Woman at a Window

 

Caspar David Friedrich. 1822.

The painting above by Caspar David Friedrich is titled Woman at a Window (Frau am Fenster). Painted in 1822, it is on display at the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin. This is a museum I visited last June on my way to meetings in Prague. The Friedrich painting features his wife Caroline as she is looking out the window of his Dresden studio at a passing ship on the River Elbe.

I share this as it is from the time when Dorothea Gagelmann Hesse was pregnant with Marie Elisabeth. Caroline may have been close in age to Dorothea, and I think this image also helps us think about Dorothea from the same time. 

Gardelegen

 

Wikipedia. Gardelegen about 1650.

Here's another view of the homeland of Dorothea Sophia Gagelmann, showing the town of Gardelegen (Province of Saxony, Prussia). It was founded in the 10th century and became a member of the Hanseatic League in 1358. The painting above shows a representation of the town in the 17th century, as fortified with a several tall churches, a town hall, and orange/red tile roofed buildings in German village architecture.

A map of the Gardelegen district and neighboring towns can be seen below. For the official website in German, see here: Hansestadt Gardelegen.

Source: Wikipedia.

In the Province of Saxony

Google Maps. North of Magdeburg, Germany.

While we await the results of our daughter's mtDNA test, it's useful to look at the region where her 6th-great-grandmother, Dorothea Sophia Gagelmann, was living between 1800 to at least the early-middle 1820s. Dorothea was the mother of Maria Elisabeth Hesse. Maria Elisabeth was born about 1821 (most trees online say 1823) in the Gardelegen area (possibly the town of Klüden), north of present day Magdeburg. This territory changed hands quite frequently during the early 1800s, and was a contested area during the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815).

This corner was part of the Province of Saxony (from 1815) in the Kingdom of Prussia and Kingdom of Westphalia (1807-1813). Before that, this area may have been part of the Duchy of Magdeburg (up to 1807). The map below shows some of the complexity for this area in 1812.

Source: Wikipedia. Confederation of the Rhine.

I am still in the early stages of diving into German research, and luckily there are several sessions on the topic scheduled for RootsTech 2026. In the meantime, I am reviewing sources such as the FamilySearch wiki pages on places such as the Prussian Province of Saxony.

DNA in the news: 1971 cold case reunites long lost siblings

This article in today's Washington Post is a long one but worth a read. The article describes "a case within a case", where new approaches to DNA analysis were used to identify the victim of a 1971 Maryland homicide, and reunited two of the victim's long lost children who had been placed in an Ohio orphanage in 1952.

New feature on Ancestry: Ideas

 

Source: Ancestry.

While poking around on Ancestry, I noticed a new-to-me feature in the middle right of the ancestor profile, next to the search button. Clicking this opened up a right column box showing Ideas as an AI-powered beta feature, with three "research opportunities" for my ancestor (in this case, my 3rd-great-grandmother Bridget).

Source: Ancestry.

Clicking further into the first bubble on Locate primary vital records, this opens up a box titled "Why it matters" with a short explanation, and I click again to reveal a suggested action plan with some recommendations for places to look for further information and sources. Although these are steps I have already tried for Bridget, it is useful and I'm curious to see what suggestions are provided for other ancestors.

Source: Ancestry.

Another example from my 3rd-great-grandmother Maria Concepcion Amado is below. This type of integration of AI into Ancestry's tools appears to be helpful, and gives me some areas to explore further.

Source: Ancestry.