Found a bit of info for my dad's side. Gx3 grandpa came over to NYC from Alsace and immediately joined the union Army and was given the easy to pronounce name "James Brown". The King of Funk was a member of the German Regiment of the New York Infantry. He was a POW in Virginia for about 6 months. Within weeks of being released, he joined up with a different New York Regiment until the end of the war. He then moved to Cuero, Texas. Cuero Fucking Texas. In Cuero, he married a chick that was 18 and he was 40. Nice.
On 23andMe a while back a decently related genetic relative contacted me and we compared family names and none matched up. She lived in PA and I don't have any relatives in the northeast at all. Made me wonder if the King of Funk abandoned a family in NYC and got on the first boat to as far away as possible at the time, Indianola. Abandoning a family back then was extremely common since you could just be 50 miles away and never be heard from again.