Let’s look at my mom’s clusters. These should include Rathfelder, Nicholson and Lentz for starters.
Standard Clusters for Gladys Rathfelder
These had to be refreshed:
- Orange is Lentz, but really Lentz/NIcholson.
- The next cluster is Nicholson/Ellis
- The third cluster is also NIcholson/Ellis. So perhaps one cluster favors Nicholson and the other Ellis
A Custom Rathfelder Cluster
My mom has a good match here with Donna:
Maria was the wife of my mother’s grandfather who was Johann Heinrich Rathfelder. I’ll choose Donna as the match of interest for the custom Rathfelder Clusters.
Donna is the fourth match down. The first cluster is along the Gangus Line:
Here is the second cluster:
Here is the only hint I see from that Cluster:
However, I have never checked this out. One tree at Ancestry has this:
That means the Johann on the right above could be Johann Jacob. I suppose mine could be Cornelius Johannes. However, for now, I will leave it be.
Clusters with Gladys and Catherine
Catherine has a slightly lower DNA match to my mom compared to Donna, but a closer relationship:
Catherine is a 2nd cousin once removed and Donna is a 2nd cousin twice removed to my mom.
It is interesting how different the two clusters look (between Gladys and Donna and Gladys and Catherine). Under this, there are two sub-clusters. Here is the first:
Here are some more loose clusters. Here is match number 5:
Match number 4 has a similar connection and is probably a sister. This Hans Jerg Rathfelder married a Biedenbender.
Here is how Valdis matches:
Here is a guess as to what is happening:
Here is some more support. Karin is related to Valdis. Here is J.S.:
But how does Kirk fit in?
This tells me that the second cluster is actually a Gangnus Cluster:
Valdis, Karin and JS were Schwechheimer/Gangnus. But Kirk show that the match was really on the Gangnus side of that couple. This cluster also distinguishes from the Gangnus line on my Rathfelder grandfather’s maternal side.
The clusters are very specific.
Matthew appears to be a new match:
Checking Out Matthew’s Line
I don’t see Matthew on my Gangnus DNA Tree:
I do see Maria Senta in the excellent genealogy on the Gangnus family by Gustav Gangnus. I can trace the line back to Johann Jacob Gagnus, but it gets confusing as this man had 19 children with two wives. Matthew descends from the first wife and Patrick, Kevin, Leva and my mom descend from the second wife.
Here I have added in Matthew to my Gangnus DNA Tree:
This makes Matthew a half third cousin twice removed to Gladys. The shared DNA is all Gangnus.
How Does Reinhold Fit In?
Here is what Ancestry shows:
However, Reinhold shows up in my Gangnus DNA Tree:
He is also a fourth cousin once removed. On Matthew’s side of the tree, Reinhold is a 5th cousin once removed also:
The left side of the tree represents the paternal Gangnus side and the right side of the tree above represents the maternal side of the Gangnus matches. Rienhold appears to be matching on the maternal Gagnus side if I understand the clusters correctly even though that is the more distant relationship.
This is the part of the cluster that is easier to figure out due to common ancestors that have been confirmed by genealogy:
Summary and Conclusions
- By using different matches of interest, I was able to get very different results. The second person of interest gave easier answers, probably just by the chance people they matched by DNA.
- I added a new match to my Gangnus DNA Tree
- I was able to identify a likely Rathfelder cluster and two different Gangnus clusters: one on my grandfather’s paternal side and one on his maternal side.
- I was able to identify in this way about one third of my mother’s Rathfelder clusters.
- I assume that the further one goes down on the clusters, the further out the matches are.