How identifying DNA matches has helped me improve my family tree Part 3 The Australian connection

 This connection was made a few years ago now.

I was fortunate that when I contacted the person who managed the DNA of my match it was someone who has done a lot of research for the family and has their own website. 

The closest match was to the grandmother of this person and I found out I have more of a connection than I may have expected.

It may be easier to see the connection visually. 

I have one of the two in WikiTree WikiTree contributors, "Sarah (Roberts) Lockyer (bef.1796-)," WikiTree: The Free Family Tree, (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Roberts-2506 : accessed 17 February 2023). Her husband and other family members are in the Family Search tree which can be accessed from her profile on WikiTree. Take particular note of WikiTree contributors, "Lydia (Cable) Roberts (bef.1768-1848)," WikiTree: The Free Family Tree, (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cable-32 : accessed 17 February 2023). and her parents.

As you can see Frances and Lydia are sisters which means that Sarah and her husband were first cousins.

How identifying DNA matches has helped me improve my family tree Part 2 Looking at every record

 Review Everything

My gt grandfather was born in Warminster Workhouse, his mother was unmarried and was born in Fisherton Delamere and living there in 1841, so she would have been expected to have her settlement as this parish, which would be part of the area covered by the Wilton Workhouse.

However we do not find her in Wiltshire in the 1851 census. She has moved to Sherborne, Dorset and is employed as a Silk Winder.

It is possible that before her son was born she had moved to Warminster for work as this town also had Silk Mills.

So who was his father?

DNA matches have proven to be helpful in confirming the research discovered in the records available.

I attended a zoom talk on 29th October and one of the tips was to organise your matches into groups by looking at shared matches.

I have 2 unknown fathers at 2xgt grandparent level in the maternal side of my tree. Once I had assigned those I had confirmed as descendents of known relatives I was left with a number of unknowns which I grouped together.

On 30th October I started looking at how some of them might be connected. I had a number of them who had the surname Jeffery or a variant in their tree. 

Were they connected? Could this be my missing link?

One in particular stood out. 

The Samuel Jeffery in this tree was living at Middle Mills Sherborne, Dorset in 1851 he was a widower and a Carpenter.

I did some investigating and added more sources to the Family Search tree before moving to add anything to Ancestry.

During this research I came across marriage banns in July and August 1854.

Having made this final discovery I added Samuel as a likely father.

I now have more DNA matches that are linked to this family.

William was not the son of Harriett Hunt his mother had died before he appeared on the census records.

 William Burden Jeffery's birth was registered in the Oct-Nov-Dec quarter of 1848 in the Sherborne district Mother's maiden name: Burden.''GRO Reference:'' 1848 Oct-Nov-Dec in Sherborne Volume 08 Page 91.

William had a brother Frederic who is in a tree of someone who is a match and he has the correct mother, 

his descendants are showing up as matches.

I have been slowly adding to this family but being careful to ensure I have the correct family.

One of the key things here was deciding whether it was likely that Samuel and Martha had met. The fact that they were working in the same industry, in the same town, at the same time, was crucial in taking that final step.

DNA Update

 Background Information 

After I started writing this post I attended a zoom presentation by Sophie Kay entitled Six Hats for Genealogy.

This post covers the first of those which is Organisation. It is important to get together everything you know and how you know it before starting to look at anything which might add to your knowledge. Using the Six Hats approach allows us to make considered decisions.

Since my last post I have tested at Ancestry and have made further discoveries. 

I have also decided that I need to share some background information in order to explain some results so before I go further with my DNA posts I want to share some of what I knew from searching the records.

I have needed to be somewhat creative when trying to ascertain where some of my family were and whether I have found the right person in the record. These were illiterate times when most people could not read and write a few could just scrawl their name if required but there was no real consistency in how names would be recorded. 

It is important to consider this and how any accent might change what someone heard. If the person making a record was not familiar with local names or either party was from another area the interpretation could change.

First I will look at my Buckle surname which could be spelt several ways and was even transcribed as Bartlett on one census record for my great grandfather. 

Research on this line lead me to find my 2xgt grandfather who was christened in 1827. His parents were not married and the father although named had no occupation recorded in the register.

However when he married he gave the correct name for his deceased father and an occupation.

I wrote this post in July 2024 but did not publish it. However further developments may make this information relevant for future posts I intend to make so I am publishing it almost 2 years later.