Finding George Courtney c1841

  Whilst continuing my  genetic analysis   looking for potential segments inherited from George Courtney, I have discovered a number of groups that seem to suggest a connection to Norfolk, England.  Two  groups of particular interest have been identified as potential Courtney-Paice segments but are still being analysed to determine whether they were inherited from Abigail's mother Abigail Paice or her father  George Courtney  - our target ancestor.   C05_M_M205:  Courtney or Paice? In 2020 a small  triangulated group was identified on chromosome 5 at 23andme, consisting of 3 DNA matches to my family, all >20cMs and who shared the common ancestors of Glenn Oscar Rich and his wife Golda Emma Sweet, through two of their sons.  This suggested we  might  have a connection through an ancestor of either Glenn or Golda.  Most of their ancestors go back in the US for several generations.   On the Rich side, it was only the Laura BELSON line that seemed to go back more recently to Norfolk

In 1892 George's daughter Abigail Courtney married Edward Roberts at the Holy Trinity Church in Hampshire.  Witnesses to the marriage were Edith Mary Courtney (Abigail's half sister) and Arthur Thomas Eustace Newberry.  Who was this Arthur?  Was he a relative?   Many years ago I researched Arthur's family but could not find an obvious connection.  His father was a seedsman similar to Edward's father, so perhaps he may have been an acquaintance of the Roberts family? The Newberry's appeared to have been predominantly from Wiltshire.  His mother, Mary Griffiths, came from Wales and at that time I was unable to identify her family in Wales given the common surname.  Edward's fathers family were said to have been originally from Wales so I concluded the connection was probably on that line and not on the Courtney side at all.   The name Arthur did still intrigue me as our missing George Courtney was recorded as 'Arthur George' in the 1871 census, could Arthu

Last year my first cousin tested for me at AncestryDNA, her father was my mothers brother, another great grandson of our missing George Courtney.  He had tested for me at other DNA sites but was not on AncestryDNA having died before being able to test there.  I lived in hope that my cousins results might give some additional clues given the extensive database at AncestryDNA compared to other sites. When her results came though I quickly analysed them and using her closest matches allocated them to her four grandparent groups. Through this process I came up with three additional ‘unknown’ groups.  It was impossible to tell which side they belonged to so I researched all three to see if I could find any genealogical connections within each group for clues. One group (U2) held particular interest as I found that several members of the group shared the ancestry of Michael James Courtney born c1865 in Bluffton, Winneshiek, Iowa and his wife Anna Agnes O’Brien also born in Iowa in abt 1868.

After establishing that we may have some Romany DNA I started looking into how to research in this area in particular from a DNA point of view.  Three key sites of interest included:- The Romany and Traveller Family HistorySociety - joined FTDNA RomanyDNA Project - quite restrictive on who joins FTDNA Celtic Travellers - joined  I also created a resource page at Wikitree - British Romany Resources . It was on the Celtic Travellers site that I found a reference to a list of known surnames.  The Traveller Tinker Gypsy Surname Index of Great Britain  last updated 8/03/2010.  Under the name COURTNEY, two suggestions.  1841 Census St Austell, Cornwall and 1851 Census Scotland.  How these names came to be on this list are unclear.  Needless to say, I've now researched these families to see if they connect to any other Courtney's that have been subjects of interest in the past. 1841 St Austell - Nicholas COURTENAY The reference to the 1841 was actually to a family listed under the

NOTE: This post is just a teaser!  I need to document more of the genetic evidence, but this is being written as part of the SAG DNA Blogging Group, so here goes the story so far.... ***** Continuing with my DNA analysis looking for the origins of my maternal 2nd great grandfather - Arthur/George/William Courtney/Courtenay. Many years ago now I discovered my mother had a large X match at GEDmatch with a female from England, it was two segments, totalling approx 92cMs.  This was a very big match and generally a sign of a close relationship.  However, the X chromosome can behave differently to the other autosomes and the relationship could be more distant than it seems. I attempted to contact the match back in 2018 and had no reply.   In 2019, I turned to Facebook sleuthing as she had an unusual surname.  I sent messages to people with that name in England asking if they had tested and could they be the person I matched?  I had a reply from one of them saying, yes it was her but she was

In 2020, Jim Barlett posted on his segment-ology blog, a process using cluster analysis designed to tease out family groups from shared matches.  You can read about it here .  It was based on the Leeds method, a methodology developed by Dana Leeds that you can read here . I was inspired to apply the process to my mothers results from AncestryDNA in the hope that it might assist me with drawing conclusions about her paternal line.  I used the application of the process as an opportunity to also run a webinar session on my outcomes.  The session was developed for the DNA Research Group at the Society of Genealogists and can be viewed on You Tube . At the end of the process, I had 71 clusters, consisting of: 43 clusters - Maternal side 61% 20 clusters - Paternal side 28% 8 clusters - Unidentified 11% - Priority Of the paternal clusters: 2 clusters - Unclear if connected via Edward Roberts or Abigail Courtney - Priority 5 clusters - Connected via Edward Roberts b1869 7 clusters - Connecte

I have long been fascinated with the village of Barton Stacey and whether it holds the key to unlocking the mystery of my mysterious Mr Courtney.   Very early on in my research I discovered an Elizabeth COURTNEY , the wife of William BOUND of Barton Stacey who had connections to the PAICE and JOYCE families.   As it turns out some time later I found she was a descendant of William Courtney, gentleman, who had been involved in the Swing Riots of 1830 .  Some of Williams descendants had the middle name Hinxman, a quite unusual name.  However it is also a family name in my Paice family, Thomas HINXMAN being the second great grandfather of Abigail Paice the wife of the mysterious Arthur George Courtney.  Many years later a group of unknown DNA matches connected to the Australian convict Silas COLE from Barton Stacey also emerged.  It would seem these matches are somehow connected to our Paice family from Kingsclere Hampshire.  You can read some of my preliminary findings in my blogpost h