For those unfamiliar, WikiTree is where genealogists collaborate to build one big family tree together. It has great tools for collaboration and one fun aspect of it is their challenges.
They do a weekly WikiTree Challenge connecting famous people to the larger tree and building out more connections to them. This week’s challenge was American actor Tom CRUISE, who recently had great success starring in Top Gun: Maverick.
I’ve been part of these challenges before. It’s fun to contribute. This week was extra fun, as I learned I’m a distant cousin to CRUISE himself!
Before writing this, I verified each chain in the link, checking sources to make sure there was no doubt, and it is now confirmed. We’re 9th cousins, 1x removed.
We’re related through our Moms. Specifically, it’s our maternal grandmothers that lead to the link, both of whom have ancestry in Alsace, France.
The first fun discovery is when I saw he had Alsace ancestry. Checking his pedigree with mine, I quickly saw familiar places. Here’s our ancestral hometowns on a map – my ancestors’ towns red squares, his yellow circles, & places we BOTH have ancestry orange diamonds.
Then it was off to checking names. One “brick wall” in the challenge, Julienne (GROSSELL) ACKER, caught my eye. Both her maiden name & married name sounded familiar to me. Sure enough, I checked my tree & she was there. My 2nd cousin, several times removed.
To Tom CRUISE, that’s his 5th great-grandmother. Just like that, I knew we were related. Our common link: the DAHLMANN family of Hermerswiller, Alsace. But as stated, I still wanted to double check the trail to make sure it was rock solid.
I had only one “leap” in my tree that had very strong evidence, but still needed proof. But by the end of last night, I had the proof I needed.
The issue: In 10+ years of research, I hadn’t yet found a document to prove that my 7th great-grandmother Marie Madeleine GRIESBACH was the daughter of Jean Michel GRIESBACH & Anne Marie DAHLMANN. I had plenty of circumstantial evidence. Godparents of her children, godparents of other Griesbachs, and other birth, marriage & death records all supported that she was part of their immediate family; she fit the timeline, place, etc. to be their child. I still needed one more record.
A key record that should list her parents would be her marriage, around 1745-1748. But I checked all of the Catholic church records years ago in the vicinity of her hometown (town is red diamond below, churches the yellow crosses) & it was nowhere to be found.
FamilySearch.org has been busy indexing new records recently, so I tried a search there, and there it was!
Married on 30 January 1748, Philipp Langenbronn, son of Johannes Langenbronn and Barbara Loesch, to Magdalena Griesbach, daughter of Michael Griesbach and Anna Maria Dalmann. [Source]
Why couldn’t I find it before? It was in the “rural chapters” of the parish books of Haguenau, 23km (14 miles) from the hometown, at the bottom of the map above. I would have never thought to look there.
It turns out, she actually married in Soultz-sous-Forets, the cross to the left of her hometown above, but those marriage records went missing over the years for the timeframe in question. Haguenau had duplicates of those original records in their “rural chapters” book. So there it was.
Sure enough, her parents are identified clearly on the record as Michel GRIESBACH & Anne Marie DAHLMANN. The same Anne Marie DAHLMANN who was the half-sister (different mothers) of Marie Barbara (DAHLMANN) SCHAEFFER, Tom CRUISE’s direct ancestor, grandmother of Julienne (GROSSELL) ACKER.
My Mom’s Mom & Tom’s Mom were 8th cousins, both born in the 1930s in the United States, and both descended of Jean Jacques DAHLMANN (THALMANN), who died in 1735 in Hermerswiller at age 91. That’s the link. And the rest is history.
Here is exactly how we’re related-
Common ancestor: Jean-Jacques DAHLMANN (THALMANN)
My 9th great-grandfather, Tom CRUISE’s 8th great-grandfather
MY FAMILY’S BRANCH
Daughter: Anne-Marie DAHLMANN, born 1688, married Jean-Michel GRIESBACH
Daughter: Marie-Madeleine GRIESBACH, born c1725, married Philipp LANGENBRONN
Son: Jean-Michel LANGENBRONN, born 1748, married Elisabeth SCHILLINGER
Daughter: Marie-Madeleine LANGENBRONN, born 1785, married François-Gallus STUDI
Daughter: Barbe STUDI, born 1813, married Nicolas UEBELHOER — immigrated to Williamsville, NY USA
Daughter: Barbe UEBELHOER, born 1838, married John BEASER — immigrated to Williamsville, NY USA
Son: Andrew BEASER, born 1863, married Magdalena KLEIN
Daughter: Frances BEASER, born 1905, married Howard GRUNDTISCH
Daughter: Lois GRUNDTISCH, born 1937 — my grandmother
TOM CRUISE’S BRANCH
Daughter: Marie-Barbe DAHLMANN, born 1698, married Jean-Jacques SCHAEFFER
Daughter: Marie-Eve SCHAEFFER, born 1725, married Jean-Martin GROSSELL
Daughter: Julienne GROSSELL, born 1764, married Jean Adam ACKER
Daughter: Madeleine ACKER, born 1792, married Jean MERCKEL
Son: Georges MERCKEL, born 1817, married Barbe SCHÜTZ — immigrated to Indiana, USA
Daughter: Catherine MERKEL, born 1847, married George RAMSER
Son: Joseph RAMSER, born 1870, married Susan MACKEY
Daughter: Camala RAMSER, born 1896, married Charles PFEIFFER
Daughter: Mary PFEIFFER, born 1936
Son: Thomas Cruise MAPOTHER IV (Tom CRUISE), born 1962 — my 9th cousin, 1 time removed
Craig Kanalley 
78 responses to “The Cruise Connection: WikiTree Challenge Establishes Distant Relation To Tom Cruise”
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