As far as finding distant and not-so-distant cousins is concerned, it’s been an eventful week.
Two new DNA matches popped up on Ancestry.com – both from the Boren branch of my family tree and both 3rd cousins. “Darlene” is the great granddaughter of Christine Boren, one of my great grandmother Lula Betty Boren’s sisters. “Christine” is a name I have known for quite some time as I have memories of my grandfather talking about his “Aunt Christine” who lived in Texas. The second match (“L.B.”) is the great grandson of Thomas Boren – one of Lula Betty’s brothers. Thomas was a wanderer for sure. After leaving Mississippi where he was born, he and his family show up in the census records living in New Mexico in 1910 and 1920 and in Colorado in 1930. Thomas died in Yakima, Washington in 1942. “L.B”‘s wife is Ivana. She is the one researching the Boren family tree and we’ve exchanged emails.
Now, while I am quite content connecting with any and all of my distant cousins, I must say that I was a bit shocked and delighted when another distant cousin reached out to me this week FROM GERMANY. I can officially cross this off my list – make contact with a distant German cousin. Done.
Günter, my 6th cousin, 1x removed, is a descendant of the Wessels who lived in Osnabrück, Germany in the 18th and 19th centuries. My 3rd great grandparents, William and Maria (Brömstrup) Wessel were married in Osnabrück before coming to America in 1845. Like me, Günter is into genealogy (duh) and he’s graciously given me a copy of his family tree back to our common ancestors. I reciprocated and gave him the American side of the family – all 55 pages of it covering (only) 4 generations of Wessel-Brömstrup descendants! You see, here’s the deal. Germans came to America many times to avoid having to fight battles for the warring princes of Deutschland. (The irony, of course, is that many German-Americans got swept up into the War Between the (American) States after they arrived.) They also came because of America’s untamed and promising farmlands which provided an abundance of food. More food meant bigger farms which required bigger families to take care of them. But I digress.
One of Günter’s 2nd great grand aunts married one of my Brömstrup 3rd great grand uncles. How grand! So there’s a connection there as well. This couple came to America seven years BEFORE my 3rd great grandparents and settled in Wheeling, West Virginia. Ta-dah! That’s the reason William and Maria stopped in Wheeling, West Virginia first before moving further west to Missouri – Maria’s brother and his family were already living there!
Trust me, now that I have found the connection to the Branstraps/Branstroops/Bronstrups of West Virginia and Cousin Günter. I’ll have more to say on all of them in future posts.
Kenfolk: Tranthams
Relation: 6th cousin, 1x removed
Common ancestors: Günter’s 5th great grandparents, Gerhard Engelhardt and Regina (Meyer zu Strohen) Wessel, and are my 6th great grandparents