I don’t know if my mother was named Barbara for Katharina Barbara Lemmert or for Nora Kirsch Lore’s other grandmother, Barbara Mehlheimer.  Nora’s mother was Barbara Drechsel.  She married Jacob Kirsch and they had Ellenora, known as Nora, whose middle name I could have sworn was Barbara.  However, there is no record of any middle name for Nora, so apparently she simply passed the name Barbara on to her daughter, Edith Barbara Lore who passed it on to my mother.  Unfortunately, it ended with my mother’s generation.  I love the name Barbara.  Roberta – well, not so much.

True to the German naming tradition, my mother’s name was Barbara Jean, and she was called by her middle name. Everyone knew her as Jean, unless it was her mother using both names when she was in trouble, or someone who didn’t know mother well.  That’s how we knew if she was receiving “spam” phone calls.  If they asked for Barbara, Barbara was never at home.  If they asked for Barbara Jean, we asked who was calling.  If they asked for Jean, she was home and we generally knew the caller by voice.

In my generation, I only wish I had been named Barbara. I carry my mother’s middle name, but am called by my first name.  I would have much preferred Barbara.  However, by the time I was born, we were five generations out of Germany, five generations in which to “modernize” and lose the old traditions, and female children were no longer being named the same name as their mother.  It’s odd, males maintained that proud naming tradition, but it was considered very unusual and nearly unheard of for women in my generation.  One MIGHT be named for a grandmother or aunt, but never the same name as your mother.

I wish we had a picture of Katharina Barbara Lemmert. We don’t.  There might have been one missed opportunity, and that was when her granddaughter, Nora Kirsch was married at the Kirsch House in January of 1888.  If Katharina Barbara was able, you know she would assuredly have been at that wedding.  A photo was taken of both the bride and the groom, separately, although those photos might have not been taken that day since there are no “family” pictures.  I so very much wish that occasion had been memorialized with photos.

Three of Nora Kirsch’s four grandparents were living when she married and lived in the area. What a missed opportunity.

German Beginnings

Katharina Barbara Lemmert was born on September 1, 1807 in Mutterstadt, Germany to Johann Jacob Lemmert and Gerdraut Steiger.

The church registry above records the birth of Catharina Barbara Lemmert, also spelled as Katharina, and shows her baptism the next day, Sept. 2, 1807. It  gives her parents’ names, and indicates that her godparent is Catharina Barbara Wetzler, unmarried.  Typically godparents are related in some fashion to the child’s parents, but I don’t know how Catharina Barbara Wetzler was connected.  In Mutterstadt, everyone was related to everyone else.  Occasionally, a godparent it is an honorary position, such as a mayor.

The German church records were all translated by Elke Hall, now retired, but my trusty interpreter of both German language and customs for many years.

Katharina Barbara Lemmert never knew her father, because he died on February 28, 1808, exactly 6 months less one day after she was born. He was a farmer, noted as a fieldman. He was only 33 years old when he died.  I wonder what took him so early.  I always wonder about some kind of farm accident.  One thing is for sure – it wasn’t old age.

Katharina’s mother was young and had three daughters, the oldest of which would have been just under 7. Yet, Gerdraut did not remarry for another 7 years, not until 1814.  There are no church records of additional children for Gerdraut, although we may have missed them due to the name change.

We do know that Gerdraut was living in 1829 due to Katharina Barbara’s marriage record that says the following:

Today the 22nd of December 1829 were married and blessed Philipp Jacob Kirsch from Fussgoenheim, the legitimate, unmarried son of the deceased couple, Andreas Kirsch and Margaretha Koehler and Katharina Barbara Lemmerth the legitimate unmarried daughter of the deceased local citizen Jacob Lemmerth and his surviving wife Gertrude Steiger, both of protestant religion.

One of my favorite things about German records is that the females, even after marriage, are always referred to by their maiden name so you can tell who they are!

We don’t know what happened to the middle sister, but Katharina Barbara’s oldest sister, Anna Maria Lemmert, born in 1801, married Philip Jacob Krick in 1824 in Mutterstadt, according to church records. She reportedly immigrated in 1848 to Indiana with her sister, Katharina Barbara, but I have not been able to find any record of that happening.  I hope it did, because it would have meant that Katharine Barbara had family here.

We do know that Katharina Barbara’s husband’s sister, Anna Margaretha Kirsch who had married Johann Martin Koehler (born 1796 Ellerstadt) did immigrate after his death in 1848 or 1849, so Katharina Barbara did know someone here, other than her husband and the Weynacht family who immigrated from Mutterstadt on the same boat with the Kirsch family. The Weynacht family would live as neighbors to the Kirsch family in Ripley County.  German families tended to stay together in the new land.  It probably felt very good to have someone else in close proximity whose native language was the same as yours and whose family history was from the same place.

After they arrived, but not long after they arrived, something odd happened.

Katharina Barbara Lemmert and Philip Jacob Kirsch arrived in New Orleans on July 4, 1848 and they were married in America on July 27, 1848 in Ripley Co., Indiana. I found this exact scenario with another ancestral couple, and I discovered the other couple was never married in Germany, but that is assuredly not the case for Katharina Barbara Lemmert and Philip Jacob Kirsch, because we have their church marriage record, shown above, and their subsequent children’s baptism records.  Germans of that time were very anal about stating very explicitly if a child’s parents were married or not married.

So why would a couple decide to remarry and immediately after arriving in the US? They arrived in New Orleans on July 4^th and the trip to Aurora took 8 days by steamer.  Let’s give them a day on either end for transfers, which brings us to about July 14^th.  This means they were married 13 days later in Ripley County.  This suggests two things to us.

First, they already knew where they were going. They didn’t have to scout around for a location – and they had some way to get there.

Second, getting married in the US was considered to be very important for some reason. I have never been able to figure this out, nor has anyone else been able to enlighten me.  If anyone knows why this happened, please do tell.  There has to be some significance.

Not only had they been married for nearly 20 years, Katharina Barbara was pregnant for their last child, Andreas, who would be born in February of 1849.

That wedding must have been something with the couple’s 6 stair-step children in attendance, the bride holding a child of 18 months, and 2 months pregnant for another child.

On February 6, 1849, just 7 months later, Katharina Barbara would give birth to her last child they would name after her husband’s father, Andreas, who had died when he was just 13.

Roots in Ripley County, Indiana

The 1850 census shows the family having settled in on a farm in Franklin Township of Ripley County, near Milan. They own real estate worth $1200.  Indeed, they had realized the American dream – land ownership was something they couldn’t have achieved in Germany and was one of the primary immigration motivations.

They live beside the Andrew Waynacht family who came over on the same ship with them.  They too had achieved the dream of land ownership.  The German Rader family is also a neighbor, although there are farmers from other areas too, including Scotland, NY, PA and Ohio.  This looks to be a good area in which to settle with lots of diverse neighbors seeking the same thing – opportunity.

This adorable ginger-bread house sits on their land today and certainly looks like it could be from that timeframe.  I can just see Katharina Barbara standing here.  She would have lived here from the time she was about 41 until her death, 41 years later, just shy of her 82nd birthday.  She literally lived half of her entire life here, so it was assuredly “home” in the most heartfelt way.

Katharina Barbara walked this land, toiled in her garden which would have been behind the house and probably watched for people arriving down the road from the front porch, if the porch existed then.  She would have sat in the shade of the trees, wearing her apron over her housedress, and “snapped” beans in her lap.  She would have cleaned peas, shucked sweet corn or maybe hulled luscious strawberries for a rare dessert treat.  Every morning, she would have walked the rows of the garden, inspecting the plants and gathered what was ripe while the dew was still glistening on the leaves, before the oppressing heat of the day.

A few hours later, those veggies plus whatever meat they had would become lunch for the family as they came in from the fields after working half the day, literally since sunup, the coolest part of the day that included daylight.  What was available in the garden often was the determining factor in terms of what she prepared for the family to eat that day.

The main meal was eaten at noon and farm wives fed everyone working on the farm that day, plus whoever happened by.  Often they didn’t know exactly how many they would be feeding, so they made a lot of whatever they made.

Plus, there was always a pot of beans simmering.  If all else failed, beans!  If you ran out of something, beans!  Need a snack, beans!  Beans was always the fallback answer, along with potatoes at my house.  Root vegetables and those that could be stored for long periods (carrots, cabbage, potatoes,) dried (beans,) or ground (corn, wheat) were staples that never failed you. I grew up on a farm much like this in Indiana and little changed in the intervening century, except for tractors with engines.

To the best of my knowledge, this was the only farm this couple would ever own. Philip Jacob Kirsch would live another 30 years and Katharina Barbara would live almost 40 more years.  It seems that once they hit solid land they put down roots and never moved again.  I can hardly say that I blame them.

The good news is that the Lutheran church they helped to found and attended wasn’t far away.

Their farm was located at the left red arrow and the Lutheran church they helped to found was at the right, about a mile and a half distant. They were Lutheran in Germany and Lutheran in Ripley County as well.  That much didn’t change.  They brought their religion with them.

Deaths, Marriages and Births – The Cycle of Life

The sad news is that the church had a small cemetery and they buried little Andreas there likely the day after he died, on September 8th, probably in 1851. His stone is so worn that the death year has been variously recorded as 1853, 1821 and 1891, but the month and day are always September 8^th.  Katharina Barbara’s baby was gone.

Every time she went to church, she was reminded of that loss. Was this comforting in some way for her, or simply a weekly painful reminder of the death of her youngest child, the one that would forever be her baby? I’ve wondered if Andreas was a Down’s child.  Katharina Barbara was in her 40s when he was born.

The St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church was established by a small group of pioneers in Franklin Township in 1847, but it was disbanded in 1855. The cemetery where Andreas is buried abuts a clearing that probably held the church.

This burial begs more questions, because Katharina Barbara’s oldest daughter, also Katharina Barbara Kirsch, married Johann Martin Koehler in Fink’s Church in June of 1851, three months before Andreas died. Perhaps the Koehlers attended Finks.  Or perhaps they didn’t have a minister at St. Peters to marry them at that time.  Or perhaps only St. Peter’s had a cemetery and that’s why Andreas was buried there.  St. Peters was less than two miles from where Barbara Katharina lived, and Fink’s was about 9 miles, via our roads today.  I suspect at that time that there were wagon roads that reduced that distance a couple of miles or more.  You can see the remnants of those roads today on the satellite map and on the 1884 plat map as well.  The map below shows Finke Church on the left, the cemetery where Andreas Kirsch is buried on the right and their home a mile or so west of old Milan where the address is displayed.

Did Katharina Barbara begin attending Fink’s before St. Peter’s dissolved in 1855?  Did she visit Andreas’ grave often, or did she just take his passing pretty well in stride, perhaps feeling lucky that only one of her children had died?  Children’s graves tend to draw mothers, regardless of how painful.

Katharina Barbara’s first grandchildren arrived shortly after her daughter’s marriage, perhaps helping a bit to sooth her grief over the death of Andreas.

Katharina Barbara Kirsch and Martin Koehler would have 4 daughters, three of which lived to adulthood.  Sadly, Katharina Barbara Lemmert would bury her granddaughter in Aurora in 1860 when she was just 3 years old.

Johannes Kirsch would be Katharina Barbara’s next child to marry, in 1856.  It’s unclear exactly where Johannes went after his marriage in Ripley county to Mary Blotz or Blatz, as I was unable to find them in the 1860 census, but they were having babies by 1858 and by 1870, were living in Indianapolis.

The 1860 census tells us that Katharina Barbara and her family are doing well in Ripley County. They own land worth $2000 and have $400 in personal assets.  They also have two other children living with them.  Elizabeth Kaiter, age 6, born in Indiana and Matthew Weis, age 9 born in Bavaria.  I don’t find any more about Elizabeth, although her surname could be misspelled.  I do find a Matthew Weis living in Aurora Indiana in 1920, so this is likely the same man, but it doesn’t tell me why he was living with Katharina Barbara Lemmert Kirsch in 1870.  Regardless of why, these children were too young to be “servants” so Katharina was clearly acting as their mother, or foster-mother.  These two would have been her children of heart.

We don’t know a lot about the time after Katharina Barbara and Philip Jacob immigrated and before the Civil War, but we do know that Katharina Barbara’s son, Jacob, had his “eye put out” with a gun, and I do mean literally. It’s not funny, but I do have to laugh, remembering all those warnings by mothers immemorial about not doing whatever because “you’ll put your eye out.”  Well, Jacob was living proof.  I wonder if his mother told him not to do what he was doing…

The family story says that Jacob and another boy were quail hunting and Jacob was hiding behind a bush. Apparently, and I’m extrapolating here, the other boy thought Jacob was the was a quail and shot him in the eye – or maybe the two boys were just horsing around.  I surely would have loved to hear Jacob tell this story. It’s probably a good thing they weren’t using very powerful guns, or Jacob would have lost far more than his eye and I wouldn’t be here today!

The Dark Cloud of the Civil War

The 1860s had to be an extremely difficult time for Katharina Barbara. The Civil War descended upon these people.  She had four service aged sons and all able-bodied men between the ages of 20 and 45 were required to report.  We know for sure that at least 3 of her sons served, and probably all 4.

Katharina Barbara’s oldest son, Philip Kirsch, became very ill but served the full three years of his enlistment. He did return home, but never recovered.  He lived with his parents for the rest of their lives, then lived with his brother Jacob until Philip’s own death in 1905 where he left his meager estate to his siblings, nieces and nephews.

One John Kirsch did serve, but I can’t tell if it was Katharine Barbara’s second son, John, or not. John worked with wood and it would have taken $300 for him to hire a replacement for his service – assuming he could find a replacement.  Not likely for a woodworker.

Katharina Barbara’s third son, Martin Kirsch, enlisted and is recorded in the “strictly German” 32^nd Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Company D, but is never heard of again.  We don’t know if he died or what, but he was never discharged.  Perhaps as the balance of the Civil War records are digitized, we’ll learn his fate.  We know that he was not mentioned in his brother’s will in 1905.

The fourth son, Jacob Kirsch, was the son who had the perfect “out,” meaning he didn’t pass the civil war physical, but the family history tells us he served anyway as a teamster and cook. He must have felt strongly about this cause.  After his death, Jacob’s widow filed for a pension and was declined for non-service, but the Indiana roster records do show Jacob Kirsch.

Katharine Barbara had plenty to worry about for several years, and probably got to either bury son Martin, or never got to bury son Martin because his body was not returned. Most soldiers were buried on or near the battlefield where they fell or the “hospital” where they died.

By late 1864, her sons that survived had mustered out or served their time. It has been a very long three years.  Katharina Barbara was probably trying very hard to help Philip Jacob recover from his persistent, and as it turns out, lifelong, intestinal issues.

Sunlight Again

On November 22, 1864, Katharina Barbara’s youngest daughter Anna Marie Kirsch would marry John Kramer in Dearborn County. After the years of the war, this had to be an very welcome happy event, a celebration.  By 1870, Anna Marie (Mary) and John were living in Illinois, so Katharina Barbara probably didn’t get to see much of her daughter or those grandchildren. In the 1900 census, Mary Kramer is a widow and has 9 children, all living.  In the 1920 census, she gives her parents birth location at Mutterstadt, so this is unquestionably the right Mary Kramer living in Collinsville, Madison County, Illinois, across the river from St Louis, Missouri where Jacob Kirsch’s 1917 obituary says his sister, Mary Kramer, lives.

The next wedding would be son Jacob Kirsch to Barbara Drechsel in 1866. I’m sure Katharina Barbara was relieved that they were living in Aurora.  Yes, it was a few miles, about 15, but only a few miles.  The day before Christmas, Jacob and Barbara’s first daughter, Nora, my great-grandmother, arrived in the world.  I’m sure the Christmas of 1866 was joyful.  The war was over, Jacob was married and there was a new baby.  Nora’s generation always celebrated Christmas on December 24^th, a typical German tradition, so Nora’s arrival on the 24^th gave everyone something extra-special to celebrate.  I sure wish we had pictures!

Katharina Barbara’s son William Kirsch followed by marrying in 1870 to Carolyn Kuntz, although we don’t know much about them. We know that William was dead by 1905 when his brother Philip remembered William’s 2 male and 1 female children in his will.  William was probably the William Kirsch that died in Nebraska in February 1891, wife Carrie, with sons Edward and Henry and daughter Mattie, the oldest of which was born in Indiana.

The 1870 census reflects Katharina Barbara’s shrinking family in Ripley County as her children married and began families of their own.

Interestingly, in addition to Katharina Barbara, her husband and son, we also find Mathias White, age 19, now listed as farm labor, which is probably the same person as Matthew Weis in 1860. Weis is the German word for white.  He would not have been old enough to serve in the war, Mathias was very probably a great help to Philip Jacob and Katharina Barbara on the farm during the war years.

In 1874, son Philip who was living on the farm with his parents applied for a Civil War pension saying that his father’s situation had become very strained and that he, Philip (the son), could not do any manual labor due to his Civil War injuries. Philip Jacob Kirsch, the father, would have been 68 years old and Katharina would have been 67.  Indeed, their years and miles were likely wearing on them.

Grandchildren and Great-grandchilden

Katharina Barbara had a total of 24 grandchildren, but 4 died during her lifetime. Of her children, only Philip Kirsch, Jacob Kirsch and Katharine Barbara Kirsch Koehler stayed relatively close.  Philip lived with his parents, Jacob lived in Aurora in Dearborn County and Katharina Barbara Kirsch Koehler lived in both Aurora and Lawrenceburg at various times.  The rest of Katharina Barbara’s grandchildren were with her children who were scattered in Illinois, Indianapolis and possibly Nebraska.  Of course, three of Katharina Barbara’s children didn’t have children.

In 1876, Katharina Barbara’s first great-grandchild was born to Lizzie Koehler Knoebel, a boy, Harry Knoebel. Another generation began.

In 1878, Katharina Barbara’s second born great-grandchild was born to Lizzie Koehler Knoebel and would die. What would Katharina Barbara have said to her grieving granddaughter as she stood beside her at the graveside burying her baby? Barbara had certainly stood in Lizzie’s shoes a few years earlier in the little cemetery beside the log cabin church in Ripley County.  Did Katharina Barbara simply hug Lizzie and stand silently, sharing a grief for which there were no words, or did she have some words of wisdom and comfort for Lizzie.

Two years later, on April the 26^th, 1880, Lizzie had a third child, a son, that would live, but just a few days later, the grim reaper would visit the family, just the same.

On May 10, 1880, Katharina Barbara’s husband, Philip Jacob Kirsch, died. Two days later, on a spring day, he was buried in the Riverview Cemetery south of Aurora where their son, Jacob lived.  Flowers were probably blooming, birds chirping, but there was no joy in the Kirsch family that day.

Jacob bought the plot in which many members of the Kirsch family would be buried, including the Knoebel baby. The information at the cemetery says that Philip Jacob died of “old age” and that the couple lived near Milan.

In the 1880 census, taken just a month or so later, Katharina Barbara is living on the old home place with her son, Philip Jacob, the Civil War veteran. Philip is 49 with a disability and Katharina Barbara is 73.  Neither one of them are spring chickens, and life must have gotten very difficult for them about this time.  Did their neighbors help them out?  Did their married children that still lived locally come to help?  How did they manage to farm, given that farming was very physically labor intensive?

The Indiana 1880 mortality census records are not yet digitized and available at Ancestry. When they are, there may be additional information about Philip Jacob Kirsch’s death.

On July 1, 1884, Katharina Barbara’s granddaughter, Lizzie Koehler died, just past her 30th birthday. I wonder if her death had anything to do with childbirth.  Lizzie is buried on the Kirsch plot in the Riverview Cemetery with her child that had died a few years before her in 1878.

Barbara would once again have visited the cemetery.  She probably put flowers on Philip Jacob’s grave before her granddaughter’s funeral and maybe pulled a few stray blades of grass growing over the base of the stone.  I know that mother always felt that “cleaning up the stone” was in essence doing something for or taking care of the person who was buried there.  Kind of like pushing the hair off of their forehead.  They didn’t much care but the person performing the caring gesture felt better.

I don’t know if Jacob had the current stone set before or after his mother passed.  Katharina Barbara probably also realized that she was in essence visiting her own final resting place too.  By this time, Katharina Barbara had been through several dress rehearsals.

On August 29, 1887, Katherina Barbara, along with all of her children and their spouses would execute a deed selling the farm in Ripley County.  Katherina Barbara turned 80 on September 1st, and son Philip, who had lived with her was 50 and disabled.  I’m sure they simply could not maintain the farm any longer, so they sold.  Fortunately, that deed is very descriptive and confirmed the location of the farm, along with the names and locations of all the living children.  Interestingly enough, Katharina Barbara and Philip were both living in Dearborn County by this time, according to the deed.  I’m sure they were living with son Jacob Kirsch and his wife, Barbara Drechsel Kirsch at the Kirsch House in Aurora.

On January 18, 1888, Katharina Barbara’s granddaughter, Nora Kirsch (below) married Curtis Benjamin Lore at the Kirsch House in Aurora. I know that, weather permitting, Katharina Barbara would have been present for that wedding.  This was her first grandchild through son Jacob to marry.

On August 2, 1888, my grandmother and Katharina Barbara’s great-granddaughter, Edith Barbara Lore was born in Indianapolis.

Was Nora able to take the baby back to Ripley or Dearborn County to see her grandmother? I hope so. All grandmothers love their grandchildren and particularly love babies.   Oh, how I wish there was a generational photo of the family that year.

This would be the last baby Katharina Barbara would get to love. The last set of fingers to kiss, the last baby to smile and laugh and probably drool on her as well.  The last feet to tickle, the last child to rock and sing to sleep.

Barbara Passes On

Katharine Barbara Lemmert died February 1, 1889 and was buried beside Philip Jacob Kirsch on a cold winter’s day, seven months shy of her 82^th birthday, 60 years after marrying Philip Jacob (the first time) and 41 years after first setting foot on American soil. What a journey!

Barbara had seen a lot in her life, lived in two countries on two continents, crossed the ocean in either a sailing ship or a steamer, and plied the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers in a steamboat paddlewheeler…pregnant…with 7 children…and a husband. Two weeks later, she married that same husband for the second time…just to be sure I guess.  Just over a decade later, at least three of her sons, if not four, fought in the Civil War, and one of them probably perished.  Two children, four grandchildren, a great-grandchild and her husband would precede her in death.  At least, on that far shore, much the same as the far shore of America, she had someone waiting for her.

Mitochondrial DNA

Katharina Barbara Lemmert’s mitochondrial DNA was passed to her by her mother. Woman pass it on, men don’t, so Katharina Barbara’s sisters would have passed it on as well.  However, since we don’t know much about those sisters, we don’t know of any descendants to test today.

Katharina Barbara’s two daughters both had daughters who passed her mitochondrial DNA on through their daughters who hopefully passed it on to someone who still carries it today. In the current generation, males also carry their mother’s mitochondrial DNA, so they can test.  They just don’t pass that kind of DNA on to their offspring.  Only females pass it on.

Katharina Barbara Kirsch who married Johann Martin Koehler had the following daughters who lived:

• Mary Koehler, born January 6, 1852, married Henry Hornberger in 1871 in Dearborn County, Indiana. He is shown alone in Nebraska in the 1880 census, so she has apparently died by this time. There is no record of any children, but the family sources do indicate that “they went to Nebraska.” The Riverview cemetery shows her burial on January 22, 1880, age 28, and having been sent for burial from Omaha.
• Elizabeth “Lizzie” Koehler born in 1854 married Christian Knoebel and had two male children. Lizzie died in 1884.
• Mamie Koehler born in 1869 married John Fichter in 1892 and had two daughters, Florence and Alberta. Family oral history said that Mamie is a foster or adopted child. Not all the family agrees with that commentary – but all of the people who would have known are now dead. Mamie is shown with Barbara on the 1880 census, but in the 1870 census when she would have been one year old, she does not show in the census with this family in Aurora, Dearborn County, Indiana.

Anna Maria Kirsch born in 1847 married John Kramer and became known as Mary Kramer. She died in 1929 in Collinsville, Madison County, Illinois with her birthplace listed as Mutterstadt.  She had 9 children of which 6 were daughters.

• Ida Kramer, 1867-1944 never married
• Nettie Kramer, 1869-1940, married a Huber
• Louisa Kramer, born in 1871, married Mathias Phillips and had 6 daughters
• Lilly Kramer born in 1873, was single in 1940, so apparently never married
• Elizabeth Kramer born in 1875, married John Bell and had one daughter
• Florence Kramer 1887-1911, never married

It appears that the only possible individuals living today who carry Katharina Barbara’s mitochondrial DNA are people who descend from Nettie, Louisa or Elizabeth Kramer through all females to the current generation.

If this description fits you, I have a DNA testing scholarship with your name on it. I’d love to find out more about our ancestor, Katharina Barbara Lemmert.

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Anna Christina Berchtol, with Berchtol (Bechtol, Bechtel, Berchtel, etc.) being her married name, was born sometime before 1666, probably in Switzerland.  We don’t know for sure when, or where, but we can infer her birth year as 20 years or more before the birth of her first known child, born in Konken, Germany, shown below, in 1686.

Could Anna Christina have been older?  Certainly.

We actually first find a record of Anna Christina in Konken when her children’s births were recorded at the local Reformed protestant church.

• Hans Jacob Berchtol born in 1686 who married Anna Marie Glosselos
• Susanna Agnes Berchtol born on May 3, 1688 and married Michael Mueller (1692-1771) (One source reports her birth in Ohmbach, a nearby village.)
• Hans Peter Berchtol born on May 1, 1690 and married Maria Elizabeth Zimmer
• Hans Heinrich Berchtol born on May 1, 1690
• Barbel (Barbara) Berchtol born about 1693
• Ursula Berchtol born about 1696

Unfortunately, in none of these church records is a surname recorded for Anna Christina.

We believe she was born in Switzerland for two reasons.  First, the family group which includes Johann Michael Mueller seems to have migrated together from Switzerland.  Johann Michael Mueller was born in Zollikoffen just outside of Bern in 1655.  This entire group appears by 1685 in the Konken, Krottelback and Steinwenden area of Germany.

Another Berchtol family, Hans Simon Berchtol, lived in Steinwenden and they were also involved with the Johann Michael Mueller family.

Hans Berchtol witnessed the baptisms of two of Johann Michael Mueller’s children in Steinwenden, about 15 miles distant from Konken.

Anna Christina had her last child, recorded in the Konken church records, in 1696.

We don’t know why there were no children noted after 1696.  Was Anna Christina of an age where she was no longer having children?  If so, that would put her birth at about 1653.  Did she die?  Possibly.  There is no further record of her, but then again, there is also no death record.  Are those records complete?  Again, we don’t know.

What we do know is that her husband, Hans Berchtol died in Konken on June 15, 1711.  His death record in the church tells us that he resided in Krottelbach, just a couple of miles away.  I will have his death record retranslated, because it may indicate whether or not his wife was dead or living.

Just three years after Hens Berchtol’s death in 1711, Susanna Agnes Berchtol, Hans and Anna Christina’s daughter, would marry Johann Michael Mueller.

In a twist of irony, Johann Michael Miller was the child born in Steinwenden in 1692 that Hans Berchtol and Anna Christina stood up with as godparents when he was baptized on October 5^th.

Anna Christina could not have had any idea in 1692 that her daughter, Susanna Agnes, born in 1688, would in 1714 marry Johann Michael Mueller.  Does this sound like a fairy tale or Disney princess story to you?  All we need now are some really cute little woodland critters.

Given that Anna Christina was Johann Michael’s godmother, and that his mother and father had both died by 1695, it’s certainly possible that Anna Christina and Hans Berchtol raised Johann Michael Mueller.  In essence, that means Susanna and Michael could have been raised together.  That certainly would have made courting much easier.

Johann Michael Mueller would have been 19 years old when Hans Berchtol died in 1711.  We don’t know if Anna Christina had already died, or if she was left as a widow.  Regardless, Anna’s youngest child would have been 15 and not yet an adult.  Perhaps when Hans Berchtol died, Johann Michael Mueller stepped in to help the family, assuming an adult male role, and three years later, married the eldest daughter.

The record from Konken Reformed Church shows that Michael Muller, son of Johann Michael Muller, from Steinweiler in Churpfalz, married Susanna Agnes Berchtel, a Swiss, at Crottelbach on January 4, 1714.  “A Swiss,” in fact confirms that indeed, the Berchtel family too immigrated from Switzerland.  This bit of evidence is what suggests that Anna Christina was likely born in Switzerland.

We don’t have a lot of information about Anna Christina, aside from scanty information from church records that includes her children’s births and the Mueller births that she witnessed as well.

What we do know is that she was part of the pietist group that left Switzerland and settled in Germany.  These pietists became both Brethren and Mennonites after their descendants, specifically, Johann Michael Miller and Susanna Agnes Berchtol, moved to Pennsylvania in the 1720s.  One Samuel Berchtol also migrated to the US and is found closely associated with Johann Michael Mueller, jointly owning land, and was Mennonite in Hanover Co, PA.  Johann Michael Mueller (Miller) was Brethren.

The early pietist movement in Switzerland led to the founding of several religions that had the same core values, although they did develop some differences that led to different sects.

The original pietist believers in Switzerland tried to avoid religious labels.  They had become convinced that the established church was thoroughly corrupt and sought to meet quietly and privately among themselves, studying and adhering strictly to the written word of the Bible and avoiding anything political in nature, including conflict.  Most families kept a loose association with the Reformed protestant churches.  Attempting to establish a new religion would have been illegal at that time.

At one point, the pietists and Anabaptists would suffer a difference of opinion, being that the Anabaptists did not believe in infant baptism.  In fact, they did not believe in baptism until the individual was old enough to make their own commitment based on a personal understanding of the Bible.  However, the pietists and Anabaptists shared many convictions and were more alike than different, especially in the eyes of the government.  They found the state-church squaring up against them, viewing them as one group and attempting to squash what was viewed as a dissident religion.  Oftentimes, other church members who weren’t pietist or Anabaptist felt sorry for the aggrieved patrons and joined them, ashamed of and put off by the actions of the official church.

What role did women, like Anna Christina play in this emerging religion?  The book, “Sisters: Myth and Reality of Anabaptist, Mennonite and Doopsgezind Women, ca 1525-1900” discusses female pietists in a quite surprising light.

Like many religious movements, the “born again” movement had a sense of urgency fueled by the belief that the end of mortal time was near.  It’s easy to understand why they might have felt this way, given that war had ravaged the European landscape for decades, plagues had run rampant, killing one third of the European population and as a result of those disasters, economic and social upheaval was at hand.  Pietism offered spiritual comfort and the promise of a heavenly afterlife.  And comfort was something in short supply at that time.

Chiliasm was one of the widespread concepts of pietism.  The more radical Anabaptists believed that they would help usher in a new economy, meaning a new phase of history in which God’s order, not a corrupt world order would dominate.  I think we’re still waiting for that.

Chiliasm contributed to the prominence of women leaders in Pietism since women were able to claim an authority that the Bible reserved for women prophets at the end of time.

Joel 2,28:  “I shall pour out my spirit on all mankind; your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams and your young men see visions; I shall pour out my spirit in those days even on slaves and slave-girls.”

Pietist women justified speaking out directly by claiming that God inspired them.  And who was to argue?  Not only that, but this direct inspiration by God gave them more authority than theologians with university degrees because God spoke to these women personally and directly.

Pietist women claimed that the old traditions of shutting women out were no longer valid and that all Christians needed to act boldly to save as many souls as possible before the coming apocalypse.

Other pietists pointed out that Christ appeared first to women after he was risen and that women were prominent in the early church.

These newly founded groups met in homes, in the domestic domain, so to speak, where women often interpreted the scripture.  That would not have been allowed in churches.  While these “conventicles” were not intended to replace churches, in time, they did indeed become the foundation for a new religion.

In the 16^th century, women were still barred from formal education, but they were taught to read by private tutors.  They could then read the Bible for themselves, and anything else they wanted to read too.  Their justification was that they were the primary educators of children.

Women’s roles went further than just hosting conventicles.  They acted as enthusiastic prophets, lay preachers and in some cases, as aristocratic patrons funding institutions such as missions and schools.  In general, it was considered “unseemly” for women to act in a public way, and women were not believed to be intellectually capable of understanding complex ideas and certainly incapable of writing, so books written by women were published under pseudonyms.

This movement was not popular with either the established church or the government, and in 1704 the German historian Johann Feustking published a book attributing the formation and leadership of pietism to female agitators, arguing in the book that women had to be limited to the home if traditional society was to be preserved.  This seems to be a case of wanting to close the barn door a bit too late.

Another author from the 1700s characterized the pietist movement as led by foolish and naïve women who had been hoodwinked by smarter, unscrupulous men.  Ironically, that author was herself a woman and had to publish her book, “Pietism in Petticoats” anonymously.

The area around Bern, Switzerland, where the Johann Michael Mueller family originated, had its own set of problems.  Political and military threats surrounded Bern; a recent war with the Turks, a war of succession in the Pfalz and the Swiss-French struggle in the Piemont.  The economy was floundering.  To help address these problems, the Swiss had opened their doors to the Huguenot and Waldensian refugees, but those groups, along with the pietists were monitored closely.  Both were forbidden to recruit new members.  The last thing Bern wanted was more threats to stability – and women involved in anything, let alone in a prominent religious role, shook their very foundation and confirmed the potential for social upheaval.

One Anabaptist women, Elizabeth Tscharner died and her son eulogized her life.  He said that she spent several hours each day on her knees in prayer, a style of praying associated with Anabaptists.  Combining personal devotion with practical Christianity, Elizabeth translated written tracts, had them published and handed them out to the poor.  Ironically, the poor probably couldn’t read them.  Elizabeth knitted and sewed clothes for the needy.  She concerned herself with the welfare of Anabaptists in Bern’s prisons…jailed for their Anabaptist activities.  Often too weak to even sit up, she brought them food and fed them.

One group of Anabaptists was being sent on a ship to the Pfalz to join their spiritual kin, not exactly by choice.  Elizabeth took up a collection of clothes, food and money for provisions for their trip.  This story also illustrates that perhaps not everyone who settled in the Swiss villages of Germany did so by direct choice.  Some may have arrived with absolutely nothing.

Near her death, Elizabeth asked her son to wash her feet, an activity still performed in Brethren churches today, viewed by Elizabeth as “the foot washing of the apostles.”

Christ Washing the Feet of the Apostles by Meister des Hausbuches, 1475

One of Elizabeth’s female Anabaptist friends wrote a book at the age of 76, sharing with us an eternal bit of wisdom about the roles we play on the stage of this world, “No matter whether our mortal lives are comedy or tragedy, at the end of our lives we all look alike.”

Bern’s records show that authorities were particularly concerned about situations where women were involved in pietist religious activities and their men were not, leaving the women “unsupervised and uncontrolled.”  These, women, tsk, tsk, tsk, left the house at night and went to meetings where men and boys were attending, returning home late at night.  They tried to equate women’s religious activity with promiscuity and played on their husband’s fears.  Council protocol addressed activities of “willful wives” as well as “disobedient housemaids.”

While focused on the women, they weren’t above trying to control men either.  Knowing that pietists refused to take oaths, they required a yearly oath of allegiance from all men.  Men who wouldn’t swear allegiance were arrested and assumed to be pietist.  No wonder women had so many men to visit in the prisons.

It’s no surprise, in light of this oppressive environment, that so many removed to much more accommodating and welcoming Germany, whose lands had been depopulated in the wars and needed settlers to work the farms.  In return, Germany offered religious tolerance, at least to a degree.

By 1699, when Bern officials began enacting even stricter measures and interrogating those suspected of pietist leanings, most of the pietists were dead, gone to Germany either willingly or in exile, or very quietly living underground.

It’s ironic that we think of the Brethren and Mennonites today as extremely conservative and the women as very obedient, subservient and compliant, when, in Europe, they were considered quite the opposite – uncontrollable rabble rousers.  Imagine…..women believing they had a legitimate voice and expressing an opinion – and possessing a God given right to do so no less.  For shame!

Anna Christina …you rabble rouser you…..

You know, I’m pretty sure I inherited some of her DNA!!!

Unfortunately, unless one day we can identify some of her autosomal segments, her DNA is unavailable to us.

She had three daughters, but there is only one, Susanna Agnes, that we know anything about.  She married Johann Michael Mueller and had several children, but there are no documented daughters.  There are rumored and inferred daughters, but none with any suggestive evidence that they were in fact the daughter of Susanna Agnes Berchtol Mueller.  Since mitochondrial DNA is passed from mother to daughter to daughter, down the line to the current generation, intact, if we could find someone who descended from Anna Christina through all females, we could obtain her mitochondrial DNA signature today which would tell us about her deep ancestry.

Unless something is discovered of Barbara and Ursula, her two youngest daughters, or a daughter is confirmed from Susanna Agnes, Anna Christina’s mitochondrial DNA line is dead to us.  However, her rabble rousing spirit is not and survives quite intact today!

______________________________________________________________

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We don’t know her name.  In my genealogy software she is simply listed as “unknown” or “wife 1.”  But assuredly, she lived, because she had a daughter named Luremia, my ancestor, a daughter Martha and a son George.  She may have had other children too, before she died an untimely death.

Her husband, John Combs was born about 1705, so she was probably born about the same time or maybe slightly later. Let’s say she was born about 1710.  We know she had three children, at least three that survived, and they were born around 1740-1743.  Then she died.  Sometime before 1750 when her husband remarried.  She died knowing she was leaving three small children behind – and perhaps more.  Did she die in childbirth?  Did she know she was dying?  Maybe she prayed that her husband would find another wife who would love those children.  What does a dying woman pray for under those circumstances, other than a miracle?

We may not know her name, when or where she was born, or to whom, but we do know where she lived.  Amelia County, Virginia.  I was able to visit Amelia County in the fall of 2015.  I was able to find the lands of John Combs and his unknown wife as well as the land of Moses Estes whose son, Moses Estes Jr. would marry their daughter, Luremia Combs.  These families were close neighbors and their families intermarried.

Amelia County carries a chapter of the Estes family history that intersects with the Combs family.  That’s also the chapter of Luremia’s mother with the unknown name.  Moses Estes Jr. married Luremia Combs who was born about 1740, probably in Amelia County, to John Combs and his first wife.  John’s wife, Luremia’s mother, is buried someplace here, as is John himself following his death in 1762.  John’s second wife, Frances Elam, married him on September 11, 1750 knowing he had three motherless children, had 4 more children with John Combs, remarried and outlived him significantly, until sometime after 1778.  Luremia Combs and Moses Estes Jr. married about the time John died.

The Estes Land

Moses Estes Jr., Luremia’s husband, was likely born in Hanover County.  It’s unclear when the Estes family, at least Moses Sr., moved to Amelia County, but he is listed in a deed in 1749 selling land in Louisa County and noted as “of Amelia County.”

By 1769, both Moses Sr. and his brother Elisha were living in Amelia County when Moses sued his brother relative to his father’s estate, and in the very early 1770s, Moses Sr. and Moses Jr. had moved to Halifax County, Virginia.

We know that in Amelia County, Moses Estes owned land that abutted Nicholas Gillington’s land, and Gillington’s land was on Horsepen Branch of Raleigh Parish which would put Horsepen Branch on Flatt Creek, located 3 or 4 miles east of the Grub Hill Church on 636, Lodore Road.

Yes, I know chasing the neighbors’ property is the long way around to find my ancestors – but sometimes that is the only way to find your ancestor’s property, and it can be done.  Thank heavens for landmarks with names.  If you pull the deeds for all of the neighbors, at least one of them will likely have a creek name or some landmark you can find today.  You then know, based on the land description, where your ancestor’s land was located in proximity to the land and landmark you just found.

Is this a royal pain in the patoot?  Oh yea.  Does it work?  Oh yea!!!!

Today you can visit the location of Moses Estes’ land on Lodore Road.

Dykeland Road (632) crosses Horsepen Branch.  Moses’ land seems to be closer to this location.

You can’t visit the Dykeland Road location on Google street view, probably because it’s dirt.

The Combs Land

John Combs and Luremia’s mother lived in very close proximity to the Egglestetton family and the Booker family, making his land easier to find, in general terms.  Grub Hill Church seems to be the center of this entire neighborhood and probably was then too.

Starting our tour at Grub Hill Church, founded in 1754, so known to the Estes and Combs families, I have to wonder if this is where John Combs and Luremia’s mother are buried.  Luremia’s mother died before 1750, so she may be buried on John’s farm, but then again, this cemetery could predate the church, so one never knows.  For all I know, this cemetery could have been ON the Combs farm.

This church was rebuilt in the 1800s, but this is the old section of the cemetery.

John died in 1762, and I’d bet he is buried with Luremia’s mother, wherever she is buried.

The Egglestetton family lived on Egglestetton Road, which, combined with the fact that one of the Egglestetton homes is on the register of historic places, and well-marked, makes them easy to find.

After I returned home, I also discovered a second Egglestetton historic home, Locust Grove, located at the end of route 638 off the north side of Route 681.

Robert Farguson patented 400 acres on the lower side of Flatt Creek on Sept. 28, 1732 and sold it to Thomas Pettus who sold it to William Egglesten in 1753 – the land beginning at the mouth of Cabbin Branch.

According to the book, “Old Homes and Buildings of Amelia County, Virginia, Volume II” by Gibson McConnauhey, Locust Grove was the original Egglestetton plantation, and this included the land that was sold to Egglestetton by John Combs.

On December 23, 1778, William Egglestetton purchased from Frances Hubbard and her husband, Joseph, Frances’s dower right in the land of her late husband, John Combs, which had been patented to him on September 28, 1732.  This confirmed that indeed, John’s land is very near Locust Grove, if not the land of Locus Grove itself.

In 1798, Judith Egglestetton gave to her son, Edward, the life estate in the 400 acres that her husband, William Egglestetton had purchased of John Combs (DB20, p 425).

On the map below, the Locust Grove location is noted with the grey balloon and to the right, 630 is Egglestetton Road where the other historic Egglestetton home is located.

Looking at this map, I have to wonder if Haw Branch was formerly called Cabbin Branch when Joseph Ferguson patented the land.

It looks like Ferguson’s bridge could be the one over Flatt Creek on Lodore Road.  Even today, this is a wooden bridge.

What we know is that John Combs land was someplace in this area, and that he was keeping the road from the Flatt Creek bridge to the courthouse open and in order.

John’s land was between Nibbs and Flatt Creek and it looks like Combs bridge is the bridge on Grub Hill Church Road over Flatt Creek, shown above with the grey balloon.  The Farguson land and bridge is where N. Lodore Road crosses Flatt creek, on the left.

The Booker Home

Edmund Booker was a very wealthy planter in Amelia County – THE rich and influential man in the neighborhood.  He was also the neighbor of John Combs and his wife.

The old Edmund Booker home is now a lovely restored Bed and Breakfast and wedding event center called Winterham.  I stopped and was fortunate enough to find the owner available to talk for a few minutes.  It turns out that she is a history buff and has written several of the Amelia County articles and books.  She also shared with me a map of Winterham from 1869 which shows the original lines of the Booker plantation.

You can see the Egglestton lines to the left in the top photo.  North is not at the top.

Riding Down Egglestetton Road

So let’s take a ride down Egglestetton Road.

This is the land on the southwest corner of Grub Hill Church Road and Egglestetton Road.  This is what most of the area looks like.  Slightly rolling and fertile.  This was indeed good land to patent.

Part of Egglestetton Road is still forested.

We found this lovely old tractor on one of the farms along Egglestetton Road.

I do believe this is a bit of a fixer upper.

It’s just beautiful farm country here.

Flatt Creek

From here we rode north on  Grub Hill Church Road to see George Combs bridge on Flatt Creek.

Flatt Creek isn’t terribly large here, but it is large enough that a bridge would have been needed.

A second small bridge exists today on Grub Hill Church Road but south of Flatt Creek, yet north of Egglestetton Road.  This may well have been the branch that Edmund Booker referred to on George Combs land that he agreed to keep open.

At court, in January 1747, John Booker requests that the road near his house on the way to Richard Booker’s mill be stopped and the old road near John Comb’s be kept open and Booker agrees to build a bridge over the run near Comb’s house and keep it in repair.

Of course, the road has changed between now and then, so perhaps this is not the exact same location, but there aren’t many candidates.

This is a branch of Nibbs Creek on Grub Hill Church Road, north of the church but before Flatt Creek.

If that is George Combs branch, then this is George Combs land.

Luremia’s Mother’s DNA

We may not know her name, but we can still perhaps discover more about Luremia’s mother.

Luremia’s mother had two daughters, both of whom would have passed on her mitochondrial DNA to her granddaughters through both daughters.  Mitochondrial DNA is passed from mothers to all of their children, but only the females pass it on.

Therefore, both daughters, Luremia and Martha would pass their mother’s mitochondrial DNA to their daughters, who would pass it on through their daughters, to the current generations.  Mitochondrial DNA is never combined with the DNA of the father.

• Luremia Combs married Moses Estes Jr. and had the following daughters:
• Patience Estes born before 1780 and married Peter Holt in Halifax County, VA.  Patience died before 1837, lived in Smith County, TN, and had at least one daughter, Cointhiana (or Cintha) Holt who married Johnson Moorefield.
• Clarissa Combs Estes born in the 1760s, married Frances Boyd in Halifax County in 1786, lived in Georgia in 1837, and had daughters May Isabel Irving Boyd, Lorany Combs Boyd, Clarice Combs Boyd and Nancy Lawson Boyd.
• Judith Estes born before 1787, married Andrew Juniel in Halifax County in 1806 and died before 1837 in Henderson County, KY.  She had daughters Sally, Nancy, Luraney and Jane.
• Patsy Martha Estes, married before 1799 to Robert Jackson (also spelled Hackson) and was married in 1837 to a Lax, children unknown.
• Maga Estes married in 1792 in Halifax County to William Patrick Boyd, children unknown.  Not mentioned as a child in 1837 suit.  Either she was dead with no heirs, or perhaps she was not a child of Moses and Luremia.

Luremia’s sister, Martha Combs married James Bowlen or Bowls, but nothing more is known of this couple.

If you descend from Luremia Combs Estes or Martha Combs Bowlen (or Bowls) through all females, I have a DNA testing scholarship for you.

Wouldn’t it be ironic to not know Luremia’s mother’s name, but to know about her ancestors through her DNA.

A Hint

We do have one hint as to a possible identity of Luremia’s mother – and it comes through lawsuits that followed John Combs death.  In those lawsuits, Jamie Farguson is refered to as George Combs uncle.  George Combs is Luremia’s brother, both children of John Combs and his unknown wife.

Now we know that the surnames are different, so Jamie Farguson/Ferguson is not John Combs’, brother unless he is a half-brother.

So, either James Farguson’s wife is a Combs, or John Combs first wife, Luremia’s mother, was a Farguson, now spelled Ferguson.  That’s certainly possible, because the Farguson/Ferguson family and the Combs family arrived at about the same time in Amelia County and their land was adjacent.

Tracking down the Ferguson family, it appears that John Ferguson was the first and only Ferguson of his generation to patent land in Amelia County – although his son, Robert, wasn’t far behind.  John was the son of James Ferguson of Essex County, and James Ferguson’s daughters seem to be accounted for – with no Combs involved, so perhaps John’s wife, Elizabeth was indeed a Combs.  Or perhaps John’s son, James married a Combs.  John Combs died in 1778, with a will, and mentions his children and some of his grandchildren, but no Combs.  Of course, if Luremia’s mother was John Combs daughter, she predeceased him. It’s also possible that the John who died in 1778 was the son of the original John.

Unfortunately, we have nothing more than this one vague reference to “uncle Jamie Farguson.”

If descendants of Luremia, George and Martha Combs stumble over any unusual Ferguson DNA matches, this could be the source.  However, having said that, John Ferguson who died in 1778 has a daughter who married an Estes man, so Luremia Estes’ descendants may well match with Ferguson descendants due to the Estes DNA, if their matches descend through John Ferguson’s daughter Kesia.

Truthfully, the Ferguson family, while prolific and using the same names repeatedly, is fairly well documented.  It think it’s much more likely that Jamie Ferguson’s wife, Polly, was a Combs than that John Comb’s unknown first wife was a Ferguson.

The Guide

This Virginia trip included an incredible gift.  The Amelia County adventure was part of a 2 week trip to Virginia that encompassed several counties and side trips to ancestral lands.  I was hoping for some fall color.

Various raptors have been with us for most of the way – soaring on the thermals and keeping a watchful eye on us.

However, in Amelia County, an eagle joined us near the Booker plantation, which, according to the map at Wintherham, abutted the Egglestetton land which had originally been that of John Combs and his unidentified wife.  I was here that John Combes wife and Luremia’s mother lived and bore her children.  It is here that she died, knowing she was leaving small, helpless children behind.  It was here that those children were raised and married.  It is here that Luremia’s mother is buried.  Someplace nearby.

The eagle landed in the tree and surveyed us.

He then lifted off beautifully, his white tail glowing in the sunshine.

Then, he led the way.  Maybe he was telling me where Luremia’s mother was buried.

What an absolutely amazing gift and a wonderful way to end my visit to Amelia County.  If you’re a Combs or Estes descendant, and you decide to take this drive, I hope the eagle accompanies you too.

______________________________________________________________

Disclosure

I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase the price you pay but helps me to keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

DNA Purchases and Free Transfers

• Family Tree DNA
• MyHeritage DNA only
• MyHeritage DNA plus Health
• MyHeritage FREE DNA file upload
• AncestryDNA
• 23andMe Ancestry
• 23andMe Ancestry Plus Health
• LivingDNA

Genealogy Services

• MyHeritage FREE Tree Builder
• MyHeritage Subscription with Free Trial

Genealogy Research

• Legacy Tree Genealogists for genealogy research