I AM a Wanamaker!

Well, it looks like I won't have to redo several big branches of my family tree after all. I've found four people with whom I share some DNA and some Wanamakers. Two of them are a bit iffy, tree-wise, and we only share a tiny bit of DNA, but the other two are quite convincing, especially Vicki F, who is probably my 5th cousin once removed. We're both descended from Hermanus Wannamacher and Susannah Pulisfelt, my 5th great-grandparents from Germany via New Jersey. Here's the 'proof' that we're related, a nice big yellow and blue block on good old chromosome number 8:

Yes, I know our chromosomes aren't labelled with the names of our ancestors (would that they were!) but I couldn't resist. 

I've also found some DNA matches with people from some of the other families that join up with the Wanamakers.  These families include some of my favourite ancestors - the Bates, Towers, Lincolns and Lathrops.

So now I can confidently write about the Wanamakers and the other family lines that join up with them, all of which amounts to several hundred people - those are just the ones I know about, of course,  Don't worry, I won't be writing about all of them.

For now, I'm doing some more research, and probably won't be writing much for awhile - unless I find a juicy scandal, of course, or god forbid, somebody who changed their name for a mysterious reason.  And I'm still looking for more DNA matches, just to settle the Wanamaker question once and for all.