Embody Descendants of Jan Brouwer of Flatlands, L. I.

John Rose is not the only ancestor who has descendants who are genetic descendants of Jan Brouwer of Flatlands, L. I. An individual with the surname, EMBODY, conducted a Y-DNA test through Family Tree DNA and his results also demonstrated that he was, despite his surname, a genetic descendant of Jan Brouwer of Flatlands, L. I. The participant is now a member of both the Brewer DNA Project and the Embody DNA Project. The Embody participant is represented by kit #11677, and his Y-DNA test results can be found on the Jan Brouwer Group DNA Results Page. A chart of his known EMBODY ancestry is also available. The Embody participant matches on 37 of 37 makers with one of the descendants of John Rose, with one of the descendants of John Brewer of Scioto Co., Ohio, with the descendant of Richard Brouwer of Albany and Delaware Cos., New York, and with one of the known descendants of Jan Brouwer of Flatlands, L. I. The Embody participant also matches the model values (at 37 markers) for all descendants of Jan Brouwer. His Y-DNA test results are instrumental in tying all of the various sub-groups of Jan Brouwer descendants together.

The genealogical ancestry (that which is derived from records such as vital, religious, estate, census, etc.) of our Embody participant is known all the way back to the immigrant ancestor to America. It is also known from the Y-DNA test that the participant's biological, or genetic ancestry, must lead back to Jan Brouwer of Flatlands, L. I. What is not known is, what is the correct lineage from the participant back to Jan Brouwer, and at which generation, and under what circumstances, did the "Brouwer to Embody" transition occur. We can, however, narrow down the possibilities.

As mentioned above, a chart of the Embody ancestry of the participant is available online. The immigrant ancestor to America, of the Embody family, was John/Johan Adam Inbody. He is sometimes found simply as Adam Indody, and descendants are found variously, depending on time and place, with the surnames Inbody, Imbody, Enbody, Embody, and a few other variations. John Adam Inbody is stated to have been born February 27, 1709 in Switzerland, and came to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania around 1740. He died on June 27, 1790 in Berks Co., Pennsylvania and is buried at Hill Lutheran Church Cemetery in Berks County. It is known from Y-DNA testing of descendants of John Adam Inbody, that he cannot be a genetic descendant of Jan Brouwer. At least three confirmed descendants of John Adam Inbody have been tested and while their Y-DNA test results all match each other, they are very different from our Embody descendant of Jan Brouwer. Of John Adam Inbody's four known sons, the one we are interested in his Henry Embody. He is the direct ancestor of our Embody participant. Although the Embody pedigrees of the participants in the Embody DNA Project are not publicly available, I have been told through correspondence with the administrator of the Embody Project, that at least two of them are descendants of Henry Embody. This fact, therefore, eliminates Henry Embody from consideration. Immediately we can eliminate both John Adam Inbody and Henry Embody as the possible ancestor who might have had a Brouwer father.

Henry Embody was born in Berks County, Pennsylvania in 1746. As a young man he apparently had some legal troubles in Berks County, and left the area, settling at Canajoharie, a town in the Mohawk River Valley of upstate New York. There he was married to Leah Countryman and the two had ten children. Of these, the one that is the ancestor of our Embody participant is Daniel Embody, born about 1788, and probably died by 1820. Daniel's wife is known only as, Bautje, and the couples two known children are a son Isaac (ancestor of our participant) and a daughter Belinda. Isaac Embody was married to Phebe J. Van Vorst. The couple had three children and lived at Norway, Herkimer Co., New York (1850), Sennett, Cayuga Co., New York (1860) and finally at Auburn, also in Cayuga County, New York (1870, 1880, 1900). Isaac died on March 20, 1900 and is buried at Soule Cemetery in Auburn, New York. Of Isaac's three children, two where sons, Daniel A. Embody (ancestor of our participant) and William H. Embody. It was hoped that we might be able to locate another living male descendant of one of these two brothers. Y-DNA testing of one or more male descendants of Isaac Embody would help us narrow down the possible generation in which the Brouwer to Embody transition occurred. Unfortunately, after conducting genealogical research, it has been concluded that there are no other living male descendants of Isaac Embody, other than our Embody participant who is a genetic descendant of Jan Brouwer. We are then left with the possible generations in which the Brouwer to Embody transition occurred to either Daniel Embody (1788-bef. 1820), Isaac Embody (1814-1900), Daniel A. Embody (1841-1907), his son George C. Embody (1876-1939), or Daniel R. Embody (1914-2007), the father of our participant. (A chart, and a genealogical summery of the descendants of Daniel Embody are online).

We know that all of the Embody families just mentioned were small, and that they lived in central New York, first in the area of Minden (now in Montgomery County, south of the Mohawk River, and at Auburn, at the north end of Owasco Lake, then at Ithaca in Tompkins County at the south end of Cayuga Lake. Finding a Brouwer male, or a Brouwer family, descended from Jan Brouwer of Flatlands, L. I., living in one of the just mentioned locations at the same time as the Embody family, could narrow down our search for our participant's Brouwer to Embody transition.

Genealogical details on the early generations of the Inbody/Embody Family is from Eber F. Inbody, Genealogy of the Inbody Family (E. F. Inbody, 1963). Other source citations and a bit more on the families of John Adam Inbody and Henry Embody can be found online at the Brouwer Genealogy Database. Use the links available from the Embody DNA Chart.

We would very much like to thank our Embody/Brouwer descendant for joining the Brewer DNA Project, and for assisting in the search for descendants of Daniel Embody. We would welcome any input and new information pertaining to the descendants of Daniel Embody (b. ca. 1788).

August 11, 2015: Embody data from FTDNA's Big-Y Test added to "An Application of FTDNA's Big-Y Test to our Brewer DNA Project," by Richard Brewer.

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