What do Sarah, Emma and William have in common?

Not a lot other than all three have been long pegged in my database as potentially being one and the same person as their namesakes in their respective potential "home" families.

Also that in the last few days investigating DNA matches, AND the matches of the new match, has led me to re-evalutate sources, search for more information, and in all three cases, merge the namesakes as I've finally been convinced that they are indeed whom I have long thought they might be.

DNA alone cannot prove a relationship, that takes research, perseverance - and notes to self about why you think they might belong to a particular family.

William is William McAdie, Customs Officer in London, born about 1830 Caithness. Marriage certificate shows father as George.
Long pegged as potentially William born Killminster, Wick to George McAdie and Elizabeth Rosie.
But there were other options, and only one had been truly ruled out of contention.
The one in Oz has still not been ruled out, but with DNA matches now popping up between descendants of William, and of the extended McAdie family, I've finally joined all those trees that had long ago connected William to George and Elizabeth. Thank you in particular to Susan and Noel, without your match on MyHeritage triggering a re-investigation of the DNA matches now available I would still have two separate William's in my database.

Emma is Emma Bidgood, born in Canada to Nicholas Richard Bidgood and his first wife Elizabeth Osborne. Was she the Emma who marries Daniel Treloar and ends up in Connecticut?
There are quite a few Emma Bidgoods and no definitive record I've yet found that connects Daniel's wife Emma to the daughter of Nicholas. Plenty of circumstantial evidence, just no records along the lines of handy marriage entry stating her father, any family members together with the Treloars in any census etc.
But in the last few days several DNA matches have popped up to join the sole tested descendant of Emma that I had already noted. Thank you Jeffory and Greg in particular, both for testing and for uploading to GEDMatch and MyHeritage (which is where I first spotted this set of matches) and for sharing an Ancestry Match list, which latter is where I found .....
a shared match whose tree included Sarah.

Sarah Bidgood married Richard Nicholas (son of Sarah Dawe). She was of an age to be the daughter of Abraham Bidgood or Turner and wife Joan Smith Dawe (Sarah's sister) but I'd not found her baptism and she never appeared with them in any census.
She does however appear in the 1841 an 1851 census records with Abraham's mother Mary, the 1851 census explicitly stating she is Mary's granddaughter, so definitely connected to Abraham somehow.
This time round, her marriage certificate was now readily available in the filmed FindMyPast Devon Parish Registers, and states that her father was Abraham Bidgood, labourer and that she was resident Newton Mill. Tick.
Bearing in mind the ambiguity of Abraham's last name, and with the filmed registers now available on FindMyPast, I also found the Jan 1835 baptism of one Sarah daughter of Abraham, labourer, and Joan Turner, of Newton.
Bingo.
So Sarah and Richard are first cousins.

Isn't it odd how lucky you can get when you work at your DNA matches?

• Mine the match lists for shared matches and extend their often incomplete trees
• Upload to GedMatch from all companies
• Get your DNA onto all the sites via the free transfers, or testing
  (http://genie.lornahen.com/lornas-links/dnalinks/atdna/#transfers 
  has some links on the pros/cons of test vs transfer)

But above all, keep looking, keep notes, review old research and never give up.

DAW(E) update

Time moves fast in the atDNA world!

No sooner had I prepared an update to the chromsome map showing the atDNA segments identified as being inherited from either Isaac DAWE or Sarah SMITH of Tavistock/Newton Mill/Lumburn, but yet another tested descendant popped up.
Those results haven't been included.

The two updated pages of relevance are:
DNASurnames now has an atDNA section in the DAWE DNA results - which includes a table of relationships as predicted by the shared DNA compared against the known generations to Isaac and Sarah. The table is also interesting in it shows where no detectable match (over 7cMs/700 SNPs) between descendants was found, such is the randomness of atDNA inheritance.
 
My DAWE family page has the updated Chromosome map included.
The page still includes the 2014 version for comparison -we ARE making progress - wonder how many are the SMITH side?.
Already at least some of the purple segments that were only potentially from the DAWE side of   William Rowe/Honor Dawe's ancestry are now identified as DAWE.

The DNASurnames table and segment traceability diagrams can only include those who have uploaded their DNA file to GEDMatch, so neither include the descendant of John DAWE (hatter in Tavistock) and wife Mary FRIEND who popped up on Ancestry as a solid match to myself (Lorna) and also has a smaller match to a descendant of Isaac and Sarah's son Thomas.
Anyone only on ancestry cannot be compared at an appropriate level of detail against the other "cousins" as Ancestry simply does not provide the tools available at either GEDMatch or FamilyTreeDNA.
It would be great to be able to see how likely it is that her John is the John baptized Whitchurch to an Isaac and Sarah.
Working on it, but real life takes priority - sometimes.

Perhaps another descendant of John and Mary might be interested enough to participate?
FamilyFinder test from FamilyTreeDNA or the Ancestry DNA test, but in either case, please upload your file to GEDMatch.
Bear in mind that we still have not definitively proven that Robert DAW in California, born Michigan and father of Mark Walton DAW (b. 1892 Oakland) is one and the same as Robert Henry DAW, son of Isaac Friend DAW who emigrated to Michigan (see prior blog post).
So ideally, descendants of any/all of those mentioned very very welcome to see what we learn about the family relationships from their DNA.

Spot the flaw

"CEN: l850 Michigan, p.ll0 - DAW, William - KARO, l55R, Kalamazoo Co., Ross Township, l840 Mich..no Daw..3 Daws..no Wm. 2228/224l Wm. DAW 25 m Labouer b N.Y. Cornelia 22 f " " " John 3 m " Mich....l850 Ross Twp., census....he was the only one in the entire l850 cen., so he must be fa of Robert b after l850c. REF: Family Tree Maker: 1860 census: DAW, William - NJ P. 848 - Red Hook Twp., Dutchess Co., NJ"

Yes I'm back on a DAW(E) trail again.
Been a while, or at least it seems so.

This voyage started the other day with a new Ancestry DNA match, one with a shared ancestor hint no less.
Yes, we both have the same DAWE family in our respective trees, Isaac and Sarah (SMITH) DAWE of Lamerton (that's WikiTree, and this is my webpage link). I descend from son Isaac, my match from son Thomas.
Now if only we could see the DNA details to prove that this is where the match actually lies?
I'll have to wait for my match to upload to GEDMatch where comparisons can be made against several other kits who also descend from Isaac and Sarah.

While I wait, comparisons were made between our shared match lists and only one of interest popped up - sharing 24cMs with me but far less with my match, but previously on my alert list as there was a DAW showing in the tree. In California, recent-ish timeframe, but no ancestors shown.

Last time I explored tentative ancestors for this mysterious DAW I'd merely quickly tracked around published trees with some spot checks against census data. That led me to a Robert son of a William supposedly born in New York around the 1820s, where I lost interest.

This time round details were checked a bit more thoroughly.
Although I cannot yet document the link between a Robert DAW born Michigan, marrying and fathering a son in 1892 in California and dying before the 1900 census, and the Robert Henry in the 1870 and 1880 census records in Whitewater, Grand Traverse, Michigan, I do have a whiff of potential success.

The flaw of the title?
"...he was the only one in the entire l850 cen., so he must be fa of Robert b after l850c."
Actually two flaws. One was the assumption that Robert was born between 1850 and 1860, the other that noone could possibly have entered the State after the 1850 census and still be in contention as the candidate family.

Tweaking the search parameters for Roberts in Michigan born around the same time as his Californian wife (about 1865) brought up what looks like gold.
There, in 1870, is a family of an Isaac and Nellie (actually should be Nettie) DAW, both born England.
My genie radar is fairly finely attuned to mentions of Isaac DAW(E)s of England anywhere in the world. My tree abounds in the blighters. And very hard to distinguish they can be too sometimes.
Luckily this one had a handy death certificate, which only looks to have a couple of small errors - mother's name missing an I (FREND instead of FRIEND), and a couple of years out on a birth date.
BUT it did have the gem of saying that Isaac was born in Tavistock. Which my radar is doubly attuned to in association with DAW(E)s.
Sure enough there was an Isaac Friend DAW being baptized in Tavistock to a John and Mary, and a handy set of banns several years prior showing a John DAW, hatter, marrying a Mary FRIEND.

I was already quite excited by all of this, nothing like the whiff of success and dots being joined.
But who was John?
Luckily for me, unhappily for the family, there was a sad little set of records showing a baptism in 1832 of a Mary Sarah Jane, daughter of "the late John DAW, hatter, and Mary his wife".
Which made it rather easy to spot John's burial record a few months prior.
Same street address as on Mary Sarah Jane's baptism, and an age that placed him as born around 1799. But where? And which John?
Nothing suitable in Tavistock presented itself. So I tried the Whitchurch John, baptized in Oct 1798 - to ......
The next post may reveal all :)
I'm still convincing myself of the dots being joined here.

Australian DAWEs

Their time has obviously come, again.
A descendant of Isaac DAWE, miller in Tasmania, had popped out of the woodwork a few weeks ago and some updates eventuated to that line, that from second wife Emily GREEN.

Just last week a MyHeritage SmartMatch popped up a TREMBATH/BROTHERAS researcher claiming another of my Isaac DAWs in Australia as marrying Elizabeth Ann BROTHERAS, nee TREMBATH in Cue, Western Australia.
This Isaac was one down the line from my Isaac, miller of Lumburn, Tavistock's brother William (married Mary WAY).
Two surprises here for me,  marriage and Western Australia!
Other researchers may  be well ahead of me here, but I had him has unmarried, born and dying in Victoria!
The information checks out, so Isaac has been included on my webpages for others to see the connections.
The wonderful newspapers online at Trove hint that maybe  Isaac's parents and some siblings also headed for Western Australia at some stage - not yet confirmed that "DAW and family" on the same voyage as Isaac is them however.

And then yesterday another heap of MyHeritage DAWE SmartMatches popped out of the woodwork, from yet another DAWE in Australia, Western Australia even.
These DAWE matches however turned out to be for the descendants of Joseph DAWE & Elizabeth CROSSMAN of Buckland Monachorum, no connection currently proven to my DAWEs above, but the trees are interconnected several times over via other families, such as my BARTERs and WILLCOCKs.

The DAWE DNA project would love to explore whether or not there is a connection between these South West Devon families, so are still looking for any direct male line DAWE descendants of any of these families willing to give it a try.

As a result of the above I've updated my DAWE page and added pages for:

• John DAW of North Lew (to document the erroneous link that several trees make between the two above DAWE trees)
• John DAWE of Yeoland, the John some trees give as the father of my Isaac DAWE, and is where at least one of my connections to his DAWE line begins, and
• Elizabeth KING, wife of John DAWE of Yeoland

30th: A DAWE connection?

An Isaac DAWE in a recent burst of activity on the DAWE Rootsweb Surname Message Board caught my attention, so I've been fossicking around in his family, that of John DAW (or DAWE) and Grace BEAL.

This Isaac was a shipwright in Stoke Damerel rather than one of the millers who proliferate in my tree, so it's probably a bit of a stretch that his father John, born abt 1791 at Pyworthy (Holsworth) is related to my Isaac, who married in Tavistock in 1796.

However, as I dug I noticed what looks like Sidney FUGE, one of my HAMLEY descendants, boarding with John's Isaac's son Frederick Cornelius DAWE in the 1891 census. Admittedly he was also enumerated on his ship in port, but he was shown as of the right age, birthplace and occupation, so it may well be him.

As a result of all of this, I have done a long overdue update to the patriarchs page of the DAWE Surname DNA project to include a couple more of the DAWE families I have an interest in/connection to, that of the Buckland Monachorum tribe of Sampson and Joan (BLANCHARD) DAWE, and an inter-related William and Johanna (HUNT) DAWE of Blackawton.
There's also a stub for the above John & Grace (BEAL) DAWE - just in case.

Start of summer

It's the official start of summer here, and for once the weather knows it. We've been having wonderfully hot, sunny, windless days - no doubt we'll pay the price later with water shortages but for now, enjoyment is all.

So what am I doing sitting inside? Checking (it's too hot out there).
Fool that I am I decided to run an extra check against the data I upload to Rootsweb WorldConnect (ie BDM data on all my relations and their connected people of interest).
Checking for strays, ie those who had become disconnected to their families.
Some are easily fixed by marking their partner for output, others are meaning ongoing research, eg how was Charles Frederick William ANDREWS a grandson to Ambrose Willcock ANDREWS?
This time round I've cracked it by finally finding the family in the 1861 census where they had been hiding in Bristol, under initials instead of forenames, and along the way also identified the "visitor" Charles aged 2 with John and Maria ANDREWS in Tavistock in 1851. He was actually nephew to John.

This activity does mean that I get to re-visit parts of the database that haven't had much attention for quite some time, but also means the WorldConnect db update will be delayed until I've sorted more than the first one on the list of some 115 people!

Heard from Tim in France. Between us we've now solved each other's mysterious Alexander Ewing RUNCIMAN.
I didn't know where the family had disappeared to for the 1871 census, he didn't know who the 17 yr old chap documented as arriving in Sth Africa was.
Haven't yet rechecked to see if I can now find the rest of the family in 1871, but Alexander is now known to have already left Scotland, and obviously not straight for Argentina where he ended up.

How many Williams?

As part of the attention being given to descendants of Richard MATTERS and Patience PIKE at the moment, I reviewed their son William supposedly born Aug 1796 Bere Ferrers.
I had, from data originally supplied to me, and not independently checked, that there were two Williams in the family, one 1783 and another 1796, so I'd assumed the first had died.
Today I checked the family off against the Bere Ferrers baptisms and came to the conclusion that there was only one William, the 1783 one, who hadn't obviously died young (no burial up to 1805). So, I've deleted my second William from the family.
Thought I'd found him in Tavistock with wife Ann in a couple of census records, but eventually discounted that identification as he thought he was born Bridestow.

Identifying John CREBERs

When working on Devon families around Walkhampton, Buckland Monachorum, Whitchurch etc, you just cannot avoid CREBERs. I've convinced myself that the Joan CREBER who married Henry TOOP is the one at Dotterbrook in Tavistock in 1841, with what looks like her father John. And that this John is the one who married Margaret GILES. John buried Walkhampton 1845, Henry and Joan (CREBER) TOOP buried Buckland Monachorum, 1844 and 1850 respectively.
Does anyone agree, or disagree, and if the latter, have you more evidence than I on where he belongs?

Family Tree DNA are offering good discounts for their tests until the end of August. Anyone interested in joining the FAIRBAIRN, SINTON, ROWE, RUNCIMAN, DAWE or FINLAYSON projects should get in quick.
If you do so, make sure you find the right surname project and use that to order the test or else the discounts wont be applied, eg a 37 marker test is $119 US, and a 67 marker includes the mt dna test for only slightly more than the usual 67 marker Y-DNA test, at $289 US.

Lumburn Mill

A posting on the GenForum FUGE board elicited a prompt response and contact with two researchers of the name in Australia. Like me, they hadn't solved the problem of what happened to Samuel, Thomasin Ann and John Edwin, children of William FUGE and Mary Elizabeth HAMLEY, but were able to add several details, including most of the later baptisms and some exact marriage dates.
But even more interestingly, this contact has finally lead to exact identification of the Lumburn Mill.
I was swapping Tavistock Library stories with one of the FUGE researchers, telling her about how I'd been trying to identify where assorted mills were that Isaac DAWE had been (Newton, Mill Hill, Lifton and Lumburn).
She had also been trying to identify the Lumburn mill as one of the FUGE wives' families had been there from between 1851 and 1861, presumably following on from my Isaac DAWE who had died in 1851 or his son Isaac who had emigrated to Australia by 1857.
When I was in Devon in Aug 2006 I had followed the river up from Lumburn to Middle Lumburn to Higher Lumburn taking pics of likely buildings for the Lumburn Mill, the first being on the A390 out of Tavistock just past the Lumburn bridge.
As my map didn't show any great water source near to this first set, well past the bridge, I assumed it wasn't the mill and had turned off onto the B road to the right, so didn't get to see the front of the first set of buildings I'd snapped from the bridge side.
However, Eleanor's 2003 photo from the other side is an exact match with the family photo that we have marked "Lumburn House and Mill" with assorted well dressed Victorians outside. Obviously the water is either hidden, or has been diverted over the centuries.

Marriage cert of William MATTERS arrived. I had picked the right bride - Mary GRIBBIN (of Newquay, Tavistock), dtr of Edward. Haven't yet found her/them in 1841 and 1851.