Elizabeth (Snyder) Rantz: More Thoughts

I just added a couple of new matches to the Elizabeth (Snyder) Rantz match group. In doing so, I’ve been reviewing the shared matches associated with this group and realized something.

All of the group members’ match lists include members of the larger Schneider cluster. However, in about half of the cases, the lists also include members who’ve been identified as descendants of Jacob and Catharina (Nuss) Snyder, my 5th great grandparents.

While not a great surprise—we are all Schneider descendants, after all—I’ve come to associate the appearance of these specific individuals in match lists with the possibility of there being Nuss DNA involved with the match.

What does this mean?

The presence of Snyder-Nuss descendants in the match lists to this degree, I believe, ups the likelihood that Elizabeth (Snyder) Rantz’s descendants are also Snyder-Nuss descendants.

I can pretty much rule out Elizabeth (Snyder) Rantz as being a child of Jacob and Catharina (Nuss) Snyder. I’ve documented Jacob and Catharina’s adult lives in Upper Hanover Township, Montgomery County and, for a short time, in Hereford Township, Berks County. Furthermore, I’ve researched their daughter Elizabeth and can place her in Upper Hanover after William Rantz and Elizabeth Snyder were married in Columbia County, Pennsylvania in 1824.

At this time, I only have one other Snyder-Nuss connection identified: Elias and Anna Maria (Nuss) Schneider—Jacob’s presumed parents. I’m not an expert, but this seems to indicate that my hypothesis that Elizabeth was the granddaughter or great granddaughter of Elias and Anna Maria through their son Conrad or grandson Daniel is the correct one.

I don’t, unfortunately, believe that it proves the hypothesis correct. I’m going to keep searching for documentation on this family line. To quote the X-Files, the truth is out there. It may take me a while, but I’m going to find it.

• Category: Research
• Tag: Ancestry, DNA