The other day, I was looking over my research on Grandma Porteous' maternal family the SCHMIDs and WERNERs. I thought I would try to fill in and clean up some information I gathered at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. It is always good to go back and do a little clean up cause you never know what more you will find, but I wasn't prepared to find a quirky thing in her tree.
My grandma, Carrie Ida SNYDER of Fremont, Lake County, Illinois, was the daughter of Wilhelmina SCHMID. I was following her mother’s lineage when I discovered a curiosity. I have no idea how to explain it, but I’ll do my best not to confuse you and myself!
Wilhelmina married John C. SNYDER. Wilhelmina’s mother, Barbara WERNER, married Johann Jacob SCHMID. Barbara and Johann were from the same stadt (town) … Beutelsbach, Jagstkreis, Württemberg. I had another story posted in 2015: Crossing The Pond: A Stadt in Württemberg Yields Grandma’s Maternal Ancestors.
Since I do everything on an iMac, Reunion is my family tree program. I’ve used it since the early ’90s and I have had very little problems. I love it. Well, I started by checking on my sources to make sure I have them entered. All seems to be in order; I only missed a couple that I found in my SLC notes. So that was done and I thought I would display a family chart to make sure I hadn’t forgotten any boxes.
I called up the earliest ancestors, Christian BRACHER & Sophia (?) 5x gr grandparents and viewed their daughter Helena Margaretha (4x gr grandmother and 5x) and her husband Christoph Jacob WERNER; their children which included my 4x gr grandmother Justina Regina b. 1751. Never noticed until now, Helena had two boxes under Christian and Sophia BRACHER. To my surprise my 3x gr grandfather Johann Georg WERNER was also listed under a separate family card with same parents! What gives? This is nuts and a little baffling.
I checked my notes from SLC and discovered that both Justina Regina and Johann Georg did have the same parents. I promptly cleaned up that entry and now they are under the same parents.
Concentrating on the WERNER family, I laid out a chart which shows my lineage. From Barbara WERNER on down, they all lived and married in Beutelsbach. Johann Georg was about 14 years younger than his sister Justina Regina and was married nine years later.
There is one marriage after Justina Regina’s. The marriage of Johann Friedrich and Johanna Christiana (Justina's daughter) kind of ruins the x gr grandparents making Christoph and Catharina both my 6x and 7x gr grandparents therefore making me my own 7th cousin once removed!
