Recently I was able to access DNA matches from  my Uncle Ivan Alve's DNA sample. At age 94 he is a generation back from me and his matching is throwing up some new insights. In particular he is providing information about a new line of research; that into his and my Spahr=Witting ancestors in Germany.
As below, Heinz-Georg Selbach is a DNA match with NZ Alves. In particular his 3xgreat grandfather Gerhard Heinrich Spahr is brother to the Catharina Elisabeth Spahr who married Bernard Möllers - the parents of Maria Theresia Alve (nee Möllers) who travelled to A-New Zealand in 1876. Gerhard's and Elisabeth's parents Heinrich Spahr=Adelheid Witting are the most recent common ancestors between the Selbachs and the Alves.  Adelheid was born in 1891 (place unknown) and she and Heinrich married in Beckum 1814. Adelheid died 1842 in Beckum.

While to date we know nothing more about Heinrich Spahr other than he fathered (with Adelheid) several children between 1816-1829, Catharina Elisabeth being my, and maybe your, ancestor. This diagram summarises what we know...

So I turned to consider Arnold Witting as the possible MRCA. Arnold (b.1723) had at least four other sons than Wilhelm Antonius:

• Wilhelm Herman Franziskus Christianus Witting (b.1752-)
• Johannes Josephus Witting (b.1754-)
• Wilhelm Anton Christian Witting (b.1756-)
• Joannes  Fridericus Antonius Witting (b.1764-)

There were at least two daughters Gesina and Helena whom I discount because Adelheid's given name was Witting, not the surname of a husband of one of these girls.

For the moment this is where my search pauses until another DNA match with the Wittings, or some other helpful information, is found. As in the above diagram I have Adelheid temporarily attached as a daughter to Joannes F.A. Witting (red). If he is not her father I am reasonably confidant that one of his brothers marked yellow, green or blue is. Once more is known we may also discover the reason for Adelheid marrying in Beckum aged 22-23. A preliminary hunch is that Heinrich Spahr her husband came from Munster, which is about 40 km away....

Jürgen Walter Schmidt (born 1954 in Wiesbaden) has lived in Darmstadt since his retirement and has been a member of the local Immanuel Congregation ever since. He was ordained on October 24, 1999, by Superintendent Wolfgang Schillhahn. From 1997 to 2017, he served as vicar, parish vicar, and parish priest of St. Michaelis Congregation in Kassel. Before studying Protestant theology in Oberursel and Mainz from 1992 to 1997, he served as church warden of the Christuskirchen congregation in Wiesbaden for 15 years. As superintendent, he led the Hesse-North church district from 2007 to 2013. Jürgen Schmidt is a trained telephone counselor. He is married and has four adult children. As a pastor emeritus, he regularly conducts substitute services in Darmstadt and Reichelsheim, as well as in other congregations in the Hesse-South church district.

Pastor Schmidt (Darmstadt) celebrated his 25th ordination anniversary on October 24 2024. The now 71-year-old Wiesbaden native was ordained a Lutheran pastor in Kassel, Schmidt is married to Renate, née Bellin. He and his late first wife, Renate, née Wengenroth, have four children.

Jürgen Schmidt is on Facebook and  uses the MyHeritage genealogy programme to record his ancestry.

This weekend I have been working on my wife's DNA matches in our MyHeritage online geanealogy platform. A very helpful, graphical and powerful tool inluded is the Autocluster report. Margaret's is above. The coloured squares indicate groups of people who share a common ancestor (or ancestral line) with Margaret. Many of them are 4th or 5th cousins. In this report, 103 relatives have been assigned coloured squares. Usually the most accessible matches are towards the top and correspondingly the least accessible are at the bottom.

However, the second to last (dark blue) cluster in this report. highlighted with a yellow circle. gave me a surprise and yielded a new, confirmed match this weekend.

The blue squares contained the info below in the associated Autocluster spreadsheet...
​

The figures in red relate to this new confirmed match. In the info available, this match was described as a 3rd or 4th cousin. The figures are:

• ​60.71cM (centimorgans) is the match size in terms of shared DNA - usually around 4th cousin territory.
• 225 are the number of ancestors available in the family tree attached to this relative.
• 18 describes the blue cluster - 18th from the top.

Upon closer inspection of this relative's available family tree I eventually recognised a couple who are in Margaret's tree also. Alhough linking relatives were absent from both! When I confirmed this I was able to deduce that the relative in question was a third cousin of Margaret's mother Helen, although their birth years are quite different: Helen - 1917; match person - 1955! In other words the 'match' is Margaret's third cousin once removed - 3C1R. 

A corollary to this discovery, on the basis that the three relatives indicated are in the same line, is that most likely they are all descended from the same ancestral couple - McMillan=Fraser. I deduce this on the basis that their matching DNA 44.97, 48.64 and 60.71cM means they are in same match territory.

Whereas I had previously doubted the likelihood of the Autocluster report lower level matches yielding good results, I move forward in my genealogical investigations confident that there are surprises to be found anywhere and everywhere as we closely examine the data and the various reports that help me to analyse it!

​Terry Alve

I use the MyHeritage online genealogy platform to assist my family research. This includes using the DNA matching facilities provided. In the last few years massive advances have been made in connecting personal DNA with that of relatives. Now I regularly make significant discoveries as I use various techniques to connect with relatives, including establishing who common ancestors are on the basis of discovering DNA matches.

Recently I have posted a page on this website to more fully describe what I am doing with not only my own DNA, but with that of other close relatives. I introduce the four relatives whose DNA I am working with, I indicate the six generations of relatives in my direct ancestral line, I provide a link to a very helpful DNA research video, I briefly introduce some of the MyHeritage tools available for DNA research and, I offer a case study about how I worked with one relative to advance their family research.

Communication is an essential part of family research. Often DNA matching benefits from dialogue to check hunches raised by the research tools. I talk about the various communication channels I use.