Part 4: Related Jatho families in America

In the pantheon of our ancestral surnames there's none more rare and mysterious than Jatho. No one who had researched these families is quite sure what it means, and not even Henry Jatho (right) who was born in Missouri in 1858 and schooled in stories of the Old Country by his Hannover-born father August, was likely to know. But we know that there are other pockets of Jatho family around the United States, and they're probably (not always provably) related to us.

In the records that still exist from the 16th and 17th centuries the name is sometimes found as Jatau or Jathow. In the U.S. it occasionally appears as Yatto or Yatho, its original pronunciation. Most often it's Jatho and researchers have found families with this surname across the country, from Maryland to Ohio, Texas to California.

Further afield there are Jatho folks in Germany, mostly Hannover and Hesse, and even some in South America whose connections to our own family we haven't been able to verify.

Illinois: A scion of our Jatho clan came from Dransfeld, Hannover and settled in and around Monroe County, Illinois. We have a verified DNA match with the descendants of Johann Heinrich Carl Jatho (1830-1878). Some of his children can be found in St. Clair County as well, and some ended up in Callaway County, Missouri.

Missouri: The Fulton, Callaway County, Missouri Jatho clan shared the same distant ancestor with the Illinois branch, a Johann Daniel Jatho, who was born about 1692 in Dransfeld. August Jatho, born in Dransfeld in 1837, arrived in Callaway County about 1851 and established his own family there.

Texas: While we don't yet have a DNA match or documentation to support a connection to the family of Adam Jatho of Victoria, Texas, there may be a connection. Adam (born in 1838) and his parents, Johann Jatho and Elise Müller Jatho, were originally from Kassel, where Ulrich Jatho, our direct ancestor, lived with his own family.

Adam Jatho's family donated a number of photos and documents to the Victoria Regional History Center, one of which is a 1922 snapshot of Norwood Jatho and his two infant sons (part of our Charleston/New Orleans clan). Either the family was related or thought they were. Perhaps at some point one of Adam's descendants will take a DNA test and confirm a connection. Unfortunately the Kassel records that could confirm a relationship are missing.

Other Jatho folks settled in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Ohio. No link to those families has yet been found.