Reunited with DNA

Around 10 years ago I was in touch with a few people that I thought might be related to my Steuer family, but they never had enough information to find a link between our families other than 2 of their ancestors were from Breslau and the other knew they were from Galicia. Over the years I would check back with them to see if they had found more information.

It wasn’t until my Judkowitz cousin decided to take the basic DNA test to find proof that our assumption, after lots of research, was a cousin from a branch that never changed their last name to Steuer as the other branches. I asked a male cousin who would have had a common ancestor to him if he would also take a DNA test. The basic tests did show they were a match - 4^th cousins. My Judkowitz cousin wanted to take it further and took a Y-DNA and mtDNA tests and we found that two other of my Steuer cousins had also taken DNA test, unknown to me before hand, and they too were matches with him.

At this point, I stepped back and wasn’t so involved in the DNA process and my Judkowitz cousin was able to continue searching for cousins on both sides of his family. He kept me informed on what he found out. More time passed and then in July 2017 he wrote me and said he had been contacted by 3 people who were DNA matches to him. I saw that they were all people I had been in touch with about 10 years ago and was never able to find our family’s common ancestors.

Just last night I heard from one of these three people that he heard from his cousin that they were related to the famous attorney, Max D Steuer and his son Aron L Steuer. This was a big revelation! I know for a fact that Max D Steuer was my great-grandfather’s first cousin. So once I know his family’s connection to Max D, I’ll know is connection to me!

I can't wait to hear more!

Sarah Kanter Sampliner

I periodically go through old documents and letters to see if maybe there was something I didn’t notice the first time around or if there is something I didn’t think was an important clue or piece of information then and now I know how to use it. My grandma’s cousin-in-law mentioned something about her mother’s family and that she hadn’t found more information on her grandparents.

I decided to do a quick search to see if there is anything new and I found that her mother had a brother Saul. He was a dentist and married Gertrude Rose in Cleveland, Ohio on 01 Jun 1928. After the marriage record, I found a 1920 census for him. He was living with his parents and siblings. Saul’s nickname was “Sollie”. Abraham Kanter emigrated from London, England to the USA in 1904. Abe was a tailor and born in Poland or Polish Russia (1910 & 1920 census lists two different places of birth, one Russia and the other Poland).

Of course I can’t stop with just this. Sarah Kanter Sampliner actually had 3 sisters and 2 brothers. I also found marriage records for Saul and Celia. Other sisters I have their last names from Abe’s obituary.

"Libby" Lillian Goldstein

I have also uncovered Esther Goldstein Kanter’s parents’ names, as well as two siblings of hers. Liba “Libby” Goldstein also went by Lillian. I hope this is a good start for my cousin.

Cousins, cousins and more cousins!

It has been amazing! I’ve uncovered new cousins, found cousins I knew about but never knew personally and even had the pleasure of meeting some cousins. What wonderful discoveries!

I sure wish I had found these cousins some 20 years ago. How different our lives may have been if we had connected back then. Maybe more of us would have been able to meet in person, had family get-togethers and joining the Labers and Steuers again after the 1942 Passover Family Circle.

I’ve been able to uncover things I have in common with my cousins from only one filling, to painting, folk dancing (at one time in my life), appreciation of old family photos and sharing recipes. I just finished pickling some veggies two different ways. One was the old fashioned way as it was done in the 19^th century Tarnow (sweet & sour) and the other a very traditional Ukrainian recipe (sour).

Rumors and legends are coming out…this just means more things to prove or dis-prove. Let’s see if now some truths can emerge from these rumors and legends. One legend I just disproved by looking at my records – Bertha Steuer and Abraham Unger married on 21 Mar 1916. Folklore is that Bertha passed from a heart condition (which is a known fact) the morning of their 50th anniversary and there was supposedly a big party. I don’t know the actual date of their anniversary party, but their 50^th anniversary would have been the 21^st of March 1966. According to the burial card for Bertha, she died 5 days after their anniversary.

I hope to hear more stories about family members. It’s nice getting to know them better, even though they are no longer with us.