Christ. Christian & Catharina were the Most Recent Common Ancestors for Gary & new atDNA cousin Don of Kittanning Pennsylvania. The total of shared chromosomal segments is 28.77 centiMorgans, with the largest shared segment lying on Chromosome 10 at 17.26 cM. So, it might be possible that Gary also has a bit of detectible atDNA from Niclaus Muffley too. Niclaus was one of 128 ancestors at the level of 5^th great-grandparents. Don’s ancestor Margaret Whitaker (b. 1816) was a daughter of Martin Whitaker and the wife of Samuel Loyd. I have from Don a seating chart for St. James Church, 1838-1839. On this chart Martin Whitaker and his son-in-law Samuel Loyd have adjacent seats. The chart has several familiar names, some of which figure in the ancestry of Muffley cousin Becky. One listing is William Muffley, brother of my 3^rd great-grandfather Jacob Muffley (1784-1844).  Margaret Whitaker Loyd’s maternal grandfather was Peter Yockey, brother of our Maria Barbara Yockey Muffly. St. James Church had previously been known as Yockey’s Meeting House, so the 1838-1839 seating chart naturally shows several Yockey people.

The seating chart also lists the surname Wolford. John Frederick Yockey (b. 1775), grandson of Christian & Catharina, married Elizabeth Wolford. John’s & Elizabeth’s grandson was Corporal Daniel Yockey (b. 1833). Daniel was in Company B of the 139^th Pennsylvania Infantry during the Civil War. His regiment participated in a large number of battles, including Gettysburg. At Gettysburg, July 1863, his regiment was in the 3^rd Brigade, 3^rd Division, XI Corps of the Army of the Potomac. The XI Corps was called the “German Corps” because of so many German speakers. The XI Corps was also associated with Robert Cumming Schenck, of Dutch ancestry, and thus perhaps my kinsman. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_C._Schenck  See our Dutch Ancestry Blog at http://dutchancestorline.blogspot.com/  Also at the Battle of Gettysburg were some Muffley kin, and Watson Augustus Donald. See the Donald Blog at http://donaldancestry.blogspot.com/ 

Daniel Yockey and his family migrated from Pennsylvania by wagon to Washington State. In 1890 he arrived at Douglas County, and cultivated timber southeast of Dyer. His grave is in the Wenatchee City Cemetery, Chelan County, Washington. Find A Grave Memorial # 2238668.  

When our ancestor Christian Yockey left Switzerland, he probably migrated via the Pfalz region of Germany prior to arriving in America from Rotterdam in 1737. In 1837 in the Pfalz there was born Jacob Yockey, who migrated to Ohio. I suspect that Christian left Switzerland with Yockey kin who remained in the Pfalz/Palatinate near the Rhine River. Jacob Yockey’s ancestry is thought, but not yet proven, to stem fromSwitzerland, according to researchers of this line. Autosomal DNA testing may clarify probable connections, and such testing is in progress right now.

For some time now, we have had 67 STR (Short Tandem Repeats) markers yDNA data from Richard, who is this descendant of Peter Muffly Sr. (b. 1739): ID P5N2S at www.ysearch.org  Matches to this sample in the Y-Search database have so far been very distant and unhelpful for genealogical research. We now also have 67 STR markers yDNA data from myself, Gary Muffley. I descend from Peter’s brother Johannes. So, the Most Recent Common Ancestor for me and Richard, the donor of Y-Search sample P5N2S, was immigrating ancestor Niclaus, our 5^th great-grandfather. Richard and Gary match on 62 of 67 STR markers. This data confirms that there were no Non-Paternity Events down the 2 lines from Niclaus to Richard and myself. We have a good approximation of Niclaus’ yDNA 67 markers STR pattern. Niclaus would indeed have carried the R1b yDNA marker S21+/U106+, perhaps brought into the Maffli part of the Aare River Valley by the Alemanni tribe.

Gary’s 67 STR yDNA markers results may be viewed under ID T7ND3 at www.ysearch.org and under Kit # 170106 at www.familytreedna.com/public/switzerland

I wish to take exception to the Ancestry.com statement about the origin of Muffley as “Americanized form of South German Muffele, nickname for a surly person, from a diminutive of Muff”. Taken from a dictionary of American family names. This is exactly the kind of approach rightly criticized in the book “Surnames, DNA, and Family History”, by Redmonds, King, and Hey. A multidisciplinary approach to surnames is what is needed, not limited to the traditional surnames-philologist approach. Know the family history, and the DNA if possible. Did the person(s) who came up with this explanation even know of the existence of the Alemanni Swiss surname Maffli, present in that exact spelling from the 1500s in the Aare River Valley? Or refer to the Swiss Family Name Book? I think not. We have a continuous line of evidence from the Swiss Maffli to American Muffley. Niclaus was born Maffli, but the “a” was pronounced “oo” in the Highest Alemannic dialect, so the spelling got altered even prior to arrival in America. One of the earliest Muffley histories reported that Niclaus himself said that he was Swiss. Years ago, I contacted the president of the American Name Society about the Swiss Maffli surname, which was new to him. His guess was that the nickname Maff may have derived from something like Magafrid. A typical Germanic two-theme name, corresponding to Macht (strength) plus Fried (peace). Maffli would have been a son of Maff, in the patronymic pattern typical of Germanic Switzerland.  What else does Ancestry.com have to say about the surname Muffele? One Gillis Van Muffele (a Low Countries place) arrived in 1676 in Batavia, traveling from the Netherlands with the Dutch East India ship “Prins Willem Hendrik”. German or Swiss? I think not. A bit more care in surname interpretation would be nice, lest a person become surly.

DNA CONNECTIONS TO MAYFLOWER EDWARD DOTY

It has long been suspected that Gary’s 5^th great-grandfather Edward Doughty (b. 1738) was kin to Doughty of Upstate South Carolina. Jeremiah Doughty (b. May 14, 1777, Pendleton District SC) was the ancestor of an autosomal DNA match with Gary: A shared segment on Chromosome 16 of 14.65 centiMorgans in the Family Tree DNA database. Another descendant of this Jeremiah Doughty has an yDNA match with documented descendants of Samuel Doty (b. 1643), son of Edward Doty who arrived in 1620 in the Plymouth Colony via the Mayflower. See the Doty/Doughty yDNA Project at www.familytreedna.com/public/Doughty-Doty?iframe=yresults. Jeremiah Doughty’s father was Joseph Doughty (b. 1755): The yDNA findings for this group are under “Descendants of Joseph Doughty Sr. of South Carolina”.  Haplogroup R1b & positive on SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) marker Z255. 

Gary has several other atDNA matches with descendants of Mayflower Edward Doty. Here are the kids of his son Samuel Doty Sr. (b. 1643): http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~colonialfamiliestonewjersey/doty/d0/i0000076.htm#i76 Samuel Doty Jr. (b. 1679) might have been the ancestor of both Gary’s Edward Doughty (b. 1738) & of Jeremiah Doty (b. 1777, Pendleton District S.C.). The Most Recent Common Ancestor for Gary versus descendants of Jeremiah Doughty possibly is more recent than the MRCA for Gary versus other atDNA matches, where the MRCA appears to be Samuel Doty Sr. (b. 1643), & perhaps even Mayflower immigrant Edward Doty himself. 

 James Doty (b. 1686), son of Samuel Sr., was the reported ancestor of sailorio32 at Ancestry.com, where the atDNA match with Gary is 7.8 cM. Daniel Doty (b. 1701/02), another son of Samuel Sr., was the reported ancestor of csmk51 at Ancestry.com, where the atDNA match with Gary is 7.4 cM. There are more matches, including people who reportedly descend from brothers of Samuel Doty Sr. (b. 1643). 

Other descendants of Samuel Doty Sr. (b. 1643) went to the Tenmile Country of the Upper Monongahela River in southwest Pennsylvania, onetime home of my Edward Doughty (b. 1738). Joseph Doty (b. 1696), son of Samuel Sr., was the ancestor of Anthony Doty, whose descendant Tom is Kit # 89355 in the Doty/Doughty yDNA Project, Edward-Samuel-Joseph yDNA group. A write-up about Anthony Doty (d. 1815) appears on Page 113 of “The Tenmile Country And Its Pioneer Families”, by Leckey. 

Enoch Enoch (b. 1750) was thought to have married Mary Doughty, who may have been a sister or cousin of my Edward Doughty (b. 1738). Enoch Enoch appears on Page 52 of the Leckey book. Enoch Enoch also appears from Page 123, Chapter 3, of Harry J. Enoch’s “Historical Records of the Enoch Family in Virginia and Pennsylvania”. Enoch Enoch was on Tenmile Creek by 1766. Later he sold his land interest to my Edward Doughty. Doughty’s land, called “Pigeon’s Resort”, was on the west bank of the Monongahela River at Pumpkin Run, formerly called Enoch’s Run. Pumpkin Run enters the Monongahela just upstream from the mouth of Tenmile Creek. After the death of our Edward Doughty, his son-in-law Abijah McClain bought the land rights from Edward’s descendants & laid out lots which form part of the current village of Rice’s Landing in Greene County Pennsylvania. Permelia Doughty McClain (wife of Abijah) was a sister of my Mary Doughty McCreary (great-grandmother of Emma Jane McCreary Muffley), & Permelia appears in a number of online family trees. Enoch Enoch appears in the Maxwell tree by cgoodmax who has a 6.1 centiMorgans atDNA match with Gary in the AncestryDNA database, although this tree lists neither Doty nor Doughty ancestry. Enoch Enoch was not the ancestor of the Maxwell tree home person. 

Edward Doty (b. 1685), son of Samuel Sr., was the ancestor of Catherine Doty Van Voorhees (b. 1754). Catherine appears in our Muffley tree at: www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/64174501/person/210146139161/facts  Her husband Abraham Van Voorhees was known kin to Gary via Van Voorhees ancestry. Our Edward Doughty (b. 1738) arrived in Tenmile Country of southwest Pennsylvania quite early; his probable kinswoman Catherine & her husband Abraham apparently arrived after the Revolutionary War. 

At www.gedmatch.com Gary’s Kits are A693287 (AncestryDNA) & T203534 (Family Tree DNA). Hopefully, Doty/Doughty atDNA kin will accumulate at GEDmatch over time.