Why take a DNA test!

 This may require several posts but I will start by saying why I took my first DNA test which was with Living DNA.

The Living DNA test would give me a better idea of where my genetic origins lay in England. I was expecting it to be largely in the Southern counties where I knew my family had lived for a couple of centuries or longer.

Below is the current breakdown.

Great Britain and Ireland    94.9%

South Central England    50.6%

Southeast England    14.3%

South England    11.6%

Devon    8.5%

East Anglia    6%

South Wales    1.4%

Cornwall    1.3%

Orkney and Shetland Islands    1.1%

Europe (North and West)    2.8%

Northwest Germanic    2.8%

Europe (South)    2.3%

East Iberia    1.1%

Tuscany    1.1%

I have unknown fathers in my ancestry which might account for the smaller percentages outside of England.

When I took this test there was no way to connect with others who might share ancestors with me other than to upload to gedmatch. This allows you to compare with others who may have tested with a different company.

Before I went to RootsTech in 2018 there was an opportunity to get a free test, with My Heritage, which I took up, after which I started to get matches with others. 

Most of these matches were quite distant but some have since led me to look at my records again in an attempt to see where we might have shared ancestry.

I will explain more about what I have discovered in my next post.

Why did you take a test? If you haven't why not?

Have you made any discoveries after you took a test?

Are you glad you took a test?

Do you regret taking a test?

52 Ancestors Close To Home

How cool would it be to be able to meet up with a distant relation who lives close to you?

I added a gedcom to WikiTree in 2011 and at that time there were not many profiles (individuals) there who lived in England.

However, over the years more people have joined and added family.

One ancestor I added was John Gingell who was the end of the line for this branch of my tree.

Because I was interested in finding cousins I added siblings for his daughter Sarah who is my 2xgt grandmother. I even had the family of her brother John. 

When Lizzie joined she made contact with me and pointed out that I had missed her ancestor Kate from the family of Sarah's brother.

We gradually got to know one another realising that we had a cousin connection.

We are both active members of the England Project on WikiTree and decided that we needed to meet.

Our common ancestor lived in a village on the outskirts of Bristol in the South West of England. 

I now live in North Wales and Lizzie lives in North West England so we are relatively close to each other if not close to the home of our ancestor.

We decided to meet up at Gladstone's Library in Hawarden which is about midway between us.

The restaurant there does a lovely afternoon tea which we thoroughly enjoyed. I would share a photo but we both forgot to take one.

We have met up again since then in Birmingham at The Genealogy Show last June. Here we are with some of our other WikiTree friends.

52 Ancestors Long Line

This week I want to highlight my paternal grandmother's paternal line. 

Here is a photograph of her parents and a link to their profiles on WikiTree. I am in the process of updating these to provide links to free sources rather than the records I found on Ancestry. Their profiles were imported from my Ancestry tree in 2011 and now we have more free resources available I am slowly adding and updating.

Alfred William Wiltshire and Sarah Alice Tudgey

My great grandfather followed his father and became a shoemaker, when he was old enough he worked with him, and they would work on the boots and shoes of those living in their village.

He was following both his father and grandfather in what must have been the family business. It is possible that this occupation went back further than this, but as this was before the census recorded an occupation, and very few residents were recorded in a directory, I have yet to discover the occupation of any earlier generations.

He was recorded as working for the poor law guardians and must have been providing shoes for the inmates of the local workhouse.

However, times changed and Alfred was a hairdresser by the time he died. Maybe his customers started buying from shops or did not require him to repair their shoes as they bought new ones. 

Since Asthma is listed as a cause of death was he struggling with any chemicals he used or did he develop an allergy I doubt it as he would probably had contact with chemicals as a hairdresser.

Here are the profiles for George Wiltshire his father and William Wiltshire his grandfather.

52 Ancestors Favorite Photo

Do I have a Favourite?

It is difficult to choose just one photograph.

I want one that I have uploaded to WikiTree so I can share this post in their G2G forum. 

I have decided to go for this one which is the only photograph I have seen for this individual.

His name is Charles Henry Roberts.

If you want to learn more about him then take a look at his profile on WikiTree

52 Ancestors Fresh Start

As we start a New Year we often find ourselves looking at making changes and maybe a "fresh start ".

I have not been  blogging here for some time but as this year begins I know it will be a year full of changes and possibly some challenges. 

This year I am planning on doing all of the 52 ancestor posts and hope that you have the time to follow along with them.

I will be discussing the ancestors and other relatives of my son. These may also be your relatives so please comment if you have something more that you can add.

So where do I start today. As it is a New Year and the start of a decade I want to consider how our Ancestors will have looked upon the calendar. 

Before school attendance became compulsory the majority of the population may have had no need to refer to any calendar, they could not read or write, and their working lives were often closely related to the seasons. Even when education was made compulsory in many rural communities children would be absent from school at harvest time as they were expected to help their parents. Edward Rosling was one ancestor who fell foul of this law. I managed to find a piece in The Grantham Journal 11th May 1889 page 6 column 2. Although given the extent of the absenteeism I doubt that all can be attributed to helping his father. He could have been helping to sow crops rather than harvest them in agricultural Lincolnshire.

When England changed from using the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, apart from losing 11 days (the calendar was advanced by 11 days: Wednesday 2 September 1752 was followed by Thursday 14 September 1752), the beginning of the year changed from 25 March to 1 January. The year 1751 ended on 31 December and didn't include any dates from 1 January to 24 March. So the year started in the middle of winter rather than when spring arrived.

Our ancestors may not have been aware of such changes unless they were involved with clerical or legal activities requiring the recording of dates. We do, however, need to consider these changes when we look for records, particularly for those who were living during the year of change, if they were recorded in the parish registers at this time.

We can but wonder whether radically changing the calendar provided any real advantage at the time. With our 21st century global communication a common system is essential but would a village farming community notice the change.

Whilst we live by the laws of our country many changes may have little impact on our daily lives.

The introduction of the 1753 Marriage Act was likely to have more impact and most parishes started a new register when it came into force on 25 March 1754.

So if you are looking at records in the 1750s make sure you consider the changes that took place. Changes to the start of the year and the start of recording more information when couples married.

ORIGINAL RECORDS - Finding Ellen

The Importance of getting close up and personal.

Looking at census records can be a great way to start your research. Now that almost all of these are online it has never been a better time to start researching your family as parents grandparents or great-grandparents will appear at some point in these records.

However, not everyone can be found in a census record. Those that are missing were still a part of our family but names may have been forgotten or overlooked when the information was passed down through the generations. Many could not read or write and word of mouth can be less reliable.

I have already found some missing children because the General Register Office now has an online index, which includes the maiden name of the mother, but sometimes we still miss those who are born and die between the census years. 

I plan to go through these indexes to search for missing siblings but sometimes other records can provide those missing siblings. Today I just happened to come across one by chance whilst adding records on the Family Search Family Tree.

This family had several hints for the father Elijah some were for marriages of his children but one was for a christening in Empingham, Rutland.

This is the transcription on Find My Past which was the same as that on Family Search as digital images of the original register are available through their link to Find My Past.

The parents are correct and the dates and place fit, even if it was a few years after her birth, so was Annie christened with 2 names but only one was used when the birth was registered.

The original tells a different story. The rector decided that he would record both daughters on a single record.

I have submitted a correction to the record and as can be seen in the first image I have also added Ellen to the family as she had previously been omitted.

Ellen died in the first quarter of 1881 and was buried in Empingham. So like her brother Elijah she was born and died between the census years.

It must have been a sad time for the family to lose 2 children at such a young age. It may have been commonplace for the time but still a blow to the individuals. So if the original record has been digitised or you have a chance to see it in its original form it is imperative that you do so. 

Don't forget to look for other records to ensure you have not missed anything.

Week 15 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Taxes

Whilst our ancestors will have been liable for taxes the records may not still exist or may not hold any clues to help our research. As I have not used any of these records to aid my research I am going to write about how taxing it can be to discover or uncover the relevant records to aid our research.

Rebecca Ellis 1844-1921

The registration of births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales started on 1 July 1837.

However, there was no penalty for failing to register any of these events until a much later date, and as a consequence, many events went unregistered particularly in the early years.

Although I have found a baptism for Rebecca Ellis I can find no record of her birth having been registered. There are no births registered between 1841 and 1845 for girls who could be her. The same is true for her sister Jane. They were 2 of the 14 children born to her mother Rebecca within a 20 year period.

In 1848 the mother Rebecca died of phthisis or pulmonary tuberculosis. Her maiden name was Bouthway according to her marriage record but I have been unable to find any record of her baptism to prove her parentage. She is presumed to be the daughter of John and his wife Mary Thorold who are living in the adjacent property in 1841 census.

The marriage of George Ellis and Rebecca Bouthway in Edenham

1841 Census Edenham, Lincolnshire

Burial register for Edenham 1848-1849

George Ellis remains as a widower on both the 1851 and 1861 census records. His daughter Mary having taken over the role of her mother keeping house and bringing up her younger siblings. By 1861 his children have all left home and he is found as a boarder

1851 Census Grimsthorpe, Lincolnshire

1861 Census Scottlethorpe, Lincolnshire

If we take a further look at the burial register it struck me that on these 2 pages and within less than a year this family had seen 4 burials in this churchyard. Little more than a month after Rebecca died her brother Charles followed and on Christmas day her father John followed. In January 1849 Joseph the illegitimate son of Rebecca was also buried. This is likely to have had a significant effect on the family.

The marriage of George Ellis and Mary Deacon

By 1863 George is remarrying in Swinstead to widow Mary Deacon and in 1871 census we can see why he has remarried. He has now got a 7 year old daughter Lucy Ann. Her christening in May 1864 given that her parents married in October 1863 would indicate the reason for his marriage.

1871 Census Swinstead, Lincolnshire

Christening of Lucy Ann Ellis Swinstead, Lincolnshire

My original conclusion regarding the maiden name of Mary Ellis was Scoles as her father was given as Charles Scoles. However, in revealing more about her past several documents came to light.

First I looked at the 1861 census in an effort to find her first husband and her previous marriage.

1861 Census Swinstead, Lincolnshire

However, by 1861 she was already widowed.

1851 Census Swinstead, Lincolnshire

Looking at the 1851 census her husband is a Swithun Deacon. But the only marriage I can find is this one in Swinstead.

The marriage of Henry Swithin Deacon and Mary Haines

The bride does not give a name for her father and is using a different surname and the groom has used Henry Swithin and I note he is a widower.

Can I find out more and confirm this is correct?

When I looked for a Mary Haines on Find My Past I found a transcription from Lincolnshire Parish Bastardy Cases which had been supplied by Lincolnshire Family History Society. There was a Maintenance Order against Charles Scoles of Grimsthorpe labourer in 1817 by Edenham Parish for a female child of Mary Haines.

Baptism Ann Haines Edenham, Lincolnshire

This is the only baptism I could find that would fit. When she died the death was registered as Mary Ann Ellis which would fit with both of the first names that were used.

Burial Mary Ann Ellis Swinstead, Lincolnshire

I also discovered that her first husband had been christened Swithin and had been married previously. The older children on the 1851 census were from his first marriage.

Looking in other record sets and thinking around a problem can be time-consuming but can ultimately lead to a result.

Maybe I will find a record that confirms who are the parents of Rebecca Bouthway or should it be Botherway.