AncestryDNA Cluster: Philip Craver

While assigning my Mom’s AncestryDNA™ matches to an ancestral line using the Leeds Method, I noticed there were a number of matches to my more recent Snyder cousins who were not actually Snyder descendants. Instead, they all seemed to be related to one specific couple: Philip Craver of North Carolina and his wife.

At first I wondered about the surname. I have Garbers in my tree. Did I get that surname wrong? Did the name get garbled somehow? But that’s a completely different ancestral line and no one in this cluster matched other members of it.

The Gräber Family

I know there was a family of Gräbers (aka Graber, Graeber, Craver), living the same areas in Montgomery County as my Mom’s ancestors. Andreas Gräber settled in Upper Hanover Township. He had two sons with his first wife: Andreas (1725-1807) and Ludwig (1732-1797); he had one son with his second wife: Philip (1745-1820). Andreas and Ludwig remained in Pennsylvania, while Philip moved to North Carolina.

The curious thing, however, is that I have found no DNA matches that can be traced back to either Andreas or Ludwig. None. Zip. Zero.

Since their descendants lived, in may cases, right down the street from many of my Mom’s ancestors, you’d think if I were related to the Gräber family, there would be matches to the Pennsylvania Gräbers. Since there aren’t, I can only draw one conclusion. I’m not genetically related to the Gräber family.

Philip Craver

Huh? But what about Philip, you say?

It’s entirely possible that he’s not the relevant party in this scenario—just the one I can identify by name. Since Philip’s children got their DNA from both their dad and their mom, it’s possible that the relevant DNA comes from Philip’s wife.

I currently don’t know her name—given or surname. The online sources do not agree. One, however, refers to a deed abstract in which Philip Craver of Rowan County, North Carolina sold land in 1787 and his wife Sarah signed the deed with her mark. This is the right family, but whether or not Sarah was the mother of Philip’s children, I do not know. The year 1787 seems to be after all the children were born. Therefore it’s possible she was step-mother to Philip’s children.

So, possibility #1 is that I’m genetically related to the mother of Philip Craver’s children—possibly through a woman named Sarah.

Andreas Gräber

While I’m apparently not related to Andreas (Jr.) or Ludwig Gräber, I can’t rule out the family completely. Philip was the son of Andreas’ second wife Gertraut (___) Muss Gräber. So, a second possibility is that Philip is the provider of the DNA in question, but he didn’t inherit it from his father. Instead, it could be from his mother.

I don’t know much about her, except that she was Andreas’ second wife and had herself been married previously. Two step-daughters are named in Andreas’ will: Anna Christina and Anna Margaretha Muss. Anna Christina married Carl Doerr and Anna Margaretha married Peter Laber/Lebar/Lauer/Lawar. To the best of my knowledge I haven’t found descendants of either of these couples among my Mom’s AncestryDNA matches, but I haven’t been looking specifically for them either. That will need to change.

Connection Points

This cluster provides two possible points of shared ancestry: 1. Philip Craver’s wife and 2. Philip Craver’s mother. Finding out more about them might give me an idea on where my tree intersects with theirs. Currently, I have only a general idea.

I mentioned above the cluster matches to some of my more recent Snyder cousins. More specifically, it connects with descendants of Joseph Snyder (1826-1895) and Judith Deischer (1830-1906). This tells me the shared ancestor is most likely among their ancestors.

Given the generational difference—Philip born in 1745, Joseph in 1826, and Judith in 1830, I’m probably looking at Joseph and Judith’s great grandparents or, more likely, 2x great grandparents as the common ancestors. That makes these ancestors, whoever they are, my mother’s 6x great grandparents and my 7x great grandparents.

Joseph Snyder

I can rule out one of Joseph’s ancestral lines—his paternal line. No one in this Craver cluster matches any of the core members of the Snyder or Nuss clusters. This means the common surname is not likely to be Schneider, Betz, Nuss, Reiher (Reyer), Röder (Roeder), or Zimmerman.

His maternal line is complete back to his great-grandparents and only missing one set of 2x great-grandparents. But I do not have maiden names for his maternal great-grandmother Esther (___) Wißler or maternal 2x great grandmother Magdalena (___) Wißler.

Judith Deischer

Both Judith (Deischer) Snyder’s ancestral lines provide research opportunities. Her maternal grandmother’s maiden name is unknown and I’ve no information on her paternal grandmother’s family, allegedly named Rein/Rhein. There’s plenty of research to do on this branch of the family tree to identify the possible common ancestor.

Where to Start

The hardest part of identifying the common ancestor may be in deciding where to start. The best place may lie with a couple of the cluster members who share other surnames from my family tree. This may show where the connection lies. How? By allowing me to identify the ancestral line of Joseph or Judith to which the common ancestor belongs—assuming I’ve already identified an ancestor of that name.

If the common surname is not one I’ve already identified—e.g. one of those unknown maiden names, then at least I’ll have a surname and location (Montgomery County, PA) in which to start searching.

Additionally, I could simply start working to fill in the holes I’ve identified in the Wißler, Deischer, and Trump pedigrees all the way back to persons born in the late 1600s.

Either way, I won’t know until I do more research.

• Category: Research
• Tag: Ancestry, DNA