To those of you interested in DNA testing, here's how our family have used 
the tests to answer one of our questions.

The surname Prillaman is pretty rare in states other than Virginia 
(http://www.hamrick.com/cgi-bin/names.cgi?surname=prillaman&year=1990&type=html). We 
have two documents with the actual signature from the 1700s of the man we 
consider to be the patriach of the Prillaman family, Jacob Prillaman Sr. (1721-1796). 
  In those two documents, he signed his surname Brüllmann.   On public 
documents, deeds, etc. from that time period the clerks of the court spelled his 
name a variety of ways, most beginning with the letters Pr, so we are fortunate 
to have two documents with his actual signature.   A couple of coincidences 
happened to help connect the Prillaman name to the Brüllmann name which is also a 
rare surname found most frequently in Switzerland. 

I had been contacted by a Mr. Brüllmann (Bruellman) from Switzerland who is a 
teacher/administrator.   He had googled the name of F. Douglas Prillaman, an 
author of books on special education and professor at William & Mary for 23 
years - he hoped to contact him regarding his research.   In his search he came 
across the Prillaman family website and was astounded to see that Brüllmann 
was listed on the site as a possible origin of the Prillaman name.   He wondered 
if there might be a connection and emailed me as the administrator of the 
site.   I unfortunately had to inform him that F. Douglas Prillaman had passed 
away but asked him if he could help our family find a possible connection to the 
Brüllmann families of Switzerland.   I told him some of the family history 
and how there is a ships record showing Jacob Brüllmann from Lohn, Switzerland 
to Philadelphia in 1747 on the ship Lydia. (this has been incorrectly 
transcribed as Grüllmann   on the ships lists on the internet and in some books, but 
upon looking at the actual signature, the signature matches Jacob's signature of 
Brüllmann - the transcribers mistook his B for a G). He thought it would be 
interesting to find out if he had cousins in America and agreed to do the YDNA 
test.   

Jacob Prillaman Sr. had three sons, Jacob Jr., John, and Daniel.   Using 
familytreedna, we tested 37 markers from a male descendant from Daniel's line and 
from John's line who both can trace their lines directly back to Jacob 
Prillaman Sr. and whose families have lived within 30 miles of the ancestral lands of 
Jacob for 7/8 generations in Franklin and Henry County, Virginia.   It was 
interesting to find that Daniel's descendant was a closer match to the man from 
Switzerland than John'sdescendant.   There were only three mismatches 
(mutations) out of the 37 markers but four mismatches from John's.   (To help 
understand mismatches, it is said by familytreedna that even sibling brothers can have 
a mismatch.)   Between John and Daniel's there are also only three 
mistmatches.   Out of all the test subjects on familytreedna, those three are the only 
ones listed as matches for the 37 markers.   We hope to test another Brüllmann  
 from Switzerland (or the USA) to compare with the present results and also 
the surname Bruhlmann from Switzerland to see how closely matches the Prillaman 
or Brullmann names.   (The Swiss phone directory has over 600 results for the 
surname Bruehlmann but only a little over 100 for the surname Brullmann.)



Twyla Edwards
Prillaman Family Genealogy
315.336.1039



**************
Need a new ride? Check out the largest site for U.S. used car 
listings at AOL Autos.
      
(http://autos.aol.com/used?NCID=aolcmp00300000002851)

To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html