How researching DNA matches’ trees can give you a history lesson
I have had a good morning researching.
A new distant DNA match matched only one of my daughter’s matches for which there had previously been no matches. However, the match had put up a tree. A few familiar surnames, but some interesting new ones which looked Eastern European to me. So I searched Ancestry for information on the match’s great grandfather Wenzel Christl.
Born on 12 April 1904 in Western Bohemia and died on 6 April 1945 in Texel, Holland. This information came from Germany, Deaths of German Citizens Abroad, Registers from Berlin Standesamt 1, 1939-1955 – Ancestry.com.au. The reference was in German but typedand Google Translate can be very useful. Wenzel Christl was described as a corporal and a farmer.
What happened in Texel, Holland around 6 April 1945? I had no idea, but it was close to the end of the Second World War.
I googled and then looked up Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgian_uprising_on_Texel. I had never heard of the Georgian uprising. Georgian soldiers in the German army rose up against their German officers, with large numbers of casualties. Wow!
Another piece of history learned.
Now to track him back further to see whether he links up or not or whether it is one of his other lines.