Category: Rathfelder/Lentz/Nicholson

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More of My Sister Heidi’s Common Ancestors at Ancestry

In my previous post, I had good luck at looking at one of my sister Heidi’s DNA matches with a proposed common ancestor at Ancestry. Heidi and Sonja went back to Nicholson ancestry. Sonja’s Nicholson ancestor moved to Hartford while my her ancestor’s brother, my ancestor moved to Philadelphia.

Heidi and Thelma

Going down the list of Heidi’s unviewed distant relatives with proposed common ancestors at Ancestry, I see:

Here is the proposal:

Based on a new theory, I have suggested that my ancestor Robert Hartley could have been an Ann. This has turned up some Halstead genealogy. Here is Thelma’s tree:

Thelma has Alice Halstead from Didsbury:

I think that this is the place:

Another tree has this:

Heidi and Mike

This connection also leads to a possible Halstead connection:

This connection leads to two Halstead families on Mike’s tree:

There seems to be something going on with this Halstead connection. However, I would prefer to look at this in a separate Blog.

Heidi and Mr

MR has a private tree with 4 people in it. Shared matches between MR and Heidi are inconclusive. However, MR’s mother is in the shared match list. MR’s mother has a shared match with Carolyn who is a known relative on the Nicholson side:

Further, it appears that the proposed John Nicholson in Ancestry’s common ancestor tree was living right next to his sister in 1860 Hartford. I talked about her in my previous Blog:

John and his brother-in-law Thomas were both hardware dealers at the time. Sarah A is likely Sarah Ann Nicholson Hield. Interesting. That means that the Mary shown above could be the Mary in the Ancestry Common Ancestor Tree. However, if this is right, then my tree may be inaccurate:

I have John marrying Margaret Reaney.

Ancestry suggests this for the 1851 Census in Sheffield:

Mary was born outside Yorkshire. It appears that this is the correct marriage record:

Here is my corrected tree:

It appears that the elder John Nicholson died young in 1863:

I won’t go through all the genealogy, but I expect that this connection should work out. Here is a Social Security extract:

Heidi and Robert

Here is another potential Halstead connection:

My Nicholson DNA Tree

I’ll just update this tree:

This is a large tree and above is only part of it. Actually, I need to go up a generation:

This Matthew Nicholson had a lot of children and died at the age of 41:

My DNA Tree above only represents three of these children.

Here are my sister Heidi’s ThruLines:

That means I need to add the John and Sarah Lines. Here is the John Line:

MR’s great-grandmother was Ruah which is an interesting name. Apparently her son moved to Little Rock, Arkansas:

The Sarah Ann Line

Sonja was the subject of my previous Blog. Here the two Connecticut Nicholson Lines are added:

I was previously unaware of these two Lines coming forward. I probably would have otherwise assumed that these families remained in England.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I found a few of my sister Heidi’s DNA matches with proposed common ancestors
  • Those ancestors were Nicholson and Halstead
  • Halstead is more problematic as this is based on a new theory. I decided to wait on those matches.
  • The Nicholson match was interesting as two siblings of my Nicholson 2nd great-grandfather were living next door to each other in Hartford, CT in the 1860 Census
  • I added the two lines descending from the two siblings of my Nicholson 2nd great-grandfather to my Nicholson DNA Tree

 

 

 

 

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A Nicholson Line Connected by Ancestry’s Common Ancestors

Right now I am looking at my sister Heidi’s DNA matches with Common Ancestors.

These 7 matches could keep me busy for a while. Three maternal. Three paternal and one unassigned. These are all listed under distant relatives.

Heidi and Sonja:

Sonja has her Hield ancestor as being from Connecticut, so no obvious connection there. I need to know if Sarah married a HIeld and moved to Connecticut. I do know that Sarah was living in Sheffiled in 1851:

Sarah’s father had died young and her mother was a beerhouse keeper to make ends meet. Here is Sarah Hield in Hartford, Connecticut in 1860:

We can see that Sarah’s daughter Sarah was born in Connecticut, so that puts the move from England between 1855 and 1858. Sonja has that Esther was born in 1861 so that explains why she does not appear on the 1860 Census.

Here is the possible marriage:

Unfortunately, the father’s name were “dead” which is not very helpful. However, I do know that ‘my’ Sarah’s father was dead. Here is PIttlsmoor:

Sonja’s DNA Connection: Shared Matches

Here are some of Sonja and Heidi’s shared matches:

Melinda is my maternal 1st cousin’s daughter. Carolyn is my mother’s second cousin on the Nicholson side. The other matches seem to be related on the Nicholson side or Clayton side. The DNA indicates that the Common Ancestor clue from Ancestry is probably right. This gives encouragement to continue along the lines of the Common Ancestor match.

Nicholson ThruLines

Here are Heidi’s ThruLines:

Back to the Genealogy

The Hield family seem to move around a bit. The first son, John William, was born in the Wicker, Sheffleld:

The name John Willam also gives circumstantial evidence to relation to the Nicholson family:

William was Sarah’s younger brother. John was her grandfather. We are not sure of Thomas Hield’s ancestry, but Sarah’s second son was named Thomas. As a guess, Esther could have been Thomas’ mother:

Let’s look at the proposed timing.

  • Sarah Ann marries Thomas Hield in 1852
  • They have children and move to Hartford, CT around 1856 or 1857
  • Sarah’s younger brother William arrives in the US about 1868 with his family and settles in Philadelphia.

I’ll add Sonja to my tree as floating tree and likely connect her later.

Sonja’s great-grandfather was an interior decorator in 1920 in West Hartford, CT.

Here is the family in 1900. There were a lot of Russels:

This Russel was a stock broker. However, at this point, it is Esther that I am interested in. From the Census, it appears that Esther married about 1880.

Here is ab obituary from August 11, 1928:

Recall above that Esther had a brother named Thomas. Circumstantial evidence again. This leads us back to Brooklyn:

Sarah A HIeld is 39 in 1870 which means she was born about 1861.

Here is the Sarah Ann in my tree:

I’ll say that is close enough for a match. I just need to merge the two trees. Here is part of my new tree:

My ancestor William Nicholson was about 5 years younger than Sarah Ann. I wonder if William and Sarah Ann ever connected in the US.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I started at looking at my sister Heidi’s unviewed Common Ancestors at Ancestry
  • Heidi’s first match with possible common ancestors was Sonja
  • Sonja’s tree went back to Connecticut with her ancestor Esther Hield
  • Ancestry suggested that Esther Hield’s mother was Sarah Ann Nicholson, the sister of one of my Nicholson ancestors
  • Based on Shared DNA matches between Heidi and Sonja, as well as genealogical clues, the match appeared to be right
  • It would still be nice to find the smoking gun genealogical clear evidence, but the inferred evidence from the DNA and genealogy was enough for me to agree that Ancestry’s proposed common ancestors were correct.
  • That leaves 6 other proposed comon ancestors that Heidi has at Ancestry to investigate

 

 

 

 

 

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Theories on My Mother’s (Rathfelder) Side

I started looking at my mother’s MyHeritage Theories in my previous post and will continue here.

Hannah

I would say the Theory between my mother and Hannah cannot be correct:

For one thing, there are 112 years difference between first cousins Johnn and Ottilie. I was able to find Hannah’s Ancestry tree:

One way to check this is by my Gangnus genealogy book by Gustav Gangnus published in 2003. As far as I can see, Hannah’s tree checks out. That would add a line her on my Gangnus DNA Tree:

Here I have added in Hannah:

Hannah shows as my mother’s 4th cousin three times removed. This makes more sense than the MyHeritage Theory.

Hannah at DNA Painter

Hannah’s match tells us something about a different match:

Notice that Hannah’s DNA match overlaps with Otis. Otis matches my mom in several ways. However, for this segment, the match must be on the Gangnus side. So while the blue segment says Schwechheimer/Gangnus this match is really through Gangnus or specifically through Anna Charlotte Maria Gangnus born 1780:

Hanni

This Theory does not look familiar:

MyHeritage proposes that Hanni from Germany is a third cousin twice removed.

Hanni’s tree has two Gangnus Lines:

Hanni is in another Theory which does not make sense:

Under this Theory, Johann Lutz has a daugther when he is one year old. I’ll skip this one. Theory one is wrong also as the father of Lutke in my mom’s line was Lutke. That means I’m on my own.

Genealogy for Hanni

I will add Hanani to my tree and see if I can connect her. Hanni has her mother born in Hirschenhof which is interesting:

I see in Hanni’s tree that Lydia’s mother should actually be Alide Gangnus.I see several entries for Alide in the 2003 Gangnus Genealogy Book. One of the most interesting is on page 57. This page shows three Gangnus lines. It appears to trace the farms that they lived on in HIrschenhof. Alide shows ther born in 1905 married to Stahl.

Page 129 of the Gangnus Genealogy book shows Alide as the last child of of Johann Conrad Gangnus and Marie Whilhelmie Gangnus. From here is should be easy to trace Hanni’s Gangnus heritage. The first Gagnus to connect with one of my mother’s Gangnus ancestors wins the prize.

So far, my tree is following Hanni’s:

I also have three out of four in the last column with hints at Ancestry. Unfortunately, Johann Georg Gangnus was a very popular name in Hirschenhof:

Actually, I now see where Hanni fits in on my Gangnus DNA Tree:

I see that Philipp Gustave Gangnus is already in my tree, so I can link Hanni’s tree to him. It took a while to fix my Ancestry Gangnus Tree, but I think I have it right now.

Hanni Added to the Gangnus DNA Tree

She and Michael are 4th cousins twice removed to my late mother.

What About Gustav?

I still need to fill in parents for Gustav born in 1809. I do not have to go far to find his father:

Gustav’s father is Johann Georg Gangnus born in 1781. However, Gustav is the son of Johann Georg’s second wife Maria Magdalena Gagnus.

The good news is that the common ancestors are the same:

That means that Hanni and Gladys are 2 times fourth cousins twice removed.

Hanni on My Mom’s DNA Painter Profile

Hanni’s match overlaps with Ruta’s on Chromosome 11. I had trouble figuring out exactly where Ruta fit in as she descends from Gangnus/Muller and Gangnus/Niclas. This tells us that this match with Ruta must be from Gangnus/Niclas. Not that it probably matters, but it is interesting that we can know that from the DNA match.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I looked at Hannah and Hanni. They both descend from Gangnus LInes
  • I was able to fit both of them into my mother’s (hence my) Ancestry Tree as well as into my Gangnus DNA Tree
  • The Gangnus family was prolific. In addition there was a lot of intermarriage of these Gangnus Lines in Hirschenhof. That adds up to a lot of potential for DNA matches and criss-crossing genealogcial trees
  • It is possible to sort out which DNA matches are associated with which Gangnus Lines if we get matches that overlap on a particular segmant on the chromosome.

 

 

 

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MyHeritage’s Update of Theories of Relativity

MyHeritage has recently had an update on Theories of Relativity. These are similar to what Ancesty does with ThruLines. It combines the DNA matches with potential genealogical matches.

Wolf’s 3 Theories

I am sure that I have looked at Wolf before. He shows as new, but perhaps some of his theories are new. Here is the first theory:

This must be a half relationship as Anna as shown is born in 1807 and Anna Niclas has died years before this time. Here is what I show for Philip Jacob’s second wife:

Wolf has a different second wife for Philip:

When I look again at my tree, I see this in agreement with Wolf’s tree:

At any rate, the theory does not seem to match up with Wolf’s tree. The Theory has Johannes Hassenfuss lived for only two years from 1849-1849 and had Gagnus as his mother. Here is Wolf’s tree:

He has Johann’s mother as a Biedermann.

Theory 2

This also does not make sense:

This also does not make sense as Anna Biedermann is the daughter of Joahann Pfeif.

Theory 3 with Wolf and Me

As I mentioned above, this does not square with Wolf’s tree.

In 2018, I came up with this connection with Wolf:

Also this;

Further, I descend also from my mother’s paternal grandmother from Schwechheimer line:

This likely explains why Wolf and I share so many DNA segments:

A major advantage of MyHeritage over Ancestry is that MyHeritage has a Chromosome Browser that shows on which chromosomes and where on those chromoses two people match. If I were to map these segments, should I have them as Schwechheimr, Biedenbender or both? The likelihood is that they should be Schwechheimer, but there is no guarantee.

Some matches are under 7 cM so they will not map by default:

Here is Wolf added to DNA Painter on Chromosome 1:

I have him as Schwechheimer or Biedermann.

Paul and Bill

Paul is a second cousin on my Frazer side. Bill is here:

Bill is a 3rd cousin once removed to Paul. The MyHeritage Theory is more concise:

I will paint the DNA match to DNA Painter:

Bill’s match adds a small amount off previously unmapped DNA on Chromosome 8 Chromosome 1 confirms that Violet Frazer descends from Richard. The match on Chromosome 8 may be on the James Frazer side, but we cannot tell for sure without other matches. I should change the label for Gladys. Although she is from the Philip Line, she is also from the Richard Frazer line.

A Frazer Theory that Cannot Be Right

I know who my grandmother’s mother was and it was not Anne Lewis. I will reject this Theory. Sharee is a shared match with Shani:

Here is Shani at Ancestry:

Shani also matches me further back on my McMaster Line.

Sharee matches me here:

That match would be here on my DNA Painter profile:

That match overlaps mostly with Zoe but also with Ron. I have Zoe mapped as Clarke or McMaster.

For some reason, I have a lot of Theories showing my grandmother had a Lewis mother. Actually her mother was Margaret Clarke.

A Latvian Theory with Inguna

This match looks more likely:

My mother’s father had Schweccheimer on both his paternal and maternal sides:

It looks like he had Gangnus on his paternal and maternal side also. The good news is that there must be a connection. The bad news is that there could be many connections.

Here is Inguna’s paternal grandmother’s tree:

She has a Juris Schweccheimer in her tree where the Theory has Johann Georg Schweccheimer. Perhaps these two are the same person.  I am willing to add Inguna to my tree as a floating branch and then add her if I can find the connection.

Here is the Schwechheimer DNA tree that I have:

It seems overly simplified as it does not have my grandfather’s mother’s line. That would bring me down a generation on the tree from where I am now. Here is where I have Anna Elisabeth Schwechheimer on my Ancestry tree:

She shows up as the youngest in the family. Here is the updated Schwechheimer DNA Tree:

This feels more complete. So, for example, I am 5th cousin and a 5th cousin once removed to Otis and Sane. Confusingly, as Otis is their twice, I am related to him in 4 ways on the Schwechheimer Line.  This is why it is helpful to create a chart.

Back to Looking at Inguna’s Tree

Ancestry does not have many good recent Latian records, so I will go by Inguna’s tree for a while. Fortunately, the Lutherans kept good records, and I found this one at Ancestry:

Here, Erna is born 30 June 1889. Her husband is Johan Alexander Lutz. From the next page, it appears that Alexander was confirmed in Hirschenhof and Erna in Riga in 1908.

Here is a marriage banns record:

It appears that the Theory is following what I am seeing.

This appears to be the birth record for Johann Georg son of Gerhard Schwechheimer:

However, the theory has he was born in 1859.

Let’s go back to the daughter to see if there are any clues. Here is a marriage record:

I think these were in Russian, but the German names are in parentheses. This is from 1912.

Here is part of Erna’s confirmation record:

Now her mother is known by Emilie than Cathernine Ernestine.

Here is a non-private tree that MyHeritage used to help create the Theory:

Here we have that Erna’s mother is Catharina Emile Hermann. This is a Veckaln’s tree, so likely one that Inguna used. As I look at this tree, I see that Georg’s mother would have been about 44 when Georg was born.

I do see this record:

However, I see the date at the top of the page as 1853. That makes more sense to me. So basically I agree with the Theory, though the review could have been more rigorous. The best way to check is through the Revision Lists as that should list family units if the timing of the lists are right.

Updating the Schwechheimer DNA Tree

While working on the DNA Tree, I found this record:

For some reason, the birth date for Georg is off, but I am going with what I had above. The names seem to fit in.

That makes Inguna most likely my 4th cousin once removed.

DNA Painter for Inguna

Here is the match I have with Inguna:

By default, the second segment will not map as it is less than 7 cM. However, it seems like is should be valid due to its proximity to the first segment.

This match fills in some empty space on Chromosome 11.

Inguna and my mother have a larger DNA match:

Here is my mom’s new DNA Map for Schwechheimer:

There is no overlap with Otis’ matches. I don’t know if that is a problem or not. It is possible that Inguna may not match Otis at the 4th cousin once removed level. She does share a match with Sane.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I looked at two Latvian Theories, a Frazer Theory that could not be right and a Frazer Theory with my cousin Paul that was right
  • I mapped the correct theories on DNA Painter
  • I found the Schwechheimer genealogy very complicated due to large families and similar names.
  • I had a chance to tell MyHeritage that many of the Theories for my Frazer grandmother were wrong.
  • I will likely continue to look at the MyHeritage Theories updates.

 

 

 

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Clusters from My Mom’s Latvian Side

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
  • For some reason there are no Rathfelder or Latvian clusters

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.

 

 

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A New Latvian DNA Match at MyHeritage

Occasionally, I find an interesting match at MyHeritage. Here is my match with Juris from Latvia:

Fortunately, there is also a tree for Juris:

As my grandfather’s mother was a Gagnus from Latvia, this is clearly a match.  Here is the detail from Juris’ tree:

I also have a book on the Gangnus family which should be helpful. The good news is that I found her in the book. She was at the end of a long list of Emmas. Here is her birth record found at Ancestry.com:

I would recommend anyone researching the Gangnus family purchase the book by Gustav Gangnus written in 2003.

Emma’s father was Johann Peter Gangnus. It turns out I already have him in my tree:

He shows as my 2nd great-granduncle. The means that his parents were my direct ancestors. According to the Gangnus book, Johann Jacob had two wives, but Peter and my ancestor Johann Philipp were both from the second wife.

My Gangnus DNA Tree

Next, I will look for my Gangnus DNA Tree. This is the tree of Gangnus descendants that match by DNA:

The chart is quite large, so I show where our common ancestor is.

Matthew’s line comes down from Johann Jacob’s first wife who was a Bohler. I descend from Johann Philipp who was the first child of the second wife who was a Biedermann. I need to add Peter who was a younger brother of Johann Philipp.

Juris is from my late mother’s generation, so that explains why the match is quite close. This shows that Juris and I are 3rd cousins once removed. It makes sense that I would have several matches descending from Johann Jacob as the Gangnus Genealogy book shows that he had 19 children.

Mapping the DNA

I like to map the DNA. I do that using DNA Painter. Here are my DNA matches with Juris as shown by MyHeritage:

Here is my current DNA Painter profile:

This shows overall, I am 54% mapped. Ancestry is not a help in this mapping as they do not tell me where my matches are on the the chromosome. Here is my maternal map:

Here I am only 48% painted. I’ll add in Juris:

Juris did not raise any percentages but did add a large segment on Chromosome 1 where I didn’t have any matches. Notice that I have a separate entry for just Gangnus 1777. That is from the descendant of the first wife, Matthew. As he descends from the first wife, I know that the DNA had to come from the Gangnus side. I also have an entry for just Anna Biedermann. I suppose I must know that from X Chromosome inheritance patterns.

My Late Mom and Juris

These two had a much higher DNA match:

However, some matches were small. By default, DNA Painter maps only the matches of 7 cM and over.

My mom is 39% mapped:

Gangnus is on her paternal side where she is 47% mapped:

Juris adds a lot of DNA but does not get my mother’s percentages above what was already mapped:

Summary and Conclusions

  • Due to my previous work, a great Gangnus genealogy book, and a good tree on Juris’ side, I was easily able to place Juris on my tree and find our common ancestors
  • With the help of DNA Painter, I was able to add Juris to my profile and my mother’s profile.
  • I could also add Juris to my siblings’ DNA Painter profiles but did not
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Ancestry Clusters

Ancestry Clusters is a new feature for those who have Pro Tools. According to Ancestry:

DNA matches sharing between 65 and 1300 cM of DNA are grouped into grids as shown below (if you have more than 100 clustered matches, you will not see this grid view). Each group or cluster represents DNA matches that are shared with each other, and represent a branch of your family tree. 

My Clusters

I have four Clusters:

The large one is my Hartley side Cluster. My great-grandparents had 13 children, so I have a lot of relatives in that one. The next three Clusters are on my mother’s side.

I have left out the names on the left side of the clusters. RB is my first cousin Rusty. I know that the purple cluster is my mother’s Rathfelder side. That is due to CW and DD who are Rathfelder cousins from England. That leaves the orange and dark grey clusters. These are Nicholson or Lentz.

These clusters did not pick up my Frazer ancestors. Additionally, it is difficult to tell which cluster is Nicholson and which is Lentz.

My Mother’s Clusters

My mother only has maternal clusters.

This is odd as my own clusters picked up her paternal Rathfelder side and my mom’s clusters did not pick that up.

BL is in the coral colored cluster. He has Nicholson only ancestry. My guess is that the orange cluster is Lentz (but includes Nicholson). I further suppose that the coral and purple clusters represent Nicholson but further break it down between Nicholson and Ellis:

However, as the matches are both Nicholson and Ellis through Nicholson, it is not possible to tell which matches are more Ellis versus more Nicholson. Furthermore, it appears that all the orange Lentz matches have Nicholson in their heritage also.

My Father’s Cousin Joyce

This is a more detailed view of my large orange cluster.

I only show Joyce’s maternal side as that is the Hartley side where I am related to her. Here is the genealogy:

One theory is that the four clusters could represent Hartley, Emmet, Snell and Bradford. I do know that the blue cluster represents Snell. Here is CH from that Cluster:

Making an Educated Guess for Joyce’s’ First Three Maternal Clusters

Here is how Joyce is related to some of the Bradford descendants:

Joyce has a higher match to Pat as she is a Hartley also. Here is Pat  in Joyce’s second cluster:

Therefor, my assumption is that the second cluster favors Bradford. I would not like to guess about the other two clusters. However, I do know that I have a lot of matches to Hathaway descendants.

My Sister Heidi’s Clusters

Where I have four clusters, my sister Heidi has 6. The first two are paternal and the last 4 are maternal. The paternal clusters are on the 2nd cousin level. I can only assume that these are Hartley and Snell clusters, but I cannot tell which is which.

Heidi’s Maternal Clusters

Here is what I think:

  • Purple is clearly Rathfelder
  • Teal is Nicholson or perhaps Ellis
  • Red and blue are either Lentz or Nicholson

My Brother Jon’s Clusters

Jon’s Clusters are halfway between mine and my sister Heidi’s. The first match in the second cluster has Frazer ancestry as she is Aimee, a first cousin once removed. But because the other matches are from the Hartley side, this must be a Hartley paternal cluster. The purple cluster is Rathfelder. Blue is Nicholson and pink is Lentz/Nicholson.

Sister Lori’s Clusters

All Clusters are listed from largest to smallest. Lori’s largest and smallest cluster are both paternal and the other three are maternal. Aimee is is the first match in the fifth cluster. My assumption is that this Cluster is the first Frazer Cluster.

Loris’s Frazer Cluster

Here are the details from the Cluster:

Although John does not have a searchable tree, I have figured out who is on the Frazer tree.

Lori is John’s second cousin once removed. Aimee is John’s second cousin twice removed.  I need to add Aimee to my chart as she is an important match:

Matthew

That leaves Matthew in the Frazer Cluster. Shared matches shows that he is related on the Hubert Frazer Line:

John’s father was born in 1919, so my guess is that he is Matthew’s granduncle.

I’ll add Matthew to my Ancestry Tree as a floating tree. Here is what Matthew has:

Matthew has followed his paternal grandmother’s line. I assume that the connection is not on that line. I found this information at Ancestry:

From an obituary index, I see that Matthew’s mother was a Frazer. that means I am getting close to figuring out where Matthew fits in.

Next, I look in my tree and find a perso with the same name as Matthew’s mother. I’ll take that to be the same person. Here is tree I already have for Matthew’s mother:

I merged the two people that I have which should also add Matthew to my tree. Next, I need to add Matthew to my Frazer DNA Tree.

This now describes Lori’s smallest cluster. It turns out I already had MatthewI on my Frazer DNA tree. It also turns out that John and Matthew are first cousins once removed.

My Sister Sharon’s Clusters

Sharon has three simple clusters:

  1. Hartley
  2. Lentz/Nicholson
  3. Rathfelder

My Daughter’s Clusters

These would make more sense if they were sorted by Paternal and Maternal instead of by size. When I look at the names, I see that Clusters 1 and three are paternal and 2 and 4 are maternal. Cluster 1 is Hartley and Cluster 3 is Lentz/Nicholson.

My daughter’s mother was a Jarek, so that would account for Clusters 2 and 4. Here is Heather’s mother’s tree:

Here are my daughter’s maternal clusters:

The second cluster has a match to a man named Matusik. His common ancestor with my daughter is Jarek/Ras. I would say that the first cluster represents Jarek/Wozniak and the second could represent a generation old: Jarek/Ras.

My Son’s Clusters

I suspect they should be similar.

The difference is that JJ also has some Rathfelder mixed in with his Lentz/Nicholson in Cluster #3. That explains the gap in matches in Cluster #3 as the Rathfelders and Lentz families are not related. Also JJ has a Snell not related to Hartley in Cluster #1. JJ’s match with Matusik is in Cluster #3 indicating an older connection to the Jarek line.

Summary and Conclusions

  • Ancestry has a new Cluster feature which is at a basic level of 65 cM for now. At this level there should be no surprises. These will be the lines with the best level of DNA matches
  • My sister Lori had the only Frazer Cluster, so she should be the best person to check for Frazer matches.
  • It is interesting how the clusters represent some lines well and others not at all well. I assume that this has to do with the number of desendants there is in a given line and how many of those descendants took DNA tests at Ancestry.

 

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My New Nicholson 4th Cousin ThruLine

ThruLines are at Ancestry. They look at DNA matches that also have potential common ancestors in the two lines. I have not been getting many new ThruLines lately, so I will look at my newest possible connection with Sarah:

Sarah shows as a 4th cousin once removed. Apparently, I have her great-grandmother Clara Nicholson in my tree already.

Here are Nellie, Clara and Clara’s father Walter in 1921 in Sheffield:

Nellie would be my mother’s third cousin. Here is Clara’s marriage record:

Here are Nellie’s baptism and birth information:

It appears that all is in order and that Ancestry has the right connection.

Sarah’s DNA

Sarah and I must match by more than the usual DNA for fourth cousins once removed. My late mom matches by even more DNA:

My Nicholson DNA Tree

I have quite a few Nicholsons on the tree already. I’m ready to add Sarah. Here is part of my existing tree:

It will be good to add some branching to this line. Here is what my ThruLines look like:

This does not match well with my current Nicholson DNA Tree:

I have Louie and not Nancy. I wrote a Blog about Nancy and Louie here. In that Blog, I wrote that it would be interesting to see if Louie and Nancy match each other by DNA. It turns out that Louie is a match to my sister Heidi. Here is the match between Saray and Nancy on my sister Heidi’s shared match list:

Sarah and Nancy match by a large amount of DNA (190 cM). That makes me think that Nancy should be on my Nicholson DNA tree.

Louie also has a good match to Sarah.

Here, I’ve added in Sarah to my Nicholson DNA Tree:

More Nicholson Lines to Add?

Here are two more matches on my sister Heidi’s ThruLines:

They are Angela, Andrew and Nancy. For some reason, it appears that I do not have Joseph born 1872 in my Nicholson Tree. I already have a tree for Nancy:

This tree has Joseph’s father as Henry Nicholson, not Walter Nicholson. However, the DNA shows that Nancy should be connected to Sarah. Let’s take a closer look. I assumed that the Ellen in the 1911 Census was Mary Ellen Nicholson born about 1904:

As Henry was the first born son, it would make sense that Joseph’s father would be Henry also. This is the 1881 Census:

However, the 1891 Census shows this:

Here there is a Joseph who is a Carter like the Joseph in 1911. The mother’s name is that same as the 1881 Census, but the father is now George Nicholson. This brings up varioius possibilities:

  1. There were two different familities
  2. Henry Nicholson died and Mary A married George Nicholson
  3. Henry Nicholson also went by the name of George Nicholson
  4. The Census taker got the information wrong.
  5. Joseph may have been living with George Nicholson and Mary A in 1891, but not be their son.

So, for now, I will leave out the Joseph Nicholson Branch out of my Nicholson DNA Tree, even though there are DNA matches.

Summary and Conclusions

  • My sister Heidi and I (and perhaps others) had a match with Sarah. Ancestry shows that Heidi and Sarah have the common ancestors of Nicholson and Clayton
  • I added Sarah to my Nicholson DNA Tree
  • Ancestry also shows that Heidi has matches to three other people who potentially descend from Nicholson and Clayton
  • I was unable to match these DNA matches up genealogically, so I left them off my Nicholson DNA Tree for now. It is possible that there is a Nicholson connection but further back in time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A New Gangnus Descendant DNA Match at MyHeritage

I was checking MyHeritage DNA matches recently and found a match for my mother who had Gangnus ancestry. As this is an uncommon surname, I was quite sure that there must be a connection.

Gladys and Maiga

Here is the match between my late mom and Maiga from Germany:

Maiga also has matches between other surnames that are in my ancestry. Here is part of Maiga’s Tree at MyHeritage:

According to her tree, our common ancestors should be Philipp Julius Gustavus Gangnus and Anna Eva Muller. Here is part of my current Gangnus DNA/Genealogy Tree:

However, I am missing Maiga’s ancestor Johann Gangnus:

Next, I’ll check my Ancestry Tree to see if I already have Johann:

Here is where things get complicated. My Johann Jacob Gangnus was born 1777 from Philip Jacob Gangnus and Anna Eva NICLAS. Did Philipp JG Gangnus and Anna Eva MULLER also have a Johann born in 1777?  My tree says they did:

I’m glad I didn’t jump to conclusions here. This Johann was born about 10 months earlier:

Now for some more complexity:

Maiga descends from Philipp Gangnus and Anna Eva Muller twice. Once by Johann and once by Jacobina M Gangnus. This was pretty normal for the German Colony of Hirschenhof in Latvia.

I also have Jacobina in my Ancestry Tree:

My next decision is whether I should accept Maiga’s tree as is or try to evaluate it.

A Quick Check on Maiga’s Genealogy

This will get Maiga into my tree at least. Here is some information on Maiga’s Line:

I am not sure how the Kaufmann name fits in. This is what the internet shows:

The German word Kaufmann is a masculine noun that translates to “merchant” or “businessman” in English. It can also refer to a trader, small shopkeeper, grocer, or someone with business or commerce qualifications. 

This shows information from St. Peter on Maiga’s father and grandfather. Here is some more information on Gustav:

This links him to his father and mother. Here is where it gets complicated as both of Gustav’s parents had Gangnus ancestors:

Georg Philipp marries for a second time:

At this point, I would be happy to follow Maiga’s tree.

The DNA and DNA Painter

Here is the DNA match between Maiga and Gladys:

So far, I do not see any Gangnus DNA matcing on that part of Chromosome 3 for my mom:

Here is the new match:

This match gets my mom’s painted side up to 47% from 46%. Also, it shows a crossover apparently from the Rathfelder to the Gangnus side. Actually the crossover is between Rathfelder and Scwechheimer (I think):

I say that because this match is on my Rathfelder side, but on the Schwechheimer side of my Rathfelder side. Johann H Rathfelder born in 1846 also married a Gangnus. At any rate, that is quite a large hunk of DNA to be shared between Maiga and Gladys coming down all the way from the mid 1700’s.

By crossover, I mean that the red DNA match with Katja goes down the Rathfelder Line while the blue match with Maiga goes down the Schwechheimer side to Gangnus. Usually where there are two DNA matches on one’s profile and one stops and the other starts, that is an indication of a crossover in the DNA – that is, a crossover from paternal to maternal DNA or maternal to paternal DNA.

Updating the Gangnus DNA/Genealogy Tree

Here is my first shot:

Notice that I need two lines for Maiga. The problem is that some information is missing from Maiga’s tree.

I just realized that I have a book on the Gangnus family, so I can use that. Jacobina apparently led an interesting life. She married at age 17 and had 17 children. Unfortunately, not all the spouses of the children of Jacobina are listed in the Gustav book by Gustav Gangnus dated 2003. I do have the name of her husband who was Johann Gurg Gottlieb Spengel. Interestingly, a Google search for the word Hofspowsky returned nothing.

Here I finished the Gagnus DNA/Genealogy Tree but I put some color in the box that I had a question on:

This shows that there is one good connection to the Gangnus/Muller common ancestors. Then there is another likely connection to the same common ancestors.

From Ancestry

Here are my mother’s ThruLines (through Philipp Julius Gustavus Gangnus):

Donna is actually a much closer relative. Reinhold is on my three. It is likely that Tristan and Michael could also belong there. This may be something to look into in a future Blog.

Summary and Conclusions

  • Maiga is an important match adding a significant piece of DNA to my mother’s DNA profile
  • The DNA match between Maiga and my mother appears to describe the crossover in DNA between my mother’s great-grandparents of Johann Rathfelder and Rosine Schwechheimer.
  • Maiga also has a very good tree. I could write to her to see if she has more information on the couple listed as private.
  • The Gangnus family was a large and important German family living in the German Colony of Hirschenhof. Many of these Hirschenhof families moved later to Riga.

 

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A New Rathfelder Theory at MyHeritage: Not Quite Right

I recently had an email that MyHeritage had discoverred a new Theory of Relativity for me, so I was interested to see if it was correct. Fortunately, I have been researching the Rathfelder Line for a while and have some good information on it.

MyHeritage Theory Between Robert and Me

The full Theory gives a low chance that the two Johanns are the same person:

This is where my Rathfelder DNA/Genealogy Chart comes in handy:

As shown by the red circle, I descend from Johann Georg Rathfelder born 1778. Robert likely descends from Johann Adam Rathfelder born 1775. The names these families had were often confusing.

Looking at Robert’s Genealogy

Next, it would be helpful to see if my records agree with Robert’s genealogy. Here is part of Robert’s paternal tree:

I need to figure out how to get to Rudolf who is actually Rudolf Georg Adam Spengel. I do have a Maria Barbara Rathfelder in my tree:

I do see a record for Dororthea Blandina:

She is the daughter of Georg Adam Spengel and Emilie Frederica Hauk (probably born Gempfer?). She was born in July of 1888. This appears to be Georg Adam’s birth record:

Here, I assume that the mother is Maria Barbara Rathfelder.

Here is my updated Rathfelder DNA/Genealogy Chart:

Robert is my 5th cousin once removed.

Looking at the DNA

Next, it is time to look at the DNA. Here is how Robert and I match:

We share a segment at the end of Chromosome 11.

DNA Painter

I keep track of what I can of my DNA matches at DNA Painter:

Right now I do not have anything showing on the right end of my Maternal Chromsome 11. I’ll add in Robert who represents DNA from either Hans Jerg Rathfelder or Juliane Bittenbinder.

For some reason, Robert’s match on Chromosome 11 appears to be the largest chunk of DNA from these mid 1700’s ancestors. I always find it interesting that we carry these ancient reminders of our ancestors in our bodies.

My Mom’s DNA

My mother’s match with Robert is basically the same as mine. Here is my mother’s paternal Chromosome 11:

Here, at the right end of my mother’s Chromosome 11, I have two mysterious matches to an unknown Latvian Ancestor. The ancestor must not be too far back from my mother as the length of the matches are quite long. Here is Robert added in:

A Clue to How Angelina and Assunta Match My Mom

Here is Assunta:

MyHeritage thinks that Assunta could be my mother’s 2nd cousin’s granddaughter. That means that Assunta could descend from Johann Rathfelder born 1819 and Rosine Schwechheimer:

Angelina shows as an even closer match. I have written to the person who manages their family tree to see if I can look at their family tree.

I checked my other 5 siblings and did not see Robert as a match, so it appears that DNA came down to just me out of the 6 children. This graph shows why:

The purple to the right of Chromosome 11 is Rathfelder. I was the only one out of 6 siblings to inherit my maternal grandfather’s Rathfelder DNA at that location.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I looked at MyHeritage’s Theory concerning Robert and our common ancestors
  • MyHeritage was off, but was not far off
  • I was able to add Robert to my Rathfelder DNA/Genealogoy Chart and to DNA Painter
  • Robert’s match on Chromosome 11 for my mother helped to get me closer to identify two fairly close matches on Chromosome 11. They must descend from a more recent Rathfelder Line.