I recently attended an interesting webinar about doing DNA research.

The presenter proposed that one step toward identifying cousins who might lead back to our MRCA (Most Recent Common Ancestor) was by finding our grandparents’ siblings, their children and grandchildren, and then finding our great-grandparents’ siblings, children and grandchildren.

Despite years of research into the life of my 2nd great-grandfather Jacob Koebe Mueller (1844-1910), I do not yet know the name of the Swiss town in which he was born.

Could this DNA project possibly provide some clues?

Jacob’s grandson is my paternal grandfather Harold Clarke Mueller (1908-1985).

Harold had one brother, Robert Ernest Mueller, who was born in Chicago, Illinois on 25 May 1919.

I’ve done very little research into Robert’s life, so learning more about him would be a good start.

My first step was to message a half-cousin through Facebook.

Ours is a tricky relationship. The ancestor we share is a grandfather who divorced my grandmother and married hers. This happened in the 1930s, long before both of us were born, but it was a messy business that continues to affect multiple generations of my extended family.

While waiting for a response, I opened my digital folder labelled “Mueller” and realized there was a bit of cleaning up to be done.

Among 150 images that weren’t very neatly arranged, there were eight beautifully labeled folders beginning with “MUELLER – 1844 Jacob Koebe”.

It’s time to get to work.