I’ve noticed lately that Ancestry has some helpfull Latvian records. So I have been looking through some of my mom’s Latvian DNA matches to see if I can find out how we are connected.
Katja at MyHeritage
MyHeritage seems to be a good place to find Latvian DNA matches. Katja also has a Theory of Relativity with my mom, but I don’t think that it is right:
I have a different genealogy for my mother:
Besides, why would have a Pfief have a Biedermann for a daughter?
Here is Katja’s tree at MyHeritage:
Katja is missing a maternal side and has additional Hirschenhof ancestry on her Lutz side.
Building a Tree for Katja
I will check out Katja’s genealogical tree by building a tree at Ancestry:
When I entered Wilhelm Georg Lutz, Ancestry gave me hints for his parents. The hint for Wilhelm Georg is from this tree:
I checked the records at Raduraksti for 1895, but those records appear to be in Russian. I’m not sure if the Ancestry suggestion is correct at this point.
Pauline Rathfelder
Next, I will check on Pauline. Here is a record – perhaps baptismal?
Pauline and Emilie appear to be twins. I see Pauline’s mother’s maiden name as Mattheus, but I’m not sure. Here is the record transcription of their marriage:
This Goerge Ludwig seems the right age to have Pauline in 1879:
Based on the DNA matches between Katja and my mother, I expect that the match is on more than one line:
Sometimes many small matches mean more than one pair of common ancestors going back. So likely, some of the DNA matches represented above are from Lutke and some from Rathfelder- or perhaps even other surname.
A Common Rathfelder Ancestor for Katja and My Mom?
It turns out that I already have a Georg Adam Rathfelder in my Ancestry Tree:
However, this Georg was born in 1798:
I also see another marriage for a Georg Adam Rathfelder:
This marriage was in 1818. So this Georg Adam could have re-married in 1839 or had a son Georg Adam who married in 1839. Fortunately, I have a paper which seems to help:
According to this paper, Georg Adam was actually the son of Johannes Rathfelder born in 1796 I think I’ll go with this paper.
Here is what I have so far:
The Johannes in Line A above was the son of Johann Adam Rathfelder and Anna Catharina Elisabeth Rothweiler. I have Johannes in my tree already:
That should be enough to add Katjia to my Rathfelder DNA match tree:
Katja is my mother’s 4th cousin twice removed on the Rathfelder side.
Back to the Lutz Connection
Here were the hints for Katja’s ancestors from Ancestry:
It seems like two possibilities here:
I see a Gottlieb Hermann and a Gottlieb Otto. Here is a third more likely candidate:
Here is a Peter Gottlieb Lutz who married Elisabeth Hauk (maiden name Herman).
Katja’s Family Tree
I have this so far on Katja’s paternal side:
It would take a while to build all the other lines out as far as Hans Jerg Rathfelder and his Bittenbinder wife.
Painting Katja’s DNA Matches to My Mom’s Profile
Here is what I have so far for my mom:
The first line for each chromosome represents my mom’s paternal matches. The Rathfelder/Bittenbinder DNA matches are in red. As I intimated earlier, Katja’s matches with my mom are probably not all from Rathfelder and Bittenbinder due to the nature of where this family lived. They were in a German Colony and married among their own which means that intermarriage of families normally took place.
My mom is 35% painted overall and 40% painted on her paternal side.
By default, DNAPainter adds matches of 7 cM and over. Here are my mom’s paternala matches with Katja added:
Katja matches my mom on Chromosome 4 at 6.7 cM, so that match did not get added. Here are Katja’s specific matches with my mom:
There is no overlap with the matches Astrid has. Astrid and my mom also have Rathfelder and Bittenbinder common ancestors.
Summary and Conclusions
- Katja matches my mom at Ancestry and has a Rathfelder in her tree
- I was able to find Katja and my mom’s common Rathfelder and Bittendbinder ancestors
- Katja and my mom probably match on other ancestral lines
- I painted the DNA matches Katja has with my mom on my mom’s profile. Those matches were painted to Rathfelder and Bittenbinder even though they may represent other common ancestors.
- Without a published document that explains some of the complicated Rathfelder relationships in Hirschenhof, it would have been very difficult to figure out the Rathfelder/Bittenbinder common ancestors that my Mom and Katja have.