About this site

This blog documents my ongoing research to establish the origins of Arthur/George/William Courtenay/Courtney my mothers paternal great grandfather. I first started seriously researching my Courtenay/Courtney line with traditional research in about 2006 and explored many possible theories as to his identity.  In late 2010 I undertook DNA testing expecting my primary theory to be immediately confirmed.  

I'm still searching....

  • For an overview of my research relating to George, please go to the Research Summary.
  • For more information about all my family research, please check out my Genemonkey Website.
  • It is an ongoing 'works in progress'.  Please contact me if you can help, via the form at the bottom of this page.



  • Featured image: By Richard Rixon, 1841 – Saint, A., Guillery, P. (ed.), Woolwich – Survey of London, Volume 48, p. 60. Yale Books, London, 2012. ISBN 978 0 300 18722 9, Public Domain.

Popular posts from this blog

Could George be of Romany descent?

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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
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Who are our Waterford Ancestors?

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When questions were asked about where in the south of Ireland our ancestors came from, the response from my maternal grandmother Mona Roberts (nee Murphy) to her children was always Waterford and Wexford.  Her Murphy line family from Wexford, but in my research to date I have found no connections to Waterford. Could she be referring to the ancestry of the mysterious Elizabeth Bateman/Kennedy, her paternal grandmother?  Elizabeth is said to have come from Limerick which is not that far away. Or, could it be the Courtney's that came from Waterford?  Was she referring to Wexford as her side of the family and Waterford as being her husband Ted's side?  Ted does write in his memoirs that his mother had a 'little Irish in her makeup'. After many years research, I was contacted by another researcher who suggested George Courtney of Waterford might be an appropriate person to explore.  This George came from Lismore in Waterford, a beautiful place we visited on spec in 2017!  Re
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Residents of 14 Sun Street, Woolwich - 1871

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At the time of the 1871 census Arthur 'George' and Abigail were living at 14 Sun Street Woolwich, with their three daughters.  Nurse Ann Muggeridge (nee Webster aka Rudd) was also in attendance.  Read more about connections to Nurse Ann Muggeridge on my earlier post by clicking here .  14 Sun Street appears to house 3 seperate families, the Courtenay's, a family by the name of Hawkins and a nurse by the name of Howlett. Surnames of adjoining neighbours include Cook, Williams, Butler, Green, Cooler, Davis, Gower, Clarke, Reeve and Higgs. 1871 Census - Image courtesy Find My Past If you help with any of this research,  please use the contact form on this  blog or send me a private message via  Wikitree ,  Ancestry   or  Facebook . ********** This blog is dedicated to finding my second great grandfather Arthur 'George' Courtney c1835.   To see a summary of my research  click here .  If you can help answer any questions raised in this blog, please contact me via the con
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Recreating the genome of Abigail Courtney b1871

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The best chance we have of finding George is to identify the specific segments of DNA his descendants have inherited from him. Abigail Roberts (nee Courtney) c1912 The only known descendant of George is his daughter Abigail Courtney, she married Edward Roberts in 1891.    Abigail had two sisters, Edith and Alberta.  Edith however is only a half sibling sharing their mother Abigail Paice, so no Courtney DNA there.  It is unknown what happened to Alberta, she was Abigails twin and alive and well in the 1871 census at 3 months old.  However, there is no record of her in any subsequent census, nor can I find a death record.   Abigail, George and Alberta are all missing from the 1881 England census so we cannot be sure if she was with them at that time.  I have concluded Alberta probably died young and the death was not registered even though it would have been a requirement at that time We can currently seek to identify up to a maximum of 25% of George Courtney's DNA inherited by his
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The facts about George - or is it Arthur or William?

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Arthur or George or William?  Courtney or Courtenay?  Which is it, or is he someone else entirely? 'George' remains my most elusive ancestor.    I published my first blog about our mystery man, my 2nd great grandfather, the father of Mums paternal grandmother Abigail COURTNEY in 2018.  You can view that post  on my genemonkey blog at  Wordpress .   You can find all I know about him and his descendants at  Wikitree.   I call him George as that is the name his wife and descendants have used in the records. This entire blog is dedicated to documenting everything I have looked at in terms of finding my elusive 2nd great grandfather.  You can find a summary of my research  here , but please note it is a progressive 'works in progress' . Essentially, there are only 3 key records of his existence, all of which are conflicting!  Note:  The age in the census actually says 30 (not 36), so his birthdate is probably c1841 !  George describes himself in the 1871 census as a 'l
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Nurse Ann Muggeridge - aka Ann Rudd nee Webster b1820

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In the 1871 census the newly born twins Abigail and Alberta are 3 months old.  In attendance is Ann Muggeridge a nurse, presumably in attendance to help with the babies.  Could she be a relative of either Abigail or George? Ann is stated as as being born in Marylebone Middlesex (the same place as George) aged 50.  So, perhaps she is more likely to be connected to George. I've researched Ann, her maiden name is Webster. She was married at least twice firstly to James Rudd, then later to John Muggeridge. You can find Ann's profile on Wikitree .   DNA Links In 2018, we found DNA links to two descendants of Ann's daughter Mary Ann Rudd on 5 different chromosomes.  The most significant was the X chromosome.  The X chromosome inheritance path suggests the connection could be via Ann or her husband James Rudd.  You can read more about this match in my 2018 blogpost at Wordpress .  Mary Ann (Rudd) Weston's family tree on WikiTree  (@WikiTreeOfficial) Another DNA match at Ancest
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Is Michael James Courtney of Iowa associated with my Courtney family?

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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.
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The Courtney's of Holdenhurst

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It occurred to me that Abigail and Edith Courtney may have been sent away to school at Holdenhurst whilst their parents had gone away.  Perhaps they had family residing there.  They were clearly not estranged from their mothers family as their cousins Henry and Martha Paice were visiting at the time of the 1881 census, suggesting their stay with the Brown family at Holdenhurst was not just a few days. Most of the Paice family lived around Droxford, Hampshire.  Their fathers family was possibly from Middlesex.   There was one Courtney family residing in Holdenhurst at the time of the 1881 census.  Four women of independent means born in Ireland and boarding at 'Stoney Crop'.  Sidney, Eleanor, Charlotte and Florence Courtney.  It does accord with the family story that the Courtneys were 'a bit better' - assuming that means wealthy of sorts?  Also, in his memoirs Ted Roberts describes his mother Abigail Courtney to have 'a little bit of Irish in her make up'.  C
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George William Courtney b1839 - m Elizabeth Duke

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When I started my research of Arthur George's origins I considered various people by the name of Arthur, George or William Courtney born in Middlesex and still living in the district at the time of the 1871 census. The first theory I explored probably about 20 years ago now, was George William Courtney, baptised at Shoredich in 1839 to parents George Frederick Courtney and his wife Elizabeth Sarah Crow.  The baptism certainly seemed to be in the right timeframe to be my man, but he was already recorded in the 1871 as being home with his wife Elizabeth (nee Duke) that night.  How could he be in two places at one time? Less than a mile walk between the two residences! My Arthur George Courtney was recorded in the 1871 census at 14 Sun Street, Woolwich.  Located behind Church Hill, Sunbury Street is the current name for Sun Street (originally Sun Alley).  George William Courtney m Elizabeth Duke was recorded at 7 Frederick Lane, Greenwich.  The two residences are a 20 minute walk apar
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