06 February 2013

My Mother's Mother's Mother's Mother's Mother--and then some

The DNA they used to prove it was King Richard III buried underneath that parking lot in England was from a descendant of his sister. The descendant was male, but the line of descent was completely female otherwise. Chances are they won't come looking for me very soon unless Anna Engelken has a very famous brother of which I am unaware.

Here is my strict maternal line, from my mother, through her mother, through her mother's mother, etc.

  1. Anna Engelken--died 1757 Reepsholt, Ostfriesland, Germany
  2. Gesche Cathrine Janssen-born 1743 Reepsholt-died 1817 Reepsholt
  3. Taalke Helmerichs--born 1774 Reepsholt
  4. Gescke Catharina Husmann--born 1801 Ostfriesland
  5. Heipke Mueller--born 1832 Etzel, Ostfriesland, Germany--died 1924 Honey Creek Township, Adams County, Illinois
  6. Anna Margaret Dirks--born 1851 Honey Creek Township, Adams County, Illinois--died 1932 Golden, Adams County, Illinois
  7. Tjode Anna Goldenstein--born 1882 Dawson County, Nebraska--died 1954 Keokuk, Lee County, Iowa.
  8. Dorothy Alice Habben--born 1924 Prairie Township, Hancock County, Illinois--died 2008 Bradenton, Manatee County, Florida
  9. My mother
  10. Me

I'm probably not going to get back any further on this lineage. Anna Engelken's father probably had the first name of Engel, given the patronymics of the era and that Engelken is a patronymic surname. Ostfriesens loved patronyms. Why 4, 5, and 7 have names that are not patronyms is a post for another time.