Surname of TURK
Contact Toni Richard Turk
173 Variations of the surname TURK
D' TURCK, DE TURCK, DE TUERCK, DE TUERCKS, DE TURK, DE TURQUOT, DE TÜRCK, DE TÜRCKS, DARK, DARKE, DARKES, DEORC, DERC, DERCK, DERICHSEN, DERICK, DERIX, DERK, DERRICK, DERX, DIERCK, DIERKE, DIRCK, DIRCKER, DIRK, DIRKENS, DIRKER, DIRKING, DIRKS, DOERGE, DOERICH, DORK, DÖRGE, DÖRICH,
DUEHRKE, DUERCK, DUERCKE, DUERCKIN, DUERGE, DUERK, DUERKS, DURK, DÜHRKE, DÜRCK, DÜRCKE, DÜRCKIN, DÜRGE, DÜRK, DÜRKS
LE TURC, LE TURCH, LE TURK
ÞORKELL (Old Norse - "P" pronounced "Th")
TERCUS, THIERKE, THORKELL, THUERCK, THUERK, THUERKE, THURCKE, THURK, THURKE, THURSK, THÜRCK, THÜRK, THÜRKE, TIRK, TJIERKS, TOERGE, TORK, TORKE, TÖRGE, TUERCH, TUERCK, TUERCKE, TUERCKEN, TUERCKENS, TUERCKH, TUERCKHEIM, TUERCKIN, TUERCKS, TUERGE, TUERGER, TUERH, TUERICH, TUERK, TUERKAU, TUERKCH, TUERKE, TUERKELS, TUERKEN, TUERKES, TUERKESIN, TUERKH, TUERKHEIMER, TUERKHEN, TUERKHIN, TUERKIN, TUERKING, TUERKIS, TUERKIUS, TUERKK, TUERKON, TUERKS, TUERKSEN, TUERKSHEIM, TUERPE, TURC, TURCH, TURCHE, TURCK, TURCKE, TURCKI, TURCUS, TUREK, TURK, TURKE, TURKH, TURKHEIM, TURKES, TURKIN, TURKOIZ, TURKOWSKI, TURKS, TURKUS, TURQUE, TURQUIN, TURSKA, TURSKI, TURSKO, TÜRCH, TÜRCK, TÜRCKE, TÜRCKEN, TÜRCKENS, TÜRCKH, TÜRCKHEIM, TÜRCKIN, TÜRCKS, TÜRGE, TÜRGER, TÜRH, TÜRICH, TÜRK,TÜRKAU, TÜRKCH, TÜRKE, TÜRKELS, TÜRKEN, TÜRKES, TÜRKESIN, TÜRKH, TÜRKHEIMER, TÜRKHEN, TÜRKHIN, TÜRKIN, TÜRKING, TÜRKIS, TÜRKIUS, TÜRKK, TÜRKON, TÜRKS, TÜRKSEN, TÜRKSHEIM, TÜRPE
VON TUERCKHEIM, VON TUERKE, VON TUERKHEIM, VON TURK, VON TURKENSTEIN, VON TÜRCKHEIM, VON TÜRKE, VON TÜRKHEIM
CONCLUSIONS REGARDING ORIGINS OF THE TURK SURNAME
CROATIA
Y-DNA RESEARCH
A 25-marker Y-DNA test analyzed by Family Tree DNA ( www.familytreedna.com ) for William John TURK [4723] reveals the following - Locus/DYS/Alleles: 1/393/14; 2/390/23; 3/19(394)/15; 4/391/10; 5/385a/15; 6/385b/15; 7/426/11; 8/388/12; 9 /439/12; 10/389-1/14; 11/392/12; 12/389-2/32, 13/458/15, 14/459a/8, 15/459b/10, 16/455/11, 17/454/11, 18/447/25, 19/437/14, 20/448/20, 21/449/27, 22/464a/12, 23/464b/14, 24/464c/15, 25/464d/16.
These Family Tree Y-DNA findings reveal the following "results to countries" - two step mutations: Ireland (1), Italy (1), Norway (1). Two matches at this level are listed as of unknown origin. There are no closer matches reported in this particular database.
The Y-STR (Institut fur Rechtsmedizin Genetisches Forschungslabor - Medizinische Fakultät der Humboldt Universität zu Berlin [Charité] http://www.ystr.org ) database reveals nine exact matches in Europe. These matches by geographic distribution are: Belgium (1), Freiberg (1), Galicia (1), Leipzig (1), London (1), Magdeburg (1), Norway West (1), Sweden (2). Two exact matches are found in the United States. These are described as European American. One is in Louisiana and one is in New York City.
Hebrew University Prof. Ariella Oppenheim's study, 2001, is abstracted at http://www.khazaria.com/genetics.html with links to the "Y Chromosome Pool of Jews as Part of the Genetic Landscape of the Middle East", which appeared in The American Journal of Human Genetics 69:5 (November 2001): 1095-1112. The embedded database reveals an exact match in Hg 1 at 49. The definition of Hg 1 is NTGCATGGG+AG. The haplogroup frequency is: Muslim Kurds 16.8%, Kurdish Jews 20.2%, Sephardic Jews 29.5%, Ashkenazi Jews 11.4%, Palestinian Arabs 8.4%, and Bedouin 0%. In this study there was one Ashkenazi Jew represented at haplotype 49.
In a review of these TURK-surname results, Bennett Greenspan of Family Tree DNA makes the following observation: "The other TURK [4723] in your group is Eastern European, but a totally different SNP group".
TURK GENEALOGY
William John TURK's father is Croatian.
CONCLUSIONS
The TURK surname is somewhat atypical in that it carries within itself the potential for geo-political origins and interpretations. Even though the Family Tree DNA results reported for 4723 did not show the Ashkenazi connections associated with 4623, Hg 1 has significantly greater representation in the Kurdish and Sephardic Jewish populations than does Hg 3 (Eu 19). The Eastern European nature of this branch of the TURK surname suggests the progenitor of this genetic line may have emerged out of the Pan-Turkic world. In this particular case the surname TURK probably means "Turk".
POLAND
Y-DNA RESEARCH
A 12-marker Y-DNA test analyzed by Family Tree DNA ( www.familytreedna.com ) for Toni Richard TURK [4623] reveals the following - Locus/DYS/Alleles: 1/393/13; 2/390/25; 3/19(394)/17; 4/391/10; 5/385a/10; 6/385b/14; 7/426/12; 8/388/12; 9 /439/10; 10/389-1/13; 11/392/11; 12/389-2/30. A control test was made with his brother. The results were an exact match.
These Family Tree Y-DNA findings reveal the following "results to countries" - exact matches: Poland (4), and Slovakia (1); one step mutations: Poland (7) and India (1); two step mutations essentially Eastern European Ashkenazi (15) - including Levite (4). The countries stated to have Ashkenazi connections are: Belarus (2), Germany (1), Hungary (2), Lithuania (2), Poland (3), Russia (1), and the Ukraine (1). Three other Ashkenazim are not specific to a given country. The following are not specific to Ashkenazi: Austria (1), Germany (2), Poland (3), Romania (1), Russia (1), Slovakia (2), and Switzerland (1). In all cases origins are self-defined. Those not specific to Ashkenazi may well be Ashkenazi. Similarly, those not listed as Levite may still be so. A review of the literature indicates a distinction between the Cohen Modal Haplotype and Levite priesthood lineage. The latter is "a different, less-well defined patrilineal lineage". At the two step mutation level there are also matches that are described as Native Siberian (2) and Native American (1). These probably reflect downstream descendants rather than antecedents.
The Y-STR (Institut fur Rechtsmedizin Genetisches Forschungslabor - Medizinische Fakultät der Humboldt Universität zu Berlin [Charité] http://www.ystr.org ) databases reveal an exact match in Turkey. Seventy-three exact matches are found in Europe. Eighty-eight percent of these are from Eastern Europe -- predominately Poland (59%). These matches by geographic distribution are: Berlin (7), Budapest (1), Bydgoszcz (3), Cologne (1), Freiberg (2), Krakow (7), Latvia (1), Leipzig (2), Lithuania (2), Lombardy (1), Munich (3), Munster (1), Northern Poland (9), Pomerania (2), Rostock (2), Stuttgart (2), Sweden (1), Ukraine (4), Warsaw (13), Wroclaw (9). Two exact matches are found in the United States. These are described as European-American. One is in Louisiana and one is in New York City.
Hebrew University Prof. Ariella Oppenheim's study, 2001, is abstracted at http://www.khazaria.com/genetics.html with links to the "Y Chromosome Pool of Jews as Part of the Genetic Landscape of the Middle East", which appeared in The American Journal of Human Genetics 69:5 (November 2001): 1095-1112. The embedded database reveals two very close near matches in Hg 3 (Eu 19) at haplotype 69 (where the variance is a plus 1 at DYS391) and at haplotype 72 (where the variance is a minus one at DYS19). At haplotypes 70, 71, & 75 there are variances of plus or minus 1 at just two markers. The definition of Hg 3 (Eu 19) is NTGCATGGG-AA. The haplogroup frequency is: Muslim Kurds 11.6%, Kurdish Jews 4%, Sephardic Jews 3.9%, Ashkenazi Jews 12.7%, Palestinian Arabs 1.4%, and Bedouin 9.4%.
In Oppenheim's study at haplotype 69 there were 1 Sephardic Jew from Turkey, 2 Kurdish Jews and 3 Muslim Kurds represented. At haplotype 72 there were 5 Ashkenazi Jews, 1 Sephardic Jew from Iraq and 1 Muslim Kurd represented. The generalized conclusions of the overall study were that "Kurdish and Sephardic Jews were indistinguishable from one another, whereas both differed slightly, yet significantly, from Ashkenazi Jews". Genetically "Jews were found to be more closely related to groups in the north of the Fertile Crescent (Kurds, Turks, and Armenians) than to their Arab neighbors."
Quoted excerpts in Prof. Oppenheim's study include the following: "… Eu 19 chromosomes, which are found at elevated frequency (12.7%) in Ashkenazi Jews … are very frequent in Eastern Europeans (54%-60%) (Semino et al. 2000). Alternatively, it is attractive to hypothesize that Ashkenazim with Eu 19 chromosomes represent descendants of the Khazars, originally a Turkic tribe from Central Asia, who settled in southern Russia and eastern Ukraine and converted en masse to Judaism in the ninth century of the present era, as described by Yehuda Ha-Levi in 1140 A.D. (Dunlop 1954)." The observation is made that "genetic drift rather than admixture with East Europeans may theoretically explain Eu 19's presence among Ashkenazi Jews."
Judy Siegel in an article in the Jerusalem Post, "Genetic evidence links Jews to their ancient tribe", (November 20, 2001), draws the conclusion from Prof. Oppenheim's work that "Sephardic Jews are very close genetically to the Jews of Kurdistan and only slight differences exist between these two groups and Ashkenazi Jews from Europe." The report goes on to observe the close genetic ties to the Turks, Armenians and Moslem Kurds. Drawing upon the Oppenheim study, Tamara Traubman in an article in Ha'aretz, "Study finds close genetic connection between Jews, Kurds", (November 21, 2001), states "The people closest to the Jews from a genetic point of view may be the Kurds".
Michael F. Hammer and others in a study published in Nature, "Y Chromosomes of Jewish Priests", 385:32, (January 2, 1997), concludes that research findings are "consistent with an origin of the Jewish priesthood antedating the division of world Jewry into Ashkenazi and Sephardic communities".
In a review of these TURK-surname results, Bennett Greenspan of Family Tree DNA makes the following observation: "The DNA for 4623 appears to be European, but I can't easily determine anything specific. I don't think it's Jewish in origin, at least not Semitic. The Levites that are 2 steps away are not Semitic in Origin, but may be YAP+ which is the SNP group that is second most common among Jews and very common in Africa." He further comments, "… the Khazars made a less than 10% contribution to the Eastern European Ashkenazi gene pool, probably less."
THE KHAZARIAN QUESTION
The Khazars were a Turkic people, that originated in Central Asia and wrote in a runic script common to Mongolia. By the 5th century they had migrated to the steppes of what is today southern Russia and eastern Ukraine. The royalty of the Khazar kingdom was descended from the Ashina Turkic dynasty. Early Turk tribes were quite diverse, although it is believed that reddish hair was predominate among them prior to the Mongol conquests.
Ashkenazi is a medieval Hebrew word for Germany. Ashkenaz is placed as a grandson of Noah through Gomer. According to the Torah, a relative of Ashkenaz was Togarmah - the progenitor of the Turkic peoples. Khazarian accounts claim that their descent is through Kozar, the seventh son of Togarmah - the grandson of Noah. Jewish tradition placed the Khazarians in the lost tribe of Simeon, which was closely associated with Levi. The Khazars were basically a Turkic people. Turkic legend traces their origins to a mountain north of the Turfan Depression in eastern Turkestan, which is now in northwest China. This legend gives the maternal ancestor as a mythical she-wolf, who gave birth to ten sons. The father was a lone surviving human male of the original Turks. One of the ten sons was A-shih-na, who established a tribe that adopted the name Turk. This is the origin of the wolf as a Turk totem.
One of the earliest historical references to the Khazars is from 555. They were recorded as a nomadic tribe north of the Caucasus Mountains. This is the same region where the Oghur Turkic tribes settled after crossing the Volga and entering Europe around 463. The Oghurs had come from western Siberia and central Asia. The Oghurs intermixed with resident Akatzirs and Huns. The Akatzirs are possible ancestors of the Khazars,
Khazaria was a Turkic kingdom located in Eastern Europe near the Caspian Sea. It flourished as an independent state from about 650 to 1016. Its last power base was the Crimean peninsula. In the ninth century, the Khazarian royalty and nobility, as well as a significant portion of the Khazarian Turkic population embraced the Jewish religion. The downfall of the Khazar kingdom caused many of the Jewish Khazars to flee westward. The possibility exists that some bearing the TURK surname have origins that trace to these refugee Jews from Khazaria.
David Keys in Catastrophe reminds us that "It is possible that the Jewish presence in Khazaria even predated the Khazar state and consisted of Crimean Jews and refugees from Constantinople's anti-Semitic pogroms of the 630s." (pp. 94-95) He further notes that about 800 the Khazar king Obadiah brought together "a multitude of Israel's sages" to improve Talmudic knowledge within the kingdom. These Talmudic experts were brought in "almost certainly to settle as their theological interpretation of the Scriptures and the Talmud would have been a long-term and on-going activity". (p. 96). Given the geometric progression of the ancestral record, the interval of 48 generations guarantees the far-reaching impact of these Jewish residents within the Khazarian kingdom. It is certainly a sufficient root to validate the priesthood lineage found within Ashkenazi Jewry - even if it does come via Khazaria.
Kevin Brook, author of The Jews of Khazaria, states that "about 30 percent of Ashkenazic Levites have paternal roots stemming from outside of the Middle East which seem not to be shared by general Ashkenazim; these are also found among Sorbs but could also come from other parts of Eastern Europe and western Asia ... David Keys in his book CATASTROPHE suggests they could be Khazar remnants - i.e. descendants of Khazar shamanist priests who adopted the Levite titles artificially upon converting to Judaism."
The answers to the Khazarian riddle are held within the known skeletons of Khazars and North Caucasian Turks. DNA as an archeological tool should be able to clarify their contribution to the Ashkenazi gene pool.
TURK GENEALOGY
Martin TURK [born about 1765], father of Friedrich Wilhelm TURCK [born 7 Apr 1791 in Zanzin, Beyersdorf, Brandenburg, Preussen], is the earliest known TURK ancestor in this line who is not speculative. The earliest known religious affiliation was Evangelical Lutheran. Zanzin was in the Preussen Neumark near Landsberg an der Warthe. Today this region is known as Gorzow Wielkopolski, Poland. The TURK ancestor in this line is thought to have immigrated to the USA through New York City on 19 Apr 1887.
There are several possible origins of this surname. Kevin Brook suggests that the name "might simply designate Judean Jews from Turkey who migrated to eastern Europe, or Ottoman Turks, or some other group." TURK is a very common surname among Ashkenazi Jews. Brook points out that another Ashkenazic surname is TURETSKY, which is Russian for "Turkish" or "Turkic". The origin of this latter variation is equally enigmatic.
TURK could come from the Hebrew word, "Ter' Oork," meaning "blessed of the hand of the Lord," or from the Khazar Turkic word, "from the Turkic lands." In the latter case, "Turk" derives from the Mongolian for "strong" or "robust."
In the 15th and 16th centuries and beyond, many Ashkenazim in Poland, including some named TURK, converted to Christianity. TURK (and variations) first appeared as a surname in Germany in the 16th century.
CONCLUSIONS
The TURK surname is somewhat atypical in that it carries within itself the potential for geo-political origins and interpretations. Those within this particular TURK line are not of Semitic origin. They may or may not have entered Eastern Europe through the Khazarian kingdom's infusion into that broader community. Evidence suggests that the progenitor of this genetic line was associated with the cauldron that mixed much of the inhabitants of the Pan-Turkic world. It appears to be tied to Anatolia. In this particular case the surname TURK means "Turk".
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