More DNA Matches
For the last few months, I’ve been busy with my new baby girl. I’ll be honest, I would log on to my ancestry account and check to see if my mom had a new top DNA match. If not, I’d log off and go on my way.
I’ve neglected building out my mirror tree and I haven’t done any further research. Recently, I logged on and looked for a new top match and sure enough, my mom has a new 2nd cousin. She too is a descendant of Charles Lang and Ida Klein.
Klein / Lang
If you have been following along, you know that Ida Klein and Charles Lang had siblings, Anna Rose Lang and Jacob Klein. They also married and now my mom has “2nd cousins” related to both families. This has made finding her direct ancestry very difficult.
Since the last time I checked Ancestry, my mom has gotten a lot more matches. I’m pretty confident that she is a direct descendant of Charles Lang and Ida Klein and not their siblings.
Kunz / Fritz?
Another “break” in this DNA family mystery is that another 2nd cousin adoptee DNA match got a new close family match. This new match didn’t match my mom but his wife is a descendant of the Kunz family. I have always known this 2nd cousin DNA match was related through the Kunz line. But, since she was adopted and looking for the same type of answers we were, I wasn’t able to go very far. But, I know my mom isn’t related to her mother’s side and now I know she isn’t related to her paternal grandfather’s side. So, that leaves the paternal grandmother. Which like I said is a descendant of the Kunz line.
This narrows things down GREATLY. Just take a look at my descendant chart below. That outer ring is people born in the 1800’s! That should give you an idea about how large this family really is.
The closest Kunz DNA match my mom has (other than the one mentioned above) is a 3rd/4th cousin match. So now, I’m focusing my attention on Katherine Kunz (1839-1923) and William Fritz (~1828-1889) which are outlined in the chart.
Next Steps
I’m looking for a descendant of Charles Lang and Ida Klein that married one of the descendants of Katherine Kunz and William Fritz. This isn’t as easy as it sounds because, again, there’s more than a few options. I’ve found a few men that seem to fit but when I work them in the mirror tree, I get no new shared ancestor hints.
There is 1 line in this family that I just can’t seem to build out their tree. And I feel like my mom’s birth father is in that family. It’s just going to take a little more time. But, It’s pretty exciting to log on and find something new!