I got back into my genealogy, recieving a reply from my son George's distant cousin, of the De Bella family, Leonora De Bella; well the email was from her husband, Edward Yarrows, they being in America, and he had no family tree for his wife, but he did give me tidbits of information, which at first seemed of little use, but then became clues by which to make up Leonora's tree, her potential parents and their many siblings, by which I found her Italian born grandparents, Francesco Paolo De Bella and Angelarosa Boracca.
This Francesco De Bella was indeed from the village of Turi where George's dad was from and his original surname, well, in America he being a 'De Bella' was originally 'Di Bello', the surname of George's dad, totally the correct surname. And the great grandparents in Italy, as far as I could see, were another Francesco Di Bello and Anna Laporte, again of the village of Turi, born back in the 1840's or 1850's and quite possibly these being ancestors of my own Georgie. I also worked out the expanded tree of some appointed distant cousins for me, who were descended from some of my Londoners, from Henry Green the tailor and his wife Elizabeth Harding. What was fab about this was that it authenticated certain lineages, in this case my Maxted line, which therefore was not of adoptions or infidelities for which they would be only assumed lineages. And likewise, another distant cousin authenticated my Norfolk Bane line.
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My youngest childrens ethnic Myheritage DNA percentages arrived: Rosina: 44.8% South Asian; 38.6% Viking (Shetland); 13.7% Celtic (Irish, Scots and Welsh); 1.9% Italian; 1% Finnish George: 33.6% Italian; 31% Celtic (Irish, Scots and Wesh); 19% Greek and South Italian; 7.4% Balkan; 4% Spanish Iberian; 2.4% Viking Shetland; 1.8% Middle East; 0.8% West Asia And so comparing theirs to mine: 64.3% Celtic (Irish, Scots and Welsh); 24% Viking Shetland; 4% Greek and South Italian; 3.5% Spanish Iberian; 2.7% Italian; 1% Finnish
That ever mystery of George's dad is by this ethnic result once and for all sorted. He is my Georgio De Bello. Even there had come up a De Bello cousin match for him, this being to Leonora De Bella who was in her 70's and living in America, she being possibly a second or third cousin once or twice removed. I reacquaint with the results of my mothers own test results, through her there coming my Spainish and Italian, whereas through my father would come the Greek. 59.6% Celtic Irish and Scots - (the Welsh being from my father); 27.3% Viking Sheland; 7.1% English (I never inherited any of this, so neither did my children); 3.2% Iberian Spanish; 2.8% Italian And my Aunty Lolly, to represent my deceased father, who is her brother - although they would have had differing blends of their parents DNA:: 52.5% Celtic (Irish and Welsh); 25.5 Viking (not connected to my Shetland genes); 12% English; 9.1% North and West European, for example French, Dutch and German Really I have no way to know my fathers correct percentages as he died so long ago and I suspect his alotted amount was rather different to Lolly's, he being red haired and she so blonde.
I have cousins a little more distant who have done the Myheritage ethnic tests too, although their DNA will have the imput of people I have no connection at all too, but still its interesting to observe. They are both connected to me through my nanny Eileen, the mother of Lolly and my father. Firstly, Dee, descended from nanny Eileen's sister Molly. Dee's grandfather is Scottish and her father is a Londoner with the Welsh surname of Jones: 75.6% Celtic (Irish, Scots and Welsh); 9.8% Baltic; 9.7 Viking Scandanavian; 2.7% West Asia; 1.4% Finnish; 0.8% Ashkenazi Jew Secondly, Dominic. He descends from a sister of my nanny Eileen's mother Florence who was half Irish. 39.2% Celtic (Irish, Scots and Welsh); 35.6% English; 18.6 North West European; 4.9% Viking Scandanavian; 1.7% Ashkenazi Jew In cousin matches, there is a second or third cousin who I quickly see must be related to me through pop, my Welsh grandfather, this being because my aunt Lolly and I share her as a common relative, but not Dee nor Dominic. Jane Keep, and indeed she does appear to have Welsh, ancestry. 77.9% Celtic; 19.1% English; 3% Spanish Iberian So, Welsh for sure. Well, I got to looking at some of these proposed cousins to see how we may connect to one another, not just this Jane Keep, but two other matches. And though none had any obvious links, I got to researching their lineages and found them myself. Such is my zeal for researching. Jane Keep had only put that her grandparents were a Powell and a Bebb, and not even any other information at all, but regardless, I sussed her ancestry right back to Mary Thomas, who happened to be the daughter of two of my Welsh ancestors, Morgan Thomas and his wife Ann née Rosser. It was by checking all this out that I found a census I'd not seen before, for Ann when she was old and widowed living in Llanelli in 1891 with this aforementioned daughter Mary. And what was so amazing about this discovery was that languages spoken were listed and my Ann, despite everyone else in the household being English speakers, was herself a Welsh speaker. She didn't even speak English at all, only Welsh. Those who did speak both languages were clearly marked as doing so. And I worked out another Welsh cousin link, again which I had to research more to make sense of, this being to a Lionel Herbert Watkins. Thus I found that my connection to Lionel reached right back to the original George Harrison of Llanthony, Lionel descending from his daughter Sophia and me from his son William. The link to George Harrison was not a research even worked out at all by this distant cousin, but I'd sussed it. And I shall get to working out more and more of these proposed cousin connections I do suppose.
In genealogy I got to looking at my Welsh ancestry of Wonastowe. I knew my pop's ancestress Mary Ann Thomas had lived like him to a ripe old age, she having died at the age of 104 and he nearly aged 101. Well, now I discovered Mary Ann Thomas's mother, Mary Morgan of Treowen Gorse, was also a centenarian, she having lived till 103. This had been written of in the papers: 'Mary Morgan, aged 103, at Wonastowe. Though having reached an advanced age, she retained her faculties nearly to the last. During her long life she was actively employed in doing good, and after passing her 100th year, she was carried to the cottage of a neighbour and by her timely aid saved the life of the mother and child.' It did say on one of the census's that Mary Morgan was a nurse aged as late as 99 even, which appeared to have covered being the village midwife. 1861 Census Wonastow, Monmouthshire Treowens Gorse Mary Morgan, age 99, widow, nurse, born Wonastow Mary Thomas, daughter, age 76, widow, born Wonastow And here they were ten years earlier in the 1851 census: 1851 Census Wonastow, Monmouthshire Mary Morgan, age 88, widow, annuitant, born Wonastow Mary Morgan, daughter, age 65, widow, agricultural labourer, born Wonastow And ten years earlier still in the 1841 census: 1841 Census Wonastow, Monmouthshire Gorse Mary Morgan, age 75 Ann Thomas, age 55, and her husband, John Thomas, age 60, carpenter, he being born outside of Wales and their daughter, Esther Thomas, age 20, born outside of Wales Certainly there was a long life gene in my Welsh lineage. And there was another article I found about Mary Morgan; 'A Centanarian - Our obituary records the death of Mary Morgan of Wonastowe, better known as Molly Morgan, who has been borne to her sepulchre after an extended pilgrimage of 103 years. It is said that she was born in the house in which she died. ' This house would be Treowen Gorse in the grounds of a mansion farmhouse Treowen House. 'Certain it is, she was never known to live in any other (house). She had been a widow beyond the memory of most of us and had led a blameless and religious life. Her faculties were preserved to the last and within these three weeks she was carried to a neighbouring cottage to see a poor woman in her confinement. her memory was particularly tenacious, she would converse about even trifling incidents which had happened in former years, as well as remember circumstances of very remote occurrence. She was always cheerful and grateful for the visits of any who felt interested in her. A daughter who lived with the venerable matron' (this being Mary Ann Thomas) 'and who survives her is 79 years of age.' When Mary Ann Thomas herself died (1885 Abergavenny Chronicle): 'Death on 15th October at Wonastowe, near Monmouth, Mrs Ann Thomas, aged 104 years. Mrs Thomas's mother died in the same house at the age of 103 years.' There were other examples previously of women living till over 100 in this village. For example Ann Watkins born in 1719, she died in 1823 aged 104, being a native of Brinsop in Herefordshire, she having married and settled there, only returning to Wonastow for the last thirty years of her life to live with her son William Watkins of the Wonastow Corn Mill. She was for long a tenant to the family at Wonastow House. She had nine children.
And a relative of hers, Mrs James, had died previously at the age of 101, Ann Watkins remains being put in the same tomb as Mrs James in the Wonastow churchyard. I do so wonder if these ladies were also Ann Morgans relatives! I was absorbed in another genealogy, for Ollie, a friend from sixth form days who I had recently reconnected with on facebook. Stuart Alcock was his full name. In his family there was a story about them being related to Howard Carter who had discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun. As I saw from my research, Ollie's was a family full of illegitimacies from way back to a Susan Stagg who had been locked up for being a lewd woman. She had a whole brood of little fatherless kids, being a pioneer single mother. Such rebellion carried all the way down to modern times, with the men of the family marrying girls who already had fatherless children. Even Susan's daughters and granddaughters had followed this trend.
One tragic family story, as always there was at least one, was of Ollie's ancestress, Louisa, newly married with a baby, who aged 20 fell down some stairs and died, which was said to be due to an epileptic fit. Ollie's mother knew of this and had told him that after Louisa died her husband, Robert Carter, caused a scandal by running off with a 16 year old. And there was the usual stuff one finds, like families getting fined for not sending their children to school. The Carters of the family may or may not have been related to Howard Carter who found the tomb of Tutankhamun, but it is to be seen that one member of the family was given the middle name of Phoenix. The only thing was, although all did have links with Swaffham, Howard Carter's people were rich and Ollie's were all pool labourers; so maybe all was but wishful thinking. One could not know, and then were there not plenty of anonymous biological fathers in this Norfolk family, so maybe... |
AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees. Categories
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