A family tree surprise at Faith Academy

The students include (fourth row, left) Nolan Queen, Rich Coleman, Jacob Metcalf and Jarrett Haydon; (third row, left) Katie Pfluger, Emily Curtis, Sydney Bowers, Joshua Montoya, Clay Cozby, Lane Rodgers, Jacob Macip and Nathan Klick; (second row, left) Sarah Sheppard, Hope Watts, Katie Kirkpatrick and Lexi Evans; and Debo and Ortiz. Courtesy photo

MARBLE FALLS — A fifth-grade genealogy project at Faith Academy of Marble Falls produced some surprising results for two students who learned their family trees share some roots, educators said.

Each year at the academy, the fifth-graders are assigned a large social studies project to research their family trees and create a poster. This year the project was due just as Faith Academy began celebrating Faith Family Reunion. 

The family trees are kept in the classroom for the students to use as they study immigration to the United States in the early 1900s, the Great Depression, World War I,  World War II and American family traditions. 

This year, two students discovered that Adolph and Luise Ruemker Fuchs showed up on their two family trees, which surprised both families, teachers said. Asa Pierre Wells Ortiz and Joshua Hardy Debo discovered through their research they are distantly related. 

Adolph Fuchs (1805–1885) and his wife Luise Ruemker (1809–1886) had a son, Reinhold Fuchs who had a daughter, Madeline Fuchs Crider who had a daughter, Ann Crider Debo who had a son, David Debo who had a son who is now in the fifth grade at Faith.

Adolph Fuchs and his wife also had a daughter, Ulrike Fuchs Matern who had a daughter, Ulricka Matern Giesecke who had a daughter, Ottillie Giesecke Franklin who had a son, George Edward Franklin who had a daughter, Jennifer Franklin Ortiz who had a son, also a Faith fifth-grade. 

Teachers said other students discovered ancestral ties to an Indian tribe, war heros and famous relatives.