Hullinger DNA

Hollinger Name Origins - Speculations

We don't know the originations of the Hollinger / Hullinger name. The following is my speculation - if someone has better knowledge please send me an email and I will add it to this speculation.

craighullinger@gmail.com

Last names originated in Germanic speaking areas after 1100 AD. Prior to that time people would have had only a first name, which was adequate for small rural places with little outside contact.

Family names often were related to place names. Henri from the small village of Holl or Holling would be Henri from Holl or Holling. In Bavaria and Switzerland the suffix "inger" is often appended to a name. The name would thus become Hollinger.

I searched for places name Holl and Holling in German speaking countries in Europe. We found places named Holl and Holling numerous times in German and once in Switzerland, Austria and France. The maps and tables below show the locations. It is plausible that our ancestor lived in one of these places. When he moved to a nearby city he was Henri from Holl or Holling, eventually becoming Henri Hollinger.

Holl

The map and table below depict communities named Holl.

Holling

The map and table below depict places named Holling.

Interestingly Google Maps does not indicate a Holling in Switzerland. Switzerland is south of the Holling locations.

It is incorrect to assume that modern German was the exact current language used when our last name was first developed. Mountainous regions such as Bavaria and Switzerland had numerous dialects that were related to but barely recognizable to people from the next valley. People needed to learn and use "High" German to communicate. And pronunciation was likely very different in the middle ages.

Hullinger is variously spelled Hollinger or Hullinger in the US. German also has an additional vowel with an umlat over the "ö". The "Umlat" is two small dots above the "ö". This governs the pronunciation, which is slightly different then "u" or "o" in English.
In Switzerland our name is usually spelled Holinger or Hollinger. In Austria it is more typically spelled Höllinger.

After immigrating to America we variously spelled the name Hullinger or Hollinger or Holinger.

Our family pronounces the name Hull' ing er, with the first syllable pronounced the same as a hull of a ship. This is close to the way it is pronounced today in Switzerland.
For Americans it is easier to say Hull in Jer', and that is often the way it is now pronounced.

Our earliest known ancestors are from the small Village of Boniswil in the Canton of Aargau in Switzerland. This small community is adjacent to three places with the first syllable of their name "Hall". Hallwil is a small village; Schloss Hallwyl is a small attractive castle that was owned by the Hallwyl family; and Hallwilersee is a lake just south of where our ancestors lived.

I speculate that our ancestors may have been named for one or all three of these places, with the pronunciation perhaps intermediate between Hall and the umlated Höll or Holl. The table and map shows the location of the three locations relative to Boniswil.

Hall became Höll / Holl ?

Sources

http://www.ag.ch/hallwyl/de/pub/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatinate_German

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96

How Did Our Ancestors Get From the Middle East to Switzerland?

There are many ways our ancestor could have reached Switzerland. Following are several possible alternatives. There are many other possible alternatives.

The following images and some of the text are taken from a great article in Wikapedia about our "Y" Chromsome J2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_J2_(Y-DNA)

Alternative 1

The maps show the distribution of our Y Chromosome J2. It spread from the middle east to Greece, the Balkans, Italy, France, and Spain. Our ancestor may have migrated from Greece, Italy, or the Balkans to Canton Aargau, Switzerland. J2 is associated with the spread of agriculture from the fertile crescent to Europe.

Alternative 2. The spread of J2 along the Med looks like the Phoenicians to some researchers. They spread from the middle east by ship.

http://m172.blogspot.com/2008/10/phoenician-footprints-in-mediterranean.html

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/10/081030-phoenician-dna-genographic-missions_2.html

Alternative 3

Another way our ancestor could have reached Switzerland is during the Roman Empire expansion. The Roman Empire included most of the area where our J2 is located. Our ancestor could have come to Rome and eventually Switzerland as a slave, soldier, trader, or citizen. The geographic path would have been similar to the first illustration.

Alternative 4

This alternative is quite interesting. The information is taken from Wikadpedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y-chromosomal_Aaron

The Wikapedia article discusses the Cohen Priest Genetic line of descent. Aaron was the brother of Moses and began the line of Cohen Priests. All priests were to be direct genetic descendants of Aaron and would share his Y Chromosome. In reality not all Priests share one line.

The map below illustrates the possible path of the Cohen Priest genetic line. Our Y Chromosome is very similar to one of the Cohen lines, and it is possible that our ancestors were their Jewish relatives and followed the same or similar path.

The Roman Empire destroyed the Jewish Nation in 70 AD. A large number of people were killed or enslaved. A number of people escaped to other countries. A number of Jews immigrated first to Morocco, and then subsequently moved and settled in Spain, then France, later Germany, and then eastern Europe. The map below illustrates this migration.

Under this scenario our ancestors followed this route and picked up the Hollinger name enroute after 1100 AD. Our ancestors converted to Christianity and immigrated into Switzerland. Our cousins remained Jewish and immigrated to Poland and Romania.

All three scenarios above are of course speculation and we cannot know for sure exactly how are ancestor reached Switzerland. DNA testing may eventually confirm this last theory, however. If a descendant of the Jewish Hollinger's from Romania or Poland test their "Y" Chromosome we can find out if we are closely related. If we are then this last path is likely. If not one of the other paths is most likely.

I have researched our name in Israel. There are a number of Hollinger's in Israel, who spell their name Holinger.

The table below is taken from the Wikapedia article. Our J2 numbers are at the bottom of the table. As you can see, our numbers are close to the Cohen J2 line. Mutations occur periodically, as shown in the table.

Clifford and Louise Hullinger and later Beth and Craig Hullinger visited our lovely Swiss ancestral hometowns in Canton Aargau west of Zurich. In 1984 Beth and Craig met our cousin Elizabeth Hollinger in Switzerland, and in 2003 we saw Elizabeth again and met her son Christof and his wife Elizabeth. They were all very nice and brilliant. We compared our genealogies and determined that we were 13th cousins once removed.

In October 2010 Craig Hullinger took a genetic test to determine our "Y" Chromosome haplogroup. The "Y" Chromosome determines sex and is passed from father to son with minimal changes. It can be used to prove relationships among males and determine ancient originations. All male descendants and ancestors and cousins of John Hullinger will have identical or nearly identical "Y" haplogroup DNA. The test requires a simple swab of the inside of your mouth. The lab determined that our haplogroup is J.

The test showed that our Swiss Hullinger genealogy was accurate. Our "Y" chromosome is closely related to four other Hullinger / Hollinger men who who also took the DNA test.

I have contacted these cousins by email. Over time we should be able to determine our exact relationship by comparing our written genealogies.

The test also shows the number of Swiss matches against the total number of Swiss and European "Y" Haplogroups tested. This result is quite low - only 2 Swiss cousins out of 1,618 Swiss tested. It is also rare in the rest of Europe. This indicates that our J haplogroup is a recent and rare haplogroup in Europe.This implies that we are probably a later migration into Switzerland and Europe.

Our haplogroup is J which is from the middle east. The maps below show the origination and migration path of men with the "J" Haplogroup.

The Map below from Wikipedia shows current concentrations of men with the "J" Haplogroup. Note that the highest concentration is in the middle east which probably shows where it originated.

Our Haplogroup is actually J2, a subdivision of J, which split from J and probably originated in the fertile crescent. It split from J 18,500 +/- 3,500 years ago.

Extracted From Wikapedia - Read more on the Link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_J2_(Y-DNA)

"Haplogroup J2 is found mainly in the Fertile Crescent, the Caucasus, Anatolia, the Balkans, Italy, the Mediterranean littoral, the Iranian plateau, Central Asia, and South Asia. More specifically it is found in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon,Turkey, Israel, Palestine, Greece, Italy and the Iberian Peninsula, and more frequently in Iraqis 29.7% , Lebanese 25%, Palestinians16.8%, Syrians 22.5% , India 7%, Sephardic Jews 29%, Kurds 28.4%, Saudi Arabia 15.92%, Jordan 14.3%, Oman 10-15%, UAE 10.4%, Yemen 9.7%, in Israel, in Palestine, and in Turkey.^"

Very interesting. We are descended from a Hollinger in Switzerland and are shown by the DNA test to be related to four other Hullinger / Hollinger men who descended from a common Swiss ancestor.

But our deeper ancestry is from the middle east. Our J-2 ancestor migrated into Switzerland. Most of the middle east was part of the Roman Empire, and he could have immigrated, been a slave, or a soldier.

Hullinger / Hollinger Victims of the Holocaust

The Central Database of Shoa Victims' Names (Holocaust)

link below shows a number of Hollingers who were killed in the Holocaust. This was a surprise to us as all the Hullingers we knew were Protestant. We are very sorry for our Polish and Romanian cousins and consider ourselves fortunate that our ancestors stayed in Switzerland or migrated to America.

http://www4.yadvashem.org/

http://www.yadvashem.org/wps/portal/IY_HON_Welcome

Most Hullingers who were killed in the Holocaust were living in Romania or Poland. I had wondered if these folks had converted from Christian to Jewish, but given the origin of our "J" Chromosome it seems more likely that our ancestors converted from Judaism to Christianity.

The name Hullinger sounds German, not Romanian or Polish. Surnames in German speaking areas became common after the 1100's. It seems likely that the Hollinger / Hullinger name developed in a German speaking area, with some of our cousins later immigrating to Poland and Rumania.

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There are forty Holliger’s listed in the on line phonebook for Israel. These folks are probably descended from European Jews. We do not know if we are related to them, but will probably know when they test for their "Y" DNA.

http://www.israelpb.com/hollinger/page/1