Via a DNA test you can get in touch with other people who share some of your DNA, and you can search out how you are related. Through my test I was able to get in touch with my second cousin Brenda Masse who lives in Canada, our mothers were first cousins and so we share the same great grandparents. Brenda and I were able to share photos and I was able to see a photo of my great grandmother Theresa Orwin nee Bromby for the first time, on a wedding photo of Brenda's grandparents.
Sometimes it involves some detective work in order to figure out how some of your DNA matches are related to you and which branch of your family tree they share with you. One case involves someone whom I contacted who shared quite a large segment of DNA, he also had an extensive family tree on Ancestry, but I couldn't find any links to my tree. After contacting him he informed me that some of his ancestors were from Hull, which is were my ancestors all ended up living and where I was born. He also told me that he had a couple of missing fathers in his tree, so ancestors who were born out of wedlock and no father named on the birth certificate. This is a big dead end in tracing our family tree, but possibly one of my ancestors or their sibling was the missing father. After checking Jacqui's DNA matches and asking Brenda to check hers and discovering that this person was also in their matches I was able to narrow our connection to our Orwin or Bromby family. Even though I was unable to enlighten him about who the missing father could be I was able to narrow it down as to via which families we are probably related.
My great great grandmother on my Orwin side, Emma Young was also born illegitimate, she was born on the 1st May 1839 in Thorne Union Workhouse to 22 year old Elizabeth Young. Emma grew up living with her grandparents William and Elizabeth Young in Crowle, Lincolnshire, her grandfather was a tailor and her grandmother was a school mistress, her mother never married but became a dressmaker in Crowle. I never expected to find out who Emma's father was, and I am still not sure that it is correct, but shortly after receiving the results of my DNA test I was looking through the list of potential 'thru lines' which Ancestry.com provides. Most of the names were people already on my tree, but I suddenly saw the name of Samuel Lister in the place where Emma's father should have been. I decided to do some research about Samuel Lister, he was born in 1797 in Sturton, Nottinghamshire and was married in 1818 and he had four daughters. The interesting fact was that in the Autumn of 1838 he and his wife applied for a position as school teachers at Retford Union Workhouse. Even though Crowle is in Lincolnshire and Retford in Nottinghamshire they are reasonably close with Doncaster which is in South Yorkshire being the largest town between them both. Via a newspaper report I discovered that even though Samuel's application for the job was approved by the Guardians of the Workhouse his and his wife's appointment was rejected by the Commisions Office, in London. The reasons that were given were that Samuel's farm had become bankrupt, that one of his daughters had given birth to a child out of wedlock and he had refused to support her and that Samuel had been convicted of an assault on someone, making him morally inadequate to be a teacher to young children. Apparently the Commissions Office had received this information about Samuel Lister from a "secret enemy ", Samuel renounced the accusations, his farm was indeed bankrupt but that was the fault of his father, he claimed that he hadn't refused to support his daughter and that the assault charge was against another person with the same name. Even though the Nottinghamshire authorities were on his side he and his wife didn't receive the appointment but less than a year later, in February 1839 they were given the appointment of Master and Matron of Thorne Union Workhouse. In May of the same year Elizabeth Young gave birth to my great great grandmother Emma Young at Thorne Union Workhouse !
I still can't explain why Samuel Lister's name appeared on my DNA thru lines but the fact that he was living in the area and later became the Master of the Workhouse were Emma was born is very coincidental, but until I can find a definite descendent of him who shares DNA with me I will just have to keep him as a presumed ancestor.
In my next blog I will share how I have found a missing brother of my great great grandfather on my Strickland side who I have been able to prove via my DNA relationships ended up in Australia.
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