NEFF DNA Project

John Neff Family Organization

DNA Report by Alice Neff

The Neff Family Historical Society has been doing a DNA study through Family Tree DNA, http://www.familytreedna.com/public/Neff click on “Y results”, on the International Neff Family. My husband submitted a sample of his DNA on behalf of the John Neff Family. The John Neff Family Organization paid for a DNA test for Hanns Naef, a descendant of Rudolf Näf, Adam’s brother, when none of Adam’s descendants would agree to the test. It is a match.

As a family we have never been able to trace our ancestry beyond the father of Dr. Franz Neff, Dr. Hans Heinrich Neff of Duhren, Germany. We have long felt we were descended from the Adam Näf who is a hero of the 1531 Kappel War. Some of us have been to the Näfenhaus in Kappel, Switzerland. I have met descendants of Adam Näf and was astonished by the similarities between them and my husband’s uncles.

We have much of the research done on Kappel Näfs.  For hundreds of years they lived in this little farming village in the Albis Mountains southwest of Zurich. The Battle of Kappel in 1531 was a fight between the Catholic Church and the Canton of Zurich, which wanted to reform the church. Each side had a standard or banner. To win the battle, all the other side had to do was bring down the standard, which often meant killing the standard bearer. Adam Näf was a guard. When the enemy attempted to wrest the banner from the standard bearer Adam swung his broad sword, severing the head of the enemy. The banner was saved. Zurich won the battle. Adam’s father Hans Näf died in that battle, 11 Oct 1531. Ulrich Zwingli, the leader of the reform movement in Switzerland, was injured, captured and, because he would not renounce his faith, killed, quartered and burned. Because of the heroic effort on his part, Adam Näf was honored for the rest of his live. He was given citizenship in Zurich in 1533. In 1550 he and each of his children were given a home in Kappel.

Our records going back and many of the records of the Näfs of Kappel were lost during the 1600's. The Näfs, and many others from Switzerland, felt the Reformed or Protestant Churches didn’t go far enough in trying to teach the correct principles Jesus had taught. They felt infant baptism was wrong and they could not get Zwingli or Martin Luther to go that far. So they became part of the Anabaptist movement, lead by Menno Simons (1496-1561) and Jacob Amman (founder of the Amish Religion). Anabaptists were hunted and persecuted by both Catholics and Reformers. To have your name on a list of Anabaptists was a death sentence. They were often married in the Reformed Church, so it would be recognized by the state, but they were not christened nor could they be buried in a Church Cemetery. Anabaptists from Switzerland were often exiled to Germany, their lands and property taken, they were imprisoned, beaten, and killed for their beliefs.

Records have not yet been found to link us to the Adam Näf Family. However, the DNA test has proven that you are part of these courageous folks. You are descended from heros, not just Adam, but all those who gave their lives trying to live the principles they believed in.

To find out more about the DNA study, go to www.familytreedna.com/public/neff and go to Y Results. You will be able to see the markers for different individuals, identified by the Letter given the different families by John Murray and Bill Neff of the Neff Family Historical Society and a brief description. If you need it, the kit number is 59870 and the password E4816. Our John Neff, the miller who settled in East Millcreek, line is # 13, identified as “A1 line, Germany, Baden, Duhren c. 1685".