Anna Knust Update
I cannot believe I haven't already posted this. But I just realized I haven't. We've found Anna Knust! Back in 2011, I posted a blog about what I knew and didn't know about Anna Margaretha Knust, my 2-greats grandmother. ["What I Know: Anna Knust Zogg"]
Well, thanks to DNA, I know more now!
Back in July 2017, I exchanged a couple of emails with SSH (name withheld for privacy). She and I have a DNA match on Ancestry, and the only common name in our families is.... Anna Knust! SSH is the great-granddaughter of Anna Knust and Otto Schulze. After comparing notes, we have found that she had no record of Anna prior to 1890, and we had no record of her after 1886. She was just as shocked as I was to have a match on Anna! It appears (because we share DNA) that our Anna and her Anna are one and the same. Since then, my aunt Melinda and my Dad have both had their DNA tested, and both also show a match to SSH.
So, we have been asking the question for many years... what became of Anna Knust? This appears to be the answer: She married Otto Schulze in Kansas City, Missouri in 1890 and lived there the rest of her life. They had two children, Frederick Jacob Schulze and Margaret Schulze . Margaret only lived to age 19. Frederick had four children, but divorced from their mother and the children stayed with her. SSH provided me with a photo of Frederick (right).
SSH had a copy of Anna Knust Schulze's death certificate, and so now we have her birth and death dates - b. 21 Jan 1862 in Germany / d. 29 Nov 1927 in Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri, USA. We also have from that her father's name: Jacob Knust.
Because I now have a birth date and a father's name, I have been able to find her baptism record in Germany... and thus her mother's name as well! Baptized 23 Jan 1862, daughter of Jakob Knust and Margaretha Müller in Zuzenhausen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Well, thanks to DNA, I know more now!
Back in July 2017, I exchanged a couple of emails with SSH (name withheld for privacy). She and I have a DNA match on Ancestry, and the only common name in our families is.... Anna Knust! SSH is the great-granddaughter of Anna Knust and Otto Schulze. After comparing notes, we have found that she had no record of Anna prior to 1890, and we had no record of her after 1886. She was just as shocked as I was to have a match on Anna! It appears (because we share DNA) that our Anna and her Anna are one and the same. Since then, my aunt Melinda and my Dad have both had their DNA tested, and both also show a match to SSH.
SSH had a copy of Anna Knust Schulze's death certificate, and so now we have her birth and death dates - b. 21 Jan 1862 in Germany / d. 29 Nov 1927 in Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri, USA. We also have from that her father's name: Jacob Knust.
Because I now have a birth date and a father's name, I have been able to find her baptism record in Germany... and thus her mother's name as well! Baptized 23 Jan 1862, daughter of Jakob Knust and Margaretha Müller in Zuzenhausen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
I have been working on a Knust name study since 2013... trying to trace the Knust family and all of its branches in the USA. In searching for further information about Anna's parents, I came across a Philipp Jakob Knust and Friedrike Margareth Müller who were married 23 April 1861 in Rappenau Baden-Württemberg, Germany. I don't know yet whether this is the correct couple, but the dates and place would work with Anna's baptismal record. If it is the correct couple, then I also have Jakob's parents' names: Wilhelm Knust and Eva Barbara Krauss. Also, I have this Wilhelm's parent's names... Jakob Knust and Jakobina Birtenhaupt (this info from his burial record).
I have added these names to my name study, but not to my family tree yet since I'm not sure they are the right ones. One of the difficulties I have is that I don't know German... and especially not handwritten from the 19th century. AND I don't know how common these names are/were... so I don't know whether to accept circumstantial similarities in the names as evidence.
The saga continues... but this one brick wall, for now, has begun to crumble.
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