Ronald Earl Nicely - The 50,000 Year DNA Journey of the Knusli Family

THE 50,000 YEAR DNA

JURNEY

of the

KNUSLI FAMILY

Author

RONALD EARL NICELY

The map on the front cover shows the trail of the Knusli family journey from Eastern Central Africa northward and eastward across the continents and then across the Pacific Ocean to America and to Lancaster, PA. It was not one long journey but a journey of time with many stops and starts in many different parts of the world. The information that established the very early journey locations came from the results of testing the male Y-DNA of the author of the book. The testing was completed by Family Tree DNA and the results were submitted to the National Geographic Genographic study and to a J2 Haplogroup Y-DNA study that was being undertaken in Greece. These two studies gave me information on the locations where my DNA was located. Comparison of my DNA to samples that were time dated and matched indicated places around the world where my DNA was present. This location information was used to trace our path prior to the arrival in Switzerland. The path from Switzerland and the rest of the journey was indicated in many different reports and in family history.

The picture on the map in the bottom right represents the early beginnings of the trek out of Africa where they were hunters following the animals as they moved north, the middle picture represents the Anatolia area, where they were cave dwellers. The last picture on the top left is of the Anthony A. Nicely family of Ligonier PA and is used as a representation of our many families in America.

WE ARE THE CHOSEN...

We are the chosen. In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again, to tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve.

Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the storytellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called, as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us, Tell our story! So, we do.

In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors, You have a wonderful family; you would be proud of us. How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say.

It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who I am and why do I do the things I do. It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying, I cant let this happen. The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish, how they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family.

It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought and some died to make and keep us a Nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth. Without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach.

That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers.

That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those whom we had never known before.

Author Unknown

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or

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or

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Copyright 2014 Ronald Earl Nicely

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the author.

Print ISBN: 978-1-304-54454-4

eBook ISBN: 978-1-625-17479-6

Dedication & Recognition

This book is dedicated to all the ancestors and the wide spread members of the Knusli family that did research and gratefully supplied information to me that was utilized in developing the history in this book. I also want to recognize the website Family Tree DNA who completed the tests on the Knusli family members who submitted their DNA samples for analysis. I also want to recognize the individuals in Greece who worked on the study of the J2 haplogroup, Costa Tsirigakis and Angela Cone for the information they supplied that was helpful in developing some sections of this book. I also need to recognize The National Geographic Genographic Project that supplied volumes of information on the early DNA history of my family line and Dr. Spencer Wells who wrote the book The Journey of Man and his DNA research that led to the development of the path that lead to the population of the world and gave me the basis for our long family journey.

I have so many people to thank for their input and assistance that I could not possibly mention them all, but there are some that need to be mentioned. My wife Marian Chris Plummer Nicely, who has put up with my research trips and time spent working on the research and writing of the book. My mother (now deceased), Florence Rose McDowell Nicely, who gathered and documented a lot of the information on the Anthony Nicely Sr. branch of the Ligonier, PA family tree over many years and gave me the basis for the start of my research work She was the person that stemmed my interest in knowing more about the family. They say genealogy is a disease you inherit from your ancestors and I would venture to guess I was infected by my mother. LOL. John Robert (Jack) Nicely and Todd Garrett Pelkey, both descendants of the Adam Nicely Jr. Ligonier PA branch, passed on to me almost all of the history for the Adam Nicely Jr. branch of the tree. John Robert and I were the ones who discovered the information that Adam Nicely Sr. was the person who moved to Ligonier and was the father of Anthony Sr. and Adam Jr. On the Whitecrow side of the Kneisle family, Mary Virginia Scritchfield Wood (now deceased), a descendent of Tsu-Ka-We or Crow as Jacob Nicely was known by his Native American name, had been searching for her ancestors for around twenty years and had accumulated information on Crows descendants. Her information was passed on to Leora Lacie Whitecrow (now deceased), the wife of Sidney Whitecrow, who became involved a few years back and through the use of the Internet and access to the Native American history files she began to expand the knowledge of Jacobs family. I want to thank Bruno Nuessli, who is a member of the unrelated Nusli family line, of Winterthur, Switzerland, who helped with Y-DNA testing that proved the separation of the Knusli line from the Nusli line. Special thanks goes out to Jake and Sondra Knisely, who helped start all of this interest in the full family line by meeting the Whitecrow family and then finding me. Jake also elected to pay for a Y-DNA test that connected us as cousins and whos historical genealogy data gave me the information to connect to Hans Knussli who was born in 1628 in the Canton of Zurich in Switzerland. Without Jakes efforts in finding me this story could not have been told. I would also like to thank all of the people who have purchased the DNA kits and submitted their DNA to Family Tree DNA for testing. This includes many non Knusli descendants, including Sidney Sacks, who was closely matched and helped indicate a distant cousin connection to the Hebrew line. I would also like to thank all of the family members who got in touch with me and gave me so many stories of the family. The list of names is in no particular order but they were all significant in the process. Jean Aikins Anthony, Rev. Harry Knisely, Glenn Nicely (now deceased), Don Gilmore, James Bernard Niceley, Shirley McQuillis Iscrupe, Harry Loren Knisely, Dwayne Larry Nicely, Robert Knisely, and many others who supplied pieces of their family history that helped to fill the voids in my research.