Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It’s Saturday Night again – 

Time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:

1)  FamilySearch has a page for “Famous Relatives” at   https://www.familysearch.org/en/discovery/famousrelatives.  It works if you are connected to the FamilySearch Family Tree.

2)  Check out the website.  Which connection surprises you?  Do you believe that the connection is correct?

While I didn’t look at every individual in my “Famous Relatives” list on FamilySearch, I reviewed all the leaders and browsed through several in each of the other categories. Unsurprisingly, nearly all of my connections trace back to my New England lines — and not through shared surnames.

One surprise was discovering a connection to President Lyndon B. Johnson. This line runs through my Nafus branch back to Cornelius Barentsen Slecht, who immigrated to America around 1652. Cornelius is part of one of my several Dutch lines.

An even bigger surprise was finding a possible connection to Martin Luther. According to FamilySearch, my line goes:

• Through my BRILES line to Conrad Broyles’ mother, Ursula Roup
• Through the Roup line to Ursula’s grandfather, Peter Roup
• From Peter Roup’s mother, Maria Ursula Brenner, to her mother Katharina Luther
• Then from Katharina Luther to her grandfather — Martin Luther himself

If correct, this would make Martin Luther my 13th great-grandfather.

But is it accurate? The line is well-documented up through Ursula Roup, but beyond that, I haven’t verified the connections using German records. Without those sources, I can’t confirm whether the ancestral links back to Martin Luther are reliable.

The above was written on Saturday evening to be posted on Sunday morning.

On Sunday morning, I decided to use ChatGPT to learn more about this possible connection to Martin Luther and a possible Lutheran heritage. Below is my conversation.

A Van Bruhl descendant migrated to the US in the 1700s settling in the Germanna colony of Virginia. Descendants go by the surname Broyles or Briles. Was this family Lutheran?

Yes — the Van Bruhl / Broyles / Briles family that settled at the Germanna Colony in Virginia in the early 1700s were indeed Lutheran.

Here’s some background and context:

German origins and migration

• The Broyles (originally Breyel, Brühl, or similar) family came from the area near Ötisheim and Dühren in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
• In 1717, a group of German families (including the Broyles) arrived in Virginia as part of the Second Germanna Colony, led by Governor Alexander Spotswood to work at his ironworks and to strengthen the frontier.

Religious affiliation

• These settlers were mostly Lutheran, reflecting the dominant faith in their home regions of southwestern Germany at that time.
• The Germanna community is well documented as having Lutheran roots, although they were often served by itinerant pastors, and over time some families later joined other Protestant denominations (like Reformed or Methodist congregations), especially as they migrated south into North Carolina and Tennessee.

Name changes

• The original spelling (Brühl) was gradually Anglicized to Broyles, and then some lines in North Carolina and further south began using Briles.

Supporting records

• Surviving records from Germanna and later Virginia and North Carolina settlements, including wills, land records, and church records, often refer to Lutheran practices (such as baptisms and communion lists).
• The Germanna Foundation and various published genealogies confirm this Lutheran heritage.

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Summary: The Van Bruhl / Broyles / Briles family in Germanna were indeed Lutheran when they arrived and for at least the first few generations in America.

Ursula Roup was the mother of Conrad Broyles (Briles) when they immigrated to Virginia. How is she related to Martin Luther?

Who was Ursula Roup?

• Ursula Roup (sometimes spelled Raup or Rupp) was married to Johannes Broyles (also known as Hans Jacob Broyles/Breil), and they were the parents of Conrad Broyles (Briles) who came to Virginia with the 1717 Germanna Colony.
• Ursula was born in Germany, likely in the Baden-Württemberg region.

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Claimed connection to Martin Luther

You may have seen or heard a claim that Ursula Roup’s maternal line descends from Martin Luther (1483–1546), the German Reformer. The supposed lineage often goes something like this:

1. Martin Luther had children, including a daughter Margarethe Luther.
2. Margarethe married Georg von Kunheim, and they had descendants.
3. Some claim that a daughter or granddaughter from this line married into the Roup (Rupp) family, eventually leading to Ursula.

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What do historical records show?

✅ Martin Luther’s daughter Margarethe Luther von Kunheim did have children, and some of their lines are documented.

❌ However, there is no solid documented evidence (in contemporary church, civil, or family records) connecting those Kunheim descendants to the Roup family or to Ursula Roup.

• German church and civil records for Ursula’s family do not show a connection to the Kunheims.
• This story appears to have originated in early 20th-century genealogies, sometimes based on oral tradition or compiled family trees that lacked primary source citations.

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Conclusion

• Ursula Roup was not a documented descendant of Martin Luther.
• As far as reliable evidence goes today, there is no proven genealogical connection between Martin Luther and the Broyles/Briles family via Ursula Roup.

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Why the confusion persists

• Many early American family histories wished to connect to prominent European figures (like Martin Luther) as a mark of distinction.
• Once published, these claims tended to spread and get repeated without verification.

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Final summary

✅ Ursula Roup was the mother of Conrad Broyles/Briles.
❌ There is no documented connection between Ursula Roup and Martin Luther.

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So, which is correct? The FamilySearch tree or the information provided by ChatGPT. For now, I have to side with ChatGPT.