Genealogy of Roger Federer - WikiTree Challenge Highlights

Question

Hello WikiTreers!

WikiTree Challenge 20 for Roger Federer has ended. It was fun watching our Swiss and South African project members serve up ancestors! They volleyed some fairly difficult lines, and impressed us with the amount of connections they made!

WikiTreers started with only Switzerland and South Africa as locations. In the end they had included Brazil, England, France, Germany, Nederland, Portugal, and the United States! It was fun to watch those branches reach out!

Challenge participants added 719 family members to his branches! There were 149 direct ancestors added, 245 nuclear relatives of ancestors, and 325 additional relatives within seven degrees! New connections were made to the global tree on all eight of the ancestral lines! This will help a lot of us grow closer together. Due to this, Roger now has more than 1,640 people connected within seven degrees! We followed the connection distance closely during the week, between Roger and the Challenge WikiTreers. Many of us were 50-ish degrees from him, but 11 of them were less than 20!! It's fun to see how much (or little) it changes from day to day.

Altogether, more than 30 members made 3,156 edits to his family profiles. Many did research, while others worked on profile narratives, looked up articles, added categories, made peripheral connections, and contributed in other ways.

MVP: Catherine Milton

Top Bounty Hunters: Dunja Brandes, Donna Baumann, Karen Lowe, and Maddy Hardman (way to go ladies!!)

Team Captain: Thomas Koehnline

Challenge scoring explanation. Challenge Resources.

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Here are some highlights from our discoveries:

1. Roger's grandmother, Vera Meyer, lost her mother when she was four. It would appear that she was unofficially adopted by her Aunt Susanna Otillia, as mentioned in her probate records. No mention is made of the other children (she had five siblings or half-siblings).
2. Roger's fourth great grandmother Susanna Othilia (Ferreira) Meyer (1800-1856) and fourth great grandfather Jacobus Jessias Meyer (1797-1878) on his mother Lynette's side via his grandmother Vera are featured three times in that side of his tree through three of their children.
3. Sebastianus Federer was the oldest ancestor on his line. He was born about 1633 in Switzerland. His parents are unknown as of yet, but he married Anna Seiz and had six children with her. Five of those were sons.
4. Roger's first cousin seven times removed, Anne (Croucher) Boast (bef.1724-), lived in Westerham, England, but moved to Orpington after 1750 when her cousin James (Sunderland) Sandiland was executed for smuggling. James was Roger's fifth great-grand-uncle.
5. James' brother, John Sandilands, was executed in 1772 for burglary. At the time of his execution, he had been suffering with a fever from which he was not expected to survive. He was so weak that they did not even bother to handcuff him when brought to the gallows. A moving account of his last hours and the execution can be read on the Old Bailey website.

Comments

More interesting discoveries:

1. Johann Jakob Mazenauer and his wife Maria Francica Büchler died only one day after another. She on 23 Dec 1817 and he on 24 Dec 1817.
2. After their mother died, two of his great grandfather's first cousins, Dorothy Elizabeth M. Pettengell and Jessica Susie Hannah Ryder were sent from England to Canada at just 10 and 12 years old to become indentured servants as part of the British Home Children program.
3. William Sandiland (1811-1894) was a miller who was sued by a neighbour for flooding his meadow.
4. Robert Burgess Sandiland was a chemist and druggist, living in Bicester. He was taken to court along with George Moore for neglect of duty in allowing piles of manure and rubbish to build up along the road at Market End. They were given two weeks to get it cleared up.
5. More tragedy: Roger's great-grandfather's sister, Maria Elisabeth Federer (1870-1943), and her husband lost nine out of 10 children before the age of three. Only one child lived to adulthood.

Answer 1

Wonderful work! He is my favorite tennis player. Have watched him for years. Thank you all for your hard work!