Spahr=Witting DNA Matching During May 2025

Relationship Report
Alve-Selbach

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.

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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...

Having given thought to this DNA link between Ivan Alve and Heinz-Georg Selbach, I turned my attention to searching for anything more available about Adelheid Witting. My interest was piqued when a DNA match between Ivan and Wolfgang Zeigler indicated some Wittings are probably related.

The mesage that came with the match was that Ivan's MRCA with Wolfgang's Witting line was likely to be Ivan's third or fourth great grandparent. In other words Adelheid Witting's parent or grandparent. 

The family tree that came with Wolfgang's DNA information identified these people (see below) as Wilhelm Antonius Witting (1769-1845) and his father Arnold Witting (1723-1797).

Is Adelheid Witting Wilhelm's daughter? Several disqualifiers emerged as I pursued this line of enquiry.

1. Anna M.M. Tiedeken her mother would have been 14-15 when Adelheid was born!
2. Existing family trees do not have Adelheid in this family;
3. These Wittings all have a BDM link to Friesoythe, Cloppenburg, Niedersachsen.  Adelheid's marriage (1814) and death (1842) records link her with Beckum far to the south; these towns are almost 200 km apart!

Adelheid is almost certainly not Wilhelm and Anna's daughter.

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....